Is the Octatrack just naff at sampling more than one sample at a time? Here’s what I mean; Stereo Drums into A and B, mono synth into C and a mono synth into D. Sampling all 3 sources to 3 separate tracks at rhe same time with Recorder Trigs. It seems there is always something goes amiss when I try to do this. It seems to confuse the machine.
What specifically is going wrong?
What does naff mean?
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not good, poor at, a bit rubbish
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I find it pretty good at that sort of thing.
Gotta set it up first, but then it’s a push of a button to sample from multiple sources at once.
Can even be different lengths at the same time.
Operator error.
But that can be easy to do…
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Hi GurtTractor
At first it lost input to the track recorder fed from inputs A and B, although sound could still be heard at the output from inputs A and B via a Thru Machine. This was a healthy level and sounded good. It looked like the Recording buffer was still tracking something, like a low level electrical noise floor. And in some occasions an excessively quiet recording of the drums, plugged into A and B. This recording could not be heard but a waveform could be zoomed in on that looked like the drums.
On another instance sound from input D could not be heard at the ouput via a through machine but it was being recorded and could be played back by a Flex machine lisening to that recording buffer.
These things just seemed to happen without me changing anything. I was just going for a new take.
This couldn’t be resolved, I rebooted a few times and eventually dumped the project incase it had gotten corrupted. That sort of thing does happen occassionally on computer based devices. So I started again with a new project
On the new project starting the track recorders via Trigs, it glitched and one of the track recorders would drop out of recording almost instantly. This happened a number of times. Seemed happy recording on 2 tracks at time.
There just seemed to be lots of little things that misfired. I’ve been at it since mid day with a couple of hours off for lunch etc, stopped at midnight, so that’s about 10 hours. So got to wondering that maybe it just can’t do this sort if thing without throuwing a wobbly.
Cheers
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I’ve seen this happen. It doesn’t happen to me often because I don’t always sample more than a stereo input worth of external audio while resampling internally, so maybe I just don’t walk into situations like this often, but it has definitely happened a few times.
My personal tl;dr is that the OT is buggy and unexplained behaviors will be encountered.
This is an indicator that a recorder is recording from the wrong input, you can often see a tiny bit of crosstalk from other channels down in the noisefloor.
When you place a record trig, by default it will be set to record from all three sources, A B/C D/Int. You choose which source to record from by holding the trig and pressing REC1/2/3.
This could be caused by a few things, do you have any reserved track recorder memory set? RLEN could also be the culprit, and maybe you’re running into overall memory limits?
9 times out of 10 these kinds of issues are user error tbh, there are some small bugs here and there but most of the time it’s just something crucial that gets overlooked.
I recommend just starting with one input and track recorder and making sure you can use that reliably, then add one track at a time and see at what point you run into trouble again.
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Hi Gurt,
I done the thing with holding down the record trig to set what inputs the Trigs listen to, so not that. Turned off the internal SRC as well.
And I sent RLEN to 64 on all tracks, I was recording a 4 bar thing at 120bpm, so not that. There was 16 seconds memory availabe for each track, plenty
I was operating on the basis that user error was the cause, but after seeing it glitch when it’s started recording on 3 tracks, the glitch causing one track to drop out almost instantly, and subsequently the track that dropped out does record next time round, when recording it on it’s own…well that made me wonder
Mmmm, yeah tbh it feels like a bit of something buggy is going on.
Thanks
I just tried recording with the same setup as you, three tracks with the same input setup as yours and with corresponding thru tracks. It worked fine. There’s probably just something set up incorrectly for recording or playback.
Are the recorder buffers assigned to the right tracks? The buffers are seperate to the tracks and can be assigned freely or not at all. That’s a common cause of confusion.
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Remember that thru machines have to be trigged at least once for you to hear anything through them. Either set a trig down on their track or manually trig with the corresponding trig on the OT in standard trig mode (9-16). If you double tap stop at some point you’ll have to re-trigger it again.
Yes through Thru had Trigs on them
Thanks for making the effort Gurt of doing a test, appreciate that!
Yes Rec buffers 1, 2 & 3 assigned to Flex tracks 5, 6 & 7 and Recorder Trigs on Tracks 1,2 & 3 assigned. I tried reassigning the buffers to different Flex tracks to see what would happen. Still didn’t hear A and B at another Flex track. Thing is, it was working to begin with and at some point it stopped.
The new project I started was a bit different. I didn’t use through tracks, just 3 flex tracks recording into their own buffers. When I hit go on the midi clock that sends sync to the OT, the OT glitched. It started recording and the + sign was seen next to tracks 1,2&3 and then a split second later it glitched and the + sign dissappeared from track 3. When I restarted recording to track 3 only then that was fine. So I got the 4 bar phrase recorded but in 2 passes. This happend a couple of times.
It’s been reassuring talking to you as all the suggestions you’ve made are things I have tried, read in the manual and checked. I won’t get a chance to have at it again for a few days, but when I do I can double check it all and be assurred that I am indeed following correct proceedure. Operationally It’s such a peculiar device the OT. 
All the best
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Multisampling means something different (making several samples of the same instrument at different pitches so you can play it back across a keyboard and not have the extreme notes sound heavily pitch shifted).
I think something like “multi track sampling” would be a better description of what you’re doing, to avoid confusion with an existing term.
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Hi, yeah I know what multisampling is. But hey I might of been multi sampling across the 4 inputs. Cheers
You can use the 8 recorders simultaneously to record any source…tested.
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Can you describe the whole MIDI setup around the OT? Maybe there’s a MIDI loop or the OT is responding to notes with a MIDI mapping that doesn’t suit your current project?
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Hello Octagonist,
Potentially the Midi setup is quite complex. The OT is taking a Midi out from an ERM multiclock, which is taking audio sync from Ableton. This audio sync is some form of SMPTE generated by a plugin and spat out of a physical audio output to the ERM. The ERM generates midi clock from this audio input and there is nothing else on the same output as the OT from the ERM.
The ERM has 1 midi input which has a keyboard plugged into it and 4 midi outputs which have mapping per channel to play notes and CC’s on other devices from that keyboard. Nothing is mapped to the OT.
There is USB sync from Ableton going to a Minibrute 2S with some modular and Midiclock from a 2nd ERM output going to a Keystep Pro which drives some modular and semi modular.
The setup is a little complex but the bit that feeds the OT is really simple.
On another subject re sync, Overbridge just does not work. There is an Analog Rytm and a Digitakt in the setup, both connected via USB and OB for stemming, but the sync in OB is useless, all over the place. Ableton sync via USB to these devices is working very well. Same in Reaper OB sync just doesn’t work well.
I just had a quick look at the setup in the ERM clock. There is nothing mapped to the OT via the midi in on the ERM. And, thinking about the behaviour…after one of the tracks on the OT drops out of record upon starting when recording to 3 tracks at the same time…once I restart recording and record only to one track that dropped out, the other 2 tracks having captured audio already. Then the OT doesn’t drop out. If there was a stray midi messgae I would expect a repeat of the behaivour everytime regarless of the number of tracks I was recording. Hopefully I will get another crack at it tomorrow or the day after, thanks for the suggestion it’s another possibility to examine.
All the best
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