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 
maybe worth keeping in mind…
2 Likes
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.
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 
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?
The track recorders are all separate from whatever playback machine is on any given track.
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 
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 :))
tiny battles win the war
@ 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.
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.
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 !
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.
2 Likes
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.
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.
1 Like
But this can potentially be decupled using chains and start/end points
A chain is one sample…what you have inside is up to you ! 
Sure, but if we really start a nitpicking contest I’d throw in that one OT sample is exactly 1/44.100th of a second long and you can chain as many as you like 
And I would answer no because Space on cf Card and avaliable ram will limit your will to use 1 sample long samples in your sample chains…Many ? Sure…Too Much, probably…As many as you like ? No. 
But we are not playing that game, right ?