Having owned an OT since 2014, I’ve just this week learn to use the arranger and it’s going to massively simplify the live show (currently running off a bespoke Pure Data patch running on an Organelle and it’s smooth on stage but crazy amounts of prep).
The arranger is almost perfect (skipping beats at the end of bars, temp changes, loops - amazing!), but I’ve run into a couple of issues / questions. I’ve scoured the forum to no avail so here we go:
I was expecting that arrangements could be strung together into a set, but as it stands it seems like the only way to make a seamless set is to build all of the songs again within a single arrangement. Which is fine until we’re on tour and a song isn’t working. I’d need to make the edits then find an hour somewhere in the day to run the whole set (lord knows sound check isn’t long enough) and make sure I haven’t screwed anything up. Mega pain.
The happy alternative would be “hey shall we open with X tonight?” = a quick swap of the Arranger chain, no need to touch the actual contents of the songs. Done.
So assuming I want each song in a separate arrangement, I have to do this between each song:
STOP, ARR, RIGHT, RIGHT, YES, DOWN (maybe multiple times to find the right song), YES, PLAY.
Two problems with that:
I want the set to be seamless. No silence
I’m the frontman & singer and could do without the admin.
“This is a song called…nope sorry I clicked the wrong one…”
My question is this: are there any tricks that could help solve these problems, please, such as:
Shortcuts to skip to next song (e.g. FUNC + RIGHT, PLAY I can deal with)
External MIDI Input
Have I misunderstood Arranger chaining, or is an update likely?
Thanks! x
Edit: Bonus points if it’s possible to change the metronome time signature on an arrangement row. I’ve got some songs in 3 and 5.
Just a small point that will in not meet all your requests: you can chain the next arrangement while the current arrangement is playing so that there is no silence between ‘songs’.
The simpler is to have the next song in the same Arrangement.
Loop a silence bar at the end of the song, write a REMinder to name the next song.
Arrow down + Yes for next song.
I think it’s two arrows down to get past the LOOP? But that’s fine.
The problem is having to rebuild and test the songs to alter set order. I guess one of the reasons I’m excited by using the Octatrack is to forego the rigidity of my current Pd system - but for all of its woes, it does allow me to change the set list on the fly which this currently does not.
Not sure it will suit you but Arranger responds to Song Pointer Position messages.
You can play any step of the sequencer with 1 button press, but it requires external midi gear, eventually a midi processor.
That’s definitely interesting thank you! I read that it would send SPP (with which I was going to trigger a light show via DMX) but receiving them could open up some possibilities - thanks!
Presumably though I’m still bound to the currently active arrangement, not any saved arrangement?
Yes. You can jump through the rows of the active arrangement with SPP, as far as I’m aware of, that’s how it works.
Btw, regarding building and testing song structures: you could use different arrangements to test different song/arrangment structures without always having to fiddle around in the same arrangement.
Then just delete the ones you don’t use.
Also easier to compare different approaches this way.
@Rusty, a question for you, as you seem to have unlocked deep access to the OT for your software. Do you know of a way I could externally launch the next arrangement?