How much do you REALLY love the Octatrack?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#13

In my opinion, the Octatrack is one of the single best pieces of electronic music hardware released in the past 15 years. I can’t imagine my studio without an Octatrack. Countless (triple digits!) synths, samplers and drum machines have passed through my hands in the past 37 years, but only a few have ever earned a permanent place. The Octatrack is one. I love all of my Elektron boxes (I have MD, MnM, DT, AK, AR, AH), but the Octatrack is by far my favorite. I put it up there with my modular system, Kyma, and my Continuum. Sure, it has its quirks, but they are a small price to pay for the inspiration it brings me. I will own an Octatrack until there are no more working units to be found or until Elektron makes a better one (yes, I have a MkII on order).

If this seems gushing, so be it. Few things inspire this jaded old man, so when something comes along that does, I won’t shut up about it.

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#14

dont worry man, keep using it. I recommend using just the octatrack and very little samples to start with and just go extreme, drown it in FX, play with LFOs on EVERYTHING, assign things to the fader you wouldnt usually think to, neighbour tracks for more effects then p-lock your tits off and make it polyrythmic. just keep going and you’ll quickly realise that this box can make a universe of sound from a 3 second recording of you scratching your nuts. it might seem like a science project at first but you’ll eventually find that its more of a mad scientist, then when you start sampling other bits of gear and add in their features you’ll find that octa works in just about any set up. its the gift that keeps on giving

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#15

I love you.

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#16

this is exactly what I wanted to hear. I want to be able to sample myself taking a massive shit and turn into something my grandmother would listen to. the endless possibilities is what I was looking for in this machine. the feeling of “wow I’ve had this for a year and I feel like I only know 25% of what it does and how to spell its name”.

Thank you for this. Thanks everyone for the comments. SUPER helpful. Been digging a lot more. I think I was just exhausted of changing the pitch and adding FXs to everything.

#17

I will check these out!! Thanks for your reply!

#18

I love my OT. The single best piece of electronic instrument / fx/ sampler / groovebox I’ve purchased.

I bought it to use as a live, MIDI controlled looper and am now getting into producing everything with it as I am learning that it does so many more things.

I ordered mine back in April, and was delivered in June. During that time I must’ve read the manual a half dozen times, watched Cuckoo, Cenk, Darenager, and videos and got interested, inspired, and taught.

Now, I’m to the point of dreaming and wondering “how can I make it do that?” or previously learned information meets other learned information and I’m blown away that it can do things I hadn’t even conceived were possible.

It has replaced a laptop, interface, Ableton Push, and a delay pedal in my setup. Setup time for my rig is now less than it was with all the other gear.

So, yeah, I’m a fanboy. Didn’t even see it coming, as I thought I was just buying a looping sampler. Then I find out it’s a synth with the SCW’s, and then looping midi back to itself, and let’s not forget sampling to a Pickup Machine buffer but having that buffer presliced on another track so you can manipulate what you just played, or forget Serato, I can DJ with it, or just make it a super FX box, or combinations of ALL OF THAT in the same set because of Parts, and switch on the fly at the most random thought because it’s all right there, 1-3 key combo’s / button pushes away… all the while happily driving my other midi gear to their respective limits, and taking commands from me.

Because of it, I bought Analog Heat and will be getting Analog Rytm… I’m grateful for these Swedish folks for making these strong black boxes that help me set my music free, supporting what I want to do, while leaving things open ended.

Also - AskVideo.com is selling the Thavius Beck Octatrack course ( almost two hours long! ) for less than $8 US. If you’re having trouble, or even if you’re not, go get it.
I’m halfway through, and though conceptually, I can do everything he’s shown at this point, I’ve learned at least 5 new things about OT.

As a music teacher, it sounds like you’re asking if you should pick a different instrument.
My answer is no, you should not. Your mind told you to pick it up because you know it will do what you want it to easily.
This part, this frustration, is because you’re not comfortable with the instrument yet.
Pick one function and do it over and over again until it’s muscle memory, then pick another and repeat until you can perform your set the way you’re used to doing; then learn some more of what it’s capable of and grow.

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#19

(sorry couldnt help it)

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#20

I am speechless.

I love you?

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#21

heard he made this with an octatrack

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#22

https://g.co/kgs/MhfzFc

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#23

I suspect this song would make excellent OT fodder.

