Octatrack variation between patterns

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Greetings all! I just picked up an Octatrack mkII after falling in love with the Digitakt. Holy crap. There was no middle machine was there??
Anyway, i’ve watched a billion generous youtube videos (cuckoo is amazing, for one) and read through Merin’s guide. I think I have a basic grasp of how patterns, scenes and parts relate to one another. 4 parts per project, patterns contain triggers and plocks, changes made to effects in one pattern will change said effects across all patterns, etc etc.

I suppose my question is this: to create somewhat subtle and musical changes as a song develops, would it make the most sense (realizing that there several ways to operate this machine) to do the following as an example: pattern A1 has a simple pattern going with a tight and choppy drum beat due to short amp settings…blips almost.
Say i want those blips to widen out via the amp settings as my song develops. I can’t do that by copying pattern A1 to pattern A2 and “widening out” the beat with new amp settings because my amp settings are somewhat global across my project patterns right? So therefore, the “best” way would be to maybe utilize scenes to accomplish this sound i’m after?
Similar question/verification: Even though patterns only contain triggers and plocks, does the concept of plocks and their ability to change an effect parameter for a single trigger matter when one wants to change things between patterns? Said in another way; add crazy amounts of distortion to one bass drum trigger by way of a plock on pattern A2…pattern A1 would not have that crazy distortion for that trigger because A1 doesn’t have that plock right (even though FX are “global” across patterns)?

Thank you all, as I know this concept has been discussed multiple times.

1 Like
#2

You’re close.

Yes, scenes are the way to open up the amp parameters, esp. since you can interpolate (gradually) the changes with the cross fader.

It’s not 4 parts per project, it’s 4 parts per bank.

Notably, in a new project, every pattern is associated with the first part in its bank. That is, patterns A1-A16 are by default assigned to part 1 in bank A, patterns B1-B16 are by default assigned to part 1 in bank B, and so on. But bank A’s part 1 is separate from bank B’s part 1. Add this to the fact (that you already seem to understand) that machine and effect settings are associated with individual parts, and the capacity for variations within a single project unfurls.

Here’s a thread I started recently when I was thinking (I think) along the same lines as you:

Hope that helps (and that I haven’t misspoken, ha!).

4 Likes
#3

Check out conditional trigs/trig conditions as well.

3 Likes
#4

Ah yes, four parts per bank, my bad. Thank you very much for your detailed reply! Your method seems pretty logical and awesome, so thanks for sharing. It’s just hard to wrap one’s brain around this device at times. It’s seemingly great for either step by step and well thought out pre-planning, or insane avant-garde stuff! I know that’s a simplistic description…
Well either way I’m glad to have stepped into this realm. It’s especially nice knowing there’s a community of helpful folks out there.
The band Tunng, Aphex Twin (who has a new album coming out soon) and the YouTube video from Knobs took me down this path btw. Not exactly relevant to this discussion but…yeah.

#5

You seem like you’re up to the task. I have had similar thoughts about how effective use of the OT requires either meticulous preparation or complete half-snake-half-ape mashing (with anything in between leading to frustration, bad vibes, and the thriving market for second-hand machines). Your ‘simplistic description’ definitely captures something essential about the OT.

I agree that the community is great. Definitely an unexpected plus for me as well.

Take care.