Sorry if this has been answered before, I’m new to octatrack and I’m trying to work out if it suits my needs
I play a lot of background samples in my music (where I sing over them), I’ve used the SP404 previously to load samples, the problem is I can’t crossfade between samples. I’ve heard that you can do this with an octatrack, which suits me fine. However, just wondering, how many samples can you cross fade between. Can you only crossfade beween 8 tracks?
I would like to crossfade between lots of samples. Are there sample banks to cross fade between? If so, when you change from one bank to the next, is there are hard stop?
There are definitely different ways to skin a cat on the OT for what you’re describing.
There’s so many ways to approach things that I’m not sure how to answer your last question about stopping samples. But some answers to help you:
There’s 8 Tracks on OT. All can be assigned to a Static Machines that can play long samples. There are 128 slots per Project for Static samples. So that should be enough for you?
Otherwise you also have 128 sample slots per project for Flex Machines, that also play samples. Pro: More options to work with / mangle the samples. Con: Flex plays from Ram, so it’s more for shorter samples. Fine for 1 or 2 bar loops though, for example.
With OT you don’t really want to be changing between Projects live. That takes a minute and stops everything.
With the Fader you can move between Scenes. You can set scenes up fairly easy and quickly if needed. So you could prepare different scenes to change sequentially between different parts / samples. Might be a bit of a brain-f*ck. So maybe better just assign the Scenes as you go (just hold B and turn you current track volume down and the next one up, and fade to B).
There’s also ways to use the 1-16 Step buttons to one-shot trigger long samples I believe, but never tried it.
Octatrak tracks are monophonic, so if you want to “crossfade between samples” smoothly, you need to have outgoing and incoming sounds on different tracks. This presents a rough limit of four outgoing and four incoming sounds at any one time (our five outgoing, three incoming, etc…)
I am not sure if you or I misunderstood the OP:
i understand, that she wants to play sample, sing over it, fade to another sample singer over that, rinse and repeat. Theoretically you only need 2 voice for that.
the main problem I see here is syncing the start of the next sample. Triggering the sample from the keyboard without the OT Sampler might be a better solution, but as it was mentioned:
If all you want is just playing back samples and fade between them, the mk2 404 has a DJ Mode that does exactly that as If you are working with a DJ controller or 2 turntables.
Yes this is helpful. Although I don’t have an octatrack (yet), so some of the words are a bit over my head.
My samples tend to be long, say 1 - 2 minutes, I can have up to 50 or so. They are mostly ambient sounds.
So are you saying, if I have a project with 128 sample slots, that I can have sample 1 and 2 playing, and then fade in sample 4, fade in sample 39, can have all 50 samples playing (not that I would do that). and each of these sample slots can be a long sample.
Yes I saw that, but I think it can only cross fade between two samples. I want to play up to 3 samples at a time, and fade in different samples. At times I have 7 samples playing. They are all ambient sounds.
Sure. But my understanding is that a DJ mode can only cross fade between two samples, say I want three playing at once, and then to fade sample number 4 in, and sample number three out?
Ah, now I see.
i think the biggest issue with the ot is synchronizing newly started samples to the one that already run. You can change a sample on a track, that currently is not running, but you would have to time the trigger exactly if you need them in sync.
Not wanting to talk you out of the OT, but have you considered the Blackbox with a simple MIDI Controller?
You can assign midi cc to nearly everything on that thing. Assign faders or knobs to track volume, start the sample by pressing a pad, and then turn down one track while turning up the other. with the correct midicontroller and some practice this might work one-handed. If the controller has buttons, you could also start them from there.
The Blackbox has „infinite“ samples, as there are no slots. all you have to do is, load up the right sample to the next slot. that’s not that different from selecting the next sample from the sample-list on the OT.
That way it’s more as several samples players and a mixer. more faders but less Scenes to remember, what scene you need, to let Track 2 4 and 6 playing while you fade out 7 and fade in 3 etc.
Blackbox has USB host port, so you can just Plugin a cheap Novation or Akai controller via USB for that.
o i didn’t know about the blackbox. I’m going to research it now. Do you know how long each sample can be? I looked at the bitbox for modular a while back and a friend told me only 8 longer samples could be played.
If you have a link to the blackbox loading samples, I would be grateful. I can’t find it online!
I would approach this ( initially ) as thinking of the OT as 2 4-track recorders ( 1-4/A & 5-8/B ) with the crossfader controlling master volume of all tracks
Bank 1, Pattern 1 starts a set of tracks playing
Then change patterns or bank & pattern to the next set. Automate The volume change so A fades out while B fades in
This approach means you can have some tracks stop cold, have different I/O fade times for tracks, and leave the MIDI sequencer free…
As I write this, I can think of at least two other ways to accomplish this “on paper”; what works best for you is going to depend on things like are your hands busy or not, or do you have a midi controller or not, or how you’d like it to work ( is the set list strictly 1-50, or do you need the freedom to *call tunes in any order )
The blackbox streams Samples from the SD Card. I think I was able to run at least 8 stereo samples in parallel without issues with a fast SD Card. I sadly sold the Blackbox a year ago. Will buy one again some day.
I am not sure, how I can help you with that link to loading samples.
Loading a Sample (if I remember correctly) is done by clicking one of the buttons on the top, touching the load button on the screen and then select the sample.
This is not an issue with the Octatrack, the start of free running tracks can be quantized.
You can even choose another sample from the list and it will start playing on the next trigger.
If the samples are really long, you can use a one-shot trigger and arm the track when you’ve chosen the next sample. That way it will start in sync.
All this can also be controlled with MIDI, except the sample select.
But as much as I love the Octatrack, this does sound more like a job for Ableton Live with a controller. Unlimited tracks & samples, colorcode & name everything, crossfade between whatever you want. For a bunch of samples with some built-in effects it doesn’t need a powerfull laptop.
The time-stretching and effects quality is also a lot better.
Though, if you want to do live sample mangling, recording and resampling, Octatrack is king.
Just looked into the Blackbox, can it load 16 samples? I would like to have accessible all 80 samples. 16 samples seems very limiting for an ambient artist.