Learning curve

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi folks,

So I’m happy new owner of Octatrack, yay! But, …

After several nights of watching tutorials, reading manual twice and now having 4 days devoted mostly to the unit and research around it I still feel I have no idea what I’m doing. A4/AR made sense after first reading the user guide.

What was your learning curve? Do you have any beginners tips, how to actually use the unit to have fun and don’t get bored before this time will come? :smiley:

I’m joking, I’m not going to give up so quickly, but seriously I’ve seen quite a few people selling their unit for very much same reason. I thought it’s going to be a touch easier than that.

I’m currently going through the forum, but it’s a bit more packed than A4/AR, so this will take a while I guess :slight_smile:

Also somebody on YT created this fancy playlist, so if any beginners are reading this, it might help you.

thanks,
V.

#2

I just watched a lot of YouTube, read the manual, went through the tutorials in the manual, and read Merlin’s document-you can download it from this site. Other than that it’s just trial and error and getting your hands dirty. There are still some things I haven’t tried yet like midi sequencing outboard synths, using the lfo to control different parameters, and trigless trigs (which I still don’t understand). Just take it slowly and learn one thing at a time but learn it really well so it becomes automatic then move on to the next concept.

#3

Like Joey said, just take it slow and try not to get overwhelmed by thinking about all the possibilities. Focus on thing at a time, decide what you want to do (sample? Make a pattern? Learn plocks? Etc) and learn how to do that, to begin with forget about everything else until things become necessary. If you read the manual (and Merlins), then take this approach then read the manual again in a few days, things will make a lot more sense. The basics aren’t too hard to grasp, and the rest is pretty straight forward too if tackled one area at a time as and when you need it. Though you will definitely get stuck on stuff, nearly all of us have at some point, and this forum/YouTube are a godsend for a machine like OT. But It’ll all start making sense after a few long sessions :slight_smile:

#4

Oh, and if I was learning OT over again I would definitely use only one project. Using different banks and parts to learn different aspects. I made about 30 projects in the first couple of months I had OT. ‘midi learn’, ‘sampling learn’, ‘midi loopback learn’ etc etc etc. Ended up with a ton of good stuff but it’s so sscattered now. If it had all been in one project it would have been pretty easy to sew it all together at the end of learning and have an ep/LP :frowning: maybe worth keeping in mind…

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#5

I’ve been in exactly the same position recently. I bought an A4 and loved it so much I grabbed an octatrak before I had fully grasped the A4. Thinking the learning curve would be similar was a grand folly but I am getting there the more I stick with it. The main thing is just stick with learning one function at a time fully. I had a nightmare this weekend trying to just record korg volca loops into the machine and arrange the machine so I could turn it off and get it to return to the same state as the project I thought I’d saved.

Main lessons learned over two days frustration are 1-track recorders are not the final destination for samples to live in (lol) 2-save any samples you have recorded strait away and 3-give them a name that means something.

Simple stuff perhaps but I bet there are very few people who got their heads round that workflow without a few lost samples and loud howls.

#6

Thanks guys,

the thing is I already have A4/AR/Lead 2X/Virus/Push and I want to use this device as a hub, but I guess your point makes sense, I need to learn it one by one. I’ve at least another 8 days I can fully devote to the machine, so let’s see where this will take me

Any other ideas and suggestions are much appreciated!

I can pretty much use it the way I use RYTM + some more fun due to additional sampler functionality, that’s fine. But I guess to get the idea, how to use it as I’ve intended will take way more time.

Joey/Callofthevoid: Where can I find that thing from Merlin? Or what shall I possibly look for?

Cashman: yeah, luckily this is one thing I knew almost from the beginning from here :smiley:

#7

I am a new user, i have it now since last week Friday, and i absolutley love the octatrack, the first day was a bit tricky, but now its already starting to make sense.

