Another newbie question about importing samples

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Going from a DFAM to an OT feels like going from sophomore to senior but so far I feel like I made the right choice.

My question is: I’m importing samples for the first time, some mono and some stereo. They’ve been batch converted using Switch to 44.1 24bit. When I start laying in trigs, the mono samples sound stereo-ish, like some weird phasing. I would like them to sound like dropping a mono sample on a track in Ableton and Ableton sums it to mono, but it is still coming from left and right channels. Summed, I guess? How do I get mono samples to playback in true mono and stereo in stereo? I was looking for a mix setting but I can find anything. I am sending OT normally from the main outs to stereo inputs on my audio interface.

Also and this is probably an easy one, but importing stereo samples they sound time stretched. Is there a setting/menu that will alleviate this?

Thanks for having mercy on a beginner.

WL

#2

Turn time stretch off. Playback page, double tap.

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#3

Microtribe, thank you. That will alleviate the time stretching and the phasing on mono samples?

#4

Should do.

As for the phasing, be sure to export your mono samples as mono samples (setting in the export menu in ableton)

Octatrack always _records _ stereo file, even if its a mono signal, so you get twin mono. This shouldnt cause phasing issues.

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#5

For preparing lots of samples ahead of time, USB transfer makes sense. But once you’re rolling, try sampling direct into the Octatrack.

It’s way faster, sounds great, and avoids all mono/stereo problems. The only downside is having to rename them in the Octatrack.

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#6

Thanks for your help microtribe and mistercharlie

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#7

A cool tool is OctaChainer, to gather up to 64 samples in one large chain, which offers the possibility to use them all on a single track.
There are a few options like stereo/mono, sample rate, normalization, etc.

Here is a 2mn (lofi) tutorial to use it quickly:

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#8

Oooooooh :black_heart::black_heart::black_heart:

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#9

Thank you, I checked Octachainer out and it looks very intuitive and easy to use. It still however made my mono samples wide, so I think it is something having to do with the samples I am using or the way I am converting them.

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#10

Got it-- I was just hoping to be able to batch convert and use some of the gazillion drum samples I have in my sound library and port them right into the OT without having to resample them one by one. I’ll get there.

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#11

That’s not possible, if your file is mono the output of the OT should be mono, given

  • there is no spatializing FX on the signal path
  • you don’t have a scene loaded that could give you the false impression no FX is running
  • you don’t have a lfo on pan

I suggest you check this spatialization effect with headphones, first.

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#12

I think I sorted it out (don’t kill me) I had a bum audio cable on the left output. I switched out the cable, started a new project, deleted all the previous samples and started from scratch and it seems to be working and sounding as it should. Thanks for the help with this!

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#13

Been wanting something like this for ages, so good.

Played about today with loads of K1 waves, and immediately making a huge difference for me. So thankful for you sharing this.

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#14

It’s much fun with chords too, look for Barker chords on this forum, plenty of fun to have :wink:

Edit: here is Sam Barker’s page on OT!

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#15

Awesome, yeah it has so much potential. Me and my partner used to do a similar thing years back in our Mimosa Moize project, where we had a spectral patch that only played small slices of frequencies, so we could create a single audio file with many sounds at their different frequencies, save having to load multiple files. Basically the same concept as this but in the frequency domain instead of the time one.

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#16

…cables…always a good source for failures…

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