Hey all, I recently got an OT and am working on learning it on its own. However, I have been messing with feeding my Digitone and Digitakt into it a little bit. I planning to eventually have these 3 as my main “control center” but want to incorporate other synths, so I have two questions.
1: which of these 3 would be best suited for sequencing additional synths?
2: And looking for any other recommendations for how to use these in a larger setup for sampling into the DT or OT.
Thanks all!
As for number one, I’ve only ever owned the DT but I know the DN has similar-ish external MIDI sequencing capabilities. I’d say just get yourself a decent MIDI patchbay and you would easily be able to use all three to sequence whatever else you wanted. Even if you want to chose to just one box sequencing a MIDI patchbay of some type is a good idea for a big setup IMO. I’ve got an old MOTU MIDI 128 Express XT and it really streamlines MIDI routing.
As for number two, if your goal is to route as many audio sources as possible into the OT and DT get a mixer with two aux sends. That way anything you plug into a channel of said mixer can quickly be routed to the inputs of the DT or OT. Audio patchbay would also work for this but I find those more confusing than a mixer, personally.
The best price/performance in MIDI patchbays, IMO, is an old MOTU MIDI Time Piece II. If you look at the patchbay/filtering features in the MIDI Express XT, the MTPII does all the same stuff plus some other things the Express doesn’t, except it’s fully editable from the front panel and you can find them under $50 pretty easily. I’ve got two (so far, I’ll probably get another as a backup) and use them every time I use MIDI gear with no problems at all.
If you get one it’ll need a new battery (easy to swap in) and for both of mine I had to power it up, then do a factory reset, then power cycle it again before it worked. Just powering up with a new battery, even with the factory reset, gave me a blank display both times, they needed a second power cycle to actually work right but they’ve worked perfectly ever since. So if you pick one up, don’t be scared when this happens! I forgot after the first one so it got me both times.
My setup has an Octatrack, an MPC2000xl and a MIDIbox SEQ in it, and I can use all three for sequencing at the same time without problems because of the MOTUs, one of them would definitely do the job for what you’re planning to do.
Don’t overpay for one, they’re nto rare at all and even with pandemic pricing I paid $35 (on Reverb, no less) for the second one earlier this year and $40 for the first one back in early 2020. Any of the 1u MOTU interfaces ith USB should do most of the same stuff but not at that price. anythign older than the MTPII doesn’t have front panel editing and is pretty much useless unless you have a 25 year old Power Mac. This is the one to watch for:
for midi sequencing, before you buy other stuff… I would say it depends upon what you’re sequencing and how many things you’re sequencing. if you’re mainly sequencing monophonic synths, the OT is excellent at this; tons of control, tons of options, and eight tracks to do it with. but the limitation is that it’s not truly polyphonic. you can sequence chords, but if you then add a note after a chord, it will stop the chord to send the new note. the DN will not do this. so you could use the DN for polyphonic sequencing, or all your sequencing, possibly. or you could use the OT for it and dedicate multiple tracks to sequencing a polyphonic synth, if needed (e.g. held chords on one track, a melody on another). personally, I used the OT for years (without a midi patchbay or thru box) sequencing ten or so synths; monophonic, polyphonic, and modular. it was awesome. excellent central hub of a setup. plus it has song mode if you want to structure your tracks in that manner (DN and DT don’t have song mode).
for sampling, I suggest having the OT connected to the aux send from a mixer. then you can send anything to it. if you think you’ll want to use the DT for this as well, you’ll need a mixer with at least two aux sends, or at least one and a separate mix buss. or you could possibly run your DT into the OT, and run a mixer output into the DT; then just sample using whichever you want, and you can sample the DT into the OT…
Another thing to remember is that the OT doesn’t like external clock, so even if you aren’t using it as your master sequencer it’s safer to use it as your master clock.
Agreed with @chiasticon definitely decide what all you’d want to MIDI sequence with the OT/DT/DN before you buy anything! It might not be worth the money at this point : )
Thats my set up.
OT is the master clock and pattern changer.
Sampling, obviously.
OT sends midi to the analogue synths.
DN sequences itself only.
TR8-S sequences it self only.
Every instrument has its own mixer channel.
A line from the mixer back to the OT means I can sample any source when ever I want.
Very simple, very stable. Works brilliantly. No faff.
Good choice if you don’t want to overpay on a midi thru box…I have the old midi express XT. It’s not programmable from the panel, but has different templates you can select. Very useful and cheap!
Each of the DT, DN, and OT has different advantages as a sequencer of external gear. The DT is great for its immediacy and very easy muting, and for having so many tracks. With four-note polyphony per track, you can do solid pad work with it as well. If you want more polyphony per track, and a better interface for programming multiple notes, the DN is there for you. And the OT has a MIDI arp, which neither the DN nor DT has.
I’m still using one of those as my MIDI interface, works well but I’ve been seeing the used ones (and even the Mdi Timepiece AV) go for $200-$300 pretty regularly for the last few years since hardware got popular again. the MTP-II hasn’t gone up much yet, though, so if you don’t need USB it’s the way to go.
I guess if you had a computer that it would actually work with an original Midi Time Piece or one of the earliest Express XTs that don’t have USB could work well, too, and those are also really cheap.
