I’m looking to get an Octatrack to add a little dynamic to my live set-up, which currently consists of a flakey, non-gig worthy PC laptop and a Eurorack modular.
I’m looking to effectively do something along the lines of this video (Tim Exile Youtube clip): https://youtu.be/UGT1tZT9C1o
In the first 20 seconds, Tim samples his voice twice, creating rhythms, and then drops midi drums over top.
If I understand the Octatrack correctly (I’m reading both the manual, and Merlin’s guide), I could establish a master and slave pick-up machine to accomplish this - the master setting the system’s tempo, and the slave being auto stretched (if need be) to accommodate any timing errors. Then, with the tempo now set automatically by the master to my first vocal sample (again, lets just imagine I’m doing what Tim did above for the two pick-up machines), I could load pre-recorded drum loops or sample chain beats to improvisationally play live, yeah?
I presume this all to be accurate, but what prompted this post is a further question:
Can I seamlessly migrate the pickup machine audio into another track via resampling, and then cut-up / mutilate the sample to my hearts content, freeing up the now redundant pickup machine to record new data (from my Eurorack, or whatever)? In essence, create a cyclic workflow where I sample into a pickup machine, move that over to another track for intensive edits, and then repeat? I presume the pickup machines are effectively static, but resampling would allow me to get around that, yes?
Mind you, I’m not trying to emulate Tim’s improve machine in full. I use Tim’s work merely as an expedient example of the kind of flexibility I’d like to have in starting my performances (sample from the immediate – crowd or myself – and then start cutting that up / mangling it live and improvisationally).
What really prompted this post was another thread, located here: Pickup machines - who is using them?, where forum regulars discussed the apathetic response people had to the pickup machine’s inclusion. It made me wonder if they weren’t as flexible as I had hoped, in either timing or whatever.
Thanks for reading. :).