Convince me that an OT was not a mistake

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I just bought a used OT mk2 for $850 a week ago on an impulse and now im feeling like it was a mistake. 6 months ago I bought a DT and DN and fell in love. I use them with my effects board, guitar, and vocals - After reading and researching I had the thought the OT could come in like a brain for the whole set up. Id use the OT as an arranger (song mode), a looper, a mixer, effects, and as a compositional tool - was my thinking.

So far I hate it. I LOVE the elektron workflow of the DT and DN. So far, the interface feels like taking a step back in the evolutionary chain. It is SO complicated and counter intuitive, ive been at it everyother day for a week and am still barely able to get it do what I can do in a second on the DT.

The mixer is just OK, maybe I havent found the setting yet, but it only mixes two stereo inputs, not four mono.

I cant figure the looper out to save my life and still need to figure out how to rig a foot controller.

The effects sound cheap to my ears

and I cant get Program Change to send to the DT or DN.

It feels like i bought a headache project. I would LOVE someone to convince me that this gets better and soon. thanks

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Buying an OT MKII right now? Is it a good idea?
#2

I bought and then sold both of my OT MK-II’s, Love/Hate, I got disgusted at first also, but its a phenomenal instrument that I will buy again (looking for a mint OT- MK1 currently).
(Btw, You stole that for $850, wow great price!)

Take a deep breath and step away from it now and then, dont get too intense into it all at once, it will come to you, like an ahha moment. Thats what happened to me. I am going to buy another one, but have gone into Ableton and Push 2 to concentrate to hopefully learn over the short term… but the OT is a great alternative Hardware box to Ableton and other stuff. … (Just my 2 cents).

Theres a ton of Great people on this forum that will help you with anything concerning the OT as you know. I am not that advanced, just encourage you to spend some time and let it speak to you. If you really dont want it, let me know… :wink:

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#3

HANG IN THERE!
First off, way to go getting a MK2 at that price, thats a steal!
I was in your shoes not too long ago. I have the DT/DN combo and its a breeze to make things happen with those two. Then, back in July, i got the OT and it brought all easy musical production to a halt. I was frustrated. I wondered if maybe id made a mistake, even though i knew what i was getting into and had every intention of taking several years to figure the OT out.
Now, after having some breakthroughs and chilling the fuck out about it I know I made the right decision.
I couldnt get program change to send to the Digi’s either!
Search OT Noob Questions in the forum, i had the same question and it was answered very concisely and pleasantly. im pretty sure my question is still at the bottom of the thread.
IT GETS BETTER!
I cant help you with a foot switch problem, but i can assure you that its worth the effort of learning it. Do NOT rid yourself of it yet.
something to consider as far as the effects are concerned: The reverb sounds nice on the Digi’s right? Well, consider how its a master send situation… you set the reverb how you want it and its the same across ALL tracks. On OT, you not only have 3 reverbs to choose from, but you can assign different reverbs to different tracks and all tracks can have their own distinctly different parameters. thats HUGE right there. this is the same for ALL effects on OT. You can have the EQ as an effect on all 8 tracks, but with all 8 tracks having very different settings for that EQ. Or Delay, or reverb, or whatever…
Dig into a forum search, get your devices talking to eachother correctly with program change sends and whatnot…
Look into getting your Digi’s hooked up as Thru Machines.
Take the time to figure out how to set up recorder tracks on Flex machines…
ITS AWESOME!!!
As someone had to point out to me, You have three VERY powerful machines at your disposal.
take a breather at times. I had to put my OT away for a few weeks at the start because it felt like homework.
Im excited for you! If all youve had is headaches after a week, then that first Holy Shit!!! moment cant be too far away.
Its worth it. dont give up. you made the right choice.

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#4

I’ve had mine for about 6 months and I’ve been learning it slowly. Initially, I experimented a little with sampling and chopping and using it as a drum machine, but lately I’ve been focusing on using it as a mixer and fx box. I’ve also been experimenting with the record buffers and using the transition trick in various ways. I’ve had a number of problems that took a while to diagnose and I’ve had thoughts of selling it at times, but so far I’m glad I stuck with it. (I had accidentally changed some settings on the master track while in live record mode) I’ve found that it’s sometimes been helpful for me to work with a new piece of gear on it’s own for a bit, before fully incorporating it into a larger setup (especially elektron stuff). I would say it would be good to take your time and keep practicing and see how your doing with it after spending more time with it. I think it is not an instrument that gives instant gratification, but once you hit a certain level of comfort and muscle memory, it becomes an extremely versatile and creative tool.

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#5

It gets better, but not quickly.

I am coming up on three years of OT use (certainly hundreds of hours of dedicated effort), and every time I use it I feel like I get it a bit more, and literally just this week I feel like I hit a new plateau. One week of on and off use is laughable.

The machine is not instant gratification by any means, plenty elsewhere in the world for that.

Instead, perhaps try to learn what it’s about (a truly unique approach to performing digital audio), and see what arises from your interaction.

Good luck regardless.

