I need to say it!

I had the mki since the begining of Octa times and thought it deserves a friend in black

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Has anyone got a rough idea of when the OG paintwork was phased out? Just out of idle curiosity to be honest. Guessing it mustā€™ve been fairly quickly judging by how few of them are ever available or even seen in studio pics. Iā€™m a tad sad and zoom in to check wherever I see onešŸ˜‚

Edit: At a guess I think it was probably about 2 years and came when the A4 and itā€™s smooth black appeared.

Probably. I bought mine almost 8 years ago, and it was a 3rd hand. I bought A4 after (2nd hand), different paintworkā€¦

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Hahaha not at all, I canā€™t stand being in front of a computer to make my music. So even if you arenā€™t using the OT for production, I was still inspired. I also play a bit of violin so that helped a lot. I realized in your last album that you were probably using more of a DAW to mix all your compositions together.

For the the OT just came into my life/setup and just worked - it wasnā€™t a ā€˜oh my god Iā€™m in loveā€™ nor a ā€˜this is the end of the worldā€™ it was just ā€˜the OT is and will ever be in my setup.ā€™

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I have the black mark 2 and I love it, but seeing these side by side makes me want the original. Itā€™s kind of cooler looking! I know the look isnā€™t that important, but it just looks more badass

After hearing an Octatrack (admittedly through a Boum) played on a Funktion One system at a forest rave on the weekend, I can confirm that anyone who complains about the OT sound quality should readdress some key principles within themselves.

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My knob and crossfader caps are fucked. Do MKII ones fit MKI ?
(Syntakt do, but iirc Digitakt didnā€™t)

Yeah the mki is something special and itā€™s the only elektron box that I kept all the way.

I donā€™t know if possible to swap mki/nkii cross faders. Mine is still working but the feel of the mkii vs mkii is different.
I think thereā€™s some dust protection on the mkii

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Yes I think that is about right. Also early mk1 never had the rubber dust guard in the xfader slot, so all of those would be the textured paint (actually think it is powder coat) some later ones did though. Also the early ones came with a small A5 sized manual, so if you see that in the listing it is most likely textured finish.

I had 2 mk1 both textured, the first one did not have the xfader dust guard, the second one did. I donā€™t recall the serial numbers but it might be a good idea to ask Elektron or users if they are willing to divulge.

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The first time I had an octatrack I didnā€™t gel with it at all. I kept trying to learn too much too quickly and rapidly found myself giving up on most of it and just using it as an FX box before selling it.

Bought another one a few weeks ago and itā€™s been a completely different experience. Iā€™m still not using it to record or loop stuff (which is where I struggled before) but Iā€™m doing much better using it, both on itā€™s own and with other gear. Zero frustrations so farā€¦

Gonna start putting a few scenes together over the next couple of weeks and start turning a few loops Iā€™ve built up into something a bit more performance worthy.

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I meant caps ! :content:

So what are you doing with it?
And what are you doing thatā€™s unique to the OT?

I read this thread, and I read OT threads generally, and Iā€™m in the position you describe before getting a 2nd oneā€¦

Well so far Iā€™ve used it as a performance mixer with my Polivoks and Lyra, Iā€™ve set up FX sends with my Sherman and Quadraverb, Iā€™ve spent some time just putting a few loops together with static machines and neighbour tracks so I can put some scenes together and start using scenes forive performances Iā€™ve got coming up and Iā€™ve spent a bit of time just generally building up some muscle memory and playing with the comb filter.

Iā€™m getting a Perkons soon, and my setup will pretty much be Perkons, OT and Sherman for live performance. At this point Iā€™ll probably start getting my head round recording, as Iā€™ll need a couple of flex tracks and recording buffers for some of the more fun performance effects.

The main difference between this time and last time is that I have no interest in this question. All it does is add pressure to do things that I probably donā€™t need to be doing at this point.
Iā€™m not really that bothered if Iā€™m doing stuff that only the OT can do, because itā€™s the only sampler I own, so that doesnā€™t really matter. Also, Iā€™m having a right laugh, which is the only reason Iā€™m doing this in the first place.

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You did though. Performance mixer innit. :smiley:

I get what you said, I would know where to put an OT if I bought one again, and how I would use itā€¦ compared to when I bought the first one I had as a (stereo) Digitakt Deluxe and was completely bamboozled by itā€¦ and I think the time apart will have helped.
Now, Iā€™d use it to run a couple of synths into for mixing and live looping as part of my wider set up.

yea i reckon the key is to use it for just 1 or 2 things. first time I got one I got overwhelmed too cause I was trynna use everything it could do all at once. now I have a very specific use n donā€™t bother with lots of stuff.

the only thing difficult about the ot is the manual. just donā€™t read it.

I agree :joy: confused the hell out of me

trig this, trig that, lol :woozy_face:

on that noteā€¦ why do they call them trigs? when itā€™s a step sequencer. are they not steps?

For a performance techno setup Iā€™d be hard pressed to find a better sampler than OT. One thing I sometimes do is have 4 mono synths going into the 4 inputs, on t1-4 these are thru machines, on t5-8 these are flex machines. Now set up the recorders on t5-8 to record from the input or thru machine track, set record type to QREC and with quantise setting to whatever you want. Hit rec buttons whenever you want to sample. Set scenes for say left xfader is live input from thru machines, right side is recordings. Set scenes, fx etc to taste, scene copy comes in handy here. Set flex tracks to slices, slice grid appropriate to length of your recording. Then just spam the bejeezus out of randomize slices, and waggle that xfader - the audience will think you are a genius. Profit. :joy:

Joking aside, you can set this kind of thing up once, save it as a template and reuse and modify as needed.

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