Is the Octatrack the best "brain" for an all-Elektron setup?

Elektron Gear
#1

I have the Digitakt and Digitone, a few Roland boutiques, OP-1, and Minilogue XD. I’ve been searching for a hardware piece to serve as the central hub for all, or at least some, of this gear. Right now I’m experimenting to see which hardware clicks for me, and will probably pare it down in the future. I know from using the Digitakt and Digitone that I like the Elektron workflow and probably wouldn’t ever sell those, and would probably go for a hardware setup with mostly Elektron stuff to make the workflow easier.

I was curious about the Octatrack since it would fill a couple needs as a sampler and multitrack brain for a hardware setup, but got scared that I would never get my head around the complexity of the unit, and I was also looking for a studio tool that would play nicely with Ableton Live.

I picked up the MPC Live II to fill this role. There are many things about it I really like - especially the pads, since I come from a drumming background. But the workflow doesn’t feel inspiring the way the Elektron boxes do.

I’ve since watched some more tutorials about the Octatrack, and gotten my head around it a little better, and think I better understand it’s capabilities and limitations. But does it really synergize with other Elektron gear the way I’m imagining? I’ve read some mixed things on this. Some say that if you are familiar with the Elektron workflow then it will be easier to pick up, but I also read some earlier forum posts with users struggling to get it to play nice with the Digitakt (apparently some sort of software bug causing syncing issues).

I also think that I don’t really need “DAW in a box” - my DAW is Ableton, and I think hardware is more useful to me to the extent that it can help generate ideas that I wouldn’t be able to get easily in Ableton. Can the Octatrack fill that need a little better than the MPC?

#2

For your main question re: OT and other Elektron boxes, I believe you’re right about some wonkyness when you’re trying to drive pattern changes from the OT to other machines. Maybe others can chime in with better info here (personally I never run into this issue because I either change patterns manually on other machines or use the OT on its own / in other ways where this doesn’t come up).

I just wanted to mention — don’t be scared away by the OT’s mythical learning curve. It’s not as bad as its reputation has built it up to be. You’ll need to spend a little time getting the hang of it, it’ll be easier if you make a point to play every day and build up muscle memory, but in any case the rewards you get from learning it will far outweigh the work you put in to get there.

It is definitely not a “DAW in a box” — it’s basically a little laboratory for audio experiments. So I think it’d be great to look at it as an idea generator rather than end-of-chain arrangement/organization space. I always have the most fun on the OT when I just go wild with ideas and see what happens. Save the organizational fine-tuning for the DAW where you have a mouse and big screen.

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#3

i have OT AR A4 DN DT AH and OT works perfectly with all of them. sync is non issue. pattern changing is non issue.
OT is the perfect controller for all of them.

I got the OT before any other electron device and was using it capably within a week. Took a wile to master but its not hard at all. I don’t know why people think its so hard. the concepts are basic and once you know them you can use them.

it can do quite a lot and if you try and do it all on day one your going to have problems. just learn the basic stuff like getting sound out of the box and go on from there. anything you could ever want to do with it will have multiple youtube tutorials describing the processes involved.

I have an MPC live and don’t use it much because the OT is much more “immediate” IMO.

out of all my electron hardware the OT is my favorite and if I could only keep one it would have to be the OT.

also I would recommend the mk2 over the mk1. the little differences go a long way IMO.

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#4

Do you feel there is much overlap with the MPC Live and the OT? I’m mostly interested in the sampler workflow right now since that is missing in my hardware setup. From what I’ve seen it sounds like the OT is better for transforming samples, while the MPC is better at quickly chopping samples. And then of course you get the pads on the MPC which feel great. Is there a reason you held on to the MPC despite the OT feeling more immediate?

#5

It’s not even close to as bad as people make it out to be. I’m not even sure where this legend came from? I kept two manuals open and my ears open for the first 4 or 5 hours and I was moving pretty well after that. 2,000 hours or so later have I improved: absolutely. Does it take a year to get your feet wet: no way.

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#6

as far as overlap goes I would say they do sampling so differently that they don’t overlap a lot. chopping on the OT is just as fast as the MPC because the OT can auto chop then you can scoot those slice points around to transients just like the MPC live pretty quickly.
but the MPC can assign samples a lot faster than the OT’s “slice” mode that is comparable to the MPC pads. The OT is not as flexible as the pad banks that the LIVE has. and the LIVE can do a lot more with sample layering/pad FX right up front without resampling.

for me the LIVE is very intentional. you need to know what you want then do it.
with sampling on the OT you get your chops and the OT functions often give you surprising results very quickly. changing the pitch or starting point of a sample on the OT is instant while on the live you have to menu dive a lot in comparison which makes the OT able to show you many more possibilities faster. its more creative in that way I think.

so I cant say that one or the other is a better sampler but I can say that I personally like the OT a lot more for the quickness of transforming samples and the serendipitous variations that the OT can quickly provide (and so can the MPC LIVE but not so quickly in comparison).

