How to select a slice without an encoder?

SLOTH · 2014-04-18T13:52:21.000Z

Hi peeps,

First time poster.
I have recently got an Octatrack, and i am progressively getting my head around it.

But the one thing that bugs me is slices :
How do you select slices without using the encoder?

Say I have 8 slices of a sample on T1, slice selected is slice 1.

Then i can input steps in the sequencer, which will trigger slice 1. No problem.
But then i want to select slice 2 so that all the steps i input from now will trigger slice 2, leaving slice 1 triggers unchanged.

The only way i’ve found to do so is to P-Lock each step, which i found to be quite a hassle.

Not sure ifi’m clear?

Anyways thanks for your help.

LordAlister · 2014-04-18T14:00:04.000Z

I think i understand your problem.

Change the sample to slice instead of time. Then you can change the display from track to slice. You can then manually trigger the slices. To record just press rec+play and then manually trigger the slices.

OR

Just stick with P-lock.

Sorry so vague with description, I dont have my OT in front of me.
Hope this helps.

Nein · 2014-04-18T14:12:06.000Z

Use scenes and the crossfader to do it.

SLOTH · 2014-04-18T14:31:22.000Z

@LordAlister Well i think i wasn’t clear enough.

Basically what i want to achieve is to press on a slice to select it and then be able to input triggers for that slice, instead of having to select each slice for each step, via P-Lock.

@Nein, i think i get what you mean but i would like to use more than 2 slices. This was just an example. i’m not sure it’s possible ?

zeropoint · 2014-04-18T14:40:06.000Z

any slice can be set as the default input slice by selecting it in the main playback page. but then you still have to lock all the others.

you could try programming your pattern in groups of 2 slices. Lock your main one and copy it to the buffer. Now choose another slice as your default using the playback page. You can now program the pattern with a combo of the default slice and the one copied to the buffer (by pasting it in as required) to get the meat of the groove down.

other than that it’s live entering or locking.

SLOTH · 2014-04-18T14:56:53.000Z

@zeropoint thanks ! i think i got my answer.

Nein · 2014-04-18T15:08:30.000Z

You can lock different slices to different scenes so your not limited to 2.

zeropoint · 2014-04-18T15:18:30.000Z

I’m not suggesting he’s limited to two slices in the final pattern…only that the method I outlined means you can quickly step- enter your slices, 2 at a time.

Of course, as you say Nein, you can use scenes to change up your patterns with different slice locks after you’ve programmed your base pattern…but that wasn’t the op’s original question.

Edit. Ok I see the confusion…I think you’re answering the thread title…but his question is really framed up in the body of his post

smais · 2014-04-18T15:24:04.000Z

Copy-paste trigs - You won’t need to P-Lock each time.

harmony_flo · 2014-04-18T16:19:44.000Z

There’s a trig mode called slices that does this while in live record mode.

sabo · 2014-04-19T13:52:35.000Z

1 for slice trig mode.

hold function + down arrow while in record mode. choose “slices”. your sample has to be sliced in the sample editor for this to work.

Automux · 2014-04-19T15:33:46.000Z

""Nein"":

You can lock different slices to different scenes

Wait what? I didn’t know you could do this! I haven’t used slices enough to notice there are parameters for what slice to play. So how does the fading work for this? Will the first slice still be cut off when the second one starts just like when using multiple samples on one track? Or does it treat it as if it were the same sample since in some sense it is?

smais · 2014-04-24T06:24:09.000Z

It doesn’t fade between them. It just plays the slice selected at the time it’s trigged. Look into sample chains.

elenacortes · 2014-04-24T07:26:33.000Z

Slice triger is the easiest to achieve the operation. Used in conjonction of record mode you can make creazy things. Idem with the slot mode.

Speedball · 2014-04-24T10:43:48.000Z

""Nein"":

You can lock different slices to different scenes so your not limited to 2.

Sorry, maybe totally stupid question and sorry for hicking this thread, but is it really possible to lock p-locks to scenes within one pattern ?

