Access virus TI to Octatrack (Any advice/Protips)?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I’ve been thinking of hooking up my Virus TI polar directly to the OT (both Midi and Audio) and just kind of using that as a starting point for writing stuff but I haven’t used the OT’s midi sequencer side more than two or three times and I don’t really grasp how the virus tackles multi-Timbral patches.

With the virus, I expected it to function kind of like the Nords where I have (X) amounts of parts and I can with a button push jump back and forth between those parts and sculpt them to my hearts content without having to save anything or set up anything in advance…the virus manual is pretty lackluster on operating in multi mode and from what I can remember you can sort of do that but only with certain multi patches and for others you can only use it with a group of already stored patches…? I don’t know maybe I’m misremembering, I plan on busting the manual out again when I do this but i would appreciate if anyone could shed some further light on getting the virus to work in multi mode the same way the Nords or Alesis ion do where you can just freely switch though parts of all Init patches and edit them without creating and saving them first.

As far as the OT, I was the reading the manual the other night, the section that talked about and gave an example of using the OT as a main sequencer for external gear intrigued me and impressed me and is why I decided to do this, it seems like I can essentially have 8 tracks of Virus TI with each one having its own patch and it’s own CC parameters assigned to any of the six knobs per patch additionally the part where it talked about the ability to record (p-lock) the knobs on my virus as I turned them live I found particularly appealing, I’m just a little confused on how exactly to set it up. I plan on connecting them directly and just following the manual kind of step by step (once I figure out the TI’s multi mode) but before I did that I wanted to ask the OT experts if there was a better or best way to do this or should I just follow the manuals example?

I’m really looking forward to channeling my creative energy into just two pieces of gear instead of trying to navigate and incorporate my entire set up, if this works out I’m hoping maybe it will change my workflow for the better or at very least generate some new ideas.

Any and all advice/suggestions/protips on pairing the virus and OT would be majorly appreciated

2 Likes
#2

Been awhile since I messed with this combo, but I think I remember the OT’s “midi learn” function being pretty epic in the workflow I had going. Was better than looking up all the CCs all the time anyway.

You put the OT in whatever the midi learn mode is, turn the knob on the Virus that you want to correspond to the knob on the OT and it maps it for you.

3 Likes
#3

Multi mode is not necessary and there is a much more limited number of slots available with it, if you haven’t been using virus multitimbrally you might have been in the single mode, try using the third mode I think it’s called sequencer mode and you can access any patch or init

If you want to record external midi hook up two 5 pin cables, out to in and in to out and be sure to turn off local control on the virus

You can run individual outs from V to OT for sampling/processing sounds separately by selecting the which outs to use for which part on the virus, and if you want to go deeper you could use OT cue out to run an input patch into the V for some virus fx and then back into the OT

Also atomizer is pretty cool, might be redundant with OT but could be used for some extra real time mangling of your OT sequences, you could run OT virus inputs for some master fx to free up master chanel on OT so you don’t have to sacrifice that track, just so many possibilities. Have fun experimenting, it’s got to be one of the more powerful and flexible two piece combos

3 Likes
#4

I think you may be able to have multiple virus parts assigned to a single midi channel too. E.G. using OT midi track 1 for controlling Virus parts 1 and 9 to make a two part layered bass or pad or something.

1 Like
#5

Sequencer mode…

2 Likes
#6

Using my Virus TI2 in a similar way. I use the third mode (sequencer mode), where every Part is its own midi channel. I can then move through the parts with 2 buttons and work with the Virus as I always so (load and save patches, build new ones etc). On the OT you can not only send midi to the Virus but also send Bank and PrgmCh Infos, to let he OT tell the Virus what Patch to play on the individual MIDI channels.

3 Likes
#7

Multimode has the advantage that the first 20 (50?) Multimode programs also store the patch information so you can play around with the sounds and save them as the complete set I belive.

Of course you can send PC from OT to each Virus channel but then you have make sure you store the sounds you might have changed.

To me this is too much of a hassle and it is also confusing how switching between the channels is in multimode - for me.

I usually just sample the sounds into the OT. Chords or drones or whatever.

1 Like
#8

I use OT & Virus Ti2 desktop, strictly in Multimode. I constantly switching parts I want to edit in real time while others are running. Then simply clicking Shift+Store. Saves all my edits.
1st group of 8 voices are usually drum sounds, second group synth/noise/whatever.
Its definitely my fav combo to fire up.

In multi mode, the Virus TI can play up to 16 parts simultaneusly. By default each part is connected to its own MIDI channel, so out of the gate, connecting from the OT needs no additional setup.
Quote from Virus TI Quickstart, p. 19
The Virus TI has 128 slots for storing your Multi set-ups. The first 16 (0-15) of these are ‘embedded’ Multis, by which we mean that they store all the data for the patches they use, so any edits you make to the sounds are automatically preserved when you store the Multi, so you need never worry about breaking a preset. Multis numbered 16 and upwards do not store the individual patch data, but instead refer to patches stored in the Single RAM/ROM banks.

