So I don’t own an OT yet, and I’m looking for a place to put all my pieces together that’s not a software DAW.
I’ve made a two minute sequence on my OP-1. It sounds pretty cool. I want to record it as it is into the OT - so about 2minutes of nonstop recording - and then start to mess with it.
Can the OT do this?
The reason I’d prefer it like this before a DAW is that more interesting things happen when you work with the OT. DAWs are great, but the OT opens some kind of creative gate that creates unique sounds andw results.
Thanks for your advise.
Can do as many mins as 80Mb of flex RAM will give you, so many more than 2 
What it can’t do is record direct to the CF card like, for example, the Electrix Repeater.
Great. Thanks.
So let’s say I record my two minutes of something (or more). And then I just want to play it back. And add to that, a loop of a drum beat of say 8 second, looping on and on. And then a splice of something, maybe an arpeggio, of about 16 seconds. And then two two-second somethings.
And put this all together, mix and match, blend and cut, manipulate and so on.
Is the OT my hardware of choice?
IMO sampling into OT is a specific task and it takes some time for adoptation.
But when material is inside the OT, everything you described is possible. OT is very versatile machine but it is not a white box – you have to be prepared to spend a little time to study it. But you will gain more then the effort it takes.
With the default configuration, you should be able to sample up to 8 min. of CD quality audio into a track recorder (if you have not already sampled something else, in which case you must subtract from those 8 min.), because there is 80MB of RAM. This is from the classic document by Merlin, which is required reading for all OT owners and prospective owners:
http://elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=611&Itemid=30
Note that you sample into RAM, not directly into the CF card, although after you have recorded something into a recorder buffer, you will be allowed to save the buffer content into the CF card.
Hey guys!
This tread is rather interesting since I am waiting on my OT and i thought that i could sample straight to the CF card and not be limited by the RAM of the flex machines… This doesn’t sound good 
I thought I could just, for ex, sample the master track of the OT into a machine and record a full song this way but apparently this is not the case!
That means that it is necessary to use the arranger to do a full song and if you wanna record a session, you’ll have to use a mixer or a soundcard and a… DAWWWW but that is what I am trying to get away from! 
You can record a full song (being said that it will be no bigger than 85MB…about mins…depends on the Recorder setup (16/24bit…)
But if you plan to do this, then forget to use Flex machines for playing back other files
If you set the recorder to 16-bit recording, you can record up to 8 min. via Flex Machine sampling… THEN save to CF card!!!
You don’t have to use the Arranger if you don’t want to. Sample up to 8 min (or less if you use the 24-bit setting), save to CF card, sample up to 8 min. more, etc.
well in all fairness: yes it might be up to 8 minutes you can sample… but that would also mean that you don’t deploy ANY flexmachine…
if you did - the memory taken up by those flex machines would need to be subtracted (as stated by others)… so to answer you initial question: no you can’t… and even though you might get the numbers right to add up to the 8 minutes … whats the point of doing that when you can’t use all the fun the octatrack is about (the flex machines - for me at least, mind you - others would beg to differ)… I’m already struggling bouncing a 6 bar loop down to one track if I use my typical workflow of having a couple of flex machines running on slow tempo… just my 2 cent… and even though it would theoratically be possible I find misleading to claim you can sample up to 8 minutes.
NickD
10
Well, it’s not misleading if you can do it, which you can. It’s just illustrating the limits of the machine, and every machine has its limits. If I was using a 4-track tape recorder and I wanted to record more than four tracks, I’d have to leave at least one spare for bouncing down. It would effectively be a two- or three-track in that instance, but the recorder would still be capable of recording four tracks and it wouldn’t be misleading to say so.
With the OT, if you want to record six straight minutes of internal audio, you can do it but you’ve got to sacrifice a lot of the RAM and make the most of what’s left. If you want to record eight minutes, you’ve got to sacrifice all the RAM and not use flex machines - that’s the limit of the machine. If you want to record nine straight minutes, you’re out of luck - just like I’d be out of luck if I wanted to record five simultaneous tracks on my four track recorder. There are things it can do and things it can’t do, and there’s a point where they meet.
But as a sampler, the OT is capable of sampling eight minutes of audio if you need it to do that. In terms of the original scenario - recording a two-minute sequence - the OT could be a great solution, with plenty of options for tweaking and embellishing the results.
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Based on what I understand of Merlin’s ot.pdf article (posted earlier here), the OP should be able to sample his 2 min. of song audio into a track recorder, save the 2 min. of audio to CF card, then clear the recorder buffer to free up the RAM, then load the 2 min. of audio into a Static machine, which does not use RAM but streams audio from the CF card.
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