So for example…

Scene A: 3 trigs on bar one, 1st trig plays Slice 7, "nd Trig plays Slice 5 und 3rd Trig plays Slice 15

Scene B: Same trigs play Slice 8, Slice 10 and Slice 12

This is possible ? How ? That would be fantastic

Automux · 2014-04-24T15:16:44.000Z

""Speedball"":

[quote=“Nein”]You can lock different slices to different scenes so your not limited to 2.

Sorry, maybe totally stupid question and sorry for hicking this thread, but is it really possible to lock p-locks to scenes within one pattern ?

So for example…

Scene A: 3 trigs on bar one, 1st trig plays Slice 7, "nd Trig plays Slice 5 und 3rd Trig plays Slice 15

Scene B: Same trigs play Slice 8, Slice 10 and Slice 12

This is possible ? How ? That would be fantastic[/quote]

slice.PNG314×169 3.69 KB

P-lock the STRT slice on each trig per scene.

Speedball · 2014-04-24T17:46:28.000Z

""Automux"":

[quote=“Speedball”][quote=“Nein”]You can lock different slices to different scenes so your not limited to 2.

Sorry, maybe totally stupid question and sorry for hicking this thread, but is it really possible to lock p-locks to scenes within one pattern ?

So for example…

Scene A: 3 trigs on bar one, 1st trig plays Slice 7, "nd Trig plays Slice 5 und 3rd Trig plays Slice 15

Scene B: Same trigs play Slice 8, Slice 10 and Slice 12

This is possible ? How ? That would be fantastic[/quote]

slice.PNG314×169 3.69 KB

P-lock the STRT slice on each trig per scene.
[/quote]
Thanks very much for your help, but i am not able to p-lock trigs as long as i am holding down the scene button. What am i doing wrong ?

Automux · 2014-04-24T18:07:59.000Z

""Speedball"":

Thanks very much for your help, but i am not able to p-lock trigs as long as i am holding down the scene button. What am i doing wrong ?

Err… yeah I see what you mean. You want to change each trig for the scene. I’m new to this trick so that makes sense why someone pointed out only two slices when using scenes. I would assume you can P-lock the trigs but then for your scene you can only use one slice when faded over. Yeah that limits that feature a bit.
Depending on how you are performing you could use the scene switch trick where you set the different slices on different scenes. When you want to change what slice plays just fade all the way to scene B and hold the scene B button while switching the selected scenes on the fly. Still not as nice as being able to P-lock new slices per trig but a bit closer.

zeropoint · 2014-04-25T00:06:29.000Z

ok guys i think there is a little talking at cross purposes here.

the op originally wanted to know how to step enter slices on different trigs without p-locking every individual one. the method i mentioned using 2 slices was simply a quick way to step enter slices without p-locking each individual step. copy and paste of existing trigs is also a quicker way of step entering. but the quickest way to do this is not to step enter at all but to play them in using slice mode. unless you just want to use the randomiser to keep throwing new selections of slices across your trigs.

scenes cannot lock slices to a slice of your choosing on a per step basis as you have discovered. what they can do is specify a range of slices that can then be selected by the position of the crossfader

so let’s say you have a pattern made up of trigs triggering slice one of a 64 slice chain and you then lock to slice 64 using a scene. now as you move your crossfader around (it’s divided into 64 increments) the slice between 1 and 64 will be played depending on the position of the crossfader when the trig hits.

if you have a pattern made up of various slices being triggered on different steps, as i understand it…and someone correct me if i’m wrong, the same relative interpolation happens.

so if you have for example slice 3 on a trig and you have the crossfader to the far right (at “position” 64) slice 2 will be trigged in place of slice 3. Slice 15 on a trig and you have crossfader at position 32, slice 47 will be played instead. Slice 13 and position 54…slice 3 will be trigged etc.

smais · 2014-04-25T11:44:46.000Z

For the example above: I think the interpolation works a bit differently than you described. With crossfader all the way to 64, all trigs just play 64. This would wake me think it just raises the base slice. So if you have trigs at “1 2 3 4”, and cross fader at 10 then you hear “10 11 12 13” but at 64 “64 64 64 64” as it can go no higher. Might be wrong but this sound like what it’s doing with me.

Edit: Also it’s worth noting that if both scenes have a slice locked then this interpolation doesn’t happen. You just get the slice the crossfader is at for all trigs.