Quote from another user:
“I haven’t used sequencer mode yet that I recall, but it seems like a null-multi mode. Instead of having a named / savable multi program, you just get 16 slots that you can point at various patches”

oh and join the virus forum!

Heres another topic related:

7 Likes
#9

OT tip - I’ve recently set this variation up, and this may make it into my live set:

to switch to the other half of my virus multi- ie, midi ch 9-16, I set up a second OT Part or Bank with appropriate changed midi channels.
so during a jam, I can flip to say Part 2 or Bank B, Pattern 1, with a whole new midi/cc config on the OT to sequence the other half of my multi.

1 Like
#10

Thats why multimode seems limited to me, why only 16 slots which save as tweaked and modified copies?
I wish all multi slots worked that way, Instead of thousands of patches I would happily loose a bank or two have the full 128 as true multis

That is one thing I love about elektron, modified patches are embedded into the sequence, on DN
I build most sounds from scratch and they just live on the track, I rarely even store a patch for later use

What do you do when the first 16 slots are full, just overwrite them later? I like to have everything stored for recalling old projects with everything in place and 16 is just so few

#11

As I wrote: I don’t use multi mode but sequencer mode. I don’t reuse sounds. I create a sound from scratch, save it in one of the 5 or so banks and recall it with Bankselect and ProgramChange. With modern sequencers, there is no need to have a project saved on the synth

3 Likes
#12

I use multi mode, but still do program changes like described by those using sequencer mode.

I use the multi set up as routing templates, this way certain midi channels always send audio out specific outputs. Any virus tracks not in use are disabled to conserve dsp

2 Likes
#13

I was doing this as well, and it feels powerful to start, but I had a heck of a time getting decent MIDI timing from the OT to TI2.

This is a problem that has been mentioned on the Virus forums a few times. Even moderately complex patches (couple oscs and some unison) in single mode, all of a sudden the timing accuracy completely went out the window.

Drove me crazy, and it’s pretty disappointing. Is no one else hearing this? It seems to be DSP-load dependent. Try firing up a single medium-complexity patch and then sending it fast 16th notes, say at ~160 bpm. My TI2 keyboard is all over the place :disappointed:

1 Like
#14

My sounds are way too simple to notice that, I think. Mostly at 135-140bpm, not having issues.

2 Likes
#15

Thank you guys for the tips so far, I’m sitting down with the pair right now and trying to work it all out, so far I have the OT able to send note info to the Virus on each midi channel, I have the virus in Seq mode (which is so much better than multi-mode for my purposes and exactly what I was initially trying to figure out so thanks for that) so I can send multiple note on/off to multiple channels, edit each patch from init and quickly switch between them which is fantastic and step one but I’m scratching my head for step two which would be recoding CC messages when I turn a knob on the virus, I’m going through the manual and I tried what it said but frankly I don’t get it, I feel like I’m missing something. It doesn’t seem to matter if I have “CC direct connect” on or off it doesn’t change anything. And lastly my step three to getting this working how I was envisioning it would be to play the keys of the TI and have them record into the OT as opposed to playing the buttons of the OT.

I disconnected the TI and OT from my studio and have them set up on the floor in the living room where I’m going to be for essentially the rest of the day seeing what I can do and accomplish with this set up, I’m looking forward to getting all three parts of this set up working so I can really start jamming.

image
image4032×3024 2.22 MB

Any help or light shed on these two steps would be greatly appreciated.

2 Likes
#16

go through the various tuts here:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=octatrack+cc+direct+connect

1 Like
#17

A video of me stupid and unable to figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong/not understanding about pairing these two:

#18

Checking it out now thanks hopefully it’ll help me get what I’m screwing up here

#19

He’ll yea borthers! I finally figured it out! It had nothing to do with setting up the OT it was solely a setting on the Virus.

To me it was imperative to be able to play the virus from its keys and record it into the Octatrack that way instead of only using the Octatrack’s buttons as a keyboard. If anyone else runs into this issue hopefully this will help.

Now I can finally set up all 8 channels between the two and delve into recording CC messages etc and all the fun things these two machines can do with each other :tada:

3 Likes
#20

Nice! Push through the confusion and make it happen, that’s the kind of determination an OT user needs, I think that’s why so many crazy people gave up and sold there OT, patience is rewarded.

I still get hanging notes on virus sometimes, panic button fixes that (mono and sync), good to know if your not used to sequencing the virus

That midi glitching sounded wild, sample that!
I wonder what it would sound like on more complex patches, like a circuit bent virus sound

4 Likes