Internal Resampling Nightmares :)

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

My fellow Octanerds,

I have been using the Octatrack for 3 months and been facing serious problems in internal resampling. I have read the forum about the regular workflow guidelines, but still I cant seem to get it going…

Step 2.jpg3264×2448 496 KB
Step 1.jpg3264×2448 427 KB

Here are 2 screenshots, so I can see the recording happen on Track 1 where I have setup the record buffer. Now what do I do ?

  1. After I hit STOP, ( which I ideally don’t want as I want a continuous resampling playback), I am forced to save it via the EDIT menu. And then go into the AUDIO pool to search for the newly saved file.

  2. If I don’t SAVE the file, then it disappears but the loop keeps recording continuously from Track2.

I am a bit dyslexic, if anyone can point out step by step the most easy and efficient workflow for uninterrupted resampling and saving I will bless you.

Thank you all !

#2

Off the top of my head … if you have a Track that you wish to resample, in your case T2’s 32 bar sequence … and you want this captured on T1 record buffer, then you may wish to set the SRC3 source as T2 (not main) … this will grab the output of T2 including effects and mangling

but what do you want to do with that buffer and how will you separate it from the playback of T2 … i.e. what’s your plan for the source and buffer recording that you want to constantly capture

Let’s say you Mute the T2 track for now, this track will still be resampled internally to T1 but you won’t get audio overlaps … if you set the Flex Track to playback its own buffer (this is the highest slot selectable from the flex list) then the Recording Trig and Playback Trig should exist on the first step of the seq … this will mean that you always hear the last ‘pass’ of the buffer - if you want to hear the ‘live’ buffer, then set the recording trig to be 1 microtime step early - i.e. shift it left to -1/384 - this will mean the playback will follow the record (rather than playing last pass)

you’ll still need to save stuff (kinda manually) if you want it permanent, but this should get basic internal resampling started, maybe explain what you want to do if it differs or have a look at the setup examples in the manual

#3

This makes me wonder why elektron hasn’t baked in a “save all record buffers to disk, autogenerate filenames” hotkey to the OT. Would be seriously handy (although potentially dangerous) tbh

#4

two things that will help you:
-look up “one-shot recording trigs” in the manual. using one on T2 will solve your continuous recording problem.
-change T2’s recording length from max to 32. this will ensure you get the loop length you want.

after you do both of those, this should help with your file management (working from memory here):

-in the sample editor (which you’re looking at in your first screenshot), choose edit, then select all (the first choice). after that you might choose edit again and normalize the sample. not everyone likes normalization but that’s another topic. :wink:
-next choose file. you’ll get an option to save the sample and (if you like) auto-assign it to a free static or flex slot. IIRC there are a couple of windows you need to pass through but the OT leads you through it. make choices, name the file, etc.
-whatever you do there, in the end the file will be saved to the card, but not to any particular folder. you can use the file manager or your computer later on to move it to someplace appropriate if you like.

hope this helps.

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#5

If uniterrupted resampling is what you want then you don’t even need to save the sample to a new file.
Record settings A look good, except, as @avantronica pointed out you might want to set the source to just the track you want to resample.
Then you need to decide how long your sampled loop should be. Let’s say it’s 32 steps and that you are using track 1 to resample. Make the pattern 32 steps, set the same length in the Record B settings (function + Record CD button).
Make track 1 a flex track, select recordbuffer1 as the sample. Put a sample trigger on the first step and a record trigger always on the first step. This will record continuosly and play to and from the buffer at the same time. You can delete the rec trigger anytime to stop recording (but still play back what’s in the buffer). If you want to just record once make the recording buffer a one-shot one.
Hope this helps.

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#6

…indeed :relaxed:

#7

@avantronica

Hi my setup is Ableton and Octatrack. This is what I plan to do.

( from muff wiggler forum)

-Tracks 1/2 are THRU with stereo input from A/B and C/D respectively.

  • Tracks 3/4 are STATIC could playing various drums sample chains
  • Tracks 5/6 are FLEX tracks that have recorder trigs and capture inputs
  • Track 7 is a FLEX track that has recorder trigs and captures track 3/4
  • Track 8 is master

The basic idea being to chop and re-sequence in real time to create pattern variations with unexpected and cool results.

So saving manually is something I don’t want to get in at this creation stage. Only when I have something solid I can record it back into the DAW.

#8

is this what Dataline is doing in this video ?

Where he is real time sampling/ recording and has pre sliced grid configured ? This is exactly what I want to do, but with Ableton as my input source.

Franly all this technical stuff goes over my head. I have to spend hours and hours to learn this…hopefully I can :slight_smile:

#9

You will get the hang of it. There is so many cool ways of using this machine. Also, regarding resampling, a nice and fast way of choosing what to sample is to have the rec source “SRC3” set to CUE. That way, only the tracks that you que will go into the recording.

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#10

If that’s what you want to do you won’t have to save anything (except if you want to keep things for later use). Just assign the recorder as the sample to play by your flex machine and you’re good.

#11

Thank you guys ! I have successfully routed my Ableton via Saffire 2i4 into Octatrack >

  1. Recording Live Audio from Ableton
  2. Switching onto midi mode > Sequencing all my cool VSTs

and…

  1. Recording on to Flex track !
  2. Feeding it back to Ableton!

Super.

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