Clearing a track`s sample assignment

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#21
  • Select a slot
  • Assign a sample
  • [Function] + [Edit]
  • [Effect2]
  • [Clear Slot]
1 Like
#22

Point is assigning a tilde slot but dig the only solution, Rusty.

#23

Whats a ~ slot?

What OS are you on?

Because for me, thats exactly what happens…

#24

And you can do this, you just have to have 8 empty slots in the pool, and then assign one of those empty ones to it. so you could not fill the first slot in the pool and then unused tracks to that slot but it seems slightly counter productive.
Maybe you just need to think that the OT has a sample pool with 127 free spaces.

#25
  • Select a slot
  • Assign a sample
  • [Function] + [Edit]
  • [Effect2]
  • [Clear Slot][/quote]
    That removes it from the pool no? What if another track/part is using it?
#26

Bottom line, there is no way to simply set a flex /'static machine to not be using a slot from the pool, ie: clear machine.

#27

I have a feeling I’m finding this thread more confusing than everyone else! Why is it so important to have a track with no sample assignment?? Isn’t it kind of irrelevant unless there are trigs? And if there are trigs then obvs uou want a sample assigned so you’ll just select whichever sample you want from your slot lists? Pretty sure I’m being stupid. Just failing to see the problem!

1 Like
#28

I did some explanation earlier in this thread, please read it. It’s all about comfort and imho making life easier.
Since there is no real solution to this, I’ll just continue using a kind of workaround/helper:

I created a silent short wav-file on my CF card, named it “empty.wav” and put it in slot number 1.
Now, whenever I don’t need a machine anymore, I am assigning it to slot no.1. This way, when accessing the pattern in a week or so and looking at the tracks, the display says “~empty” and I know that I can replace it with something useful without loosing anything. (And don’t have to double check if there are any trigs programmed, which could be an indicator for sample-deletion in the past that might have happened accidentally)

Have a nice weekend, guys …

1 Like
#29

I did some explanation earlier in this thread, please read it. It’s all about comfort and imho making life easier.
Since there is no real solution to this, I’ll just continue using a kind of workaround/helper:

I created a silent short wav-file on my CF card, named it “empty.wav” and put it in slot number 1.
Now, whenever I don’t need a machine anymore, I am assigning it to slot no.1. This way, when accessing the pattern in a week or so and looking at the tracks, the display says “~empty” and I know that I can replace it with something useful without loosing anything. (And don’t have to double check if there are any trigs programmed, which could be an indicator for sample-deletion in the past that might have happened accidentally)

Have a nice weekend, guys …[/quote]
Fair enough re coming back to old projects. Really wish OT could name tracks :confused: your workaround sounds like it’ll do fine to indicate empty tracks :slight_smile:

#30

I did some explanation earlier in this thread, please read it. It’s all about comfort and imho making life easier.
Since there is no real solution to this, I’ll just continue using a kind of workaround/helper:

I created a silent short wav-file on my CF card, named it “empty.wav” and put it in slot number 1.
Now, whenever I don’t need a machine anymore, I am assigning it to slot no.1. This way, when accessing the pattern in a week or so and looking at the tracks, the display says “~empty” and I know that I can replace it with something useful without loosing anything. (And don’t have to double check if there are any trigs programmed, which could be an indicator for sample-deletion in the past that might have happened accidentally)

Have a nice weekend, guys …[/quote]
Thanks bolandross, this is exactly why i started the thread. its about having some kind of order in the chaos, simple as that. guess i will have to make my own empty.wav file, thanks for the tip. cheers!

1 Like
#31

Because for me, thats exactly what happens…[/quote]
Just in case, let’s iterate, once a sample has been loaded into an empty slot from a machine’s sample slot list, only Clear Slot clears the sample from that slot, which in turn the tilde symbol remains in the Playback page’s Info box.

Reassigning that track to the same machine’s sample slot list using either Quick Assign or Playback Setup menu, will not assign an empty slot. Meaning the operating system simply navigates you back to the Set audio pool.

Switching machines is a workaround. It’s a workflow improvement to simply implement tracks coupling with empty slots, which I think is the intention of the original poster, as the thread title implies also.

At the end of the day, it’s a feature request.

Now, if this isn’t fact, you need to post a reproducible case so all following this thread knows how to perform this action, after all that’s why I’m following this thread and you’re seemingly opposing this thread.

#32

filosofem: Just in case, let’s iterate, once a sample has been loaded into an empty slot from a machine’s sample slot list, only Clear Slot clears the sample from that slot, which in turn the tilde symbol remains in the Playback page’s Info box.

Agreed.

filosofem: Reassigning that track to the same machine’s sample slot list using either Quick Assign or Playback Setup menu, will not assign an empty slot. Meaning the operating system simply navigates you back to the Set audio pool.

Correct. Function as designed. Makes perfect sense, as that is the most likely use scenario.

Though I do absolutely agree there should be a option at the top of the list (or naviagate up to the Audio Pool / root level and have that option?)

filosofem: Switching machines is a workaround. It’s a workflow improvement to simply implement tracks coupling with empty slots, which I think is the intention of the original poster, as the thread title implies also.

filosofem: At the end of the day, it’s a feature request.

OK

filosofem: Now, if this isn’t fact, you need to post a reproducible case so all following this thread knows how to perform this action, after all that’s why I’m following this thread and you’re seemingly opposing this thread.

OK. Well obviously I don’t understand the requirement, so I’ll leave it at that.