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#6

It really is instant gratification once you learn it. Once you know it. Once you figure out your own workflow. But it takes practice. Perseverance is the OT way. If it’s not for you flip it. Someone on here will buy it in a second for that price.

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#7

I use the arranger a lot now to sequence the others and when I want to add some longer stereo samples… it’s worth having… you don’t have to use it for everything…

It can mix 4 mono by the way, and should send pc

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#8

If you do, however, decide to give up, I might be willing to make the same mistake at a slightly higher price.

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#9

Getting an OT Mk2 for $850 was far from a mistake. You could sell it tomorrow and make money easily. Or just cut even and give someone else a deal if you’re not vibing with it. I’m still learning tricks on my Machinedrum and I’ve owned it 3 years. The Octatrack is much more complex. It will reward you for time invested.

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#10

Sold mine after a year, which I think should be enough to judge it. no regrets. It was getting in the way of my workflow and has its own arbitrary limitations. So no, I won’t convince you :rofl:

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#11

OT is the best.

Re Mixer:

Use THRU machines to mix four mono inputs if you want to do that (select one THRU machine per track on four tracks, then choose the respective input you want on that track and there you go).

The thing the OT has that neither of the Digis have, is that you can decide what each track should do / how it should do it. That‘s your Machines. So there‘s an initial setup involved which you don‘t have with the others.

Once you find a workflow YOU like, you save that as your preset and from there it‘s instantaneous.

Hit us up with specific questions if that helps.

Good luck, and yes, at $850, you should definitely hold on to it a little longer!

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#12

It isn’t for everyone. If you don’t enjoy the challenge, sell it.

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#13

It isn’t for everyone, don’t feel like you HAVE to like it. I’ve owned a DT, loved it, ARmk1, loved it, MD, loved it, OT… Hated it.

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#14

Read the Merlin guide before you decide to keep it or not, it really clears things up in terms of the structure.

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#15

Give up. It’s junk… I’ll give you $850 for it. :wink:

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#16

I love my OT to pieces and run DN through it and I’m able to do SO much to the inputs.
Start really simple and place the recorder trigs and play trigs correctly and then you can slowly build up complexity from there (if you want to run the Digis into it)
I’m not going to convince you if you’re already giving up on it but I think it’s important to go through the manual and take one step at the time.

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#17

Only mistake you’re making is that you ask this question after just about a week’s time.

Good shit takes time to mature. Put your impatience aside. Bring out your preserverance. Skills come slowly, with training. You’ll get the hang of it, and learn to appreciate that just because it took time, you’ll love it even more.

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#18

It also took me a while to recognise the power and potential. I think my first big moment was when I started using scenes. Then when I got my head around LFO-controlled slices. There’s simply so much to discover, but you do have to go and find it.

The initial complexity also serves to obscure the power of this instrument, but it absolutely rewards input and dedication.

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#19

IMO your question is answering itself. If you have to ask to convince you that this was not a mistake, it was a mistake. Your list of tasks can be done by the OT, but its purpose is to be a performance sampler, giving us many creative options to mangle sampled audio and create beats, in the first place.

For arranger or looper tasks there is gear, which is at least much more intuitive to use.

Sounds blunt and even negative? At a first glance yes … but hold on …

I bought my OT, because I needed a hardware sequencer to record me playing longer phrases live on keyboards. IMO I couldn’t have bought a more unsuitable sequencer for this particular tasks.

What made me love my OT was that prior to my purchase I had watched a couple of videos by Cenk (aka Projekt Dataline), where he virtuosicaly demonstrated Elektron machines. After unboxing I just tried to get my head around of what I had received and spent nearly a month experimenting and studying the new machine. It was so much fun, but I had to dig into this Elektron universe. The OT was my first Elektron device, now I have four :wink:

Fact is that days after the return period was over, I had my first go on the task for which I had bought the OT in the first place … and it was, as simple as is, not usable. I decided to keep the OT and bought after some research a suitable midi sequencer for the task I had had in my mind :wink:

If you can embrace what the OT is supposed to be, then you should keep it and take time to learn it step by step, and you will have years of fun and creativity to come. If not, give it back or sell it.

3 Likes
I just bought an OT Mk2
#20

Hey! It gets better! Just take the pressure off and give yourself a break. I started with the digitakt, then got octatrack mk2, then digitone and now have Machinedrum mk2 and analog four mk1. I can say I love them all! Once you learn the octatrack you’ll feel accomplished. At first it’s not as inviting as the digis, but that’s coz the digis are new and octatrack is much older. The digis have a fast tracked workflow and graphics which make it super nice. Once you become comfortable with the octatrack, it can also be fast as you’ll know where to find everything. It really isn’t that hard one you get to know it ( like everything ) haha. It’s deeper and capable of so many things. In terms of mixing 4 mono signals like someone else here mentioned, you need to set up 4 tracks as thru tracks and in the SRC page of each track select which input you would like, either ABCD. But that’s not it… you then need to place a trig at the start of the sequence of each track to activate the thru tracks. I recommend watching as many tutorial videos on YouTube, over and over… one day it will all start to make sense. Happy to answer any other questions you have. Cheers!

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