I’ve had my eye on the OctaTrack for a bit now. I’d love to have it in the studio, but since I do a lot of my recording in a “live” fashion, I have a few concerns before I go balls-deep:
Using the OT as a LOOPER:
Would I have to set up a sort of looping “profile” within the OT? Lets say I want to use it as JUST a looper on a certain day, would I have to go and set up a… template(?) to turn it into, essentially, a full-time looping machine?
Using the OT in general:
I have an MPC 1K that I absolutely love. It’d be REALLY nice to be able to set up scenes on the OT to effect the in-coming audio from the MPC. I’m 100% positive you can set this up, to where the OT is not only an instrument but also a sort of… Kaoss Pad, if you will.
Those are really my only two “big” questions. The one about it acting as a dedicated looper is much more important, though that will not be the only role it serves. It’d just be nice to have the ability to make music in a brand-new way (at least in my studio), and a bad ass looper would allow for that, easy.
Ola…
It is easy to setup difrent projects… or difrent banks for difrent tasks…
So yeah… you could set it up as a dedicated looper in projectA and have it as a funky sampler/phrase tool in projectB or do both at the same time in projectC
You can have difrent types of looping though:
pickup machine … which kinda works like a guitar-pedal-looper (especially when you got midi-foot-controller)
flex-machines that record on a one-shot, or a button-combo or a trigger.
have pattern a01 do continous recording and pattern a02 for playback…
So take your pick…
and yes, you can setup your stuff so the octatrack is a 4channel mono-channel mixer-effector… or 2-stereo-input mixer… or combine this as a stereo+2*mono mixer/fx unit… and still have it loop your stuff if you really want it.
is it all good??
Nope… I still have troubles now and then with pickup machines… something tells me inside my brain its more fun with a foot-controller… but that just could be my experience with it talking… it didnt click yet in my head…
but i did amazing looping-action with the flex-recorder-continous recording stuff…
So it depends a bit… will its workflow click with yours… will you be able to learn all button-combo’s and all that… and well… how much do you like to relearn your tricks??
most of my old-skool-sampler knowledge went out the door with this one… cause its just “difrent” I like it… but hmmm took some time thinking about things.
Yes, you can create a Project for looping only. I do that myself. For each new Octatrack concept to explore, I create a new Project just for that one concept so as not to muck up my looping Project or other projects.
You should be able set up a Scenes in the manner that you describe, although I have not delved deeply into them myself.
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[li]Scenes are the answer for that, imo. [/li]
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Scene 1: looping with Flex machines (track 8 as master)
Scene 2: looping with Pick Up Machines (tracks 1-6 are Pick Up Machines, track 7 is a Flex Recorder and track 8 as master or course!)
Just an example! That’s how looks my main template
The main reason why I ask about separate profiles for different duties is because I’ve been stuck on a weird gear-fence lately. A dedicated looper would be a HUGE addition to the studio but, also having a sampler that can do time-stretching well (and automatically) would save me a load of time & grief having to do those things on the computer.
That’s a huge break in my workflow at the moment… I have to play around/manipulate my samples in a computer (for timestretching, etc), then put them in the MPC… by the time I end up on the pads, my inspiration is almost all gone. This is where the OT would come in and, obviously, do a lot more.
More I look at it, the more I think I’m going to go with the OT (and eventually a MIDI pedal controller to use it more like a traditional looper). Definitely cannot wait.
What is a solid second-hand price for an OctaTrack in the U.S. these days? I remember when I was first looking at them they were selling for about $900-950’ish.
The Octatrack time-stretching algorithm isn’t everyone’s favorite, mind you. I like it, it definitely colors the sound, but when I’m timestretching, I don’t mind.
Lulz! Making “serious” studio investments is always a complicated ordeal! I actually had Maschine for a little while, I liked it well enough but I much prefer the MPC for what ever reason(s).
To be honest - I’ve played with an OctaTrack quite a bit RIGHT after it was released. Maybe for the first week or two but then my friend sold it. I’ve been excited about the looping-machines for a long time now (also been VERY interested in having a great looper for the studio). The OT seems to have that covered if you put the time in up front to set everything up PLUS it’s a great sampler/groovebox. Win/win.
I guess what I meant when I was talking about stretching things on the OT was that I like the fact that it all happens in real time. I absolutely cannot stand having to stretch/re-stretch/stretch again to get the proper BPM (as I do on the computer/MPC). I can just turn the tempo knob and the sample/loop will be in tact. I’m all for the artifacts and stuff, usually seek it out. I’m not picky on the algorithm. I have a few to choose from, just looking for something that is a little bit more instantaneous in that department.
