Octatrack “track” question

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi,

My question is on the Octatrack - do each of the 8 selectable tracks sitting around screen basically work as a single digitakt?

Is it possible to use tracks 1-4 for deck A (have these tracks broken down into individual elements of a track - lows, mids & highs - and tracks 5-8 as deck B and then be able to “mix” between the two, then once mixed out load further samples onto tracks 1-4 (basically a new track) and mix back etc

Hope this is understandable!

Thanks

#2

I would describe the OT as a more powerful equivalent to the DT, in that each has 8 audio tracks and 8 MIDI sequencer tracks, but that the OT audio tracks are stereo, can play very long files from the CF card, and permit more audio manipulation. Read around the forum a little for details of the advantages and disadvantages of each instrument.

All of this is possible, and you can set up scenes to mix between combinations of tracks. It does take some care in setting up so do read as much as you can about the OT in advance.

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#3

it is good to know that you can do many those DJ like manipulations (frequency cut, etc) using a single track. unless you want to split the tracks for some specific reason.

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#4

Cuckoo did a really nice comparison of the difference between the two boxes. It helped solidify me getting the OT a few weeks ago.

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#5

What do you mean by slitted? I’m it of touch with the jargon!

#6

Would one “scene” be a project with all 8 tracks in use, and be able to mix between scenes? (8tracks mixed into 8 tracks?)

#7

Funny manual explanation bug, p17. :smile:

4.8 SCENES Scenes are assigned to the scene A and scene B slots. They decide which parameters the crossfader will affect. For more information, please see “4.8 SCENES” on page 17.

You can set many parameters (around 248) with scene A, as many with scene B, and morph them with the crossfader.
16 scenes per part, 4 parts per bank, 16 banks per project. 1024 scenes.

Different from Ableton scenes.

? You can have a different mix per scene, and morph them.

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#8

“4 parts per bank”

Holly shit. I just realize that. I’ve never checked octa manual properly and always thought it’s 4 parts per project. Amazing!

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#9

I bought the OT with this kind of thing in mind, but now, a few months into actually using it I’ve found that the way I imagined using it before I got it is no where near as fun as more fluid workflows that meld composing and performing that have arisen from simply using the machine a lot.

It’s clear to me now that no amount of reading the manual or watching videos or imagined use would have sufficed. Even weeks of use and study is probably not enough to confidently say anything. The machine is so powerful, the trade-offs are so many, and the 128x64 screen and elegantly labeled and arranged buttons so overloaded, that any shallow treatment is going to be impoverished, and essentially every treatment is doomed to be shallow.

If you buy it, then I can fairly confidently guess that one of three things will happen:

  1. You’ll fail to make it to the first plateau, find out that what you described doing is possible but more difficult than you naively thought it would be, and give up. The machine will collect dust, or be resold.
  2. You’ll actually figure out how to use it like an dual 4-track ableton-esque dj setup, carefully scene-lock a bunch of X-LEVs, use track mutes as eq band kills, have a blast, all while missing out on 99.999% of the machines capacity; eventually figure out that it wasn’t worth it, because you could have had a netbook and a traktor setup for half the money and just had a lot more fun with a lot less effort.
  3. With literally hundreds of hours of careful study you’ll come to understand some reasonable fraction of what the machine can do, through that process forget what you thought you bought the OT for in the first place, get inspired to create a bunch of stuff you never otherwise would have created, transcend your own old ideas about the ‘obvious’ trade-off of the clip and arranger views in live, experience limitations, have fun working around them, experience more limitations, resample the glitches, etc…, etc…, etc…

Hope that helps.

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#10

What a response, much respect.

#11

:bowing_man:t2:

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#12

I am currently using a digitakt that I’ve borrowed from a friend and the workflow has opened a few doors.

I enjoy listening to Stimmings perspective on live performance and one of his recent performances was done off of 2x Octatracks and what looks like an SE-02.

I’m certainly not limiting myself to this question - I’ve just struggled to find any details around what I would currently use the Octatrack for. I’ve really enjoyed using the digitakt with direct sampling and building grooves etc but to be able to take what I’ve done on the digitakt and incorporate that to a performance is exciting!

#13

So true. I own the OT now for a few weeks only, and am discovering new ways of using it daily despite having read the manual and watched some 50+ videos before. It is a game changer for me.

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#14

Been using the OT for about three months. Never used a sampler, synth or sequencer before. New to the elektron way.
Was oscillating between “fuck this shit, I’ll leave” and “OMG, my understanding of making music has reached another level just now - I’m hooked”.

The manual was useless in getting into the machine, yet after about a month I got to understand and appreciate its ways. I love reading it by now.

The Thavius Beck videos were worth their money​ to me. They cost like $25/month (streaming) which is nothing compared to the OT. They were condensed and to the point in a way that was better for me than the freely available YT videos.

Anyway: the OT is an instrument - and since there’ll always be quite a learning curve for getting into any instrument, the best thing is to be Zen about it and spend at least an hour per day with it.
Enjoy :slight_smile:

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#15

hahaha! sorry! “split”

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#16

@Jakeub - your spirit brother (or future self, or something):

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#17

Haha thank you for posting back :slight_smile:

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