I don’t think I could replicate what the OT can do with an MPC live or vice versa.

the reason I still have an MPC Live is its arranging functions and its midi capabilities. I can’t run a midi keyboard through the OT to control the synths connected to it - the digitone can do this however but it can’t do midi arpeggios which the OT can! Live can do all of this easily.

I think I will sell the Live eventually but if I were you, if you can, get an OT and keep your Live until you learn the OT and decide whats right for you. I think the OT vs Live question is mostly a matter of preference instead of one being objectively better.

#7

What do you mean exactly by this?

The Digitakt can take care of the MIDI part rather simply.
The OT would bring plockable MIDI arps and additional LFOs, but with 4 DN MIDI tracks and 8 DT MIDI tracks you should be able to get close enough already.

I thing you should first try to use the DT as the central hub and see what’s missing.

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#8

Completely agree with the others here on the OT ‘legendary’ learning curve. I got the OT 2 month or so ago and coming from the DT/AR I was up and running in a day or 2 and pretty much comfortable on the OT (for using it for what I want it to do) after a week.

I think the key is that if you know what you want to use the OT for, it’s quite easy to figure out how to do it, and also pretty logical in a lot of cases. If you go in with the mindset: I have no idea what I want to use this thing for so I’ll try to learn everything it can do first you’re probably gonna struggle for some time.

Mind you: I don’t use even a fraction of all the OT’s functions yet, and I’m looking forward to years of learning new stuff, but the OT is very useable without knowing all of its tricks.

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#9

I am working more and more with OT as a central HUB for other elektrons and have to say that I am really disappointed in how far beyond the OT is in comparison with DT & DNs MIDI capabilities. They don’t come even close. I mean, the ARP it’s another sequencer itself. You don’t have random mode in the other twos, not even the possibility to lock scales. You cannot modulate the ARP. And can we speak about 3 LFOS per track? It’s crazy what you can do with them, man. And it just bothers me that they couldn’t implement a more capable MIDI sequencing in the new generation of machines.
TLDR to the OP: I would keep OT even just as a MIDI hub for other Elektrons, it’s the best MIDI controller for them, then if you mix in the live sampling capabilities…

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#10

It took me three years to master the OT, if you guys had it under your spell in a week, you’re wizards in my book

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#11

I use it as one of my brains, hardest thing (for me) is only having four names per bank since you can name parts but not patterns.

#12

:100:

Now OP may not need all this and just test their actual config for now to see what they really need.

But I totally agree with you :slight_smile:

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#13

Now that you mention it, I did go to hogwarts when I was younger :thinking:

No I think the way I use the OT is probably just really simple compared to the way you and others might use it.

So my point was not that people are exagerrating when they take years to learn the machine, but to point out that for a lot of use cases you don’t actually need to be a wizard, but you can manage just fine if you’re an idiot like me.

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#14

And please have some read at similar threads posted lately…

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#15

It took me a couple months to understand all the functionality in the OT.
But the first two weeks I just stared at it blankly. :rofl:

When I finally sat down with it, I had multiple moments that blew my mind.

Wait, it’s actually 8 recorders and 8 samplers? What the… :exploding_head:
I can also use it as an Ableton style clip launcher? :exploding_head:
The 8 custom LFO’s are available on any track? :exploding_head:
I can decide how to chop up and mangle a sample before it is even recorded? :exploding_head:

I’ll also admit that I bashed my head against my desk a couple times while MIDI mapping the whole thing.

But in the end I think the OT is amazing, and the fact that you can control almost everything with MIDI makes it even better.

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#16

The OT IMO is better as a controller/sampler than the MPC as long as you accept that the OT only can send 4 note polyphony. There a million ways around this, especially since the OT samples so tightly. I just play the parts on the keys and record as a sample into the OT. Or you can sequence in Ableton, shoot it out to your gear and sample into the OT.

But when it comes to flexibility, tight sync and really getting creative with samples, the OT is by far the way to go. I use it to make transitions for my tracks and then just record each one into Ableton.

Its a really deep machine but I find that Id rather sample a part into the OT, chop it and and make scenes with it than doing that in Ableton. It’s just faster and I get more creative results. Which is wild since Ableton is an awesome sampler, but thats just my experience.