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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Give up. It’s junk… I’ll give you $850 for it. 
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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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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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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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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
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
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.
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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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I thought much the same. But then I watched this :
And it really did help. It doesn’t cover everything, but it covers the basics and that’s what I needed.
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Same feelings. Same setup. OT+DN+DT were my first music hardware and it was a mistake to learn them at the same time. I agree with you that the UI/UX is sometimes very counter intuitive on the OT. That is a problem with Elektron in general - I would like more visual feedback. Why does the filter in the OT/DT/DN not move when I manipulate it with the LFO/envelope as one example.
I am forth and back on selling my OT as well. But! It‘s a damn good mixer! The FX I don‘t like at all but a lot of them are very useful like EQ and lots of other for some glitch. I just don‘t like to substitute my OT with a regular mixer - there is no mixer like the OT. And then you remember about all the awesome scene / part features which not only come in handy for live jamming / performing … if you work on your muscle memory a bit you can do stuff you cannot even imagine. This turns the OT into a music instrument.
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Its ok not to like stuff.
I didn’t like the model cycles.
If you dont like the OT, sell it.
Life is too short.
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I’ve only had mine a week too and found limited time to playthis week. I also have a Digitakt. But my view is a bit different - I really struggle with the Digitakt - I find it hard to get it to do what I want whereas I’ve found the octatrack a complete joy - I just love it! I really dont know why they feel so different, but on the octatrack everything feels free and more fun… or maybe I’m just weird… but sometimes different bits of kit resonate with you more than others for no good reason…
Don’t feel bad if the OT’s not for you. It took me owning 4 of them to make me realise 100% that I don’t ever want to use one again (in it’s current form) And not because it doesn’t do incredible things, but because I simply hate it’s way of doing those things. That’s it, pure and simple.
I think people can feel a little bit embarrassed if they admit to not understanding or liking the OT. Because it’s such a unique and legendary machine it can make you feel defeated or not “smart” enough if you’re not one of those that gels with it.
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That’s whats up.
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I’d say give it some time (a few month), read Merlin’s guide, take notes, use google and youtube a lot to answer some of your questions because answers are there. Identify the limits of the machines, the workarounds and the things that are straight up impossible. Remember that it is an instrument, it has to be learned, and this takes time.
However, after those few months, if you still don’t feel it, absolutely sell it, don’t get too attached to machines.
I was very dubitative at the beginning. It was my first Elektron. Coming from loopers, MPC/MCRoland stuff, with guitar as favorite instrument.
After 2 weeks learning it, I made a pause, then I found it amazing, recorders flexibility, fx sequences, huge power of the crossfader. Unique. The only machine / fx I’d keed, with a guitar !
That’s the way I use it.
True! For me the most advanced is the DN, appart from mutes (worse than OT), and some knobs choices (Level or EFGH for some pages). OT was inspired by Machinedrum RAM machines. MD is worse concerning interface / logic, imho.
It’s very logical. You have to understand the logic. 
Thru tracks, choose A/B/C/D
Yeah, that’s unfortunately the less intuitive part when you come from regular loopers. I use Recorders and FLEX, not Pickups.
Don’t hesitate to ask in appropriate “looper”“foot controller” threads.
Filters, comb filters, compressor are really good. The delay and Dark reverb, lofi are ok.
All fx can become much better combined, modulated by lfos, sequencer, crossfader.
Easy. MIDI > SYNC page. Don’t use AUTO channel!
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I really like the filter (it sounds very close to my Shruthi SMR4mk2 filter - which is my fav analog filter - I can sample the Shruthi with filter open and OTs filter can perfectly replace it.)
Compressor is very versatile, from kicks, to master bus.
Dark reverb and delay are also great imho, dark reverb just needs some fine-tuning. Delay can emulate tape wow and flutter (draw a semi random lfo shape with lfo designer max -3 to +3 and very little lfo depth dialed in.
Plate and spring reverbs can make percussion sparkle.
Especially the modulation fx feel kinda boring in comparison to what I usually use, but as @sezare56 suggested you can really bring them to live with some lfo modulation.
Try delay and depth modulation on chorus and flanger, CNTR and depth on phaser.
OT fx are so versatile, maybe that’s the reason why you have to really fine tune them.
They kinda feel like a blank canvas.
Just cranking up the mix control won’t work on most material.
Also gain staging is critical on OT. Bad gain staging can easily destroy the sound.
Aggreed. OT has an underlying logic. Ofc that won’t help someone that’s struggling with the way OT works, but it certainly has one.
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The OT can do all these jobs. (The quality of the effects is a matter of taste but you still have the effects in your DT and DN.)
Each job just requires a little study, perhaps not much more than has already been provided in this topic. You might find that if you just study one job at a time you will be able to master each in turn.
This forum has answers to all your problems with the OT except questions of taste and we will help you further if you’re willing to listen.
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It is true that OT is far less straightforward than Digi series.
This is partly due to some automated processes: for instance in OT you really have to take care of your samples gain layers, whereas in DT every sample gets normalized automatically.
There are almost 10 years between the two devices, we can see that Elektron managed to make their interface more usable with time, and it’s a good thing, you’re more focused on music than setting things up…
This said, OT can do much more, at the cost of a more complicated interface with more (and sometimes useless) controls, and thus more learning.
It is far from perfect, but once you know it from A to Z, it might become your favorite instrument. It is, at least, for many of us (including me).
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I dedicate the last eight banks in each project to ‘presets’ (each part a different setup) and experimentation.
AK and OT always function as a duo, so I only use banks a-h for my tracks anyway.
The ability to quickly load a setup (like different midi cc assignments for my synths or ‘OT as drummachine’, ‘OT ready to sample and mangle inputs a and b’ or ‘OT as a manglebox for drums’) is a great help
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great feed back and input y’all. i appreciate it. I knew it was a great deal which is why i pounced on it. Ill give it more time to see if it clicks. thanks for the advice.
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