ok that didn’t really help me.
So what I want to do is play samples, i.e. have more than 8 samples and be able to play them.
How do i do this? please be helpful rather than factual as I’m new to the oktatrack
You can’t play more than 8 samples simultaneously on octatrack. Only one voice(sample) per Track.
You can have loads of samples ‘loaded’ in to flex/static slots so they are playable. But no more than 8 simultaneously across the whole machine. And if you want to play more than one sample simultaneously (8 max) you need to allocate to different tracks. Then play/record trigs in Tracks mode (if I remember right… Been a while since I used my OT). Tracks mode gives you 8 buttons with each button triggering the sound on a different track…
OT can be confusing to begin with. Did you read Merlins Guide? Covers a lot of this stuff better than the Elektron manual…
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Yeah it’s not a toy that’s fro sure 
Ok, so if I tell you what I want to do then perhaps I will konw where in the manual to look.
first off I don’t make EDM, nothing similar.
Record records in studios and then I want to strap them over the oktatrack.
So when I’m in track mode that’s great, I can play more than one sample at a time, but I only have 8 to choose from, how would I go about playing more than 8 at a time, or atleast, quickly (on the fly) load more samples?
p.s when I say more than 8 at a time I mean load another set of 8, and another, and another.
I’m fine if I can only play 8 at a time, but at least load a different set of 8 is essential. Verse, Chorus, etc. You get the picture 
I want to play all of the samples without a sequencer running.
Change Part.
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Each of the 8 tracks can playback one stereo voice, the slots are a bit like a selection of coloured pencils, you hold one at a time, then select another one. This is also possible with one sample where the sample is a chain of sliced smaller samples, so instead of changing the slot when you want to you can change the slice.
Both slots and slices can be parameter locked on the trig which plays them, that would be fine if the sequencer was playing
If you want to play them manually, then cueing up the variations involves having a look through how Parts/Scenes can be utilised, the Track ‘machines’ playing back those slots / slices can be assigned differently for each part (there are 4) You could e.g. also utilise a scene to change a preloaded slice, so e.g. do this by changing scenes or morphing between scenes where the sample slice is changed
It is deep, but this figure i rendered from the manual shows how the relationships are embedded - it’s best to experiment a bit with each aspect until the limitations and possibilities become clear
<img
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I haven’t used my OT in a while and kinda slipped out of fully ‘getting it’ without it in front of me to check. Hurts my brain to try to figure out how to do what you want… Not even sure it’s possible in the way you want Or it might be super easy and I’m just forgetting something obvious…
You need to read Merlin Guide from start to finish and it’ll explain what’s possible/not possible. From your questions it seems like you haven’t got a grip on the central architecture etc. There are a lot of layers to the onion… I rarely read manuals but read the OT one. Kind of unavoidable. if you haven’t already I’d go through it start to finish. You might find you need to adapt to ‘the octatrack way’ for certain things. Takes a while for people to find a workflow that suits their needs, everyone seems to use it slightly differently…
EDIT - yep, ‘Change Part’ will do it, like the guys above said while I was typing 
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That’s what slices are for. Make slice chains and you’ll be able to switch between 128 x 8 = 1024 samples total in slice mode or using the start knob. 1024 seems like more than enough for me. Combine that with for 4 parts for each bank is 131072 samples available to you with in a few button presses. You could even quick load samples in the sample menu using function + right/left keys to change sample chains loaded into each track but why bother.
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Damn. SO many options/information.
Thanks to all who answered, much appreciated!
That’s interesting, I’ll have to investigate into this…
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If you are comfortable with the “slices” concept check out
Sample chains are basicly slices in a specified order.
This could be one shots, breaks, loops or whole songs.
Sky is the limit. When you whant to go deeper in the rabbit hole check out
The 
is a hell of a machine 
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You may want to use reverb or delay to limit the effect of voice stealing.
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So before get stuck into the slices and the above editor: Can this editor basically arrange my slices (perfectly) so I don’t have to use the markers (start, end) in the audio editor?
Correct me if I’m wrong but using slices to do what I want to do will mean I will need to go in and line everything up, an absolute prick of a job.
