Bringing tracks/layers in

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Hey

Had my Octatrack about a month now, getting to grips with it pretty well.

I’m planning on using my OT with a band, so I won’t have full compositions on the OT, just certain sounds and instruments that need to come in at specific (not necessarily pre-determined) times.

The sounds that I will be bringing in on the octatrack will mainly be pre-made loops.

Other than unmuting a track when I want to bring it in (or fading in with level control), what are some other ways I can ‘trigger’ a layer to start playing?
Bear in mind the launch needs to be quantized.

Many thanks in advance for any idea you’ve picked up!

2

have you looked into plays free mod/track triggering?

3 Likes
3

Yep, as @jb said, I would configure some (or even all) tracks as plays free tracks. Then you can start and stop them independently from each other (synced or not).

If you are using only loops you can also use the trig keys (9-16) when the sequencer is not running to start the loops whenever you want. Of course you’ll need to use the track level controls to fade them in and out (or use external faders configured to send track volume CCs).

You can also skip the fade-in part when you add a fade-in in front of your samples and set the loop point where the fade-in is done. This way you have only to manage fade-outs.

1 Like
4

thanks both

I have experimented with plays free & disconnected tracks but couldn’t get the quantising to behave how i needed - maybe I need to stick with this area more

I need to make sure the loops always start at the beginning of a bar, is there a specific setting i need to switch on to ensure this? I could get the quantise to work so that it was always starting on the beat but it wasn’t always on the first beat of the bar

5

I guess TRIG QUANT with 16/16 should quantize to complete bars (unless you are using something else as bar length, of course).

(TRIG QUANT is only available when the track is set to plays free)

2 Likes
6

I believe this is what I tried before, but skimming the manual now I can’t see why that wouldn’t have worked.

Hmmm i shall give it another go in the morning!

Many thanks!

1 Like
7

I usually use scenes for muting and unmuting tracks. I usually try to order my scenes from 16 and downwards so the first scene in the song is on 16 the second is on 15 and so on. Any “effect” scenes are kept on 8-1 with the same offset so “main” 15 corresponds to “effect” 7 etc. (I hope that makes sense)

2 Likes
8

I didn’t see anyone else say this but you can always use trig conditions such as FILL and just latch fill on when you want your loop to come on.

4 Likes
9

Keep going with trigging quantised plays free tracks. Very likely your best solution though everyone finds different ways with the OT.

10

have you checked scenes ? can be very useful for live use. not quantized, but should be possible to hit the button right in time when playing in a band :wink:
nice thing about scenes is that you can set up complete mix settings and have the option
to switch or morph them.
scene 1 could be mute all for example.

edit: sorry, Kalle already said

1 Like