Best hack for recording longer samples

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hey all! Since its impossible to ask a “quick question” about the Octatrack
Im just going to come right out of the gate with a long-winded question. Apologies in advance because I’m sure its been talked about ad nauseum already but I couldn’t find it. So… i’ve been having a blast writing lots of fun little sequences on my op-z. One very fun thing I am often doing with it is programing lots of polymetric (or is it polyrythmic) sequences. Anyway - its at the point where i’m trying to record some OP-Z stems down into the octatrack for further mangling. An issue that keeps coming up is that most of my op-z sequences end up being loaded with odd steplengths that are usually greater than 64. As you would imagine on the op-z once you start adding conditional trigs to sequences that were already in divisions of 9, 11, 14, and 15 things start to get a little weird.

What I want to do on the Octatrack is to be able to record (lets say, as an easy example) a 96 step long sample. Now, yes, with QRec I can set the rec length to Max and manually hit stop somewhere close to the 96th step and it’ll stop it at exactly the right time. BUT most of the time I"m jamming away on the OP-z and can’t break focus in time to hit QRec again to stop. My dream is to just be jamming on the OP-Z and all I have to do is Arm the One Shot Rec Trig on the OT and it’ll record that perfect 96 step sample - starting on the 1 and ending at exactly 96. To the best of my knowledge - setting the rec track sequencer to half speed and throwing down a 48 step rec trig does NOT give you a 96 step sample, right? Also from what I can remember there is NO trig that you can put down that tells the OT to Stop Recording, is there? So how do I do this???

In case you’re curious as to this setup: I have the OPLab module in the OPZ so midi sync and sending transport controls is a cinch. Just throw a one shot rec trig on step one of the OT and as soon as I hit play on the OPZ the OT starts recording. I usually put my OP-Z on a Thru machine on track 5 with a neighbor on Track 6 and Set tracks 1-4 as flex recorders recording the output of Track6. This way I can jam around and pull samples freely across those 4 tracks. I can pull 4 samples before I have to stop - check to see if they’re cool, save, clear, and repeat. Its a pretty awesome way to work imo. Hoping i’m just overlooking some obvious solution.

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#2

You are correct that scale division has no bearing on record length.

The way I do it - which isn’t exactly what you want, but might help - is to set the memory config such that it is just above your desired step length, so for example if you wanted 96 steps but the current tempo did not allow exactly 96 steps to be set, then set it at the nearest number above.

Then in rec setup set len to max, use a one shot trig, arm the one shot and start, then once the recording has finished go to AED and move end to exactly 96 steps, you can see below the waveform the number of bars (so in the case of 96 steps exactly 24 bars).

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#3

Hey thanks, Daren. That is what I was trying to avoid doing - going in and constantly changing the memory settings. It ruins my plan of having those 4 flex tracks able to record different, predetermined, steplengths (Track 1 96 steps, Track 2 88 steps, Track 3 120 steps, etc) But still - your way is a valid way to, at least partially, accomplish longer record times. So am I correct in assuming there is no “Stop Recording” Trig? And also - is there perhaps a CC Message I could send via the OP-Z that the OT would understand as a “Stop Recording” message? Pretty much the “2” in One2 recording… Is that a thing?

#4

The OT interprets the following incoming note values as record trigs:

C4 (60) Combo rec
C#4 (61) INAB rec
D4 (62) INCD rec
D#4 (63) SRC3 rec

I haven’t tried it by my own, but maybe the OT interprets a second incoming note as stop when configured for One2 recording? I guess it’s worth trying …

BTW: make sure you send the correct MIDI note values (the octave names may differ between the devices).

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#5

Oooohhh now this is very interesting. So in my case - D#4 (63) would be the message that should, in theory, start/ stop the recorder buffer. Im gonna try this! Thanks!

#6

Yep.

With Hold mode, the recording starts with a note on, and stops with it’s note off.

Possible to define recording length and use longer scales with OT midi tracks, midi loopback. Hold mode or One 2.

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#7

now thats what I call a hack! I NEVER use hold and I always forget about the existence of midi loopback and the many cool things it can do. I think id rather see if I can do this via the OP-z but loopback will def come in handy if/when im doing this hack with just an OT.

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#8

If your midi track is set with the same midi channel as an audio track, midi feedback is not possible.

15.2 HOW MIDI IS ROUTED If an audio track and a MIDI track share the same MIDI channel, the MIDI track will block the audio track from sending out data while the audio track will block the MIDI track from receiving data

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#9

Hey so right now this totally works. On One2 mode all I gots to do is send 1 trig from the OPZ’s module track to start recording and another to trig to stop recording. If I want to I can mute the module track when i want to trigger the OT manually. Perfecto! I’ll try the OT midi loopback thing another time because right now I am way too hyped on this op-z control. Thanks for the assist, octahive - couldnt have done it without you. xoxo

edit: these are the trigs that I put on the op-z module track

C#4 (61) INAB rec
D4 (62) INCD rec
D#4 (63) SRC3 rec

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#10

Cool, glad you found a solution, OP-Z is probably a bit better for this than loopback as you still have use of midi and Z sequencer can divide to give longer recordings.

One thing to consider/test is that the recordings triggered by midi note are the correct length, I don’t think it can be as precise as a record trig with a set length, but it might be good enough.

Edit: You might find this useful https://www.elektronauts.com/files/507

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#11

It works as intended if the OT is set to Hold or One2. When in Hold, the OP-Z’s module track trig’s notelength is what dictates the start and stop time of the sampling, and in One2 its the track length is what dictates the stop and start time of sampling. For longer samples One2 is more convenient because I can mute the track on the op-z and skip the "stop trig’ until it comes around a third time making a 96step sample into a 192step sample. Managing track lengths on the OP-z can get a little funky because you’re doing it by way of the “step count x step length” but if you have the app open its a little easier.

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#12

Maybe QREC set to 1 step can help, midi notes played slightly before…

#13

Is it? I never tried but I assumed it would play it on the next available step after, so if QREC was set to 1 step and the midi note arrived slightly after step 1 the QREC would initiate recording on step 2. Also wondering about end recording quantisation if the midi note is slightly longer or shorter or slightly late. Hmm.

I just wish that RLEN could be set to exact steps beyond 64 if memory config allows it, I requested it a few times, it would save jumping through hoops to do it.

Edit: ok place midi note slightly early.

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#14

-:wink:

Yes, probably my number one request…

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#15

If only RLEN>64 steps, manually toggling the Screensaver, and the page led confusion would be addressed in a final firmware update. These are my top three OT pitas.

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OT Feature Requests Thread (active)
#16

@j_tana This here might give you some ideas too: https://www.elektronauts.com/files/478

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#17

Sampling on the OT is not something I’ve done too much of.
I’ve been trying to see if I could record 24 four bar, and have them be the perfect length for slicing into 4bar loops.
I tried setting the Trig to ONE2 and sending note C#5 from the AK to start and stop the recording.
It works sometimes, but it’s not always reliable, or I am missing something.

Has anyone gotten this to work with some consistency?

#18

Yes. What are the symptoms?
Do you want to record INAB only ?
I use COMBO REC, which lacks on OT itself btw.

Screenshot_20230617-102338_Adobe Acrobat
Screenshot_20230617-102338_Adobe Acrobat644×871 97.8 KB

If you start the recording with a one shot, you have to send rec messages twice to stop the recording.

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#19

Recording long samples like this is fairly new for me.
What does Combo do exactly?

Sometimes the OT just locks up using really long samples, it that normal?

*edit

Got a few things working now.
Still trying to figure out how to quantize a stop for multiple bars of sampling

#20

Do you use a Mac ?
USB can cause freezes. Disconnect it while recording.

Combo Rec is useful because it can record all sources, according to REC SETUP settings.

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