How do you guys record the Octatrack?

The 8 buffers share RAM, up to 8m28s. You can record 8 tracks simultaneously, up to 1m03s per track.

You can use several buffers linearly, with several patterns, in order to record a specific length without having to stop it. (64+64 steps for instance).

You can define a recording length with Reserve Length (unit = seconds, not precise, but you can see corresponding length in steps).

A recording buffer can record itself : you can playback a recording on a track, and record it with the same recording buffer.

6 Likes

Easy to edit an OT recording on a DAW grid. Beware of tempo with decimals : not precise values.
The Untold Truth About Octatrack Tempo

4 Likes

Good to know. Thank you. I avoid decimals because of stuff like this.

1 Like

Needed if you want to tune well retrigs, 103.1(25) is A tuning for instance.

Before I realised tempo with decimals could be wrong, I had audio editing problems in a DAW. Now it is much better !

1 Like

I didnā€™t know about this decimal tempo phenomenon! Sometimes I end up with decimals in my tempo if Iā€™ve been syncing with MIDI and then later change to use the internal clock and forget to check the tempoā€¦ I find it pretty frustrating sometimes because I do a lot of loop sampling on the OT. This is really good info

1 Like

I send output from my Octatrack to mixer recorder and record to an SD Card. Works perfect and super fast. Then edit in DAW. Or if I am using a DAW, send outs from Octatrack to my audio interface to record to a DAW. On my other Elektrons and my Virus, I like the Overbridge and Virus TI plugins a lot since they have tons of cool features.

1 Like

Best to keep the OT master then I guessā€¦ when using DT as master the tempo always junps around. Or is it better to just not share clock via midi, just program changes and keep the tempo the same manually

Yes, the audio recorder have to be master generally. Less variations, easier to edit audio on a grid, slice a loop.

But I tested OT slaved by Syntakt, it was very steady (sending only clock). If you send a lot of midi data with clock it is worse.

just saw this; also a nice way to record OT

3 Likes