Hello Octatrackers!
I used to be like you.
I used to dream in black, grey and red. In fact, there was a time when I didn’t know where my Octatrack ended and I began.
Unfortunately she never seemed to play nice with the rest of my gear, especially all those ones and zeros, which is on me of course, but I suppose this along with the hours spent trying to figure her out, meant one dark evening, I decided we should part ways.
It’s me dear friend, not you.
It’s been a tough few years. Remembering the fun we had, the memories we shared - often at 4am with no one else around to witness the magic. I just feel we shared a bond no one else could really understand.
It’s always been niggling at me, though, could we have made it work? I know I should just try and move on but I find myself thinking about how we could rekindle the relationship, only to be shaken out of my trance by concerned friends shouting at me ‘but she wasn’t good for you mate, you know that’! Surely we’ve both matured since then though, right? I just fear we’d fall into the same co-dependent existence again - I need to hang out with other gear too you know!
So I’ve been doodling away in my notebook on how I could make this great reunion work, really just trying to find a way to justify that which I know I’ll do anyway, but I’d really appreciate if some of you more knowledgeable people could take a quick look and advise me on any potential problems. I want to have my computer involved for various reasons, but I feel latency could be an issue, and, is midi latency a thing??
So the plan is:
Bitwig Slaved to Octatrack
Midi:
Bitwig sends midi to Octatrack (from clips or keyboard input)
Octatrack midi tracks send the same incoming midi out to channel 1-8 depending on which midi track is selected (1-4 back into Bitwig for controlling VST synths, 5-8 for controlling hardware synths)
Audio
Synths 1-4 are VSTs in Bitwig, synths 5-8 are hardware which goes into an audio interface into Bitwig.
Bitwig sends all 8 audio tracks through the audio interface to Octatrack A/B
Octatrack tracks 1-4 either have through machines or sample the incoming audio, and manipulate it in that way only an Octatrack can.
Octatrack is in studio mode so sends these 4 tracks of audio directly back into Bitwig.
What I like about this setup is:
In Bitwig I can write chords/melodies or tap keys and easily choose where this midi data is sent by simply selecting an Octatrack midi channel, and I can immediately write this midi to the Octatrack sequencer if I chose to.
Four Octatrack tracks are going directly into Bitwig, I can perform with scenes etc and then these can be mixed alongside a larger project.
I can utilize some of my favorite plugins alongside Octatrack and hardware goodness.
It just feels very cool to have Bitwig taking orders from Octatrack.
While input C/D and tracks 5-8 remain unused, I know they will easily get used , I just want a bare bones understanding of whether the above will work
So my main question is whether latency could be a problem/whether this could be overcome, and also whether there is anything about this setup that just simply won’t work, or seems rather silly.
Really appreciate any feedback you can give,
Cheers