What is this workflow like? How do you sample yourself playing freely?
For sure. Iām pretty new to elektron gear but I have a decent workflow now. I have a mono output off my mixer to a digitakt and I have a stereo output off of it to an octatrack. I have a huge mixer and a lot of patchbays and itās pretty easy to route anything anywhere. So I can just route and hit sample and start sampling anything quickly directly to either box. I have pc audio routed there and sometimes a direct sample works but other times I want to edit so I edit in reaper then can either export to wav or be lazy and just directly sample reaper. It took me a little while to get this going but after some repetition Iām able to do what I want pretty quickly now. I love the elektron boxes but editing is their weak point. No problem with reaper around though.
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- Func + REC to enter the recording menu
- Func + Bank to enter the sample save menu
OR
- Track button + Bank to open Audio Editor
- Effect 2 / Ctrl 2 button to enter sample save menu
I donāt worry about names until after my sessionās done. Then I go into USB disk mode and use the computer to rename the project and the samples.
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I had no idea.
Hmmmā¦
Maybe Iāll try out some of these ideas later. It seems saving samples quickly with the OT is more doable than I thought. Iāll see which workflow I like more.
I generally start playing with my synth and see what I come up with, by freely I mean without worrying about tempo or stay in a specific bars number.
I have the OT using all the Flex Ram for my Recors buffer and I set my recording lenght to Max.
From there it depends, I might adapt all the OT project to that sample or I slice and come up with something new, with the OT is really easy to move somewhere else. Sometimes I also take 2 performance in once, slice it up and see what happens.
I use a lot the pattern scale, generally I work in 8 bar but sometimes more and if I need higher step resolution I use the pattern chain trick.
I love the fact that I donāt impose any technical limitations when Iām looking for inspiration.
Oddly enough I used to be more on the grid when I was using mainly a DAW. I think because the OT is not super smooth on editing note or have a precise visual feedback for it I tend to donāt care or just record something played better.
I actually learn how to play my synth better and I use the volume knob to control dynamics, something I never did because I was always using something post.
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Itās truly amazing how many otb / itb / hybrid options we have today. Btw, I edited my post to show how one can quickly reach the Audio Editorās file menu:
- Track button + Bank to enter the Audio Editor
- Effect 2 / Ctrl 1 button to enter the File menu
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oh i already knew these key presses haha. maybe my big hangup was naming the sample and then assigning it to a free flex, then assigning that sample to one of the tracks, then re-sampling thatā¦
But I can just do what I did last night where I get a sound to a point I like it, then sample it real quick, save it and move back to tweaking. I donāt necessarily have to keep iteratingā¦
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hahah I never named any sample in my whole OT life., named folders are good enough. OK - Yes - Yes.
Update:
I am a strong believer of letting go, leave the controlling mind out of the creative processes, it has no place there for me. It can chime in when needed later (I never reach that stage really, not my ambition and time is limited).
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I like the simplicity of this man! 
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The OT way 
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what do you mean loop raw audio unlike Ableton?
Here I thought the Octatrack way was meticulously keeping everything organized and named for extremely logical, reasonable recall in the futureā¦
I will say though that as I go back through my old sounds, I know exactly what they are by the name and thatās pretty nice. The idea of renaming everything on my computer with USB disk mode sounds pretty promising, too.
Maybe I should rename this thread title to āMAN FLIP FLOPS HIS OPINION (AGAIN)ā
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I spent to much time trying to make hardware act like a DAW. I donāt want to be dawless, I just hate computers. So now I will begrudgingly use a computer when itās needed and shut up and smile.
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Genuinely asking why do you got back to older project? I never understood why people do that.
My point is if I released the actual song whatās the point of reloading a project I finished already?
Also if I didnāt finish that project surely Iāll find things I wonāt like it because everyone improve on their own, I always facepalm when I listen my old song why would I ashame myself? 
I donāt know I somehow find vibe killing and time waisted to rename and organise everything when I could spend that time to find new inspirations and make something new.
The Octatrack helped me a lot to free up my mind about things that in the end of the day are not important for the music creation.
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Ableton is always applying a Algo to the audio. Itās always processing it.
Lots of people go back to older projects because they might find some sort of inspiration there they missed or forgot.
For me though, I might end up using a sample in another project. So I might sit down and record some samples into my Octatrack, but Iām not enjoying what Iām doing with themābut I might have better ideas for them in the future. So then Iāll thumb through my project directory and happen upon some cool sounds and see if I can reimagine them.
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even in repitch mode?
This is the issue. If it thinks the audio is the correct BPM it doesnāt, or at least it shouldnāt need too. They did, I think, only ever say it was the most transparent, Iām trying to dig up the link, Iām not sure they ever said it was entirely transparent, re-pitch. It should be though.
When it thinks the BPM is something other than the master BPM it does. You might not notice or even be able to tell. That sort of thing adds up, if present. It might show 119.28 for something thatās 120bpm.
The problem is when youāre looping and resampling all these little warps will add up. It kept inserting badly placed transient markers for me as well. These things only started cropping up when recording midi synced audio. Iāve used it since v4 and before Iād either not noticed or the issues werenāt present for me then.
With the raw audio, you just bypass all of those, possible, issues but obviously loose any time stretching business.
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For the most part Iām the opposite, I usually load an old song and think thatās pretty good why didnāt I do more with that. I shame myself during the creation only to realize it wasnāt all that bad.
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Maybe I just have to be less severe with myself because everytime I did I didnāt like what I heard
What I like about what I do is the fact that I push myself to always come up with something.
What I like about what you do is the possibility to always have something usable.
I wish I can have both