Issue with OT skipping the start of audio stems

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hey! I have a big issue with Octatrack sometimes not playing audio stem from beginning as if it was trimmed or something. With this post I’d like to ask you guys for recommendations and I’d also like to warn potential buyers or users in case this is a bug of OT ( it is not ) because it can be a nightmare…

This have happened two times in my ~ 3 year relationship with this instrument and it happened right before a gig… in a soundcheck. It is the last thing you want to happen before performance, it makes loops and samples sound out of sync. In my case I use tracks 1,2,5,6 as static machines for song stems and other tracks for pickup and thru machines. Track 8 - master.

It happens without any obvious reason or anything I can think of. I just switch between stems of different tracks, play around with effects, etc and suddenly…bam…It sounds like first milliseconds of stem has been cropped. First thing I check is microtiming menu thinking that I have accidentally moved a trig, but it is “on grid” step 1. I also check trim menu in case the start point of audio is somehow changed, but it isn’t. So what else could be the problem?

If I take the same stem and put it on the other track it plays it from the beginning as it should.

#2

Annoying.
Just ideas :
Too much Statics?
Good CF Card?
Plocks on Slices / Start?
Happens with Statics only?
Allways the same length?
How long? (You can resample in OT to count samples).
RAM / REC Memory Full?
Part Changes?
Lfo on start?

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#3

To add to @sezare56 list:

slow attack (AMP)?
Scenes?
LFO on volume/level?
Filter settings in combination with LFO/envelope?

In general I would disable LFOs and scenes temporary to quickly see if it makes a difference.

#4

So it’s only one stem that behaves this way, I understand (your inital post has some ambiguity, because you repeatedly say “not playing audio stem” so you avoid the use of plural/singular). Also, I understand that “take the same stem and put it on the other track” means you left the sample in the same sample slot. If that’s correct, it’s not the stem, nor the slot: it’s the track or the machine.

(Did you try the other way round: put another sample/stem to be read by the misbehaving machine?)

The main symptom seems to be:

so what happens is that it’s like the whole stem is nudged to the left (in DAW speak) a couple of ms, right?

Because of the above, I’d rule out everything but:

Plocks on start
LFO on start

Amp envelopes wouldn’t nudge the whole stem
Nor would filter envelopes, or volume/level

But the start point could be moved by a scene.

Can’t think of anything else but a start point modulation, if your description is absolutely correct : are you positive that the first ms are really missing, or is that just a conclusion of yours? Because you can get a track slightly out of sync over time by moving the pitch just 1 point up with TS disabled. You won’t notice the pitch shift but you will notice the time drift

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#5

Is it playing at track tempo or sample tempo.

#6

Since problem descriptions here on this forum are not always as clear as possible I’ve also included possibilities which just makes the beginning “un-hearable” (due to volume/level modulations). I guess that’s not unreasonable …

#7

Sorry, it wasn’t meant as a critique, I just wanted to try to single out a pattern based on what the OP said exactly :

Just wanted to be helpful

1 Like
#8

Hey, thanks for ideas! Unfortunately I have tried to check most of this without any luck:
" Too much Statics? " - I don’t know what would be considered as too much, but I hope this shouldn’t be the problem - 2 static machines running longer stems (~3min.) and 2 other machines running shorter ones (few sec.) . I’ve been using heavier projects previously without any problems for years.

" Good CF Card? " - Kingston CompactFlash 16GB (I know it is not the best choice) Actually bad CF card could be my only explanation, but before I jump into buying new one and rely on it I’d like to make sure the problem doesn’t hide anywhere else.

“Plocks on Slices / Start?” - don’t use it.

“Happens with Statics only?” - stems I use are too long for flex machines so I don’t know.

“Allways the same length?”, “How long? (You can resample in OT to count samples)” - sorry, I’m not sure I understand this.

“RAM / REC Memory Full?” - Indicator in control memory is half full, which is healthy, no?

“Part Changes?” - don’t use it.

“Lfo on start?” - don’t use lfo.

Problem appears with the particular static machine on track 1, no matter what stem I load into it.
I have even tried to copy same page settings from other static tracks, it doesn’t help.

So for me it looks like a bug, which is very frightening : (

#9

Sorry, I’m not native English speaker so there might be some mistakes in my description.

“So it’s only one stem that behaves this way…” - no! any stem I load on static machine machine 1 has this problem. If I load the same stem on any other static machine there is no problem.

“so what happens is that it’s like the whole stem is nudged to the left (in DAW speak) a couple of ms, right?” - exactly! and what’s more annoying it starts with this click/pop sound.

“Can’t think of anything else but a start point modulation” - yes it sounds exactly as if there is start point modulation, but there is no such a thing.

There is no pitch shift also.

#10

Do you have incoming midi?

#11

nope, just outgoing

#12

My first thought when this happens is always to make sure the start point on the sample in sample edit is at the exact beginning, which it looks like you have done. The others have been covered above. Just curious- did you try this with a completely new project? Or, is it a project you have been working on for a while? If you get this with a completely new project, say you load a loop into the channel you have been having problems with, there quite possibly it could be hardware… Never heard of this, but I haven’t read every thread on this forum.

1 Like
#13

If you open the AED, can you see the play cursor playing from a wrong position?

2 Likes
#14

good question

#15

Also, when you just play the sample chromatically, does it have this behavior?

1 Like
#16

The idea is to know the length of the missing part, resampling the faulty stem with a recorder.

#17

It’s a project I use for live. This one is quite new and it happened just before third gig. Thanks god it didn’t happen during a performance. Quick “solution” in this case is to change one of the pickup machine tracks to static machine, so it is possilbe to load a stem and launch it without a hickup, anyway, this is quite bad…

#18

Yep! It starts to play from wrong position although it is not trimmed and start is set at zero position - beginning.

#19

Yes, same behaviour when the sample is used chromatically

#20

Hmm…Did you try it with a new project?