Thank you ! 
I’m back with more of my brain hurting in the best way.
One of the things I do live is record my sax into a pre-sliced buffer, with preset trigs placed, then I do the randomize trig thing. I will do that random command about 20 times in a show, while recording and re-recording/replacing phrases. This is a game changer for me. Especially with the amount of buttons you have to press to get there the “old” way. What’s getting me freaked out right now, is that I’ll be able to actually find phrases that “randomize” a specific way that I can approach with more intention as part of the composition… while also making more than enough room for improvisation.
Every days a school day with the ot. Thanks for the video
4 Likes
I’m using Slice menu to input slice plocks in Live Rec mode, like it would be notes. I like it cause it produces beats with one hit per step max, so while complicated the beat is not too crowded.
I also like to randomize, but results are not always very interesting… Usually using the random LFO, but I had never thought of using it like this!
This workflow of yours is quite refreshing.
Thank you @Zhaomusic for submitting new paths to explore!
This machine keeps on giving, 9 years later 
2 Likes
Oh man this is amazing. I had no idea that the ‘sync trig’ function on the LFO made it restart every pattern! I also really like the bonus that the sequence stays constant behind the trigs - this essentially allows you to perform trig mutes/unmutes super rapidly without having to copy/paste trigs that have been plocked, something lacking on the OT. Loved the jam at the end as well!
1 Like
Exactly, and it’s a whole new way of looking at the sequencer. Instead of having each thing be its own individual trig, your trigs are now “revealing” parts of that particular pattern (which is sequenced instead by the LFO).
Definitely explore the SYNC/TRIG option, super helpful with creating fake sidechain or doing other rhythm-bound effects!
Yup. Glad you found this method. Not really new to me. Using LFOs to select sample slices has been a core part of my workflow for three years or more. I never liked the random locks thing in the slice editor.
If you combine the LFO to slice method with conditional trigs… and have LFOs sent to the first LFO’s shape and depth… see what I’m pointing at?
3 Likes
Totally, that’s kind of how I’m envisioning it too. Not only is it a good way to come up with new ideas, it’s a great way to ensure that something you record can be rearranged in an enjoyable way without getting bogged down with selection. Kind of a dummy jam partner in a way 
1 Like
I sample most of my material live, and I use a template that has a lot of predefined scenes, and my patterns are not for sequencing “drum machine-like” but are more like scenes themselves with lots of p-locks, so my OT is basically a huge library of effects: I’m slowly building that library up. I think my approach is similar to yours, I completely relate to this:
I recently gave up on using the midi sequencer because I can’t get along well with the OT’s midi implementation and logic, besides using the same patterns for midi sequencing and audio mangling is incompatible (or at best, very difficult to manage) and ended up orderering a Squarp Pyramid for midi. So now the whole pattern system will be available for audio processing only.
I figured this workflow out after 6 months of digging into the OT’s (overwhelming) possibilities. I often use the crossfader to play with start points and slices, sometimes I automate it using midi loopback and a LFO. The result is very similar as far as repeatablity goes. Your idea suites me better, it frees up the crossfader, avoids the midi loopback set-up (sort of tricky) and I can use scenes on top of, and independantly from, the startpoint modulation. Pretty cool!
2 Likes
You can also map another LFO to the speed of the LFO that scans through the slices.
Maybe even have a third LFO mapped to the depth of the first.
This way you can either introduce instand variations by briefly increasing the depth of LFO 2 or 3 or you can use them to slightly vary your sequence.
So you could use another LFO to basically change the sequence you created with LFO 1.
With a square wave LFO you could basically move everything up and then back down again.
Maybe more suited to tonal samples of which you have several ovtaves sampled and then sliced, but when I layout my sample chains in the DAW, I try to not just randomly put samples on the timeline.
For example with drum samples it makes sense to have the same sample with increasing velocity, accent or modulation several times in a row.
I have to check, but I think I usually use 4x or 8x of the same sample so I don‘t have to constantly fine tune my LFO depth.
1 Like
Oh, I have already said thank you but can I allow myself a suggestion? You really seem to have developed an awesome muscle memory on the OT. On the video you play with the buttons like a piano virtuoso, your fingers are all over the place and at a very high pace: I’m impressed! But, for the relative beginner (only 6 months of OT), I have to play the video half speed to catch what you’re actually doing…and the screen is out of focus 
… Fortunately you explain yourself very clearly so even us non native american english speakers get the point very well. But if you slowed down your manipulations just a little bit, and get that screen in focus, so that we could observe what you’re actually doing your videos would be even more helpful! Thanks again, and cheers!
4 Likes
Yes, thank you very much but also this! ^
For me this was one of the best discoveries related to ot! Thnx maan! x million!
1 Like
I’m using lfo on start / slice since a couple of years, after reading this @kuroichi Analog Rytm topic :
Timestretch
So it can be used as timestretch, pitch shift. I’m also using SYNC TRIG. It can be used with realtime sampling. Settings example in that poor video (Cue send > cables > input AB) :
Yep. Mapped to lfo 1 depth, it also can be used as an offset, so if your sample is matriced à la Megabreak, you can use that 2nd lfo to swap loops.
I hope to do it when I come back home.
Other application : trig a sample in time. Example, with external midi gear, you can play drums and trig a loop perfectly in time.
2 Likes
Ooh yes that is interesting…so far I’ve only been thinking of using scenes to vary up the slice order, but yeah you could totally use the scenes to trigger entire different patterns, as long as you set up the sample correctly!
2 Likes
Hey! Yeah sorry about that, I actually do come from a classical piano background, so I think in some way the Octatrack has become quite gratifying to use that way But I will try to remember to slow things down next time, and also in general I want to try to shorten the concepts in the videos further so that hopefully there’s less to learn each time as well. Thanks for watching!
1 Like
Ah! I was actually quite sure about that, it shows!
I actually tried using a second LFO to slowly cycle through iterations of the first by affecting the speed of LFO1. The problem is that if I haven’t found a way to introduce this randomization at regular intervals.
- If I set randomization LFO to HOLD and increase depth, it will shift with every trig, which is pretty much the same as randomizing slice selection.
- If I P-Lock the first trig (with LFO2 depth on HOLD), the pattern will shift each time that trig is active. Essentially the LFO is running freely in the background, and selects a random value on the first trig in this way. I think this is the best way to apply what you’re talking about, though that requirement of the first trig feels a little bit awkward. Still, definitely workable! And takes attention away from needing to vary things up manually. You can set a conditional trig to “1:4” and have it change every 8 bars. (and hopefully not miss having that trig on the 1 the other 3 times)
- You mentioned increasing LFO1 depth. The problem I’ve run into is that since the waves are designed to move both above and below the default value, pushing the depth up or down increases the likelihood of retriggering the upper and lower extremes. So for example, if my default is slice 1 and I have 32 slices, half of the lfo will be stuck on slice 1. Additionally, slices numbered above your sample’s total slice count will default to the last slice. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but definitely something to keep in mind. I kind of wish the LFOs would “wrap around” when they encounter situations like this, but given that the LFOs can apply to way more things than slice points, this would probably break more things than it would fix
I’ll also agree that my particular approach to this technique has to do with maximizing “success rate” of sounds, regardless of what they are - rather than designing a system with the samples that fits a specific performance.
1 Like
Totally, I’ve also kind of been turned off to the MIDI section, particularly in a jam setting. I also play live shows where I’m operating off stems, so it does help to program MIDI in for accompaniment, but in a jam setting I’m trying to remove as many distractions as possible - in other words, each section should serve a particular function and nothing else. That way it can become closer to an instrument and be built into muscle memory. So I end up doing most of my “external sequencing” on the OP1 directly, and let that kind of be the swiss-army knife in the jam.
2 Likes
One more thing - I tried locking randomization LFO2 to the first trig, and activating it just once every two times. The issue here is that in the first play through, the LFO shifts the speed of the pattern, but in the second play through, just having that first trig not play shifts the slice pattern as well. So you still end up with the sequence shifting every time.
For further clarification, I’m looking to create a 1-2 bar pattern, but have an LFO randomize the order of slices every 4 bars. Effectively letting me control it as a shorter sequence but have it repeat once or more before shifting.
Yeah actually I did it once last year, but I didn’t go further.
Octatrack 64 breakbeat x 16 slices megabreak of doom:
Should be possible with 2 trigs
Step 1 : TRC 1:2 Random setting
Step 2 : - 23/384 microtiming, TRC /PRE, regular setting