Thanks. The OT has been fine since I got it back at least. Fingers crossed the same with the AR.
I guess if one uses it for hours and hours day after day without failures one can be confident again. Just really shakes that when you get a total failure.
I did get the OT back very quickly.
I was on the verge of buying the A4 too…
sounds like a suspect power connection, wiring issue, faulty outlet, etc
it doesnt really make sense that 2 completely different machines would have the same exact kind of technical malfunction, unless there is another specific environmental problem that exerts the same influence on everything it comes in contact with
i will say that the elektron PSU cords are a bit funky in terms of volts/amperage, not super exotic but also not especially common either… so its possible you wouldnt have noticed an issue until now
id suggest getting a power conditioner of some kind, like a furman rack unit - and run everything thru that… if you are going to have a live rig its pretty much essential gear anyways
http://www.furmanpower.com/
They are both running on UPS so they have a steady power supply. All my studio kit has.
Totally agree it seems odd they both have had similar (but not identical) issues, but nothing else in my setup has had any issues.
The OT was confirmed faulty but slipped past QA, so it was not caused by any action on my part.
Yes getting this again on the AR seems unlikely yet here I am. I have the Analogue Heat and it is fine. The OT has been fine since its return.
I did ask the question of support if there is anything I could be doing to cause these issues but it seems no.
did you run afoul of a local witch or sorcerer? 
maybe something funky with the UPS? or did you get the 2 units from the same shop?
bottom line is that its not normal or even common stuff here… its suspicious
I think I must’ve offended some deity somewhere.
To be honest I have all my life had a few strange gremlins when it comes to electrical products. Thought I had a weird electric field around me or something.
Eg my mates gear seems to go weird when I am around. That was all fine when I was a drummer but now I am making edm on my own I am much more reliant on electricity than before.
Guess I just have to get it fixed and hope it is reliable from then on.
I have an RMA from Elektron so hopefully they can turn it around quick like my OT.
And here I am thinking about buying the AK as well…working first time would be good.
I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard some ups give off wired types of power where the current is somehow different, was your friends gear plugged into this when it went funny? It kinda sounds like there was just a bad run recently but I’d check rytm plugged direct to the wall outlet just to see…
If OT’s and Rytms were not stable enough for a live performance we certainly would have heard about it all the time for the past years on this forum, which we have not, only isolated cases once in awhile…
Sure I will try straight into the wall tonight just to check - but again no other products had a problem through the same supply.
No my experience of screwing up friends electrics is totally separate and random.
Well if most folks don’t have a problem I just need to suck it up, get it fixed and hopefully move on…again.
I tried plugging into different outlets last night but to no avail. Although damage may already have been done.
It is now en route to Sweden.
No one can guarantee the 100% reliability of any piece of electrical equipment. That’s just not viable.
certainly, but dont you also agree that no music equipment manufacturer cannot possibly state “you cannot rely on this equipment to work on stage” publicly without committing a commercial suicide?
Agreed, I think they’d be better off making no comment on its reliability, which is so heavily variable, and sticking with stating that they are handmade to the highest possible quality. But I’m not sure what their exact wording was to the OP.
To be fair it wasn’t saying that these products can’t be relied on specifically, although it was in response to my question on the Octatrack specifically, it was a general statement alluding that no product should be relied on and one should always have a backup.
My point is, how do I always have a backup for - at that time - the Octatrack. It is a pretty unique product and the only backup would be to have a second Octatrack, which is of course nuts. In any case, the failures I have experienced have been total, so the music stops dead. Even with a backup, it would need a change over - which I don’t fancy in the middle of a set at say 1:30am…the music stops dead whilst the dancefloor stands and waits for me to replace my main instrument.
I get that electrical products can fail, my issue is that I bought an Octatrack and it failed completely, so much that it had to go back tonSweden for a replacement, after owning for only 4 weeks.
Then I bought an Analogue Rytm, which a couple of months in failed completely and is now on its way back to Sweden, I assume for replacement.
If either of those happened in the middle of a big live set, I would never be booked again. It would be catastrophic to my music career.
Even though the OT was only 4 weeks old, a refund was refused and I had to send it back to get fixed.
Yes the OT was turned around quickly and yes the internals were all replaced. But what happens if the same thing happens again at a less convenient time, say in the middle of the climax of a big live set.
My only option was to sell on my Elektron gear or just accept it. With no other products available to do quite what I want to do, I have no choice, but now, with a 100% failure rate, I am terrified the gear lets me down at the worst possible moment.
Adding to this - I checked back at the response from support.
The advice is to have another drum machines be as part of the live setup so that if the OT fails something is still keeping the beat going.
Maybe unfortunately but my drum machine is the AR and when t fails it stops all the Elektron gear that is connected together - so the advice is effectively to have a non-Elektron drum machine as part of my sound so that if all the Elektron fail, there is something to upside the chain still playing.
So soon I will have OT, AR, AH and AK…but need something else holding the beat in case all of it goes down at once - as it does when any part of the Elektron chain fails.
I’d just get your replacement and run them for awhile and not worry about it, see how it goes. As long as you receive a proper unit it should prove to be very reliable, and start to relieve your worries. I understand your concern, I would feel the same way, but from over here having used my machines for countless hours with no probs, I would feel more than comfortable performing at a small venue with no backup. Of course if it’s a big venue and a very large audience I think all artists bring backups of their gear at that point…
Yeah when I’m playing Wembley I’m hoping I can afford truckloads of stuff! 