M8 Tracker

No,
you have song view, which is one thing
and you have phrase view, where you see one sequence at a time.

I think you’re asking if you could see phrase view of different tracks at the same time? You would need a big screen for that :slight_smile:

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To add to this, though, when you’re in a phrase, Opt-Left/Right will navigate you to the phrase in the adjacent column. That’s the quickest way from what currently exists to see everything

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Just to say I bought one of these and I have to say it failed utterly on my M8. trying to edit long samples and it freezes and the m8 does a soft re-boot… I wouldn’t recommend personally ymmv

Sorry to hear this! I’ve had mine a pretty long time and take it everywhere without the slightest issue. I’ve cut up samples in the 7 minute range. I’d highly recommend contacting Dirtywave. His support to the user community is massive.

Yeah fair enough. May well have done something wrong during set up

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Possibly just bad luck. There’s a list of recommended cards on the Dirtywave site. That 128 gb Kingston one apparently has variable results.

It’s not unheard of for manufactures to lump several different varieties with different flash chips (NAND chips?) under the same model.

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For all the “screen is too small” people, the new beta has a large font mode.

This is one of the most complete pieces of hardware I have ever owned. Just incredible how awesome the updates are.

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I’ve owned one 3 times now. I just cant get over how much I need to program…for me it’s just like work…but I do see the value in it…wish I could get along with it.

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It’s getting a bit faster with time, but yes, it still feels a bit too much like programming…

I wonder if one can record trigs à la Elektron, possibly with an external controller, but I don’t think recording midi automations on the fly is even possible with such architecture.

You can record notes with a controller, not MIDI CCs, I think.

It’s funny (I mean interesting), and I hear you all feeling it’s too much programming. To me, it’s bliss that I so easily can massage the sound by tweaking commands in a way that it laid out so directly. Compared to a MIDI editor in a DAW, for entering music by means of no recording (so, mouse/keyboard/keys) I find it fast and effective.

I bought a S-1 and love sequencing it with the m8, it’s fast and satisfying for me. Just my experience :slight_smile:

Aoh, the big font is a blessing. Works amazing and helps me a great deal!

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As a follow-up, and that is entirely personal, I have found that the abstract-ness of the tracker UI helps me write music more than the more visual of a DAW - my personal theory is that on the one hand I have to listen without a crutch of seeing something that looks like the music, and in the other hand, that crutch is lying but I can’t help believing it.

It’s lying in that say, in a MIDI editor, neither the notes and their length, nor the envelopes and their shapes, have a direct relationship to what I hear, anyway. But seeing them as detailed as they are, creates an illusion that I never really minded until I started with the m8 (headless at the time).

I can still use a DAW, of course :joy:

Just the love of a tracker. This and the feeling of “massaging” the sound as mentioned earlier. Like using commands on sample playback for pitch, speed (via LFO and associated commands) etc… is so much fun!

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This is the benefit of trackers for me. Ultimate precision. It definitely is like a programming language in a way, and I understand that’s not for everyone (even I don’t feel like making music that way sometimes) but it’s really great for making super tight, detailed music.

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I used to own a Polyend Tracker but sold it because I found it too programmy AND (probably more) because it was sample-only.

Now I ordered a M8 because I heard crazy stuff done with the internal synths (I’m really not a sample guy) and the level of control seems to be pretty deep (with tables and all), but I hope the programmy experience won’t be too much of a put-off :-/

I place great hopes in the X/Y touchscreen that you can easily (or it looks like it) set up to control whatever you choose. And also the fact that you can launch track/clips as you wish, a bit like in Ableton Live.

My focus is definitely live performance. Any user here care to comment on the live experience?

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There’s a few concessions to live performance, but that’s not really its primary focus. If you found the Polyend too programmy, something else (Syntakt/Digitone) may be a better fit for live work.

Consider that with the tracker workflow, each step of a phrase could be an entirely different insrument with entirely different parameters. So design-wise it’s kind of hard to add a performance interface on top of that. (Are controls linked to tracks, or instruments, both…?) To be clear I’m absolutely not criticising your line of thinking :slight_smile: ! Just pointing out that the omission/limitations of a performance mode is somewhat inherent to trackers.

That said, it has that live clip launching mode, and I think you can use a MIDI controller to live control some filter cutoff or other parameters. There’s a new external instrument (v3.0+) that can control external MIDI gear and run it through the effects.

It actually would work exceptionally well as a sequencer for a desktop synth that you could tweak live. And then you could program some simple drum tracks and backing samples that don’t need a whole lot of live interaction.

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I’m a 100% with you on this, that’s why I love the tracker workflow and that’s also why, coming from a classical background, I prefer music notation softwares like Dorico to “write” midi notes. In fact I find lot of similarities between writing music the classical way and the tracker workflow.

The more I dive in, the more the M8 becomes a tool, a companion to write music, it’s pretty amazing, and the M8 is a complex device so it’s never boring, I discover new things very often.

For example, I thought the groove feature was just a silly thing to add swing, shuffle or syncopated things, but in fact it’s a lot more powerful than that. You can create really complex rhythms with it, and if you like uneven measures, polymeters and polyrhythms, it’s just heaven.

Here’s a fun little sketch I made working with the groove feature, as wobbly as I like :

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Do you use the PS4 gamepad via bluetooth or USB?

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Many thanks for your detailed reply!

Yeah, I’m aware of this programmy workflow - from my experience with the PT.

I’m planning on using it with a synth and a drum machine. I hope these will cover most of the performance aspect but they are quite limited sequencer-wise. That’s why I though the M8 would be a nice addition, to take care of the more structural part of my live set. Not like a song-mode sequencer - because I like to keep some flexibility in the arrangement - but rather to launch clips, and possibly to use the X/Y touchscreen for internal synth tweaking. From what you describe, it could be useful for that :slight_smile:

Man, this is nuts!

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And you know what’s even nutsier ? (Is that a word lol ?) The fact that I used almost exclusively sequencer’s FX commands, so now I can switch these internal synths to midi out instruments without losing any data, and go on with this sketch in Bitwig and trigger Vsts.

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BTW new beta = bigger fonts for M8! We are all for a treat!

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