I have the A4, DT and DN and a couple of analog mono synths. The DT is now my centerpiece from which i control everything via Patterns.
Making grooves is fast and intuitive now, thanks to the Digitakt, but i struggle with making interesting changes from the original idea and thus transform to a new phase of my track. I used to work very old school (mutes, fades, filter manually) and only just recently started with Elektron to automate and trig…
Now i look at the Octatrack as a potential Arranger/Performer. Perhaps it could help me with breakdowns and transitions, like going from A > B with my source material, and then back to again a changed variation? I heard it also has CUE?
I also understand that it is constantly live looping? So i don’t have to settle on something but i also can fully commit and mangle the material or just overdub ?
And one last question: Is the cross-fader a fixed thing between T1-4 and T5-8 or could i just use 2 or 4 tracks for performance and 3 and 7 play some background noise/loop if i want to?
In this kind of setup I think the OT will help a lot for breakdowns/transitions…etc.
You could have a loop going on your other gear and live resample into the OT then change parameters, setup the scenes (x-fader), insert trigs…etc while the loop is still playing, then when you are ready you can fade in the OT and start working on the other gear for a new loop.
Thats just one scenario but all in all, the OT will help for what you are looking to do specially since you are already familiar with Elektron.
The arranger in the octatrack is really great. You can do a lot there. The crossfader is not for changing from one track to another. You set “scenes” (parameter/fx) and with the crossfader you can fade to that fx or parameter.
In the arranger you can set for each row which scene you want to play.
There is so much more… I can just recommend it.
I watched the video and seems like this is the perfect tool for what i do. I couldn’t really tell what was “looped” and what was currently “streaming” in from the synth, so i don’t know how much the loop provided and what was still the synth running. But i guess it was 50/50 or maybe even two loops and nothing live. But yeah. The performance aspect seems to be spot on.
The arranger in the octatrack is really great. You can do a lot there
How is it for longer stuff / pre-programming / song mode…? Is the OT more and immediate utility for “juggling” samples or could it also be something to write and play recorded sections (of such a performance)?
Like a two stage workflow: First perform and record live loops from external gear and in a second session (or the same go perhaps?), mix and chain them together to make something you’d call an arranged track?
At the end i’d like to have full tracks in one project and i could just hit play and multitrack them out for mixdown
Took me a while to figure out how he was doing it initially.
You can see minute 0:53 he arms the track and the OT starts recording the loop then at 1:02 he is playing the recorded loop on the OT while the Rolands are muted so all you are hearing there is OT. You can see how he puts trigs on 1:11 affecting the recorded sample.
So at that stage you can start changing the Rolands patterns using the Cue so its not heard over the OT. And when you are ready you can switch it back to the Rolands, then its just rinse and repeat.
I also believe he is using a Thru machine for the Delay repeat and filter sweeps on the Rolands pre-sampled.
Got it. So i am then creating variations constantly - Are these kept somewhere? Like when i totally love the current scene, could i quick-save the current loop for later use in the arranger?
The idea is to create and collect “remixed” loops that i then use as stems for a final track arrangement.
I mean… at that point i am already ready to rock and could just multitrack everything simultaneously and slice it in the DAW later, but is there something inside OT that saves the buffer to disk so i have a collection of WAVs later?
Right, I think you could but not the way it is shown in the video. I think what Cenk is doing is he creates a pattern then records it on the OT and plays it from the OT, but then when he goes back again to record a new pattern on the OT he is overriding the previous one so its gone at that point.
You would just have to use patterns for that and record a loop per pattern. Im not exactly sure how I would set it up but I imagine you would have to stop and save the samples on the OT before you proceed to working on the new pattern. Using patterns, banks and parts its totally doable, there are several different ways to achieve that on the OT.
Ok, my main concern wasn’t arrangement anyway, but live editing, being able to create transforms and breaks and that it can do. Rest i shall see.
In the end there’s always a DAW to help me out making stems and i can stream those back into OT using a sub-channel and then rinse and repeat, as you said. Heh. Live looping will be a new tool to me, so perhaps that’s even better. Who knows.
I just ordered the OT and it should be here on Tuesday.
have fun with it! its a great box with so many possibilities and ways to use it. Seeing as you have a very clear idea of what role the OT will play in your setup I think you will enjoy it.
My idea is to write loops like always, but also live record it into the Octa.
Then i dial in some variations on the synths playing, like filters and or different sequences, record that into another track or file on the Octa. I would do that like 4-5 times.
Then focus on the Octa and start mangeling and work with Scenes to “perform” with the loops ic created.
If i happen to like something, i save it (sequence octa) and store it as pattern.
Once i have enough patterns i would make a “chain” or “arrangement” with them.
While that plays by itself then, i can still use scenes to add on top of that if i feel like it…
i record this to the DAW for final edits / mixdown.
All of this assuming it is possible, of course. I don’t know yet
Just from what i gathered so far, watching videos, it seems like it could do exactly that.
Now that second bullet point is critical. It requires that the Octatrack can save its current state either to a track or the disk for reuse (making it a stem). Basically some type of resampling. Ideally i can “snapshot” whatever i just create using scenes/fader and move on to new part. Building a collection of loops/patterns is what i am looking for so i can use it for song-mode later as outlined above.
Strongly recommend buying the tutorial video linked in the description, it explains it all very clearly.
When he arms the recorder and captures the loop, it auto slices it so he can play with the steps of the recording, to live remix the pattern entirely using the recording. While he’s doing that he can completely change what the machines are playing in terms of patterns/sounds, and bring them back in to the mix when he’s ready.
The audio recording in the record buffer. You can of course save it as a sample. It will also stay in the record buffer until you overwrite it or switch the power off.
If you mean the pattern (trig) data, you could copy it to another pattern if you wanted to keep that. The way Cenk is using it, he stays on the same pattern and just clears the trigs until the next time he records.
Do i need to stop the machine for this or can i do that while i carry on?
I would like to save everything that is currently heard (and contributes to the sound (fx)) to a sample for later use. EDIT: don’t mean to print the FX onto the WAV but just the entire SOUND or KIT in the state it is currently at?
Fn + EDIT, I think it works while playing. I just sold my OT so can’t check…
Definitely possible, a few ways of doing that, but you might struggle to get it without any FX - I’ll let one of the resident OT experts answer that one…
If you record a track, you record its fx too.
Instead of fx track you can use a Neighbor track or Master track to add fx and keep the track dry while recording it.
Other way to use fx and record dry : use CUE routing. Send dry tracks to CUE. It can be recorded internally (dry), and you can apply Fx to it on a dedicated track.
