Fun with OT LFOs - share your LFO secrets!

Elektron Gear Octatrack
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Not sure why but LFOs on the Octatrack was one of the last major features I jumped into. It’s kind of mindblowing some of the things you can automate.

This example isn’t THAT crazy but I love the effect. I’m applying separate LFOs to the base and width of the filter on an old school drum and bass pad sample and getting niiice results (this is the melody stab that comes in every 16 bars starting around 2:13).

I know this is a pretty rudimentary use of the LFOs but I’m digging it - really extends what you can do with melodic samples. (Also like to use it on retrig #'s sometimes for glitchy effects). What are your favorite LFO tricks?

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If my experience with the MnM has taught me anything, it’s that you should go ahead and apply an LFO to whatever the hell pops up–it could be fun. We all know what an LFO sent to pitch, LPF, etc. can do, but what about an LFO sent to the panning of the reverb (not sure if you can do this on OT, but I assume probably yeah)? Or an LFO sent to the distortion level? Or one sent to the delay time of an already-super-short delay (it can sound flangerish depending)? Sometimes I think I should just scroll through the list of destinations and say “Yeah, I haven’t tried that before” and see what happens. I’m sure with the OT you can send an LFO to slices (again, mine comes in the mail tomorrow) and I’m sure that’s very, very fun.

My go-to is an LFO to the panning, though. In my DAW productions I’m a sucker for panman from Sound Toys (auto pan if you got Live). I put it on everything. Pan the hi-hat a little left and then set an LFO to the pan so it’s constantly moving in the left speaker sounds very, very nice. Do the same to a shaker or a clap. Almost every sound I make that isn’t bass, kick or snare gets an autopan. My reverb sends on my MnM patches get autopans, too. Treating reverb almost like its own instrument can lead to interesting results…

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Custom lfo on comb filter pitch.
You can also try sending it to reverb amount (on mix mode)
Applying an lfo to delay base freq can have interesting results… Kinda dub-ish.
You can also fake a sidechain effect, easier on 4/4 beats - it’s been discussed a few times in this forum🤓

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Forgot to mention OP, if you haven’t played with hold LFOs, you really should. The AE MnM sysex opened my eyes to that stuff. It’s kind of like p locking a parameter in practice, but with less commitment required. It can easily breathe life into a track with just a bit of depth.

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Lfo to rtrg and another to rtim will get you occasional zippery retrigs. Haven’t seen my OT for awhile so can’t say the values I’ve used for good results. The zipper sound comes when the rtrg value gets modulated high enough and at the same time the rtim modulates through the higher values so there’s pitch shift…

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Square LFO (hold) with max depth to RATE: switches between forward and backward playing.

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My favorite trick with lfos, from default settings :
Lfo 1 : Lfo designer, multiply 64, hold, depth 127
Lfo 2 : Random, dest lfo 1 speed, multiply 64, hold, depth

This way you have a random lfo with specific values, like pitch for ex. Set pitch value in lfo designer, 1 semitone = 5 values. 12 semitones = 60

Variant, if you want to use only one lfo, assign lfo 1 speed to crossfader, 0-127.
At 0 the last value played by the lfo is hold.

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Other trick with lfo designer :
Set and switch specific values to several tracks (like pitch), for transposing for ex.

Set your lfo designer, pitch dest, hold?, speed 0.
Shift 1st value (active value) by shifting the lfo designer, with FN + Left arrow.

This way you can shift between specific values for all tracks having that lfo setting.

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Sometimes you formulate stuff in a way I really don’t understand…:frowning:

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Sorry, writing on my smartphone most of the time! Don’t hesitate to ask precisions.
Edited, better ?

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