Locking PM Looper Tempo

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi!

New OT user here and am loving this forum.

How can one predefine the master Pickup Machine BPM?

I am hoping to use the OT as a looper (sync’d to a bpm) that I can trigger pre-made samples on top of. I don’t want my master BPM to drift at all because I am playing with other musicians that are following click tracks. Also, I do a lot of improvisation in my band, and thus I sometimes have odd time signatures that I cannot foresee. I am hoping this will be a major upgrade from my RC-50 (which does this with ease), but so far I have not been successful on my OT.

I’ve seen a few other posts on this issue but all of them have led to dead ends.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Pickup Erase? + Reset PUM?
Pickup machines
#2

Stop me if I’m wrong…

pretty sure you just have to press play before you set the PU machine to record. i.e. if the sequencer is running then the loop length is defined by that. punching in and out manually before pressing play on the seq. will cause the sequencer to lock to the tempo defined by the loop length… in a roundabout way. (it’s not always great at this)

have a bash at the manual - it’s reasonably clear on this point.

#3

Yep, if you want to match sequencer BPM then have your sequencer running and record your pickups to the sequencer BPM. Alternatively if you want to start with a loop and have sequencer match your pickup machine press track + tempo and it will lock the sequencer to your master pickup

1 Like
#4

I use Qrec and Qplay set to Pattern Length, and tempo is ok.

#5

But what if I don’t know how many steps I am going to record? I do a lot of improvisation and a lot of odd time signatures. Is there not a way to loop on tempo without following a predetermined pattern length? I would prefer to loop when it feels right. I do this all the time with my RC-50…doesn’t matter what my time signature is, it will loop to the nearest downbeat of my BPM from when I mark the end of my loop.
I haven’t seen anything in the manual or online that allows this flexibility, besides this one video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs3DydT5pdY

#6

Issue with this is that the [track]+[tempo] locks the sequence to the pickup - I want it the other way around, where my BPM never changes.
And the issue with running the sequencer before recording, is that the pickup will follow the seq length, and I don’t want to have to predetermine how long my loops will be.

#7

But what if I don’t want to predetermine my loop lengths? I just want to loop at a specific BPM, and have the looper quantize my in and out mark to my predetermined BPM.

#8

Then set your record length to max

#9

set the record length to max, Qplay to the nearest 16th

#10

I dont know what I am missing, but none of this works.
My BPM keeps changing whether or not I press play on my sequencer and whether or not I have QREC set to 16.
I think I’ve exhausted every method. I’m going insane trying to figure this out.

#11

your sequencer tempo will only change if you press track + tempo. Otherwise your pickups and sequencer will run at different speeds. you have to choose whether you want to start a track with sequencer first (set your pickup QREC to max, and QPLY to 16)…or if you want to start with pickup machine then press master pickup track + tempo to sync sequencer with your master loop. Its really that simple.

1 Like
#12

If you want to play to a pre-determined BPM then you will have to use metronome

#13

When learning the Octatrack it’s normal to go temporarily insane a few times… :sweat_smile:
Don’t worry, sanity comes back and usually joy after that… :grinning:

#14

Thank you lescour1 for the replies and the help but I’m still not having success. I’m sorry for my lack of OT knowledge, but the Metronome isn’t helping. How does activating the metro lock the BPM? It does give me something to follow but I rarely am able to time my button pressing exactly.
To give you a better idea of what I am trying to accomplish (as a means to test this method): I am running an arpeggio on a synth set to 120 BPM, which is running into my AB in. I would like to loop this on the fly with my OT set at 120 bpm without MIDI syncing the machines and without predetermining how long the loop will be. IE I may choose to loop in 5/4 or an odd amount of beats. I would like the loop to stick to 120 BPM - but I cannot seem to get the OT to stay at 120 unless I set a predetermined loop length (which is what I am trying to avoid). I sometimes get lucky at get the loop at exactly 120.0, but more often than not, I’m +/- several BPM.

#15

Ha I appreciate the assurance.
Its just a bit concerning to me that no one else seems to want to use the OT in this fashion (which seems so obvious to me). The fact that I can’t find anyone else talking about it besides a few dead forum posts make me wonder if its not possible.

#16

I use PU’s a lot but I always make pattern length loops.
Maybe try using qrec but not qpl, and have sequencer going first, and have len turned off for PU’s… My theory is that maybe qrec will sync to sequencer bpm but maybe with qpl not on it won’t try to adjust for playback, haven’t tested… I also haven’t tested pre entering the bpm in the attributes for PU’s but has been on my mind to experiment. With PU’s you really have to experiment with every combo of qrec, qpl, and len…
I don’t know if you can get where you want to go with PU’s, but if not you may be able to do it with flex…

#17

The Boss Rc 505 is really good for that too. Up to 999 mesures…

What about PU Multiply parameter in OT ?
Or several tracks with different lengths ?

#18

Yeah, I currently am using an RC-50 which does this with ease. It is really bothering me that I can’t get the OT to do this. When I click [FUNCTION]+[MIDI] while on a PU Track, I’m just getting the parts selection, not a MULTIPLIER command. And I can’t find any documentation on this command. Its only mentioned once in the manual.

#19

Thank you for the help but none of this is working (although I am new to this, so maybe I’m just missing something).

The closest I’ve gotten it to work is QREC set to 1 QPL set OFF and starting my sequencer before starting my PUM. This allows me to get odd meters looped at my chosen BPM, however since its now slipped from my sequence, overdubbing is a nightmare. Beats are slipping, the overdubs are delayed, the PUM randomly changes my loop count to MAX. Its all very weird and unreliable. Very disappointing. If I adjust my QPL to anything but OFF, my loop changes BPM. I don’t get it.

#20

Appendix C : You can midi control Multiply with F(65)