So in a nutshell this editor will prevent me from having to do this?
thanks
Oktatracks Marketing tagline should of been:
Forget about getting laid, you’ll be stuck learning this box instead™
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Be sure to post your stuff up (not ex-girlfriends photos) when you’re done!!! 
Yes, it does the p.i.t.a job to string together your samples. It “chains” your samples, perfectly fit for the OT.
OctaChainer is a drag,drop and have fun tool. Like mentioned in the discription “It allows you to arrange samples in the order you want, and then creates a chained .wav file and corresponding .ot file”. For an example you pick 16 loops, drag and drop them to OctaChainer and choose a slice mode (there are three) that suits the material. Now you have 16 loops.wav files chained into a loopchain.wav file. When you load this file into a sample slot on the OT you choose the slice play mode on the OT and could now for an example p-lock every slice to a different step.
Like step one -> Slices 5, step two-> slice 3 etc,etc. The idea behind this concept is to save sample slots (128).
You won´t overcome the polyphony limitations nor the fact that you can only assign one sample per machine (Track). But you can put anything inside this sample (per Track).
For the start i would try to make one sample chain consisting of one shots (Bass Drum,Snare drum, HiHats, Toms, Percs) to get a drum kit sample chain. Keep it simple and try to get the count of one shots to 8/16/32/64. Depending how many samples you want to have for one drum kit you can have many different drum kits inside one sample chain
So instead of, loading one bass drum to track one, snare drum to track 2, hihat to track 3 etc.etc, you will only have to load your sample chain to track 1 (play mode set to slices) and have a whole drum kit.
On top of it you can play your slices in real time if you put the sequencer “Trig Mode” to “Slices” (no recording, [Function]+ [UP/DOWN Arrows]).
Just do the above for every material you want inside a sample chain but instead of loading the single .wav files to a track load you prepared sample chain.
This sounds overwhelming at first but gets pretty much second nature by the time.
Just try it.
hey futureoutfit…
yes… i do the same with samples… slices are what you should go for…
two options for that (its rather complex procedure at the beginning… once you got it, its super easy and quick):
a) just import a looped sample. than just go to sample menu and on tab “slice”… just slice it to 16 slices… after that, if you enable “slice mode” on the trackparameters (double-tab it), you can start to use them… switch the 16 buttons to “slice mode” with function + arrow keys… no you can play and record them in MPC-style (you see a green light over the buttons, if the slices are active…
b) you can import an uncut vinyl recording and edit your slices manually … there a lots of tutorials online on how to do it… watch “cuckoo” on that… its the oldschool sampler style editing, if you are familiar with that
c) what i use a lot for drums and short sounds (vocal hits, funk guitar phrases) is called sample chain… use a DAW… drop in 16 short 1-2 second long samples… place them with equal distance to each other on the time grid (for example one sample exactly on hit one of the first 4/4-bar, next on the next bar and so on…) export it as a wavefile (16 bit, 44,1 KHZ) and load it to octatrack… than again slice it into 16 parts… the good thing here is, with this way the sounds are directly perfectly sliced for playing… also you find tutorials for sample chaining for octatrack…
for pure loops, just drop them in perfectly looped and play… than you can add drums sounds and hits with these technics.
at the end: you can do up to 64 slices on each of the 8 tracks… in total this is a huge amount of samples you could use… mostly a 16 Grid on 4-6 tracks + 1 loop is pretty much enough for a dope track :-))
so far… have fun and make some fresh “Shadow-Tunes” :-))
You could also use sample locks to simulate polyphony. For example sometimes I’ll have sample locks to a snare on other drum tracks (hi-hat, kick, tom, etc.) to get overlapping snare tails. It can also add a lot of variation to even the same sample just by way different levels, envelopes, effects, etc.
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heya…I’ve started doing this but came into an instant problem. How do I add more loops once i’ve already made a slice to one loop?
I need to add whole bar loops, 2bar, 4bar, etc
If I make these into one whole file in a DAW then slice this up in ht editor it won’t work becasue the zero crossings aren’t an indication where to slice.
makes no sense really.
Elektron could implement a poly mode like on the monomachine (easiest) or (better) dynamic voice allocation (still pretty easy) - but they won’t. Yes, I both love the Octatrack and am bitter toward Elektron.