Could OT track count be increased by software?

Daisuk · 2014-01-17T21:23:35.000Z

I’ve been thinking about how much more convenient it would be if the Octatrack had say 16 tracks instead of just 8. To the programmers out there, or people who have a clue about how these things work; would it in theory be possible to say double the track count of the OT through a software upgrade?

Let’s say you push something like Function + Cue + T1 or whatever, and the 1-8 tracks turn into track 9-16. It obviously demand a structural change of some sort, and let’s say the sampling RAM machines were still limited to 8 tracks. But it would be awesome to be able to use 16 separate tracks on this thing.

Would it be possible through software? If so, Elektron, pretty please?

PeterHanes · 2014-01-17T21:35:26.000Z

""Daisuk"":

I’ve been thinking about how much more convenient it would be if the Octatrack had say 16 tracks instead of just 8. To the programmers out there, or people who have a clue about how these things work; would it in theory be possible to say double the track count of the OT through a software upgrade?

Let’s say you push something like Function + Cue + T1 or whatever, and the 1-8 tracks turn into track 9-16. It obviously demand a structural change of some sort, and let’s say the sampling RAM machines were still limited to 8 tracks. But it would be awesome to be able to use 16 separate tracks on this thing.

Would it be possible through software?

It might be theoretically possible. Software could be written on an imaginary machine that would handle 16 tracks. But hardware is likely the limitation. I doubt whether Elektron would have limited the OT to 8 tracks if they thought that 16 tracks could reliably be streamed from a CF card. On the Octatrack, the user interface would be a mess if this were implemented. And, they would have to change the name.

Goseba · 2014-01-17T21:40:45.000Z

Hexadecatrack maybe?

Anigbrowl · 2014-01-17T21:41:50.000Z

This is kind what the Parts are for - to give you access to up to 32 tracks in four groups of 8. I towul dbe very nice if you could freely select each of the 8 tracks from the available pool of 32 though, make track/pattern allocation a lot more flexible

Doubling the # of tracks would be a real problem because you’d then need to run twice as many effects engines and so on, and there is just not that much spare capacity in the DSP chips.

NRain · 2014-01-17T21:42:48.000Z

The hardware upgrade works awesome!

zeropoint · 2014-01-17T21:48:19.000Z

""PeterHanes"":

And, they would have to change the name.

yeah, elektron sedecimatrack doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…

Daisuk · 2014-01-17T22:05:40.000Z

""Anigbrowl"":

This is kind what the Parts are for - to give you access to up to 32 tracks in four groups of 8. I towul dbe very nice if you could freely select each of the 8 tracks from the available pool of 32 though, make track/pattern allocation a lot more flexible

Doubling the # of tracks would be a real problem because you’d then need to run twice as many effects engines and so on, and there is just not that much spare capacity in the DSP chips.

Yeah, the parts are pretty genius that way, although I hardly ever use them like that myself.
It does make sense, of course. I kind of forgot about sample locking when I started the thread, that’s obviously a pretty decent way of utilizing the tracks at hand, although the samples used in a sample lock would be a lot less flexible to handle (right?).
Thanks for your replies, guys.

sicijk · 2014-01-18T04:59:02.000Z

otherwise…there is the gifted Veets method to obtain 16 by hard panning different audio programme when creating the source material in DAW.

here’s the original thread

and the corresponding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okBla30BMf4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUL0rvEhWNJ_DSli0WRSy4pA

also the loop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCrqlypsgY&feature=youtu.be

P.S.

thanks Veets…your techniques across the Elektrons are some of the most brilliant discoveries !

[random pick: the superslow lfo for MD…jesus!]

Daisuk · 2014-01-18T11:02:56.000Z

""sicijk"":

otherwise…there is the gifted Veets method to obtain 16 by hard panning different audio programme when creating the source material in DAW.

here’s the original thread

and the corresponding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okBla30BMf4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUL0rvEhWNJ_DSli0WRSy4pA

also the loop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCrqlypsgY&feature=youtu.be

P.S.

thanks Veets…your techniques across the Elektrons are some of the most brilliant discoveries !

[random pick: the superslow lfo for MD…jesus!]

That’s a brilliant trick! Can’t believe I haven’t though of that myself! Thanks a lot for posting - I’m definitely going to check out more of his videos!

secretmusic · 2014-01-19T13:06:02.000Z

""sicijk"":

otherwise…there is the gifted Veets method to obtain 16 by hard panning different audio programme when creating the source material in DAW.

here’s the original thread

and the corresponding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okBla30BMf4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUL0rvEhWNJ_DSli0WRSy4pA

also the loop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCrqlypsgY&feature=youtu.be

I had missed this post the first time around.
Cool trick, however, I fail to understand what this method has over simply locking different slices from a sample chain to different trigs.
I haven’t tried it, so I’m more than likely missing something.