How to avoid that OT sounds static – how to break out?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi there, so I’m working with an OT for a few weeks now. what I can say is that I’m very happy with the machine itself but here and there I do have the feeling that my sound is to static. of course it takes a lot of time to know how to deal with issues, but I would really like to know what you do to bring the samples alive. I would like to have more space between sounds and patterns. What I’m doing so far is:

Playing random samples
Create longer samples; slice them and set the LFO for the start-parameter to random

Polyrhythm
…well, takes it time but we know what to expect

Live-Record
Of course I do get crazy sounds out of a sample when recording the knob-tweaks. but then these steps repeat and loose the effect because of repetition. how to deal with it, what workflow do you recommand?

P-Lock
Same here, crazy results and interesting stuff, but how to avoid a repetition of the new sounds?

I’m excited about your strategies and workflows. I do know that there is not one way to learn this machine, but I’m always happy to hear how different the OT can be used.

thanks!

#2

Something I like is live-record knob tweaking + LFO. You can mess around quite a bit with lo-fi effect and get some awful rumbles.

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#3

The simplest way to branch out IMO is to copy your patterns to many slots and change them (slightly or more radically depending on what you want), and then use the chain mode to connect all the patterns together for a longer “pattern”.

#4

Analog heat :ecstatic:

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#5

What do you want to accomplish, though? Are you struggling with song writing, or getting your ideas into something finished?

#6

I would say (for me), the most underutilised yet most powerful feature of the OT for this sort of thing are the LFOs. The more I get using them, the more I realise I need to use them more. Have them do the common stuff like dynamics and changing slice starts, etc. but also have them modulate other parameters. I have been using them with great success ‘leaving out notes’ on MIDI sequences or modulating modulating LFOs which are controlling melodies, velocities, playback speed, repeats, anything! Then you can draw in LFOs. I’ve been making what I call ‘blanking LFOs’ which are used to create VOIDS in what plays. Have another LFO modulate this one and the voids are now much more ‘random’ and harder to track.

You mention polyrhythms… setting LFOs to something off the normal time of the track can have great effect to giving the illusion of randomness.

Here’s LFO play helping out the HP windchimey sequence. You can hear the randome melodic modulation of the sequence (the pattern sequence by itself is rather boring and super-loopey) quantised using ARP KEY setting and then every so often the blanking LFO comes in and holds or deletes some notes. This is on a MIDI track feeding the modular:

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#7

a good friend mr crossfader will be in avoiding the static.
its not just one scene transitioning to another.
play between the scenes and give your friend a little tick or tap to move things around

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#8

I’ve been enjoying playing “between the scenes” a bit too. There’s a world of sound between the spaces, and exploring that can lead to a dynamism of sounds.

I’ve been trying a combination of LFOs routed to pitch and/or volume or filter cutoff and playing with the speed but only having the depth at 1 or 2 for a subtle change.

#9

Press FUNCTION + Trig for trigless Trigs. Then P-Lock the Trig! No repeating of samples any more.

#10

Right now (as I’m still new to the OT, working with it for almost two months) i’m mostly playing the OT like an instrument. I do set trigs and let some tracks play together, but I’m not able to catch the sound i create in different moments.

thats why I started to sample within the machine from T8 with extended memory, but I find it more easy to record what I do in a DAW and then arrange it. But I would love to do that within the OT but haven’t found a way that seems easy and efficient.

I do have a lot of fun to play with samples and tweak them, but I do have the feeling that everything I do is gone after I move on. I hear a sound – I get an idea whats next, I’m tweaking knobs and move on… but after a few minutes when I want to rebuild what I started with I’m lost.

Guess I have to get more into patterns, copy stuff that i like to make sure not to loose it and find a good workflow. But that moment – when I start to think as an arrangement – that gets me out of the groove, I’m struggling with that I guess.

And if I try to stay in control of what I do I’m facing this threads topic: it sounds kind of static…

#11

I use random lfos a lot. I even have fun making a one bar loop groovy.
Set rdm lfos on Width (Filter), Decay, Vol, Bal (Amp), Pitch…
P-lock trigs with different settings and p-lock lfos Depth after.

You can specify random values with a lfo Design, trig=hold, and modulate his speed with a random lfo.
I would need a least 10 Lfos per track !
You can also modulate audio tracks with midi tracks, (lfos, Arps, lfos on Arps…)