#24

i made several concerts with only 1 pattern w 7 tracks and 1 master track, blending heavily fx w the fader! like streamin from card! the trick is to keep it simple. as the ot is sooo deep. now i am random slicin imported samples, great remix function… the ot is one of my best hardware investment, very well build und made by musicians for musicians. love to tweak the knobs, filter/fx sessions, wonderful for experimental stuff. in fact the ot IS intuitive, IF u don t loose urself i the deep… and keep it simple especially i the beginning as the ot can be used in widely manners.

#25

The OT must be one of the most misunderstood gearz out there. It often frustrates the schmack out of people before they can realize what they’ve got in their hands. No one said this was gonna be easy, but in the end it’s not that hard!

It’s weird, it’s an instrument, but it’s kinda like a calculator, but once you really get accustom to it’s calculations, it’s an instrument again…

The OT’s boss, you can’t tell it what it should do and it doesn’t back down from a fight. If you do like the OT says though you usually end up in the same place much quicker. In the beginning you have let the OT pummel you to the ground a few times until you surrender… It makes you do homework too and sometimes gives pop quizzes while your tyring to do something with it… You have to start thinking like an OT…

If you venture past the breaking point with a desire to understand and think like an OT, you’ll find yourself at a mathematically musical wormhole bus station, operating a vortex matrix. The wormhole buses take your music to other parts of the Galaxy, you route their destinations by programming the vortex matrix.
Once the matrix has been programmed the wormholes become very accessible and take you far off places and back rather quickly and efficiently, and there’s lots of fun tricks you get to do while navigating.

It takes some effort but once you happen to catch just a glimpse the bus station, you’ll see why we keep it.

I highly doubt any of us are really pushing this thing toward its mind bogglingly mathematically musically extreme potential…

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#26

holy shit

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#27

That’s how I see tonight anyway, I’ll probably see it all sorts of other ways all sorts of other nights.
I could have tried to explain what I was saying with functions and math stuffs, but that didn’t seem like too much fun… :wink:

#28

While love is not a concept that applies to me and gear I am intrigued by the OT since day one. I feel there’s always another corner behind which another universe lurks. In a sense it’s like a generic computer. There’s so much you can do with it, but no guarding rails.

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#29

Hahaha! This is poetic, metaphorically beautiful and wholly true! Put it on the box please Elektron.

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#30

I got my OT2 for a shade over £1,000. Quite the bargain considering regular prices just now. Anyway, due to work I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it over the past 2 or 3 weeks. Do I feel bad that I have a £1k+ piece of equipment getting zero use lying on my desk? Hell no! That’s how I can tell I love my OT2.

Anyone who has followed any of the guff I’ve written round here over the years will know I’ve been cursed with guilt over unused gear and things resulting in me flogging everything. Genuinely don’t feel the need with my OT now. Quite happy. Just need to work on my time management to get using this beast!

#31

Maybe I’m the conflicting one here.

I do not love my OT, but I’m still keeping it. The only reason to keep it is that it’s the only sampler that’s multitimbral, with some midi output and it can keep the levels and machine setup between patterns, using just one of the four parts.

When Digitakt was out, I almost sell my OT to purchase one, but as soon as I see that it’s like an Electribe - each pattern with its settings - I avoided it like the plague.

I know the purpose of the OT isn’t sequence samples in the way DT does, but for effects, I prefer other devices. For mixer, I prefer another thing like the Aira - more control. In the OT you cannot use a send reveerb or delay, unless you purchase an external unit for it, or you do some CUE tricks with audio feedback.

I know that the OT can do all those things that you maybe need purchase 5-6 pieces of hardware gear to do the same. However the amount of funtions and the lack of physical controls do it for me a little tedious to use. I have attached to it a MIDI controller and I still need more control.

Using looped samples are nice in videos, however the timestretch is simply… bad. Ofc you can use this for your advantage, but if what you want is be really elastic with your samples… isn’t good.

Maybe I replace it for a cheaper unit, even if it lacks the parts feature. I’m not using it to the limit.

#32

I hated my octatrack at first, I had a list as long as my face of all the things it can’t do, things it does terribly, why its crap etc. Then I persevered and slowly learned to love it. I’ve had it about 3 months and i don’t think its that complicated at all and I don’t learn something new every time at all so not sure what im doing wrong. For me it is not a machine that can do everything at all, what it does have is enough options, i/o and routing that can combine so that there are workarounds for so many things you might like to do. My advice is just keep using it until you love it.

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