OT Special Tricks

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#62

More of a workflow tip for production…

Eventually I always end up doing a lot of work in the DAW. I’ll start a composition on the OT then record live while tweaking, etc. and can create a bunch of different loop variations. I actually like things on separate audio tracks… so I record midi while doing pattern changes and tweaking, scene switches etc… then just record back the audio from the recorded midi. I record 2 stereo tracks (main and cue) using studio mode. It will play back all the pattern switches and tweaks perfectly.

Drums - I need to have them on separate tracks. But the OT is a great help for this. I will load my samples or chopped break into my DAW drum sampler of choice (I use Cubase, so it’s Groove Agent). Then I create the pattern on the OT midi tracks - Track 1 kick, track 2 kick2, track 3 snare, etc… - I just set the midi note number to correspond to the sample pad in DAW sampler.

So now the OT is acting as a midi sequencer for my DAW drums… so easy to then create and change up patterns.

Then… if you want to work on your patterns away from computer - just set up audio tracks with your samples and use a midi cable running OT midi out to midi in loop - and you edit your midi patterns and hear the correct samples play … then you can go back to your DAW drum sampler with the new midi patterns.

The only way I have found so far is to set up your sample pads to receive C2-G2 - as these are the corresponding incoming audio track triggers.

#63

Really tiny little trick, but I just discovered that the Pattern page/Scale setup button could be use as the 17th note in Chromatic mode.
Quite helpful in my case, I found it cause it was the note I was looking for and my fingers naturally tried the button.
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes
#64

Android devices with usb OTG capability work well for file management.

I don’t have a computer near my OctaTrack, but I always have my phone close by. So when I want to create a folder or do other file operations I simply connect my phone and use the file manager on that.

Also, I have Dropbox on my phone, which means transferring files between the OctaTrack and my iPad is super-easy.

1 Like
#65

Loads more tips like that in the manual btw :wink:

1 Like
#66

Loads more tips like that in the manual btw :wink: [/quote]
Ahem I know, but I kind of feel sleepy after a long reading, so I always end skipping some information…:sleepy:
And I was so happy to have just played the note I needed with a button that wasn’t clearly meant to do this !
Guess I just wanted to add my tiny little part… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#67

I couldn’t agree more, it was meant to toggle to the next range of notes, but Elektron didn’t see it that way :wink: , that’s how i found out it was a note, grr, before i read it in the manual along with the clumsy Fn <> to select key range…the manual reveals nuggets every time i pick it up, the more you know, the more you glean on subsequent reading, still a bit of reading to go yet for me tho

#68

Tip by user Abhoth: Randomly firing samples using silent slices, plus suggestions for fine-tuning of such a setup (several lfo’s etc.)

[[url=“http://www.elektronauts.com/t/tip-randomly-firing-samples-using-silent-slices/9870/80064"][url="http://www.elektronauts.com/t/tip-randomly-firing-samples-using-silent-slices/9870”]Tip: Randomly firing samples using silent slices](http://Tip: Randomly firing samples using silent slices)

2 Likes
#69

You can also fake probability with a custom “pulse width” LFO, set to HOLD, applied to VOL.

This gives you x/16 probability - set x of the steps to 0, the rest of the steps to -128, and the depth to maximum. Set the speed to something funky, not a power of 2. A multiplier of 64 works best for maximum randomness.

1 Like
#70

Point taken, but speed is irrelevant when you use ‘hold’ (as long as the rate is higher than the trig rate) but in practice i find that you get perfect sample and hold style on super slow lfos anyway (mind you the random step lfo is kinda 16times faster than all other standard shapes), but yeah, good pointer #OTtip

#71

Point taken, but speed is irrelevant when you use ‘hold’ (as long as the rate is higher than the trig rate) but in practice i find that you get perfect sample and hold style on super slow lfos anyway (mind you the random step lfo is kinda 16times faster than all other standard shapes), but yeah, good pointer #OTtip[/quote]
Not to be a pedant but the speed does in fact make a difference with HOLD, even if the LFO rate is higher than the trig rate. In effect you create a sort of moire pattern between the steps of the free-running LFO and trigs which hold the value of this LFO. If the values are too nice and round (like 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.) you get predictable patterns with audible repetition.
When you use a fairly ugly number for the rate, it’s sort of like running a 53-step pattern sequencer against a regular 16-step pattern. Repetition will still eventually occur but in context it is much less obvious.

#72

Point taken, but speed is irrelevant when you use ‘hold’ (as long as the rate is higher than the trig rate) but in practice i find that you get perfect sample and hold style on super slow lfos anyway (mind you the random step lfo is kinda 16times faster than all other standard shapes), but yeah, good pointer #OTtip[/quote]
Not to be a pedant but the speed does in fact make a difference with HOLD, even if the LFO rate is higher than the trig rate. In effect you create a sort of moire pattern between the steps of the free-running LFO and trigs which hold the value of this LFO. If the values are too nice and round (like 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.) you get predictable patterns with audible repetition.
When you use a fairly ugly number for the rate, it’s sort of like running a 53-step pattern sequencer against a regular 16-step pattern. Repetition will still eventually occur but in context it is much less obvious.[/quote]

:wink:
ok ok you just need to ensure that the variation potential is enhanced by not going too slow, which is exactly what i said in my post, i guess i was ignoring the specific context and commenting on behaviour of lfo and evidently thinking of a random LFO shape which is my default, so yeah, my bad for reading/replying too hastily
i understand what you’re advocating with a pseudo random binary state and that you only create potential for interesting variety by having a high irregular rate - the nice thing about using lfo designer is the ability to vary the duty cycle of the pulse and also to make it unipolar, it’s a good technique to have in the bag, very handy also if you want to play random but scale corrected notes too, which is how i use this technique in nord modular, it has its own random binary object ! Using ‘ramps’ with the designer will also allow you to get unipolar random, being careful to choose an irregular rate, to emphasise your point, thanks for the pedantry :+1:

#73

that one really turned into a nerd discussion :smiley: I’m not sure if I understand what you’re talking about, at least not every detail of it, just the main message. good that you seem to have clarified something between yourselves :wink:

carry on guys, don’t let this comment interrupt you.

random/pseudo-random patterns? nice.

#74

what license wrote made sense, it’s just not what i read when i replied originally, it’s a terrific tip, but it’s actually trickier than you may think to force random scanning of a unipolar sawtooth
ie
////////\ where the low val is 0 and high 127
i find that the random 0-127 sample/hold vaule can be evolving but following a trend all too easily, unlike the random lfo, careful tuning of rate is necessary
the example posted above is sorta like this

-_______________ ie 16 vals, the rate at which this lookup table is scanned influences how many hi/low vale are encountered, you use the designer to manage the proportion of high to low, so it acts only positive (or alternately negative) and only 0 or 127, intermittently

there’s no nerd debate, whilst i didn’t say anything incorrect i just responded as if it was utilising a random lfo shape :wink:

it’s akin to having a sliced sample with a number of identical or similar samples and having one empty slice that will occasionally throw a different spin on a groove when slice is lfo varied

#75

Reading this thread inspired me and I started thinking a trick that I will definitely try tomorrow. Everyone talks about connecting midi out to in to use the arp on audio tracks. What if you invert the idea and use audio ccs out to control midi ccs? This way you can control your external synth’s parameters using scenes and the crossfader, and override the lack of scenes in midi mode. Am I crazy?

#76

Actually you can control only one parameter with the crossfader…being it only a CC message for an external instr.
Scenes exist only for Audio track,sigh :sob:

#77

Gonna present my trick for humanistic step probability:

Setup LFO as Random, assign it to Vol, set speed to 0, synchronize it ti TRIG, set Depth to 0. Then set machine’s Vol to -50 for example (or p-lock it to step) then you can p-lock LFO’s Depth to ~50 to step and get some kind of step probability.

#78

…i love the probabilty option in my lxr…

and i was really surprised not to find such a thing in the elektrons, when i got them last year…

…so, i’ll give that one a try…but a dedicated probability parameter should’nt be that hard to implement, my swedish fellows…i’d love it…and many others, too…

#79

Point taken, but speed is irrelevant when you use ‘hold’ (as long as the rate is higher than the trig rate) but in practice i find that you get perfect sample and hold style on super slow lfos anyway (mind you the random step lfo is kinda 16times faster than all other standard shapes), but yeah, good pointer #OTtip[/quote]
Not to be a pedant but the speed does in fact make a difference with HOLD, even if the LFO rate is higher than the trig rate. In effect you create a sort of moire pattern between the steps of the free-running LFO and trigs which hold the value of this LFO. If the values are too nice and round (like 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.) you get predictable patterns with audible repetition.
When you use a fairly ugly number for the rate, it’s sort of like running a 53-step pattern sequencer against a regular 16-step pattern. Repetition will still eventually occur but in context it is much less obvious.[/quote]

:wink:
ok ok you just need to ensure that the variation potential is enhanced by not going too slow, which is exactly what i said in my post, i guess i was ignoring the specific context and commenting on behaviour of lfo and evidently thinking of a random LFO shape which is my default, so yeah, my bad for reading/replying too hastily
i understand what you’re advocating with a pseudo random binary state and that you only create potential for interesting variety by having a high irregular rate - the nice thing about using lfo designer is the ability to vary the duty cycle of the pulse and also to make it unipolar, it’s a good technique to have in the bag, very handy also if you want to play random but scale corrected notes too, which is how i use this technique in nord modular, it has its own random binary object ! Using ‘ramps’ with the designer will also allow you to get unipolar random, being careful to choose an irregular rate, to emphasise your point, thanks for the pedantry :+1: [/quote]
Oh no problem at all man, I just wanted to clarify that, mostly to encourage further experimentation :slight_smile: Sounds like I may have just confused other folks more though, oops…
Yeah, exactly, the LFO designer w/ HOLD is great for scales and things like that, you can use it as a kind of bank/database/array of pseudo-random values. Cool for all sorts of things that you might want to restrict to a specific set of values - pitch, timing, volume, etc.
I love the Nord Modular too… so happy about that Wine patch that came out recently, now I can edit my Micromod in OSX (and Linux)!

#80

To me, a big strength of the Elektron paradigm is that the LFOs are so flexible and powerful that you can easily set up stuff like this with them. At first it might feel weird or hacky. But the alternative is a ton of menus and options for specific things like this, always there in the interface for you to jump over, and possibly always running in the engine, bogging down the CPU, even if you only use them 1% of the time.
For me the Elektron approach is a lot more elegant, I just reconfigure an LFO to do what I need for that particular sound. With this approach it’s also easy to experiment and come up with stuff that Elektron or I would never have thought of. Freedom through flexibility. Even moreso on the Monomachine where you can lock all the LFO settings per step!

#81

my 2 cents to probabilistic trig behaviour, although far less sophisticated than what’s been discussed above: map the LFO to STRT instead of VOL :slight_smile: the trigs sound slightly different in this case and when STRT is very high the effect is the same as in case of VOL being very low.

@avantronica: thx for the additional clarifications