note: edited title to re-use thread
have been sharing some of what I’ve been working on lately and decided make some videos to describe my configuration. The first two installments are an overview of how I’m using the Octatrack
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Nice!
That shuttle control is totally amazing!
thanks!
the shuttle control is definitely one of the most configurable and efficient midi-to-cv modules, but I get a bit irritated that I have to hook it to a computer when I want to modify the configuration. I’m looking forward to trying out the recently released FH-2 by Expert Sleepers - I’d be able to get the same amount of outputs in the same amount of space (with the FH-2 expander) and I would be able to edit the configuration directly on the module
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This is fantastic, looks like I’m a couple of months behind you (just got the Octatrack mkII on Thursday evening).
- How exactly are you setting up those mono submixes? It’s not entirely clear to me how to do mono on Octatrack
- It looks like track 5 is your stereo mix in, which you mention is configured as a flex machine, which I assume means it’s assigned to a recorder slot and could start recording right away. Why do you record onto the tracks on the left side? Is it only to keep track 5 “running” in the background so that you can switch back to monitoring the live inputs of the modular rig?
This is amazing! On the second video from 3 minutes till the end, how do you get your sample playback to reverse and forward like that?
Yeah, I have my brother’s shuttle system luckily enough at the moment and I leave my iPad hooked up and just edit as I please, the freedom, although tethered, is liberating.
I reckon 4 x shuttle control would give you a good rig paired with a controller, the functions and generators it has is mind bending…
Once you have a sample in RAM you can mangle it with P-Locks however you want (length, speed, direction, fx etc)
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I’ve been an octatrack owner for about 3.5 years and I mostly think about all the things about it I haven’t fully explored
iirc to get a mono mix for the flex machine pass-throughs you can plock your recorder trig to a mono source or just set the default IN source to be mono - basically instead of ‘A B’ or ‘C D’ you want just A, just C, or one of the summed mono options like A + B
I almost always want access to the live feeds from the modular, even if is not in the mix and I am just cueing for real-time sampling. Track 5 is set as a flex machine pass-through for a bit of extra flexibility. I record samples I plan to use for re-sequencing onto the tracks on the left side for design/configuration/playability symmetry, since track 8 is set as master (and no other track can be set as master). Since I only have 3 submixes from the modular I can have all that stuff on the right side, and then compartmentalize the sampling channels to the left side
not sure if that answers your specific questions. I plan to eventually make more detailed videos in the future talking about the nitty-gritty of some of the techniques I’m using, but for now I’m just documenting the high-level concepts and signal routing. the next video is about how I’ve patched up some of my rhythmic/percussion subsystem
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you can use plocks like OHEXOH is saying, and I do a little bit of that, but I mostly use LFOs to move parameters around, gives me an extra layer of abstraction to work with, and LFO params can be assigned to the xfader for extra performance possibilities
os from expert sleepers has a big penchant for feature creep, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the FH-2 ends up nearly as capable as the Shuttle Control. I’m only using basic features in this setup though. I’d get a lot more out of the Shuttle Control’s powerful features in a smaller setup, which is where I plan to put it once I eventually cough up the $$ for an FH-2 and expander
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The various audio output options almost make it a rudimentary drum machine if you add the input options too!
You have a great set-up anyway, walk that tightrope delicately yeah 
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haha I haven’t always done quite so well at that! this is pretty much the largest setup at this point I would want to use as a ‘performance’ system. After some years in eurorack I ended up with a main setup consisting of a 5x84hp ‘drum rack’ and a 5x168hp ‘sandbox’ with a 16ch outboard mixer and it was cool but I found it a bit cumbersome. I used expert sleepers for a long time to interface with the computer and it was great but I got sick of using keyboard and mouse, or spending time mapping midi controllers, and decided to buy an octatrack after borrowing a machinedrum uw for a while, and here I am about 3.5 years later
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Soooo you fell off that rope…
But seriously yeah, it’s like your hand in a void, you reach around and then one day you clutch something that works and you run from the labyrinth!
You got it locked down man, and all the luck to you 
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Excellent! Great to see how useful and well Elektrons can play with modular. I like to sample my Make Noise 0-coast to the OT.
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thanks! the design of the machinedrum uw in particular is amazingly simpatico with modular, I dream of the day Elektron releases a beastly flagship that is basically a just a MDUW and OT lovechild with the ability to record directly to SD card and/or RAM 
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yea that MD married to an OT setup would be on par with modular drums for sure!
Video logs for complex set ups so useful i should do more. How are syncing your octatrack is it master or slave? I have an issue with flex recordings with octatrack as slave.
in my setup Octatrack is the master - part of the reason I got into modular many years ago was to avoid extensive and messy MIDI chains/splits and to get tighter triggering
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Yeah I am currently doing something similar with Yarns (And even the bitbox portion) and have been drooling over the FH-2 for exactly the reasons you talk about, but for the life of me no one in the states seems to be stocked with them.
haha yeah, I’m kind of glad there aren’t any here in the states yet, it keeps my wallet from crying out in pain!
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