I keep getting lost in my OT projects. When I load one up it takes a while for me to work out what’s where. How do you keep track of what’s going on in your tracks?
Do you always use track 1 for drums, and track 2 for bass, for example? Always use track 1 as a resampler?
I’m new to the Octatrack, so I’m looking for any tips to help me not get lost.
I’m new to OT too, and I get lost too. It makes sense to stick to a set pattern, I guess, with drums on one or two tracks always the same, etc. However, I’ve found so far that each of my tracks is so different that this doesn’t really apply. Half the fun, for me, is getting lost - but I’m not using it commercially and have no deadlines, which may be different for you. I’m sure someone else here will have something more helpful to say. 
Yes, Track 7 is Kick, 4 is Hihat, 6 is Digitone with through Maschine. 1 is Clap etc. Better label your tracks on the OT.
I’ve tried to keep to those kind of project structures in the past but the rabbit hole is invariably varied 
If I feel like I’m going to want to come back to something in 6 months then ill sometimes write a memo on my phone of anything that isn’t going to be obvious to me when I hit the project again.
The OT can be many things, so each project can serve different ideas/setups. Getting lost is the beaty of this beast
What helps (for me):
This seems like a great idea. I have a little memo block with square sheets of paper in it. Perfect for this, then scan with phone camera to archive in case the paper gets lost.
Depends on the project.
Jungle has its own layout that I wont get into.
My Techno stuff is always thru machines on 1-4 then samples and neighbour machines on 5-8. Midi tracks are always drums so thats easy.
Resampling/generative stuff is always just a random mess but I always seem to make sense of it.
I used to make notes on paper. Guess my brain has evolved its own cache since then
I write everything down (I use graph paper). I keep everything in a notebook. 
I have one project that I named ‘template’ with settings that work for me, so for a new project, I open this, then ‘save as new’
It saves time in setting up midi channels, machines etc
Don’t forget you can make notes (remarks) in the arranger, and also use those notes to ‘divide’ the arrangement into sections such as intro, first drop etc etc
I find this is really useful when coming back to unfinished projects later down the line
Here are some of my thoughts from a while ago: New thought: 16 patterns of a bank as a 2D grid
This particular setup is nice for the problem you’re describing because it abstracts musical ideas away from their implementations on specific tracks. In each bank I can use whatever tracks I want to implement whatever musical ideas, but each bank uses patterns in the same way to achieve different musical feels (more rhythm/less rhythm, more harmony/less harmony).
This way, when coming back to old projects/banks, I can still control them reasonably without needing to know the details of how they were done.
I think this idea has more usefulness in some genres than others, but it has worked well-enough for me.
Hope that helps.
I just read your linked thread. It’s a good idea, although I’m not that advanced yet on the OT — I’ve only had it a couple of weeks.
Your clever use of banks made me think that they could be used as a way to expand the number of tracks you have. For instance, you could always place drums, bass, and percussion on track 2, 3, and 4, with track one used as a pickup, track 8 for resampling, and so on.
Then, if you need a new pickup, instead of squeezing one into a spare track, you could duplicate the current bank and reuse the PU on track one. That way you always know where the various track elements are in a pattern.
That leads to a different set of confusions, but it’s a thought.
This bread also looks quite handy;
May vary, nothing planned but usually :
Tracks 1-4 for recordings, samples.
Track 5-6 Thru machines or fx (CUE recording), or samples.
Track 7 for additional samples / fx
Track 8 as Master Track
First 2 tracks are fix:
Track 1: Kick
Track 2: HiHat / Snare
Track 3 & 4: other Percussion sounds or fx sounds
Track 5 - 8: Thru machines if needed with neighb.
Sometimes track 5 & 6 are also used for Percussions.
Usually I don’t use Master track.
I’ve never done this but sounds very helpful. I need to try this.
Yeah template is great. If you want to use all banks the boring thing is to copy and replace / rename banks with a computer preferably (possible in OT, but…
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Save as New!
I made 1 template project, but after I found interesting to start from scratch all the time to master more OT.
I bought Octaedit so of course I plan to make mega templates!
I started this Project tracking sheet. The third column is for pattern/track info. Scene actions to describe scene changes and movement.OCTATRACK PROJECT TEMPLATE v1.pdf (114.7 KB)
Being loop based, I tend to use one main pattern for looping with:
-tracks 1-3 pickup machines for main loops
-track 4 plays spoken word samples
-tracks 5-7 are each a flex remix of pickups 1-3
-track 8 master
I get tons of mileage from that pattern as I can just redo the loops and get lots of different results. Other patterns/parts are used for tricks, breakdowns, or other ideas and they are made mostly with the recorder buffers so that what they do is based from the material I have looped in the main pattern. I jump to them from the main looping pattern for variations during jams then always back to the main pattern for more looping. For the most part I keep things similar across patterns if they have the same element, usually drums loop1, bass loop2, rhythm or melody loop3, spoken word track 4, and the rest get switched up, sometimes any of those first four tracks get switched as well. The variations can be quite extreme with their own sets of scenes and whatnot.
I do have some copies of the main pattern mostly the same but with different flex remixes, usually accessible always on pattern 1 of a bank, sometimes another on pattern 9. I tend to keep similar things on the same pattern number of different banks, they are mostly the same but have some kind of variation to them.
I use one project that I keep adding to. If I start experimenting and have something going I like, I save as new and test the concept thoroughly to see exactly how it behaves then reload the main project and enter the new settings. I only enter changes to my main project after extensive testing to make sure It’s completely reliable the way I’m doing it and that I can’t mess up my jams by doing something weird. Since I always use the same project and continually use the same remix patterns over and over with different material, it keeps getting engrained in me so I keep the whole thing memorized as far as what patterns/parts do what…
So basically I have one main pattern that records loops and all other patterns create variations of what was recorded on the main pattern. I’m always jumping from the main pattern to other ones and then back again. Easy to remember the tracks of the main pattern, if other patterns use the same tracks they are always in the same spot, my variation patterns I just remember how they are set up since I use them over and over…
These are some really excellent tips. I’m just beginning with the OT, so I don’t really know how I’m going to use it yet. I bought it to use as a guitar looper and mangler, but I’m already using it to compose, and to remix my own songs.
I plan to start a notebook. @electrow I like your PDF, but if I don’t keep everything in a book I’ll lose the pages. I’m going to make a rough page plan, but like the OT itself I think I’ll just see what kind of order appears for the chaos.