Can you make alternate patterns in different scenes on the Octatrack? Ie, in scene A: steps 1, 5, 9, 13 are triggered… and in scene B: steps 1, 4, 5, 9, 15 are triggered. Is that possible in a straight up manor?
You’d only be able to do it with track mutes and have the desired trig placement on the same sample but different voices. You could also try to do it by resampling your pieces and then slice the newly created audio file into two and have the slices attributed to the scenes, but you can’t change sequencer data via scenes.
Well, you could P-lock the volume of different tracks - 1 muted on the left, 2 at full volume, the other way around on the right.
But as for —yeah, what Ryan said 
Bugger! I’d always assumed that was one of the points of the scenes… I was also disappointed when I realised the AR couldn’t do it… I’m trying to decide which to buy, AR or Octatrack (or wait to see what the hell the next release is)… that probably would of sold it for me.
I was thinking you could activate all steps and p-lock the level of individual steps as a work around, but the 0 volume steps will cut off the step before I’m guessing? meaning you’ll just end up with lots of awkward silence in between active steps
Yes you got it right.
pLocking trigs at XVOL=0 and having a scene to force XVOL to MAX is the only way, besides using one shot trigs, to have a different sequence within a pattern,
And yes every trigging-trig (as opposed to trigless trigs) will cut the sound playing from former trig on same track.
Using these 2 features, and the ability to scene-lock the RTRG parameter, can lead to some drastic pattern variations though.
By one shot trigs, do you mean having whole sample loops, and changing which loop is playing instead of changing an arrangement of triggers?
I feel like you’re a bit confused right now with the terminology of Elektron, that can be a bit weird at first.
A “Scene” in the 
enable to define a bunch of parameter values, and offers to slide gradually or switch directly to it.
A “Pattern” is all the trigs for all the Tracks, with plocks.
I think what you want to do would be crossfade between Track 1 and Track 2 : on Track 1 you would have your trigs on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 while on Track 2 you would have trigs 1, 4, 5, 9 and 15 activated.
Then you would be able to assign to Scene A max volume for Track 1, min volume for Track 2, and Scene B with the opposite.
Guess it’s what you need, don’t you ?
And it’s very easy to do (once you read the funky manual)
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No, look up one shot trigs in the manual, it’s a special kind of trig (sequencer step) that is only activated when you hit “yes”. Great for fills, and potentially will satisfy what you’re looking for right now. It’s not possible with scenes due to the architecture of the OT, pattern data is separate from machine parameters.
I’m not confused by the terminology, I’ve owned a machinedrum (which obviously doesn’t have scenes) for many years now, and I’ve watched so many youtube videos of every other elektron box over the years, I feel like I already know them all incredibly well. But I had assumed that the scene also would allow you to either make new patterns or add and remove some triggers so you could rearrange the pattern with the scenes. Would be useful in so many ways. I also hoped the AR scenes would do the same. It would allow for fantastic IDM/breakcore/jungle rhythms without using up extra patterns.
The two tracks thing sounds fine, but that’s still only two different versions, and you’ve used up a whole other track in doing it. I have seen a trick where the tracks were set to different bar lengths, causing the second track to go out of sync with the first and create more “randomised” patterns, but it’s still pretty basic, and also less controlled than what I was thinking…
I like the idea of switching between different premade sample loops with a single trig (if that was even the idea someone was mentioning?). Is that possible? Would it all have to be stored on one sample and change the start time parameter or slice via the scenes? Or would the maximum sample length make that impractical?
Well it just “seems” you’re a bit confused with the terminology, sorry ^^
My method was the most easy to implement, but if it doesn’t suit you, I bet there’s a way to find a trick.
Yet I feel like I need my OT at my side to go further on this one 
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Lol, good excuse for a jam right now? Haha.
It would be much easier if there was a music shop close by that I could go and try one out in…
It would be much easier if you take the time to read the funky manual before 
!
is easier to learn if you’re coming from the MD but still, there are so many facets in this machine…
You would figure out things with such reading, better understand some of the many tricks that are explained on this forum or the old one, and be able to really test the instrument in a shop…
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There’s plenty the crossfader can do to jumble up patterns without needing to alter the steps themselves. Biggest one is assigning crossfader to slice number, and for more randomness remember you can assign xfader to LFO speed and depth as well. Look in to one shot trigs for pattern variation.
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I have read the manual, some of the forum and watched plenty of youtube videos. I can’t promise I’ve read all forum posts, or watched all youtube videos… it seemed quicker to ask experienced users about gaps in my current understanding and aspects of it that still puzzled me
I’ll try and find info about one shot trigs… I’m guessing that’s not what I described earlier then
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Wow lots of posts since my reply!
By one shot trigs I mean using one shot trigs between the normal trigs of a track, to add variations that will only occur when arming the track (press and hold to read all one shots of the track, or just press once to hear just one one shot),
Can be used with long samples, but I personally use little slices of sample chains for all my rhythmic stuff.
Thank you for pointing out an element I haven’t played around with to a sufficient degree yet! There’s my night plans!
You’re good, mate !
So yeah, trying an OT… I’ve always thought it’s better to get a used one for this, as it’s not in 1 hour that you can see the different layers…
But then you have to have the bucks… And also, you might end up with keeping the used
Not that used is wrong : mine is and still doesn’t show any sign of weakness !
OT is such an amazing instrument! 4 months intensively learning the beast and I seem to just barely scratch the surface…
I just discovered the “silent trigs” (quite had an orgasm lol), and so far I didn’t take time to use the one shot trigs, but they are in my mind to add (moar) variations to the live set I’m working on…
Yeah… I’ve bought and sold so much gear now to try and find what is going to work for me, I just wish there was a better way of finding out.
An option I’ve considered is buying from somewhere with a XX days money back guarantee and playing the fuck outta the thing for as much of that time as possible (maybe book some time off work for it, haha) and then hopefully I’ll know before the times up whether it’s right or not… you can buy a 90 day guarantee from gear4music… Works out as pretty cheap rent over 90 days haha