Currently I’m building my tracks by sequencing all my synths and then I’m just muting or unmuting stuff to get to the end result. This does work but it’s also tedious at times. And I’m also bound to keeping the settings on my synths until the track is done without commiting anything until the final recording. Sure, I can use presets, save the pattern on my Elektrons but it’s a bit annoying.
So I’m thinking about changing my workflow a bit. I still want to use my synths to build my patterns but then I want to sample that pattern, so I have to commit to something early on. But how would you deal with the tail of that sample? I mean, there will be reverb, amp decay etc. which I don’t want to cut off. Do you just create two samples? One perfect loop and one with the tail of the effects? This would be a bit cumbersome again, so I’m looking for a way to avoid that… Would the Octatrack be a good choice for this kind of workflow (working with several longer samples at the same time)?
tl;dr: Don’t want to deal with four minute recordings of one pattern to build layers for my tracks. How do I get around that?
Thanks! Sure, that’s a way to do it but not what I’m looking for. I want to use the whole arsenal of external effects so I’m not limited to those of the octatrack. Looking a bit into the Octratrack workflow, I could probably just a create a loop point and be done with it…
I would sample with the tail, it’s so easy to loop the loop within Octatrack.
You could set up song mode on whatever Elektron device you are using so that you ensure it stops at the end of the loop and the. Just let OT continue sampling the tail of the loop
If it’s a looping phrase, and you’ve got reverb and delay on it before it’s coming into the OT, one approach that can work is wait for the 2nd repeat of the pattern/phrase before sampling it, you might get a cleaner loop that way
Ah, yes, recording the pattern two times seems to be the perfect way. Then I’d just set the loop start point at the beginning of loop number two and the end point as well.
I’d also like to use field recordings as backing tracks. I suppose that’s possible as well? In which ways am I limited to the length of the samples here? And will I run into RAM issues if I have a few backing tracks running at the same time?
There’s probably some super neat way to do this with recording trigs, but all I used to do is hit play on the OT, then quickly lay down a standard recording trig afterwards so it will be picked up on the next repeat
Samples you place in the Static list will be streamed directly from the CF card, so this is good for longer samples like your field recordings. Samples placed in the Flex list use the RAM, which you can manage the usage of. Lots of modulation with the crossfader? Use flex….
OK, that sounds really good. I already have a 1010music bluebox as a mixer/recorder. I was hoping to use it for this kind of use case but the bluebox is not really flexible and kind of bothersome to use in that regard. And firmware updates don’t seem to happen anymore…
First record the whole sample with the tail into the Octatrack, then you have it for reference.
You just use that sample and set with trim or loop point to exclude the tail. It’s non destructive unless you cut it off so it’s there for later if you need it. Save sample.
Then just loop it on the sequencer and if you find there’s a bit of a jump as it starts the loop cutting the tail off prematurely then just add a reverb and it’ll smooth that transition off.
If you want to use the tail later just load the sample on another track and adjust the loop and or trim, when you save just settings for the sample it won’t override your previous trim and loop positions because additional settings are saved referencing the track it is used on.
In a nutshell, you can have the same sample used in different ways on different tracks, with different loop and trim etc etc. You just need to hit save settings when you’ve made a change.
How about sample chains with different sections of your songs?
I got longer atmo tracks as sample chains, blurred the edges with fx.
I could imagine this for whole songs or more complex tracks, pattern variations, drum variations and so on.
Using almost dry recordings to pick up the idea from @Microtribe
Sounds like you maximal flexibility with max convenience/ controllability which is tough ot achieve, and I think there are already very good ideas to get close to the sweetspot of both traids!
Ah, yes, some nice suggestions here! I just got the Octatrack yesterday… Need to move my stuff around a bit to find a nice place and then I’ll hopefully ease into the workflow after a few weeks
Just saw that you can set fade in and out for recording a sample - which is quite the opposite of what I wanted but also very handy to record longer pads or textures that will fit into the pattern length.
FOUT applies a fade out to the recording. The value is expressed in sequencer steps. The fade out is added after the recording stops. If for example recording occurs for 16 steps and FOUT is set to 2, the total length of the sample will be 18 sequencer steps.
That will make recording a loop WITH the tail a breeze. And if I want to loop it, I’ll just set the lenght accordingly.
