I knew it, the @basehead617 “Scrooged” OT is coming soon.
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I’ll drink to that!
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Oh God, TE teamed up with Elektron. We now have the Pocket OT.
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These new cremecaffé alternate skins are getting awfully specific!
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Or Model:Toaster .
I’ve had a search.
I can’t see it… Can you show me anything that he’s designed that resembles the Octatrack Mk1.
I see his name often mentioned. I’m curious, I’d like to be clued up.
Dieter Rams.
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Form follows function. In that sense Octatrack is very Rams. 
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So in a sense The MD and MnM are Dieter Rams Inspired?
I love the MD but always thought the big jog wheel was a waste of space for how many functions it performs… That was within the first 1/2 hour of using it.
I still have the MD over a decade later on, the rest of it is genius.
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I guess so, I didn’t study design or something like that, but I’m sure someone with more knowledge can go further into details.
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Yep, 
I’m all eyes and ears.
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This, and editing multiple trigs at the same time would make the OT a lot easier for me to use!
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Ok, i be the bad guy. The new black versions are not that beautiful as the whole form factor of the mk2 is not as great as the mk1. So please don‘t keep your wishes up for another optical overhaul. Giving that and the model series it could get worse than the nice OT MK2.
I found Elektron a little rustry on innovation and Flagship Stuff. What happend the last years? Not much… this optical stuff at least is not for me.
If they ever decide to make a proper OT MK3 I would be pleased but I feel like they are just keeping the brand alive with instramm videos, firmware updates and small boxes every other year…why not make the Octatrack like a macbook and make it the hottest shit to have always. Iterate. Constantly. The old one is a nice start but also has so many flaws and shortcommings. And a new one would piss so many old users of. Hard to make everybody happy.
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There´s tons of stuff you can read on the internet. The Internet seems to love Dieter Rams (how many blogs are raving about his ten design principles?^^) and ofc books…
I´ve seen quite a few of his designs actually, because my grandpa used to collect hifi stuff and other electronics and there is a museum in the city I grew up which is actuallly about the history of the german postal service and about telecommunication throughout the history, but there´s also other stuff you can see. Electronics etc. I went there probaply about 20-30 times, I guess^^
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Aye, I’m having a gander now whilst having breakfast…
Whilst not having hands on experience with the products he’s designed, I wouldn’t therefore know how they functioned, but visually he seems very influential. The Swedish lads have taken quite a bit from him! OpZ, Pocket Operators… OB4
But it does make me think the Digitone and Digitakt boxes look rather cramped… They’re a nice portable size, but a blur of buttons, lights and functions.
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The Mk2 analogs are quite beautiful with the Aluminium finish more room for buttons etc…
ive got machines in all the form factors and the larger mk2 analogs are the best and just feel like a premium quality product imo
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I think this is a matter of taste. I highly dislike them over the OT Mk2.
But it terms of design principals they are just an absolute mess…all elektron boxes. Just talking principales. Obviously they work for a lot of people
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I disagree. “Form follows function” doesn’t mean that function takes priority at the expense of form; it means that form must be tailored carefully to present the function in the most elegant way possible without compromising on function. IMO the OT has the appearance of being a very functional device where form takes a bit of a backseat, but the reality is that all those features need to be presented somehow, and in many cases the way they are presented is unintuitive and needlessly complex. The form is lacking, in which I include the UI and UX. I love the OT to death, but in many ways it is really not a very well designed device, beyond the hardware interface.
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By the fragments of comments regarding OT on here from Elektron staff. It seems like OT has been a thorn in the side for ”new” Elektron.
Im a mechanical Engineer in one of the worlds biggest truck companies and each new truck we develope is based on a chassi from 1998. And it’s simply a pain in the ass to develope new things around something so old.
I reckon it’s probably the same thing with OT, it’s the last of “old” Elektron, maybe they use a different code language, etc.
What I’m trying to say is that even if a OT predecessor comes along the risk is that it won’t be the same, it won’t be an upgrade, it will be something else, much like what the Machinedrum is to the Rytm.
Cause in the end it’s the sum of each part that makes the whole, quirks, faults and all.
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Interesting. I think I´ve actually read something like that before (maybe you in another thread?) and it makes total sense what you´re saying!
To me UI and UX on OT have an underlying logic that connects everything (even the secondary function of the buttons somehow all have a relation to the first). OT is also very intuitive for me and that probaply is one of the reasons OT is often reffered to as an instrument.
But I get what you´re saying. My comment was more based on the appearance of OT (also MM and MD). I simply thought about how OT, MD and MM would look next to a Braun hifi receiver, a tape recorder or a turntable - I think they´d fit right in.
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True. I think the improvements would be marginal. Maybe an increased memory size and SD card slot for recording.
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