I use a flex machine, with a single shot record trigger to sample the A4. I chop it with the 64 slices grid in the sample manager. I assign it to a new flex machine, i twist now the chops… backward, forward, rate adjust, sample length per LFO.

I still need to learn which paramters will make sense to modulate with the LFO´s.

I read in a forum the trick, to make a special recording pattern, so i do work with through machines for the RYTM and the A4, i added a pattern at the end for recording the A4, the other patterns i fill with the created content.

A great tip i read over at gearsluts was to use a slow LFO to the pitch parameter of the drums on the RYTM, this way they dont sound always the same when played. (Used it to great effect on the basstom :).

I know i can modify the memory management to allow for long sample time, when i would like to record the master track, but then it would eat another track where i record the track 8 recorder buffer?

#8

Merlin’s “Some thoughts on Elektron’s Octatrack” (PDF)

#9

The track recorders are all separate from whatever playback machine is on any given track.

#10

Thanks Peter, I’ll read it tomorrow.

Great tips with slow pitch LFO, Sternerlighlicht, I’ll give it a try … I’ll need to start to try sequence other stuff too, but I’ll start with my other synths, since they are more hands on :slight_smile:

Today I understood the recording and many other stuff,… made more progress in one day than in several days before … I’ve synced it with Rytm and tried to do some sampling and beat jugling. Track arming, one-trigs and rec trig quantization seem quite neat… All worked quite well, although it seems way more complicated than I’d expect… this key combos needs some muscle memory to be performed fast :))

#11

tiny battles win the war

#12

@ PeterHanes,

so that means if i use for example track 3 flex machine to playback a sample, i could use its recorder buffer to resample the master track when I select track 8 as source in the recorder edit page. Once my recording is finished, i just write down the recorder buffer to the flash. This way i wont loose a playback track.

#13

I’m going to try using only one project because already I have 20 projects like you: “midi experiment”, “sampling learn” etc… thank you for advice.

#14

For me the Octa took many, many months to click. I even put it on sell but (thanks God) no one appear to buy, so i stick with it.

By now i have it for about 1 year and still learn new things. It’s an awesome machine !

#15

Try to get your head around this :

  • Patterns stores trigs and call Parts. ( 4 parts shared by 16 pattern in each bank )
  • Parts call machines,lfo and fx [Edited : and 16 scenes per parts which calls different machine and pages setup, like lfos values, samples start, etc…]
  • Machines call sample numbers in sample list : 128 static ,128 flex + 8 record buffers.
  • Sample list calls samples and store them in a list…
  • Samples store slices and modifications commited in the audio editor.

Record buffers are independant from any machine you put on a track ! You read records buffers with flex machines. Records buffers are volatiles. Shutdown the octa, lose them…Save them if keepers.

Try to understand All triggers :

  • Standard trigs. Trigs playing
  • Records trigs. Trigs recording
  • Trigless trigs. Trigs lfo and enveloppes without trigering track.
  • Trigless locks. Permit to plock parameters without retrigering track.
  • One shot trigs. Need to be armed manually to trig. ( Using yes/no and func+ yes/no )

You can only make destructive changes to your samples in the audio editor ( crop/fades/reverse etc ) when using a flex machine.
In static machines you can slice, and trim which are informations for the playheads saved automatically with the sample but cannot modify the file on the card.

  • You can read the file you are recording in real time to apply real time FX and sample manipulation. ( Of course what is not yet in the buffer cannot be red…)

Once there everything will start to make sense and you’ll find it a pretty easy beast.

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#17
#18

So then that makes for 32 samples per, what? Project or set? And then by 8 banks, that makes 256 total samples collectively shared equaly among parts/banks.

#19

128 static samples streamed from cf card in static sound pool.
128 max ( depends of size ) Flex samples loaded in Ram in flex sound pool.
8 Samples stored in record buffers, share Ram with flexes.
In 1 project.

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#20

But this can potentially be decupled using chains and start/end points

#21

@hellcore’s research on Elektron machines learning curve.

learningcurves

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