First things to do with the Octatrack 2023

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hello Everyone!

Getting my Octatrack finally today or tomorrow and planning to start practicing sweet stereo sample mangling with it.

I wanted to start a thread of ideas what should be the first things to try out if you are already familiar with other Elektron gear / Elektron workflow as I have the Digitakt & Syntakt already.

What are essential/cool things you would recommend to try out for a new OT owner?

My plan:
Load in some factory samples / Samples from my pc in and load them into machines. Create an easy Kick drum + Snare beat (Learn to load in samples and put parameter trigs.) Then test all the effects you can find from FX1 and FX2 and what do they do.

Then load in some stereo samples on top of the beat which I was not able to do with the Digitakt and see where it goes from there. Try to quickly get familiar with how sample loading works on the OT and what do the effects do.

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#2

If there’s a CF card from Elektron, chuck it

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#3

Oh yeah I guess that is an essential for sure

#4

Well, everyone has their reasons for taking the plunge, clearly you mentioned the ‘stereo sampling’, but I don’t know, I’ve had it for 2yrs & still haven’t touched scene’s, but one of the reasons I moved from the DT was for the crossfader.

I love scratching assigning the crossfader to the rate knob on the track main page to do that or just mess with the speed and dip the delay on and off by holding the function button so it just switches from 0 to max and have the scratching effect hanging in the delay.

So, go wild with assigning multiple parameters to the fader would be my suggestion. It may not have ‘control all’ like the DT, but you can throw quite a bit on the fader. Have your samples forward one second and then all reversed the next etc.

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#5

Agree, play a drum loop, or some kind of simple pattern and lock scenes…also locking retrig can be fun, or of course mix parameters for reverbs etc.
that‘s the quickest way to have some fun on the OT. Enjoy!

#6
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#7

…forget about presets, get a proper cf card, bounce all ur favourite sounds on ur computer to samplechains and start from there…

and be warned…all ur elektron experience from the digis will only help u with the basic sequencer concept…all the rest will be new terretory for u…

first fun would be any sample chain and adressing the crosfader to the slices parameter…

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#8

route both of ST/DT into AB/CD, live sample them and slice and place random samples on your trigs and fade in and out between actual ST/DT tracks and OT samples with your crossfader and

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#9

Print the manual :smile:

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#10

More seriously, set up some live looping. Nice guide here:

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#11

I acutally did that. It’s massive!

#12

I did too :nerd_face:

#13

I think your strategy is sound. But you must :smirk: as soon as possible hook up external gear to get familiar with the thru machine. That is also a good way to learn sampling.

My workflow on the OT is different from the DT and DN. I usually have only a couple of patterns, and use scenes - and the crossfader to build in variation. Changing pitch of samples, muting others, changing the effect on a track, fading in new material etc. It’s a really unique workflow not available on the other machines

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#14

There is one hint with the OT that is often forgotten which is…

All labels and their colour scheme on your OT make total sense in particular buttons that have same label colour which indicate they can be used together. Just by letting the left hand rest near the FUNC button and try all those combinations speeds up the learning curve. Most functions which are opened/called that way can also be closed the same way.

As there are so many functions, one should also know that FUNC+CUE is not the same as CUE+FUNC and the machine offers submenus(options) by the use of double tap on page-buttons (Playback/Amp/LFO/Fx1/Fx2) and like-like, which is not so obvious when you sit in front the first time. AAnnnnd holding a button is not same as fast tapping one.

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#15

Got the OT today and been busy with it! I plugged the syntakt in and set up a thru track. Now I was just thinking I should record the lead synth in so I can add some sweet distortion effects etc to it. With the digitakt I couldn’t really do that when it didn’t record in stereo so I would lose a lot of details.

#16

I recommend to start small by focusing on a single feature for a period of time and then tackling another feature, then repeat. The OT is one of those machines that benefits from a structured curriculum.

I would also encourage persistence and dedication.

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#17

Why 2023 ?
I’d rather mention last major update, 1.40.
Today I have 3 OTs.
First thing to do ? Control them all with 1. :loopy:

20231221_201817
20231221_2018171800×2778 1.6 MB

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#18

Took a few seconds to figure out why it didn’t look normal, you put black knobs on the OG machine!

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#19

Not sure what to think about @sezare56 going Mk2 (x2!) and what happened to the hardcore mouse-eaten grey knobs?!

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#20

Always remember, it’s almost always user error with OT! :joy:

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