Clickup Machines

Supercolor_T-120 · 2018-05-27T15:23:37.684Z

I talked about my experience with this way earlier in the thread but starting from silence in overdub seems to fit with what I was noticing, too. I WAS able to make it click with absolutely no audio someing in pretty consistently maybe 1 time in 5 but almost never on the first attempt after powering up, and once there was a click it seemed to actually get pushed lower in level with consecutive overdub passes until after a few passes the click would basically be gone. For me once I experienced a click on a particular track, that track would always click whenever I cleared the pickup machine buffer and started a new loop, unless I power cycled the ot, but as long as it stayed in overdub no new clicks would develop. So starting from silence and then staying in overdub from then on seems like a good approach to me.

sezare56 · 2018-05-27T17:51:46.694Z

Tip if you recorded a good loop without clicks and hesitate to add layers : you can save and assign to self.
Then you’ll be able to reload the saved sample if you record clicks.
Kind of undo.

Soham · 2018-05-27T20:36:06.158Z

Good tip @sezare56 , you can use to undo layers with interpretation errors, even if they don’t have clicks
I can’t reproduce what @Supercolor_T-120 says. I try to record silence, with and without connections in AB CD, but I haven’t managed to produce clicks.

Supercolor_T-120 · 2018-05-30T17:26:39.567Z

It was a year ago that I did all my experiments so I left out a key part: I was never able to get it to click on silence after booting the OT up unless I got it to click with audio I put once first. So try this:

Power up the OT.
Record a loop in a PUM. If it doesn’t click, clear the loop and try again. You don’t need to have audio sustained across the loop, when I was doing it I was just hitting a few random pads on a drum machine but actually looping on silence between the drums. After 4 or 5 tries or less it would click.

Once you get a clicking loop with audio inout, THEN you should be able to get it to click with no input at all. clear the PUM’s record buffer, unplug all the cables from the inputs, raise the gate threshold in the recording setup all the way up to make sure no self-noise is getting through, and then record a new loop in the PUM. It should click. Maybe not on the first try although for me it was. save your recording, open it in an audio editor on a computer and look at it, you should have a file that’s all digital black until the last millisecond or so, where there will be a little burst of DC right before the end of the file.

If you scroll up this thread I posted a more detailed description back April or May of 2017.

tri_minh · 2019-01-02T07:24:09.388Z

I found this link and i am trying very hard to know why there are click in live sampling? I am using the piano (acoustic into the pickup) and there are click noise at either end of sampling or beginning and so hard for me to use it…can someone help?

sezare56 · 2019-01-02T09:26:44.667Z

Try fade in / out with minimum values
REC SET UP 2, FIN / FOUT

tri_minh · 2019-01-02T18:08:47.273Z

hello…i have tried…it is still having this annoying click which making my live sampling unseable…

Open_Mike · 2019-01-02T18:27:21.794Z

Rarely, but a few times, I’ve had a click creep in that wouldn’t go away. Once it was there it stuck around and I’d hear it on every recording after that even if recording silence. To get rid of it I had to reload project (maybe clear slot in the audio editor attributes for that recorder buffer slot worked, can’t remember). If you know you have saved your project recently and won’t lose anything, try reloading the project.

If your worried you’ll lose stuff if you reload, try recording silence and see if you get a click, if you do you’ve found my rare “creeped in click” bug. Next try recording silence on a new project, hopefully no click there…

Supercolor_T-120 · 2019-01-02T20:19:36.074Z

I forget what thread I posted about it in but I’ve been able to make it click with no input signal at all (no cables plugged in, gate threshold all the way up to get rid of any self noise from the analog stage of the input). There’s actually a little burst of noise getting inserted at the loop point sometimes.

It won’t happen that way on a fresh boot, but if I get a click under normal looping circumstances I can disconnect all of the cables, clear the record buffer, and turn the gate up so that I’m recording digital black and the click will still happen on the new loop. Has to be happening in software.

Open_Mike · 2019-01-02T20:34:25.618Z

Yeah that sounds like what’s happened to me a few times… Project reload worked for me, I had it saved in a good spot when the click was not present…

Haven’t deduced when it creeps in, but if it does it stays around, even when recording silence…

sezare56 · 2019-01-02T21:05:44.195Z

Best workaround : sample the click and use it as metronome.

I prefer to record noise instead of silence!

Yeah, Ot is clicky. Fade in / out crossdade implementation is bad, I never had that kind of problems with Boss RC loopers. If you want to record soft pads with overdub it can be really anoying.

