Digitakt vs Octatrack Mega Workflow Comparison

I feel that progress can be really slow with the Octatrack but I’m sure that most people will tell you how quick it is. I guess it depends what you are trying to achieve (as with everything OT)

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You can do a lot more with the OT in regards to “jamming” just because it has scenes.
You can do cool re-sampling tricks using flex machines.
Sure you could use these things and muck around, make scenes on the fly, plock buffers and so on, but I find you get the best results with preparation and programming.
Only way to really “flow” with the OT is to put in the work to learn it.
Seems more about muscle memory etc, not necessarily the complexity of the OT.
Scenes for example are all right there on the UI, no menu diving.
With flex recorders you can slice empty buffers, there’s some prep but once it’s there, you can manipulate it from the UI. Again, you’ll get the best results by investing the time and energy.

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Totally crazy jamming possibilities with Ot.
More time to prepare, setting subtle settings. More time to get use to the machine, much more time to try everything you can do.
Not that much time to learn how to do things you can to with DT I think.

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Thanks, that sounds great, just what I wanted to hear :grinning:

As an official non-official :3lektron: :elot: cult spokesman, I’d like to clarify that I use the OT differently than many people, as I have it set up as a live looper with fx and flex tricks…
I perform improv with loosely based structure, my improv jamming is way more important to me than the structure, the structure remains similar enough just to know its the same groove/song/track…

The way I use it, I think of ideas of how the recorder buffer/slices/fx/etc can warp live sound, and program them into the OT. This part takes thinking and time.
When it comes to jamming, the OT has these ideas programmed into it but I have no plan on when to use them, I decide as I’m playing to take it one way or the other…
For me all I do is jam, and when I’m in the middle of a loop based improv jam, I’m doing nothing on the OT that takes any amount of time at all. Pressing record, activate one-shots, move the fader, select tracks, mix volumes, twiddle knobs, cue stuff, mute stuff, etc., in between playing instruments…

I’m saying this because for someone who programs songs made out of patterns of pre loaded samples to make a track, which probably many more people do than how I use it, it might take a very long time to get it to where it’s a song/track, and an even longer time to figure out how to “jam” with it.
I imagine though after putting a lot of work into making the song, one could treat those patterns or tracks within patterns as I do loops, and start to make jam tricks to employ, and also be able to loosely build back the structure when performing instead of just letting the OT roll while recreating the song.

So basically I can say that for me, I can load my staple project that I haven’t changed much in awhile, jam away on the OT, and it’s all super quick. The machine has increased my jam potential dramatically.
But also this might not make any sense to folks using it in other ways, because they must intricately program an entire song before they can even think about jamming it.
As a looper I can play more than one song from the same pattern, I don’t have to keep programming songs.
Just trying to explain myself, and why my opinions might not make sense to some folks.

Personally I can’t imagine showing up to any performance starting on a blank OT project, although I’m sure some might be up for it. I can imagine someone spending a bunch of hours programming the OT, which at that point from then on you can jam it out like there’s no tomorrow, and all the programming was done yesterday, and here you are in the now, jamming!

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To sum up:
One of the most vocal OTists on here, me, uses the device as a performance mixer/looper/fx/midi master. Once set up like this the device excels at jamming and has vastly improved my jam potential…
Most users probably use the device in more traditional groove box ways, I have zero experience using the OT like that so don’t have much to say on how to go about “jamming” that way…
I felt like that should be clarified so folks see where I’m coming from.

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Same here, I make patterns for improv and patterns for remixing tweaking the improv. Record trigs for the win

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do you have any videos / audio of your workflow? makes me curious :stuck_out_tongue:

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I absolutely plan on posting some stuff up on here at some point.
I have lots of recordings but most of them are from my pre-Elektron box era, using apple mainstage for looping. Since I moved to hardware I don’t hit record nearly as much, and right now most of my setup is in a storage unit. Once I get set up again and get in the groove, I’ll make a fresh recording with lots of OT in it, and put it up here…
I’m also planning on starting up a live 45min to an hour YouTube jam sesh broadcast maybe twice a month, just gotta get set back up and get in the groove… :slight_smile:

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That’s what I was hoping for :grinning:

Yes!

Thank you all for the feedback. Sounds great :+1:

Currently, i have a DT but i miss the arrange song mode. I saw a well-priced octatrack do you recommend me to change the DT with the octa for composition? what are i going to sacrifice?

You’re going to sacrifice Overbridge- off the bat.

For sound design- you’ll sacrifice the 4 octaves for melody the LFO capable of a multiplier over x64, the default FX per voice(bit reduction, filter, and the send FX)(the OT has a more malleable filter-but at the cost of an FX slot.)

Workflow- you’ll lose that integration with the waveform when sequencing. You’ll also miss that incredibly simple and intuitive method of sampling.

For midi- you’ll miss being able to p-lock prog ch.

Edit:

Also- after the OB OS update- new sampling sources have been added to include USB sources. Which is pretty exciting and curious to me

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In days of yore it was considered customary to make a sacrifice to the flex overlords in order to begin on the noble path of the Octatracker, and then after 3 moons you’d need to complete the rites of passage ceremony. DJ’s, producers, and music freaks of all kinds would gather at great pyramids constructed in honer of the flex overlords for the occasion…

Nowadays with the Internet and everything you can just click “buy now” and one will be shipped to you, no sacrices, no worries… Some still practice and believe in the old ways however, a mystical shadow society still keeping the ancient flame burning…
#Octacult

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haha man, you crazy

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Yeah- I remember that promo vid, too :smiley:

#AMachineThatMakesMusic?!

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Hey @cuckoomusic, just learned sth. new… beeing able to get to the editor by pressing track and edit.

Thanks!

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I’m cuckoo for octapuffs… :smile:

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