Can the octatrack do this?

Hey all! First post! Good to be here.

I’m currently thinking of purchasing an octatrack as my all in one production hub instead of a costly computer set up. I plan on using it to sequence and to sample my nord g2.

Because the nord is 4 part multitimbral and the octa has 4 inputs, would it be possible to use all 8 audio tracks on the octa as well as use it to mix the 4 inputs from the nord?

My thinking is for live performance id like to have the nord run into the OT then just use the OTs stereo outs to the sound mixing person.

Is this possible?

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Welcome!

All of this is easily possible with the OT.

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Welcome! Yeah you can use tracks to use the OTs FX to process audio or just use the mixer to pass sound through and use your audio tracks as normal

Edit:@PeterHanes beat me to it

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This is fantastic news! Definitely going to jump on the octatrack bandwagon asap

Sounds like the OT is exactly what I need performance wise.

So just to be clear I can have all 8 audio tracks and the 4 inputs running at the same time, all with the ability to mix levels and add effects?

You have 8 audio tracks and you can use different configurations. You can pass the Nord tracks sound direct to the main output and have 8 audio tracks, but if you want to to apply fx to your nord tracks, it will take some OT audio tracks…

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To use the OT’s effects on external audio signals, you either have to use a Thru machine on one of its audio tracks or use audio track 8 as a master track whose effects are applied to the audio input signals and the 7 other audio tracks.

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If you want to use effects you have to sacrifice a track. For each track you choose a “machine” which is basically how a track behaves.

•static machines stream samples from the CF card
•flex machines stream samples from RAM memory
•pickup machines are like a looper
•neighbor machines allow you to use a track to process the previous track, for example if you need to use up to 4 effects on a track
•thru machines allow you to choose which inputs go through that track and therefore use its effects

There is a mixer page separately to this which allows you to let audio pass through from your choice of inputs, but on this it won’t be passing through any track so therefore no effects. You can optionally sacrifice track 8 as a master channel and that would effect all output.

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Okay, I think I get what you mean.

So I could have 7 internal OT tracks, 4 incoming audio tracks and have it all master processed by the 8th internal audio channel?

Does the incoming audio get mixed as each of the 4 inputs or as 2 stereo pairs?

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Yes.

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2 stereo pairs on the mixer screen, you can only split them if you use thru machines. Then you’re sacrificing tracks though. I’d recommend sticking a small mixer between the nord and the OT if you want to use it like that. You might find yourself surprised how much you can do with few tracks on OT though and realise you don’t mind using some thru machines

OT is actually more expensive than a laptop and a decent-enough-for-live-use interface these days, but also better. Go for it.

I disagree but I’d like to hear you out.

In my position I’d have to buy ableton, a laptop to run it on, an audio interface and a controller to launch clips. I feel like this would be more than an OT

More isn’t always better :wink:

IMHO.

For live performance you’re probably better off with the OT mk1.

Yeah you’re right, I wasn’t factoring in the cost of Ableton. That just about doubles it.

Don’t for a second thing that there’s any reason to pay the premium for a Mac if you do go the computer route, though. MAcs are fine, but the idea tha they’re superior to any other similarly specced hardware or modern operating system is 100% marketing. Macs are solidly built (except for every few years when they have a bad run of them, like the well known macbooks from around 2006 that had SMD parts that weren’t soldered correctly and would frequently stop working unless you literally attached a clamp to them or stuffed wooden shims between the motherboard and case, or otherwise figured out a way to keep pressure on the loose components sot that they would maintain contact with the board) Intel based PCs running a proprietary build of BSD, nothing more and nothing less. Depending on the brand and model, the major components (motherboards, screens, etc.) of macs and PCs are often literally manufactured in the same factories.

You can cut 30%-40% off of your cost if you go with an equivalent Windows or Linux based system (the latter is a bigger hassle but still feasible).

But yeah, the price of Ableton will put you well over the cost of an Octatrack for sure. I use Reaper and secondhand Windows machines, so for me a perfectly solid computer based performance rig would be maybe 2/3 the cost of an Octatrack MKII if that, unless I needed high end converters (which the Octatrack doesn’t have either, so that’s not a fair comparison).

EDIT: I strongly agree that an OT MKI would be a better choice, but it depends on what kind of workflow you’re after.

Personally I recognize that Ableton makes a very powerful program but I wouldn’t even pay half what they charge for it when you could use something like Usine or Renoise or Reaper or Reaktor or Bitwig Studio or Sunvox or Buzz or any number of other programs that may have very different workflows but are just as capable in their own ways.

I also wouldn’t trust a computer running a general purpose OS in live performance.

And finally, there’s the issue of a closed system vs an open ended system where you never truly master the environment and workflow because it is constantly changing, but that’s an argument better left to neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists.