Introducing Octatrack MKII

News
#937

Yep, the confirmed info so far only says it’s possible to open MkI projects. Nothing has been stated about whether MkII projects will be able to be opened on an OT MkI…

And noone from Elektron has explicitly said that the processor brings the same limitations as the old one. My guess is there’s headroom for stuff like conditional trigs and they’re paying attention to see how important it is to people. And the answer is: very! Their decision could influence me to buy my first OT. Should they fork the OS and add conditional trigs to MkII (assuming it’s not possible for MkI)? Yes, definitely. As someone fairly new to Elektron, I say bring it on! Oh, and for the sake of convenience (and my budget), it would be awesome to find out in the next month or two. :wink:

1 Like
#938

My Octratrack is the only machine I have that it happens to hang from time to time (days), I won’t bother to travel with an extra unit. :slight_smile:

#939

‘hang’ in the sense of ‘crash’?

#940

Exactly, sounds keep coming thru, but the interface gets frozen till restart.

#941

Frightening!
Have you contacted support?

#942

ok, try rolling back to 1.25E?

that OS version has been perfectly stable for me during the past two years or so.

i gig all the time with it.

#943

and now i remember booting up 1.25F when it came out and getting freezes/crashes, which is why i stayed on 1.25E.

i didn’t even try the subsequent updates, as the bugfixes were for problems i never encountered on 1.25E.

weird.

let me know if you would need the .bin file for the E.

#944

I’m in 1.25D :slight_smile:
I have the E, thanks for the tip, I´ll give it a try! :wink:

#945

Nope, hangs are too isolated, like the machine can go great for months.

#946

This might have just sold me (as a new OT user) on getting the MKII.
Great explanation of the workflow implications of the added buttons.

#947

Replying to myself in case anyone else cared. Per Elektron, the card reader on the MK2 is different but has the same pins (I’m a bit confused as to what that means, but whatever). The rep mentioned that they only see a few bent pins on the CF reader per year and that the repair is only 30 minutes of labor and a few dollars worth of parts.

That doesn’t exactly line up with the horror stories I’ve read, but if they have it down to a 30 minute quick fix, all the better. :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#948

In the new row of five menu buttons, three out of five buttons make a lot of sense to me and two of those would likely speed up my workflow: AED (in the studio) and PART (in live situations). MIX is completely justified, but old news.

As to the other two new ones: I don’t switch to ARR and back that much, although the new button obviously makes that easier, and there certainly are applications for quick switches between normal playback and the arranger mode if you are into pre-sequencing phrases or transitioning between arranged songs.
On the MKI, i feel that the ‘Project’ (now PROJ) button was perfectly fine when sub-functioned under the MKI ‘Mixer’ button, as I don’t access it all the time.

I think the new buttons will help with the workflow, in a solid, non-confusing way, make the machine more accessible to new users.
Even if the new buttons might seem a bit underwhelming to MKI users, at least that means we can keep our MKIs without pangs of jealousy for now.

If asked, what would I have done differently? Possibly make the five buttons a direct access to the TRIG MODES, instead of having to scroll with the FUNC + Arrow button combo. Or make them track-assignable FX SEND buttons. But those are on-the-fly and very user-specific ideas, of course.

2 Likes
#949

Someone from Elektron mentioned on here a while back that they had an improved repair procedure for CF problems, so it’s definitely something that have addressed since the horror story(ies) from a few years ago.

Thanks for getting (and posting) the information.

6 Likes
#950

Does the Elektron warranty cover these “bent pins” issues? I felt like I read somewhere that they don’t. I hope I’m worng.

#951

I have a feeling that the only time you can bend the pins is if you’re not careful.

#952

To be honest, I’ve never used a compact flash drive. So I have no experience. how does one bend a pin? Is it by inserting the disk slightly off angle?

#953

Still no demo of the OT Mk2 …

What’s the point to bring just a pic if the unit is still not ready to be really shown … :smirk:

#954

I’d wager the majority of elektron is on holidays right now. Surely more info will come once the holiday season ends… Which makes me think that “August” might not be the actualy month the new mk II’s will be shipping.

#955

After seeing the updates on the AR/A4, this OT mk2 feels especially lame. It’s been 6+ years! Adding Overbridge and sequencer updates should’ve been the minimum for a mk2. (From any other company, would’ve expected updated UI to match the latest unit, new FX, etc.)

2 Likes
#956

I wish they’d added more, as they’ve done with the other two MkIIs. Conditional trigs seem less likely to appear if they’ve got so many other boxes to support…