Slots or Slices

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hey,

I’m getting my hands on an OT in a few days. I’ve already spent hours on the manual, forums and youtube and feel quite ready and thrilled to get my hands dirty on this amazing box :smiley:
I have a one hour musical piece I’m willing to use the OT for. It’s going to replace a Volca Sample, PO32, PO35 and open crazy new musical opportunities.

While preparing (one paper) the transition to the OT, planning banks, tracks, machines, parts and scenes, everything is going fine, but I’m having troubles getting my head around this specific topic :

I would like to be able to launch freely multiple relatively short voice samples (5s to 30s) during playback. Each bank (song in my case) has its 2 to 8 voices clips. For that I’m disconnecting the Track / machine dedicated to the voice samples from the sequencer using the [PLAYS FREE] setting.

Then, should I use slices or slots ?

If I use slots, I understand I must get into TRIG MODE -> SLOTS, but how do I assign my 2 to 8 voices samples to slots ? By using sample locks ? But aren’t sample locks assigned to specific trigs on the sequencer?

If I use slices, I understand I must merge my samples and slice them back on the OT (maybe by using specific software as seen on other threads here). What would be the pros of this method ? Then, same question as with sample locks, how can I assign slice locks to trigs out of the sequencer ?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

#2

It seems you want to play these samples live, right? In that case go with slices, and either play them using slice playing mode on the OT. You press corresponding trig buttons to play the slices live, or through an external midi keyboard (i do THINK you can do it externally, can’t remember:). IF you go the slot way, you need to program it through sample locks! If you’re not using parts or multiple tracks that is. If using parts, i think the audio cuts out if the sample is still playing when you switch parts.

#3

You can record live slots or slices with slot or slice mode. Both can be easily plocked, pressing a regular trig + knob.

Using slices saves slots emplacements, it is easy to make sample chains with OCtachainer (free) or OctaEdit. It allows you to make drum kits, sounds by family, and use lfo / crossfader to change them in realtime, which is not possible with slots.

It is possible to trigger slices with external midi but you need some midi processing.

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#4

Thanks a lot for your prompt replies!

As for now, without the OT, I’m launching the voice clips from Ableton Live with a midi keyboard (Arturia Keystep, very versatile piece of gear!). With the OT, the goal of playing computer/dawless will be acheived :raised_hands: The Keystep will definitly be plugged to the OT and I will take the midi processing route.

I don’t think I’ll have slot emplacement issues so, if I get it right, the main reason for using slices vs slots would be “use lfo / crossfader to change them in realtime” ? I don’t really understand what you mean so I started reading this : LFO´s... what are in them?, quite dense, I’ll get back to it when I’m more familiar with the OT …

The plan will probably be for each bank/song to have a track, disconnected from the sequencer, with sample locks containing the different voice clips and figure out the midi way to freely launch them from the Keystep.

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#5

A reason to use slots could be : since ot’s tracks are monophonic each slice will cut the one playing when trggered. using two or three slots with same sample chain or by choke groups could avoid this problem allowing for overlapping samples…Still better than one sample per slot. :slight_smile:

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#6

Now the OT is in my hands, it seems obvious to go the “OCtachainer + slices” route.
The voice samples aren’t suppose to overlap so there is not much complexity here.
Thanks again for your advices!

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#7

De rien mon lapin !
👥 [FR] Le Bistrot Francophone / The French Café

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