Assuming you have similar levels across your DN/A4 projects you can pretty much set up the OT inputs to record them as they sound, you should not need to adjust anything, just get a nice loud signal coming in, you can allow the input LEDs to just hit red, you can check in AED for any clipping, try a few times until you get a unclipped signal, then basically you should be fine.
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I guess youâve sold me on the OT then, thank you all so much. Will look out till a good offer for a used MKII pops up and the come back as soon as more specific questions come up that canât be answered by tutorials and manuals. Excited!
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So I am able to set a one shot recording trig with 64 steps on the first step of a OT track and match the scales of the OT and DN pattern. OT clock and transport are sending to DN so when I hit play on the OT, DN immediately starts playing at the same time. Easy way to record the first 64 steps of the DN in sync.
However, I canât figure out an easy way to record automatically the second time my DN goes through the sequence. I need this recording for smooth loops as there is release fading out etc. I understood your suggestion to set a one shot on step 64 for recording the second 64 steps, but then I am missing a step. So do I have to adjust micro timing max late so that itâs basically trigger 65? Do I have to adjust track and master scales? There must be an easy solution as this seems like a basic thing many people will want to do? Couldnât find a thread though. Thanks a lot. Also a bit diappointed that recording 128 steps seems to be quite complicated, I thought the similar sequencers of DN and OT would make workarounds with scale etc. unneccesarry.
1 shot needs to be on step1, if RLEN is set to 64 it should record the whole 64 steps.
So, 1 shot record trig on step 1, press play so that everything starts, then arm the 1 shot, next time the pattern loops OT will record the 64 steps.
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Ah, so I basically repeat the same procedure as I have described above for recording the first 64 steps but only arm the recording after I already hit play so it will start on step 65? Is that correct?
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Yes, that is right.
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Perfect, thanks for the tip!
So now that Iâve got the recording down, what would be the easiest way to:
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Make a track play the recording/sample of DN steps 1-64 on steps 1-64 and recording/sample of DN steps 65-129 on any further loop? It would be easiest if I could place two trigs on step 1, one to once trigger sample 1 and one to trigger a loop of sample 2. Is that possible? Or do I need slices of a 128 step recording / record 128 steps and set the loop position to step 65?
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Assign scenes where a recording/sample of a DN pattern is set on A and on B a recording/sample of the same DN pattern that I varied directly on the DN (e.g. different filters, ADSR). Samples/recordings seem to be locked to whole tracks or trigs of the tracks, how can I lock them to scenes? Do i need parts for this?
End goal would be to have the pattern structure of the DN replicated as scenes on the OT so that I can stay on an OT pattern and perform 16 DN patterns by going through e.g. scene A 1-8 (= recordings of patterns 1-8 on DN) and scene B 9-16 (= recordingds of patterns 9-16 on DN).
I am also very thankful for tips/links to threads or external sources on how to best record smooth samples without clipping of loops that have lots of reverb and long releases.
Thank you so much, I thought itâs easiest to ask you these questions directly to you experienced people as there are many ways to achieve goals on the OT and I have a specific thing I want to do which is hard to find in manuals and tutorials. If my plan with scenes doesnât work out or you have a better suggestion, thatâs also much appreciated!
You canât lock trigs or tracks to scenes, only parameters.
To play 2 64 step samples on a track, set scale to 64 and multiplier to 1/2, place first sample on step 1 of page 1, place second sample on step 1 of page 3.
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Thanks! Smooth transitions between recorded DN patterns of 64 steps was my main goal. So best way would be to record pattern 1-16 of the DN in one take and then then lock different start/end/loop points of this sample to different scenes? Or using slices of this recording?
Well there are a few different ways you could do it, my approach would probably be to record and save your 64 step patterns, then use slot locks (in grid rec mode hold trig, use level encoder to select which slot plays)
Alternatively you could record them all sequentially into a long sample then slice it, select which plays by slice locks, and play back using a static (but can click on some material) or a flex if you have enough memory.
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Thanks, so I will dig into the specifics of your preferred approach from here on with tutorials and the manual! One last questions to be prepared: The DN patterns I want to record should amount to about 4 minutes for each song. Do I have to use static machines then or is the limit of about 8 minutes for flex machines only referring to recording buffer, but not to saved samples?
Well flex memory is limited to about 8m28s total (inc buffers) at 16bit (waste of time using 24bit here IMHO), so it is up to you to decide how best to use it, static has more capacity but some tradeoffs, see the manual.
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Why is that?
It is about noise floor when you record. No need to worry about it with right levels, maybe if you record things with very low volume ?
I am not a specialist, I was told 16 bit CD quality was the best when I was younger !
Max rec time 16 bits : 8m28s
Max rec time 24 bits : 5m39s
I tested (a bit 
) with OT and I had to record pretty low to hear the noise difference between 16 and 24 bits. (I suppose I normalized recordings to compare).
OT RAM is limited to 85.5 MB.
Noise can be interesting anyway.
@darenager what do you think about potential sound quality difference?
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24bit is useful for requirements when a large dynamic range or more headroom is needed, but in general for capturing electronic sources from essentially pre mixed stereo sources like a Digitakt or Digitone pattern IMHO a waste of time/memory.
For reference 16bit = 96db dynamic range, 24bit = 144db dynamic range. Not to mention most recorded music has compression which of course narrows the dynamic range.
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Thanks for that interesting and convincing sum up @darenager !
Thatâs really useful to know, thank you. I assume the same is true when capturing from a VST on a computer, but how about when sampling from an âaverage qualityâ existing song recording (e.g., MP3 or even an LP)? Or outputs from analog modular synth passing through effects pedals?
Now that I think about it, realistically my needs will never be âprofessionalâ and I am probably fine with always using 16 bit every time.
You should be good:
Based on the information provided in the search results, here is a summary of the average dynamic range in decibels (dB) for music by decades:
1960s-1980s
- Rock albums typically had around 15 dB of dynamic range during this period.
1990s
- The âloudness warâ began in the early 1990s, with music being mastered at higher average loudness using compression and limiting.
- However, the actual loudness range (difference between loudest and quietest moments) did not significantly decrease yet.
2000s
- By the mid-2000s, the trend of increasing loudness and compression peaked.
- Albums became around 5dB louder on average compared to the 1970s.
- But the overall dynamic range in terms of loudness variability was not drastically reduced compared to previous decades, averaging around 6-7 dB.
2010s
- Modern commercial releases tended to average only 7-12 dB of dynamic range.
- Classical and jazz maintained a slightly higher range around 12-15 dB.
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