I get the feeling that this isn’t something the Octrack is ideally suited to so I thought I’d see if I could pick up any tips here.
I’m currently using it as a combination drum machine and loop sampler, using tracks 1-4 for rhythm parts (one shot samples on each track for bass drum, snare, etc.) and tracks 5-8 for loops, effects, etc. I’m using the 16 step triggers to program the drums but I’m feeling a bit limited by the strict grid/quantize and using so many tracks for drums so was looking for alternatives.
I fancied trying to do some realtime recording of the drum parts (tapping the buttons in time with quantize off to get some more feel to it) and resampling rhythms to use less tracks (and do more fun stuff with chopping up those loops).
My thought was to use dedicated patterns just for drums and then resampling those to a single track, which I’d then use in my main ‘song’ patterns, chop it up and effect it there and then go back to the dedicated drum patterns if I wanted to record/resample new variations.
Does that make sense or does anyone have any better suggestions for using the Octatrack as a drum machine without using so many tracks? I wanted to avoid using p-locks to change samples/slices too much as I’d like to do more playing than parameter tweaking when trying to create beats.
I’ve got some pads on my keyboard I could use. Can I set them to trigger the samples on different channels and record the velocity as well? I think I can program the pads to send different channels/ccs/etc. but wasn’t sure if you could record velocity like that.
I was less concerned with how to get the notes in at the moment, I was more thinking of the best way to use the channels/patterns/programming to get a good balance between recording different rhythms and loops. Almost all of the stuff I’ve seen on YouTube are of people using for loop mangling, retriggering, etc. so I haven’t seen anyone really using it like this.
I don’t quite understand what you mean here, but it sounds like you’re uncertain about workflow. I can’t give much advice on that other than to focus on the tasks you want to accomplish and then work through them methodically. A good worflow should emerge. Another piece of advice I like to dole out is to focus on one specific task at a time and to ignore the million other things the OT can do while you’re on task.
Yes I’m with you there. My question was to see if anyone else was using the Octatrack like this or if there were any videos of people using different patterns for drum programming/resampling (instead of the usual loop slicing/effecting).
Ideally I be able to switch between different percussion/hihat patterns on the fly but that doesn’t seem to be practical (as the patterns change all tracks at once) so I was wondering how/if other people achieved this kind of thing.
Right, ok well trig mutes and conditional trigs (especially fill) may be helpful for creating variation without changing patterns. Otherwise I’m sure others will chime in with ideas! Sezare just posted some super cool crossfader ideas. I’m not sure I have the brain capacity to undertake that level of sorcery! But it’s always rad to see how far this tool can take you.
Thanks! I tried out playing with slices and I think I’m getting close (I didn’t realise it automatically added sample locks with real time playing so that’s really useful). Haven’t had a chance to have a proper play this week but I’ll have a go at the weekend.