With 2 tracks and 2 recorders I succeeded to make recording with efficient fades, and no clicks. A bit boring to set up, but it worked. I don’t use that trick but I still have the project if anybody interested.

It really pissed me off at first, but now it doesn’t bother me that much, as I prefer to have OT realtime mangling possibilities and do weird stuff with recorders + flex. Amp Atk +1 helps, eventually minimum Hold and 126 Rel.

Anyway in live conditions I’d use something a sequenced recording with several rec trigs + Flex wirh +1 Atk, and it would cover clicks.

dizzy · 2019-04-16T11:27:42.706Z

xidnpnlss:

Olle:

The diagram is correct and is how the OT behaves. It can not predict the future so a fade out will happen when you stop the recording not before you stop it.

This is super annoying tbh. If I have RLEN set surely it knows when the recording will end?

Olle · 2019-04-16T14:43:20.810Z

dizzy:

This is super annoying tbh

I think we all can agree on that. But this is how the Octatrack works and that will in this case not change.

Supercolor_T-120 · 2020-05-26T20:43:27.713Z

I picked up a Morningstar MC-6 about a month ago and have been using pickup machines a LOT since then - 4-6 of them at a time with multiple sources, in 3-5 hours a week of online live collaboration with a few people plus practicing on my own, and I haven’t had a single click, even if I start recording during the middle of a sustaining sound, there aren’t clicks as long as I use the minimum fin and fout values. Same parameters I always used back when I was getting clicks even with no input, same firmware, only difference is that I’m using a footswitch now. Weird.

sezare56 · 2020-05-26T23:16:42.795Z

Supercolor_T-120:

footswitch

I guess OT is more tolerant with people using their feet?

Supercolor_T-120 · 2020-05-27T23:20:30.644Z

I think it’s probably that the way it affected my workflow means I’m more likely to record a cycle of silence before I start playing.

focalsounds · 2020-06-15T09:22:11.288Z

I also use the MC6 to control looping functions on the OT. (well - I’m trying to)
I am not experiencing clicks as such but the behaviour of the OT when using PUM’s is unbearable at this point.

I have it working at some point, then add another PUM on another track, add a scene here or there. Then all of a sudden - no audio is being captured by any pickup. Then the slave loop becomes a master loop - then there is feedback and the list goes…

Currently I am getting no audio recorded in pick ups. Well I got a slight bit reordered earlier and then it disappeared as quick and as it mysterious appeared. It’s doing my head in.

I have everything set up correctly in the Record Buffer settings and mixer. I have cleared all scenes to be sure. Is there a way to reset all effects to make sure nothing is getting in the way there?

Man - I sold a Boomerang Looper to fund the OT and am regretting it more and more.
I was warned!

Any suggestions??

focalsounds · 2020-06-15T14:08:58.782Z

UPDATE:

So I’ve started a fresh project with 4 new PUM’s and have had a bit more success in the way of consistency of keeping loops alive

I am noticing that there seems to be some filter settings per track that REALLY effect the behaviour of PUM’s. The Width, Base & Q?

Also, after building up some loops, when I then move back to a previous track - there is a huge BOOM of feedback that scared the bejesus out of my one year old (poor thing)… Any suggestions to what that could be and how it is “obviously” related to my previous issue in the post above?

Are the mixer DIR and record settings GAIN at play here?

I hope this is also helping others as I troubleshoot this.
I really…really…want Pick Up Machines to be solid enough for reliable performance.

Thanks!

Supercolor_T-120 · 2023-02-24T13:27:28.021Z

I’m still not sure what changed with me for pickup machines. They were one of the main things that tipped the scales for me to finally buy an OT, then I found them so clicky they were nealy unusable and I hardly touched them for a couple years. Then I really needed them for a project I started in 2020, but when I started using them again, I didn’t have trouble with clicks and now I use them more than anything else.

The pickup machines didn’t change as far as I know, so it must have been something about how I play or my routing.

The one thing that I’m consistently doing differently now is usign the PUMs to ecord from other tracks rather than the inputs, maybe that makes a difference. I used to be able to consistently make the PUMs click even with no input signal at all (nothing connected to the inputs, gate set above the noise floor, all the recordings confirmed to be digital black except for the click) so I don’t think it’s anything hardware related, like DC coming in from external gear.

So if you’re having trouble with PUMs clicking, maybe try monitoring your input signal with a thru machine and setting its track as the PUM’s source, instead of an input. I don’t know if that’s what fixed it for me but it’s possible.

Ulysses · 2023-02-24T14:54:17.446Z

You could try input only again to verify the clicks are still there vs thru machine, one day.