Curious about some workflow of the OT (don't have one)

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#41

I don’t want to get into the technicalities, need more :coffee: and not with my OT…

But for those wondering about live sample remix playback, in general you just can’t play a part of the recording that hasn’t been made yet…

Example: Slices(start points)… For simplicity a 16 step pattern

You have a track recorder/pickup machine occasionally recording a 16 step sample when you activate it, and theres a flex track that plays slices of the sample all rearranged. For this example its sliced into 16 even slices so each slice 1-16 is the same audio as a step 1-16.

When you activate the recording the flex track will try to play in real time as long as the sequence isn’t targeting a slice ahead of the recording head (closer to the end of the recording) that hasn’t been made yet.

So, on step 1 of the flex remix you can only really play step 1 of the recording, by step 2 you could play step 1 or 2, by step 12 you can play any step 1-12, etc…

If you try to play step 12 on step 1 of the flex track, it won’t produce audio until the recording is finished because the recorder is only at step 1 and doesn’t know what step 12 will be. By the time the recorder is on step 12, you can play any step 1-12 because the record head has gotten that far, playing step 12 on step 12 of the recording plays the audio being recorded as its recorded… On step 12 you still can’t play steps 13-16.

When you allow the OT to finish the recording then on the next pass everything will play no matter how rearranged or warped. If using constant recording that never stops then the flex remix will never play those steps in front of the record head, so with constant recording going your remixes always need to target parts of the recording that for sure have already been recorded by the time the sequencer tries to play them.

By recording the tracks with the OT instead of the inputs (which still can be the audio of the inputs if that’s what’s on the track) the OT will play the last recording while a new one is made, this way you can get super crazy with the remixes and there won’t be dropouts, but you’ll hear the last remix while the new recording is being made and once the recording is done the new remix starts playing…

Hope that makes sense and helps instead of being more confusing, time for more :coffee:… :smile:

8 Likes
#42

Feature request: We need predictive sampling. :smile:

1 Like
#43

This is brilliant…I just got my OT because I needed a super-reliable looper (I’m a guitar and bass player too) but didn’t realize we could get this far in real-time. Any chances you making a step-by-step tutorial for this? I understand the basics of what’s being done here but the workflow to get there is mysterious to me…

1 Like
#44

Thanks. I want to make video tutorials this year, but I’m very busy for the moment.

For me too! I closed my eyes, pressed some trigs, turned some knobs, et voilà ! :smile:

3 Likes
#45

This was utterly mind-blowing. I am in awe. I am also way more curious about octatrack than ever. :metal:t3::metal:t3:

1 Like
#46

Hmmm, sure :wink: How many tracks you used for this piece? I’m headscratching over this since yesterday… I have absoluetly no clue how you did that!

#47

So…Recording and sampling. What’s the best way to handle these sorts of things? You know…The primary function of the Octatrack :stuck_out_tongue:

From what I’ve seen from videos, you can record a long list of samples. For instance, you arm one track to record and then you play a bass hit, a chord stab, a few drum hits, etc. Then you have one single audio file with these different hits. Do you then take each individual one and rename it? Is this efficient? Or is there a better way to do this sort of thing? Is it better to, say, get a whole folder of kicks from your computer and put it onto the OT (via USB, right?)? But I suppose if you just wanted a quick and dirty workflow then the former way would be nice? It all depends on the context?

What I don’t get is let’s say I wanted to record songs from my iPod right into it. Maybe a loop of a bar or two. What would be the best way to do this? Do I have to first detect the BPM? Any video would be helpful.

Furthermore, what’s been your experience with sampling recordings of waveforms? Like if I were to sample a saw wave from my MnM? What sorts of magic can happen then? I know that you can only pitch things up or down an octave.

So yeah…This thing is coming in the mail soon and I’ve been reading the manual and watching videos. I think I’m still just generally confused about the hierarchy only because I haven’t physically put my hands on it and figured it out. All of the concepts are a bit nebulous to me right now.

Thanks dudes.

#48

Ha - I’m sitting here reading the manual too, as I have an OT coming on Wednesday. I think I totally know what you mean about how the concepts being nebulous not having laid hands on the OT yet. However, having owned a digitakt, I do feel like I have some ideas about the structure and workflow… or maybe not?! I’m definitely excited to give it a go. Reading the manual and watching some videos has helped reduce any anxiety about the OT being too difficult for me. I’m ready for the challenge.

1 Like
#49

Dude we can be OT eskimo brothers!

Yeah I’ve dove pretty deep into the MnM so I totally get (and love) the Elektron workflow. All of the copy and paste functions I think are the same, so knowing how to copy and paste a page or a pattern or a machine will still be in my muscle memory thank goodness. Understanding the importance of P locks and all that is like second nature.

But yeah like…I get the gist of the OT but the actual details of how everything works are still fuzzy for me, even though I’ve seen videos and read the manual. The manual recommends a quick start of starting in demo mode and going through the already made patterns. I think I’m going to do that first thing. I’ve found that for me reverse engineering stuff is super helpful to my learning process.

1 Like
#50

Buy it to understand!

3 Likes
#51

way ahead of ya bud

#52

I was on tour when I bought my OT last September. Only had a little time here and there in hotel rooms, so I fired it up in demo mode. Glad I did for a couple reasons.

  1. You can poke around and try stuff without permanently damaging one of your own songs, though I did that too eventually :slight_smile:
  2. Learn how to make scenes and think of every way a scene can be used. That function alone made me excited to dive in and get to work
2 Likes
#53

All that questions depends completely on your workflow/needs. Sometimes its useful to have multiple samples combined into one (slices etc.pp.), sometimes it is useful to have single samples (ex.: for naming them separately and finding them again). There is no “best” way.

Just #… choices :wink:

2 Likes
#54

I second that ! I got my OT two months ago and my Digitakt five months ago. two amazing but very different instruments. You really have to dive into the OT to feel and understand it. There are so many things you can do and so many ways to get there, as well as elsewhere ( places you never imagined existed ) … Impossible to get the point by reading a manual…

1 Like
#55

This might be the one time I’ve heard you guys say “don’t rtfm” :stuck_out_tongue: