hi! A newbie with the OT MKII here.
I wish to record a guitar / a synth (audio) to a track without it looping with the sequenced drum track. (while the sequenced drum tracks are playing) Is it possible?
I use a thru machine on T5 and a buffer on T1 that records it.
Also, whenever I press play, T1 always records and overdubs even without it being armed. Am I missing something?
RTFM
have you pressed record and play at the same time…
Do you have a recorder trig that triggers the recorder buffer or do you manually sample?
I tried both doing that and just “play”. same thing.
I do have a recorder trig. Is there a way to make it record without retrigging?
You can use one shot recorder trigs if you want to trigger the recording process only once (set length in recording setup). Re-arm if you want to sample again.
Hold Function and place a recorder trig.
Press trig or track + yes to re-arm.
I tried doing that, but it keeps either overdubbing or just looping.
My goal is to record a synth passage freely without being constrained to the 4 bar loop that’s playing.
In recording setup menu 1, you can set rlen to max and then sample as long as ram allows.
Also in recording setup 1, set trig mode to one2.
Trigger the recording with a one shot recorder trig (or simply remove the recorder trig after sampling has been initiated) and then stop manually (one2 mode).
Manually starting and stopping can also be quantized (with qrec in recording setup 2).
Then for playback, you’ll have to allow the flex machine to play through the whole recording ofc (use scale per track and set amp hold long enough/to inf.
Does that help?
Thank you so much for the detailed post, Schnork!
I think that last part you mentioned about the scale per track is the one I wanted to avoid doing. I somehow want to record as much as possible (16 sec? even more with proper settings) - without it looping when the pattern loops. Can I do that without messing with the scale per track?
Yes, you can. You would only need that part if you wanted to play a long recording on a track.
You can always trigger long recordings with 1st trig condition(*), though (set a trig that will trigger the sample, hold the trig and press left or right arrow, now you can turn the level encoder to set trig conditions). If you set amp hold to inf the sample will play through once.
You can also trigger it with 1st trig conditions and let it loop ofc.
*1st trig conditions basically work like one shot trigs, but they don’t require re-arming. 1st TRC will always play once when you play that pattern.
But why did you want to avoid scale per track? It does not mess up anything you have done before. 
I do love the scale per track option. it’s a necessity for the style of music I make… I just want to be able to record more than 64 steps. maybe making it half time is a good option?
Also, 1st trig conditions sound awesome! maybe I should use that instead of one shot trigs.
Also 2:
Am I able to record to a Flex track without a thru machine to listen to it? (hmm maybe through the MIX page, pump that DIR up?)
The 8 recorders are independent from audio tracks (exception pickup machines). For sampling, you can leave all audio track settings as they were.
You can sample as long as you want, no problem!
If you want to playback a long recording, say 16 bars - you’ll need a track with 64 steps and set the scale to 1/4x.
Or you trigger it once with 1st trig condition…
What’s best depends on few things and how you prefer to set everything up.
It may sound convoluted now, but just play around with your OT a bit. I’m sure you’ll find your way around it.
DIR or play the recorder buffer in a flex machine. Octatrack can play while sampling, all you need to do is place a sample trig and a recorder trig.
In your case, probaply DIR is the better solution.
Trig conditions are awesome. 
Most of the time my tracks are only 16 step what makes them easier to edit, but due to trig conditions, they effectively go on for 4 or 8 bars.