Yes please :))
One way that you can use the OT, DN, DT, and/or A4 to store chords would be to dedicate the last Bank/Pattern as a chord storage bank. You can program chords on each step by using methods native to each machine OR by press and holding a step while in grid recording mode and sending MIDI notes to the autochannel of your device. On the DN for example, if I hold down the first trig, set my Keystep to MIDI channel 10 (default auto-channel for this device), then play a 4 note chord, that chord is stored on that step. The size of the chords you can store is limited by the amount of notes per step the device supports; 4 notes on the OT, DT, and A4 and 8 on the DN IIRC.
Now, you can build up a library of chords in a default project. You could either play these manually using a MIDI controller or use a VST in your DAW like Scaler 2 or an app in iOS like ChordPolyPad to generate chords and progressions. The concept is the same; send the MIDI information to the auto-channel of your device while holding down a trig in grid recording mode.
Once you have a library of chords stored in a default project, you can start your new projects by loading the default and saving it as a new project. Now, you can copy the trigs to any track on your device to quickly and easily structure chord progressions together (or for use with arps).
What Barker does, I believe, is he has an OT project where he has a progression of chords laid out on a MIDI track. When he wants to sample those chords, he sets up his OT to record whatever inputs has whichever synth he wants to record and he sends the OT MIDI track to that synth. So, he can just change up the patch on the synth then quickly capture his chord progression into the OT. From there it’s just setting up the slices so that he can perform with those newly recorded chords.
For any instructions on setting up the OT/DT to record, you are best to search the forum. There are many threads that discuss this in great detail. The manual is also a great help :).
Apologies for the late reply. It’s been a busy few days!
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Always nice to see an Akai S-5000 in the wild.
@d4ydream
OmG! Thank you sooooo much. Thats been a great help…i now have my own midi-chord-project on my digitone! Thaaaaaaanks :))
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Funny seeing this again. I finally got around to making my own chord templates the other day and was wondering who else was doing them.
64 slices of long sustained chords makes quite a large sample. It’d be nice if I had the musical knowledge to refine this into something half the size but as equally useful to my style of music.
A basic template is nice to have for your monophonic synths too. The two octave pitch range for samples isn’t much, but 64 slices of different notes will get you 5 1/3 octaves. Use the pitch controls in combination with slices and you can traverse about 7 octaves. Not too shabby…
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Cool. I explained my approach in this other thread, and included links to the project and sample chains:
I attended a Barker ambient show here in Holland last month. It was awesome, even better than the album. Fully corona-proof, seated 1,5m apart with a little table to put your drink. A fantastic way to really enjoy music. No one talking, just sound and visuals. They had a camera at his table: eventide space, octatrack mk1, digitone and controllers. Oh, and a ND2…
I took my OT with me on holiday and experimented with getting this sound. I had some ableton stems of chord progressions on my CF. I made a fast triggering pattern, set the amp envelope and then used the start parameter to scan the (long) recording and gave it more variation using lfos. Works like a charm. Doubled the tracks and offset panning, filtering, lfos, pitch, rate, etc.
So much fun can be had with just the OT… Do I really need all those other machines? 
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Barker posted his process for using chord samples with the Octatrack. He provides download links for both his chord samples and midi files.
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Thanks for the link. Since my music theory knowledge isn’t the best, could someone who has opened the midi file explain a bit more clearly what the files contain?
In his own words from the link in the previous post, the MIDI file contains ‘64 chords, arranged into 8 modes with 8 inversions each, with the first half being major, and the rest minor’.
The idea being that you can feed this MIDI file from a device such as the OT into a synth and capture loads of chords with various inversions. The resulting audio file is perfectly divided into 64, meaning it’s easy to slice in order to get creative. 
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Thanks. I understood that, it’s more what chords am I looking at/listening to…
Not so sure about the specific chords in Barker’s MIDI chain. If you have a program that recognises chords from MIDI notes (such as Logic and Garageband) you could find out. Alternatively it might be worth putting together your own MIDI chord chain, I’ve been inspired to do that myself!
Guys, I’ve been studying the first MIDI chord bank (named C-CH) provided by Barker and have worked out the chords. To clarify, there are eight chords in total per bank, with eight inversions each, totalling 64 chords. I have a screenshot of the MIDI file should anyone wish to check it and make corrections - Feel free to correct me!
C6 (C G A C)
C7 (C A# G E)
CMaj7 (C E G B)
C add2 (C D E G)
C sus4 (C G F C)
??? (C D# G G#)
Cm6 (C D# G A)
Cm7 (C D# G A#)
What I don’t get is the sixth chord in the bank - the only way I can think of it in the key of C is ‘Cm add#5’, which written down sounds like it would sound hideous but it sounds really nice! Can someone help me correctly identify this chord?
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It’s the lost one. Kudos for finding it.
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Cmin b13 (C Eb G Ab) ?
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You’ve saved my sanity, thanks so much!
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Hey thanks for doing this! Since I saw that FACT Video I’m also hooked…and bought a Nord Drum 2
Do you think it is possible to somehow make use of the files with a Digitakt, Digitone or Monomachine?
Another way to look at the C Eb G Ab is as an AbMajor 7 chord with the 3rd in the bass. Abmaj7/C.
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I really like this approach. What I’ve done is slightly different. I sample chords from a specific scale. For example, in C major I sample all 7 chords in the scale and then have a spacer slice. I then repeat that using alternative voicings and inversions. I do that until I have 64 slices (8 chord sets from the scale in 1 file). This way I can pick a scale and then program a chord sequence. If I want a different (i) chord I use slice 1, 9, 17, 25, 33, 41, 49 or 57. Like Barker, I do this for the major and minor scale in a few different keys, meaning I have access to them all by simply pitching them appropriately.
Probably not the best way to do it but it seems to work for now. As I’m not a keyboard player this is really the only way I can get chords in easily. I plan on doing the same with my guitar.
Any tips or suggestions??
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That seems like the best way to do it, as long as you know which slices relate to which chords and inversions you’re good to go! I see Barker has a few different versions of each chord set - one in C, one in E etc - so he can pitch up or down to the key of the song without the artifacts interest to moving up or down say, five or six semitones. Seems like you do that as well!
Edit: I’ve lightly edited the MIDI chord chain in C that Barker provided so that the first chord is present (seems to have been screwed up somehow) and I’ve started sampling my favourite patches from Absynth and Lounge Lizard. This is going to be awesome for when my Black Box arrives. 
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