All I can suggest is to either:

a) reassign the track, use any old random sample, and then immediately clear it.
b) use a dummy sample / thats just silent
c) Sacrifice x slots to use as “empty” slots.

#33

could someone explain in one simple sentence the musical purpose of having empty slots, i don’t get it?

1 Like
#34

An empty slot visually indicates an unused slot.
No musical purpose, just tidiness improving the workflow.

#35

An empty slot visually indicates an unused slot.
No musical purpose, just tidiness improving the workflow.[/quote]
I agree, I had been struggling with a way to show the slot as empty as well, it would be a lot less confusing . Choosing an “Empty Slot” machine would work perfect for me as well

#36

An empty slot visually indicates an unused slot.
No musical purpose, just tidiness improving the workflow.[/quote]
I don’t get it. What is the purpose of having empty slot indicated. Can you give me a situation where it improves the workflow? (don’t want to sound like an a** but every bit of information on this machine is valuable)

#37

Imagine the following scenario:

You power on your Octatrack, load an old project that you didn’t know even existed on your Compact Flash card. Once it loaded, you choose a bank + pattern and press play. You hear your own masterpiece, the tune amazes you, throws you back into the past, the better times of your life and you realize that the stuff is dope and you definitely should finalize these ideas, make a track and gain world domination.

So the next thing you do is, you look at the screen and wonder if there is a unused slot you could use to add some more elements. You push the button for T1 and see “dirty bass.wav”, so you go on, T2 says “thumpy kick”, and yeah you can hear the thumpy kick, it’s indeed there, you move on to T3, “trashcan snare”, you are not sure if trashcan snare is even playing in this part, you push the record button to see if there are any placed trigs, then you press the page button three times to see all the steps from 1 to 64 to see again if there is an important trig you might have put there in the past … no trig there, so you can use that slot to load a fresh and modern sample to make your creative additions, right? Wait … what if there is another pattern in this bank, using the same part, with heavy trashcan-snare-usage?? If you change the slot now, it will also change for the pattern that are using the current slot and might ruin that particular pattern!! so … what to do? Stop the investigation and scan through all the patterns using the same part? Making notes on a sheet of paper, checking references?

Solution: Empty Slot

If past-you had the option to just clear the slot after having decided that trash-can-snare won’t be of use anymore, present-you would have an easy life just making music instead of wasting time by double-checking sample assignments.

Present-You would just go through the T1-T8 buttons until seeing “empty slot” and just start making music …

1 Like
#38

i feel like all the people here who dont understand what all that is about are not even close to having used up all of the 128 sample slots. Right?
Because im having the exact same problem at the moment. Apparently i just ran out of sample slots and as already pointed out in the last post some of the sample slots are filled with oooold samples i dont realy use anymore… or do i??? so im afraid of replacing them. And dont know what to do.

#39

Imagine the following scenario:

You power on your Octatrack, load an old project that you didn’t know even existed on your Compact Flash card. Once it loaded, you choose a bank + pattern and press play. You hear your own masterpiece, the tune amazes you, throws you back into the past, the better times of your life and you realize that the stuff is dope and you definitely should finalize these ideas, make a track and gain world domination.

So the next thing you do is, you look at the screen and wonder if there is a unused slot you could use to add some more elements. You push the button for T1 and see “dirty bass.wav”, so you go on, T2 says “thumpy kick”, and yeah you can hear the thumpy kick, it’s indeed there, you move on to T3, “trashcan snare”, you are not sure if trashcan snare is even playing in this part, you push the record button to see if there are any placed trigs, then you press the page button three times to see all the steps from 1 to 64 to see again if there is an important trig you might have put there in the past … no trig there, so you can use that slot to load a fresh and modern sample to make your creative additions, right? Wait … what if there is another pattern in this bank, using the same part, with heavy trashcan-snare-usage?? If you change the slot now, it will also change for the pattern that are using the current slot and might ruin that particular pattern!! so … what to do? Stop the investigation and scan through all the patterns using the same part? Making notes on a sheet of paper, checking references?

Solution: Empty Slot

If past-you had the option to just clear the slot after having decided that trash-can-snare won’t be of use anymore, present-you would have an easy life just making music instead of wasting time by double-checking sample assignments.

Present-You would just go through the T1-T8 buttons until seeing “empty slot” and just start making music …
[/quote]

thanks, so in your case scenario

  1. 128 slots are taken
  2. Parts may have empty patterns
  3. All parts are used

A few ideas:

  1. i don’t use 128 samples per project and i think most users won’t
  2. Just place a silent trig whenever a track is non active
  3. Rename whatever part you’ve created. Verify in your parts setup menu if all parts have been renamed before loading a sample
  4. Rename part according to muted tracks eg: “break-T378off” or “theme2-T3off” or “intro-T67free”
  5. Copy part/paste to another bank. Tweak.Compare
  6. copy bank 1 to bank 2 in usb disk mode. Set patterns chaining to switch after 2 steps. Now you can scan very fast between patterns and rediscover your epic masterpiece track by track
  7. as mentioned previously use 127 samples + dummy sample

EDIT on number 4. you may find a way to indicate track progression in part name (depends on song style)

1 Like
#40
  1. No
  2. No
  3. No

Thanks for your ideas, but I get the impression that I failed to make you understand the problem.

I have the feeling that several problems are getting mixed up in this thread. Please take the time and read it completely.

A simple workaround was already found, my scenario was only to help people understanding the original problem, which seems to has failed :joy: