OT Timestreching/pitch algo does sound a little dated. But in typical use it’s never been bad enough for me to switch the song/idea to ableton etc.
I really miss this feature too
That’s so true
I really love the OT and I am far away from being an expert using it. It takes it’s time to get to know it, but I really love it and feel the Torraiz is far away in it’s features, so no real competitor.
Regarding the algos I feel they give this machine a special character (soundwise) that make it real special for me!
The question was … is it worth the investment … in case of the OT this would be money and time.
A reasonable answer can only given by yourself. You have to check it out for yourself and rely not too much on opinions of others. Get at least some hands-on time and decide then, how sound, options, and workflow meet your requirements. There are many good sources of information out there, but nothing is as reliable as trying for yourself.
Just my experience …
I bought my OT with wrong expectations in mind, but after having it in front of me, I first checked out the functions the OT was supposed to do … not what I had purchased it for. I was only curios about what that box could do for me, beeing aware that it had a lot of interesting options up it’s sleeves … and this was lucky, because when I checked out the intended use later, it just didn’t work as planned, because it can’t. Well, I should have better done a good research prior to buying - to begin with, but I had learned so much more by just using it that it was absolutely clear, it was my thing, I would keep it, and I never regretted it.
1 Like
No competition that I know of.
Pioneer botched it with toraiz and everyone else is asleep. (Even korg).
As much as I wish for alternatives to 
, there are currently none.
What’s the problem with the pickup machine? I like the feature of turning Octatrack into a looper device.
You can find gear that tries to go where is. (E2s, sp404sx, sp16, etc.)
has the most comprehensive feature set and eats them all for breakfast.
1 Like
this thread is giving me OT gas
i have push and ableton, which is great, but i love simplicity. ableton push feels like 2 machines where there should be one, and i honestly cannot wait for the day that push is a standalone box (if it ever happens). i’d also love push more if it wasn’t so massive. they could easily release a 32 pad version and this would get it much closer to an elektron footprint dimensions wise. i think i’ll get around to an OT yet, but i agree its age is concerning, investment-wise. elektron boxes are expensive, so it pays to make a considered choice. but, i often think about going on holidays with some boxes, and… i’m torn. i’m torn between the ar, the a4, push and ableton (a laptop). push, as i’ve learned is just too unweildy. the AR is a “must take”, but the A4, I feel like i need to run it into something. sometimes, i wonder if taking an OT on vacation would be the sweetest box to take. but, the OT doesn’t have any built in synths, as such. this would be the virtue of an all-in-one ableton push. something that came with synths but yet had the functionality of a proper timelined multi-tracker. otherwise, carry-on baggage and airports are just too much of a hassle. so then it feels like you could get it down to 3 boxes. an ar, a4, ot, or maybe an mnm or md if you have those. so much of this to me is about the airport. and i wonder if companies realised that if they actually made an all in one box for the modern day how much they would kill it, how much people want this. i want drums as killer as the ar, with 3 or 4 different synthesizers, and a multi-tracker in one box. basically an OP-1 but the elektron version ;p
1 Like
The pitch range is fine for melodies since you can use the rate to get more octaves, here is an album I made excusively using the Octatrack, no DAW, all live jammed with only a single sample loaded, each of the songs uses the same sample which was either the Wilhelm Scream, 2 seconds of white noise, or the spoken word “Octatrack”
BTW track 6 only has 1 track used, the rest use all 8 tracks but still only 1 sample.
1 Like
You know, consider the OT + any little synth such as PreenFM2, Shruthi or Volcas…
You can go pretty far with just this, the tiny synth taking care of chords while OT drives the parameter of the thing.
It does seems to answer your needs…
Now regarding age, look how cult a TB303 is : it cannot be compared to a computer that take age rather badly, it’s more an instrument with a defined perimeter of features that will never let you down.
I’d rely on an old OT rather than a laptop or a brand new shinny Toraiz any day : for hardware, age equals less bugs 
3 Likes
You know, consider the OT + any little synth such as PreenFM2, Shruthi or Volcas…
That is clearly my favorite way to use the OT. A micromonsta is also perfectly suited for the OT. You can just sequence it, and use the OT audio input to for extra sound processing (with the LFO, the p-lock, the FX,…) and resampling.
This way the OT is used to “adapt” the sound of the synth to the particular context of a track, and for all modulations which need to be synchronized to the tempo. And no computer involved !
2 Likes
I bought my OT about 2 months ago. The idea was to get into electronic music/hip hop production, it is my first sampler, originally I’m a guitar player.
And what can I say, I just love that thing. If you invest time and have a little patience you can do a lot of stuff.
I use it mainly to produce and arrange hip hop beats (please, don’t yell at me 
).
Also the OT “taught” me how tu use samples. You can take it easily on the road with you and you don’t need a DAW to produce a nice little piece. That’s what I like the most about the OT. Sure, it “only” has 8 tracks, but that is a kind of limitation that helps me to focus, I have to make the best with what I got!
For me the OT is a timeless instrument (yes, I said it), I’m even thinking of getting another one.
Hope that helps!
But, also the money
2 Likes
I got my first Octatrack on Saturday… I’ve fallen in love with it already and have put the rest of my synths, samplers and drum machines onto eBay so I can get an Analog Rytm & Analog Four to go alongside it.
Its by far the best sampler I’ve ever used and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what its capable of.
Familiar work, really like it. I meant to ask the first time round, as I’ve been wondering about tuning:
Did you tune the samples to concert pitch? Do you have a system for tuning different samples between each other (tuning app or similar) or do you just do it by ear?
Thanks 
OT is a dedicated device - its not meant to replace a DAW or be an “all in one” workstation, (although it can come pretty close anyways)
its very much “machine” based… it shines by way of programming and so forth (p-locks, LFOs, scenes)… and this means it can also be somewhat “tedious” or fiddly to work with, but thats only because it has so many options to play with. it also means its nothing like working on a computer with a mouse, keyboard and giant LCD screen… its more like working on a scientific calculator
but the best thing about it is how well it functions with its own features, and how the sound comes across, etc. - you wont have to worry about audio dropouts, plugin delays, etc. etc. etc.
the most surprising thing to me (and probably the coolest) was to discover the emergent way that scenes work together, (much like discovering pattern based sequencing for the first time, many years ago) - in that, you can set up a bunch of scenes with various fx, but then as you are morphing between them with the crossfader and switching with the buttons, it often does unexpected things with awesome sounding results that you would not have planned for (the same way some patterns flow into each other in an interesting way you didnt plan for) - and even though the fx seem fairly vanilla on their own, once you start p-locking and LFOing them or morphing thru settings with scenes, thats when it all makes sense because its all very fluid sounding and musical
3 Likes
To me, what makes the OT special is the recording buffer implementation. You can record and play back at the same time. Think of it kinda like an ableton clip that can be mucked about while it is still recording. This enables such insanity that no other machine I know of can pull off, when combined with plocks and lfos 
the sequencer is no slouch either. Not that many step seqs around with 3 custom lfos per track. And microtiming with the steps, and individual shuffle per track 
3 Likes
The Simple Things though!
banger
BOUGHT
rsp
1 Like
Im just curious : what are the FX parameters you like to p-lock/LFO ? I tend to do always do the same things with the OT FX and im looking for new ideas