Disclaimer
- If you don’t want to read as much you could immediately jump to “Questions, Concerns, Area of Application”. Thanks for all taking the time.
- I read a lot about similar topics to my mine and used the search function of this forum, nevertheless I still need some advise.
Current Situation
- Around 2012 I sold my last hardware devices and went complete ITB
- I have a perfect setup for my musical needs: Live, Push 2, Akai APC 40 MKII
- The start of the pandemic lead to a lot of laptop time and while I loved to set up my gear, at the moment I just want to get away from sitting in front of my laptop
Tried Solutions
- I started to buy some little hardware stuff (Behringer K-2, Volca Kick, Volca FM, etc.) to get away from the screen, but this type of gear did not satisfied me and I still preferred to do the stuff (MS-20, FM stuff) ITB
- I sold the hardware (fortunately I made no money loss) and thought more about my musical frustrations
- I realized that I need rather something similar to a groovebox, something I can go quite far with without being in front of my laptop, something which gives me something different yet similar to my workflow
- So I cam up with the idea of buying an Octatrack. It’s not the first time I thought about it but right now I was never so close as now
Buying an Octatrack
- As I said it’s not the first time I thought about buying it – in fact I think about it since it’s initial release
- I’ve read the manual and I watched already a dozens of videos and I think I will have no problems with the usage
- I owned a Machinedrum for quite a long time so Elektron stuff is not new to me
Questions, Concerns, Area of Application
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It’s a used MK1 for €800-850. The sellers states it’s barely used and indeed it looks like barely used. I know about the differences and I think those are no issues.
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I consider to buy an MKII but then I’m afraid of the smaller OLED display (ghosting, burning, etc.) and I read the casing on the MKII is bit less tank like. Plus it would cost minimum €1245
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Is it better so buy an MK1 for €800-850 (LCD, build quality) or the MK2 (better in/outputs)? Which would last longer?
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And since I would like to get something portable how is it going with ripcord and a powerbank? Time of usage? Any problems? Could it lead to problems?
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Is rendering, bouncing to use it further an issue for anyone?
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How you keep track of your set/projects? Do you use a notebook?
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Are the effects really that bad?
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Regarding the used MK1: If the card-reader, rotarys, fader, etc are fine. What could be internally wrong / fault with an unit? Is there anything else to check? All buttons?
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I mainly do ambient, drone, electroacousticmusic, minimal stuff dark techno, industrial. Also I a lot of experimental drum stuff. I operate mostly sample based anyhow. I do not use 3rd party stuff: just field recordings noise etc.
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I want something similar but yet different to my ITB workflow.
Alternative to buying Octatrack
- An alternative is Polyend Tracker (could get it for €400). I know different machine, different approach but again, I want something similar but yet different to my ITB workflow. So it’s about flow and sampling. What turns me off are the rather cumbersome resampling process.
- Korg Electribe – not really an option but maybe one here see it as and could elaborate?
Thanks for all taking the time.