I just bought an OT Mk2

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#41

Congratulations! It’s such a great device and the Mk2 makes the workflow that much better to grasp and learn thanks to its few extra buttons :slight_smile:

My tip would be, as others have said, to go slow and do the basics first from a musical point of view without worrying too much about understanding, learning and using every feature of it right away. The more you play with its basic operations, the more it all will become muscle memory and the easier it will be to expand into the more complex features / interactions between features without losing the plot.

Another tip is conceptual: Remember that each Recorder is its own track (independent of the playback track), so when you record audio into track 1 for example, you’re ACTUALLY recording it into recorder track 1, which you can then set to play back on Track 1 if you desire so (by selecting RECORDER 1 as the sample source of the track). So the way I think of it is, I’ve got 8 audio tracks and 8 recorder tracks that I can mix and match as needed. The track buttons hence have dual functionality, A. to access the OT’s 8 tracks (by pressing the track button) and B. to access and record onto its 8 recorder tracks (by selecting a track and hitting REC1 / REC2 to record).

if this is confusing just ignore it :joy: , helped me big time though to realise that the recorders are their own tracks (instead of thinking: “I’m recording audio into track 1” I now think: “I’m recording audio into recorder 1 which I will make play back on track 1 by selecting it in the samples list of track 1.” :))

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#42

Something I found helpful was to accept that the default template sucks for every possible use case. Not one of the defaults makes any sense in the context of any other default. You have to reconfigure something to make it into a useful instrument.

I’ve come to think of it as several different types of device/instrument in one box: it’s an FX processor; it’s the main sequencer; it’s the mixer; it’s a drum machine; it’s a synth. You can mix&match some of the roles (e.g. three tracks for drums, two for synths, two for FX processing, one as a mix bus). If you had all of those as separate boxes in front of you, you’d have a lot of cables, a lot of knobs to turn and a lot of instruments to learn to play. With that in mind, it becomes more obvious why existing owners recommend taking it slowly, and learning one role at a time.

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#43

This is such a great explanation.

I think it is a pity Elektron called them ‘Track recorders’ because the name creates the impression each ‘Audio track’ has its own recorder. If they were simply called ‘Recorders’ it would’ve been clearer. A ‘Recorder’ can record any of the external inputs or whatever is playing on any of the audio tracks.

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#44

Each of the recorders is tied to its respective track, but the record buffers are not, but each track recorder can record from any audio track, or mix, or external :laughing:

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#45

This illustrates well enough that regarding the Octatrack, a precise explanation is clear/understandable only to people that already know the Octatrack. :smiley:

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#46

That’s why I would avoid to spend to much time on terminology in the beginning. Just start to make some beats. The rest will follow over the years. 7 years in my case and many to follow

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#47

What does this mean practically? :confused:

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#48

One thing is that you access a specific Recorder by first selecting the Track it’s tied to (plus some other key combinations).

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#49

Ah OK, thanks. So I can think of it as: each Recorder does not have a dedicated button to select it, so select a Track to access the corresponding Recorder (i.e. the Recorder with the same number).

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#50

I’m picturing a slightly different OT design with 2 rows of 4 buttons, labelled R1 to R8, situated above the REC1, REC2, REC3 buttons (the T1-8 buttons remain as they are). Also, REC1-3 are renamed AB, CD, INT (they have the same function as before).

To sample IN A/B to Recorder 1, you press R1 + AB, etc. To sample INT to Recorder 2 - press R2 and INT. Etc.

To configure exactly what gets sampled for AB/CD/INT for Recorder 1 (e.g.), you press FUNC + R1. This shows you the same config screen as current, where you can set IN AB to A or B or AB, or INT to MAIN, CUE or any of the audio tracks.

This completely decouples Recorders from Tracks. I might have missed some other things.

Sorry if this muddies the water further, but by thinking about it like that in a way that makes the most sense to me, I hope it will sink in how the structure works.

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#51

Yes so to record on track recorder 1, first select track 1, at the moment you have still just selected the audio track not the track recorder, in order to make the settings for track recorder 1 you enter record setup (funct+rec1/2)

Now you can set where to record from and for how long, and fade and quantise settings in rec setup 1/2.

Where it can get confusing is that the record trigs can be accessed from the audio tracks sequencer, in the same menu as swing and slide, yet they are entirely separate aside from sharing the same scale setup.

Note also that the track 1-8 buttons are also used to select midi tracks if midi button is active, so it helps to think of the track buttons as selectors for whichever mode you are in, rather than to think of them as just for the audio tracks. So if in audio mode they select audio tracks, if in midi mode they select midi tracks, and if in rec setup they select the track recorders.

The track recorders always only ever record into their respective ram memory, accessed in the flex slot list Recording1-Recording8.

Any flex audio track can be assigned to play back any of these recordings, you can even sample lock different ones to different steps, same as for regular samples.

It is good practice (and often necessary anyway) to save and assign a recording once you are happy with it, they can be assigned to self (*not recommended for most cases, but I’ll come back to this) or to a free flex or static slot, in order to use in the audio track you will need to assign the flex or static slot to the track by scrolling to it in the assign page, but it takes all of 2 seconds.

*Assign to self can be useful when batch sampling, because you can easily name the buffer say “kick1” then take your next sample using the same track recorder, then save, the name menu pops up and you can increment it to “kick2” etc.

Think that about covers it, but if anything unclear LMK.

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#52

Thank you very much for this detailed explanation.

This part especially summarises it nicely:

I will think of them as 1-8, and what they actually select will depend on the mode you are in.

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#53

You are wise! I have an OT sitting at home daring me to get into it again after a couple of months of nonuse, and your post has made me look forward to getting back into it.

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#54

Thanks, I missed this earlier. Together with darenager and microtribes you have clarified this nicely.

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#55

These vids are indeed excellent, but they are pretty advanced IMO. I was not able to wrap my head around them fully when I was brand new to OT.

Cuckoo, The Messy Desk, and the Thavius Beck stuff is all good beginner stuff IMO.

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#56

Also check out EZBOT channel on YouTube.

He makes great ‘how to’ videos, if you want to learn a specific use case.

His presentation is top class. He goes at a nice pace and doesn’t make extraneous hand movements that can confuse you - makes a simple movement to the function he is showing and vocalises it.

He is on here as well, but I can’t remember his username.

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#57

@mpiecora is EZBOT and yes a great channel.

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#58

My first simple thought about what makes the OT special is the re-pitch of sample playback (similar to vinyl).

You’d be surprised how many samplers (software included) don’t do this.

You can slow down playback to zero and through zero which reverses the sample.

Combine that with the ability to plock the start time and you have infinite unexpected sounds to work with.

Explore that a bit and see what ideas you come up with.

Of course there are a million things you can do, but exploring what makes the sample playback “different” is a good place to start IMO.

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#59

I have an OT MKII on the way as well :slight_smile: Ordered it just after xmas but will likely have to wait until end of Jan because it is in backorder at Bax. Did get a good deal though because birthday giftcards and a discount code :smiley:

What I think will help is having a clear idea what you want to do with the OT in the first place. For starters: I want to integrate more sampled guitar into my electronic music and then mangle it to bits. I’m sorta viewing it as an expensive alternative to Tensor and then getting a lot of bonus functionality :stuck_out_tongue:

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#60

Yes, that is true. I watched them a lot when I was starting with the OT and also didn’t understand many of the concepts right away.

Still I’d say that those gave me a different kind of perspective than most of the other OT videos did. That was very helpful in determining which way I wanted to go with the instrument.

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