Hi there- trying to help minimize technical and timing issues by recording out of octrack into ableton. I’d like to record 2 tracks out at a time as opposed to one… however. It seems to me it will sound better coming stereo out of the mains into stereo channel pairs as opposed to mono out of each track. However if there coming out of the individual outs aren’t they stereo tracks anyway? I could always double up the tracks into ableton and sum them down. Want to make sure I’m getting full record out power on the scene parameters I’ve built. Will the scene changes come out on the individual outs or only on the main outs? Thanks
…stereo is a must if u wanna catch scene action on the fly…
…consider the studio mode…opens up cue outs as a second pair of outputs…
then you get two stems at the same time to record if speparate their individual audio feeds… BUT…if so…keep an eye on the scene actions…and split them also straight forward to ur content…
u also could use the cues for mono panned single outs and record parallell action from the secenes via the main outs…
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Hey Reeloy- thanks for tips here. I’m in studio mode because I noticed it sounded better for whatever reason- not using 8th track as a master. I’m limited to a UAD Apollo Duo X. Looks like I’ll have to come out stereo individually. Guess isn’t end of world. I’ll try cue outputs also to see if it sounded any better but pretty confident what’s coming the main outs.
…u won’t find any difference in quality…promise…
differences can only be spotted when some gainstaging differs for some reasons…
so only two inputs on the interface…hmmmmmm…
still i’d say…go for stero action…u got some masterclocking going on anyways…so record step by step…no big fuzz…
main rule is…low end needs to be separated in the mix…same with low mids, mids and hi’s…
so a kik…u better get ending up on an individual track in ur daw…same with snare…
those main edges are always best to be still able to differ them til final mix…
rest is pretty much up to u…
while bass and hihat/perc are of course also good to be handled individually…
so give ur master clocking a hard try and see where it ends up if u put all together in the end again…
for scene actions u can set up an additional recording track and just mix it up in cutting off off the involved instruemnts during that in the mixdown arrangement with all that leftovers occasionally when ever needed…
so think in clean indiividual takes…straight up…
and then think in one scene overall overkill take to cherry pick later…
The real benefit in studio mode is that muting a track mutes it from both cue and main outs. In normal mode track mutes won’t influence the cue outs.
Qualitywise the cue outs and main outs are definitely the same.
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Hey Reeloy- Thanks again. How do I get the timing to be master clocked into ableton going individually from the mainouts of octa? my thought was setting a count in on ableton and pressing play on the 3rd/4th or whatever I have to get it on point?Cuz I notice octa has like a half second or less or more where it doesngt exactly start immediately when hitting play. Having a more janky way of recording like this keeps me more engaged finding a tactile feel.
What do you recommend in terms of keeping a “masterclock” coming out stereo into my daw. (ableton)
THANKS!
You would probably do well to clock the OT from Ableton. Maybe do a blank pattern on the OT so that when clock/transport starts, the audio you’re recording isn’t played back immediately and you have a bit of a buffer going into Ableton.
You can also look at track and MIDI delays in Ableton to get things sync’d a little more tightly.
Lastly, and this is overkill, you can look at a device like the ERM Multiclock which keeps things locked rock solid. I use one with my setup for mixing Ableton with hardware. It keeps things locked tighter than anything you can imagine. Like, no jitter whatsoever. Amazing device.
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… follow d4ydream here…starting with a short blank pattern is a very good tip…
since some little fluctuations in tempo always take place on first few steps…
what u think u could start in manually is quite hopeless., i’m afraid…
make ableton the master…
since both feature liquid audio, that will do fine…
so where ever ur daw is sending out a clock…feed that to ot’s midi in and turn on slave mode in ot’s midi sync menu…also check transport receive on…
fool around with the ot only…get sure what to tape…and then tape all that routine one after the other without scenes in action…just hard grid…then all scenes action alltogehter once again…
Hey there- Cool I have octatrack connected to laptop via usb. I have it set on receive in both transport and clock. How to I get ableton to then read the elektron to send global tap? I don’t think I’m going to be able to start a new pattern. it’s all set up janky and crazy and will move arrangements around a bit in ableton which is why I’m doing it in ableton as opposed to octa since I can only get scene information coming out of mains or cues individually.
Thanks!
Yeah I repeat it all the time. Studio mode only changes mute behavior, and display.
By the name it seems much more professional, but I will do the same! 
Hey there thank you- is any of this syncing possible with usb octa to computer? I don’t have a midi device and not much time left to finish this project. If I can’t sync up I’ll have to try my hellish way of just tapping it out and hoping for best. Thanks!
I’m afraid the OT doesn’t support MIDI via USB.
As Grumo pointed out, OT does not support MIDI over USB (apologies for the late reply).
Curious, what audio interface are you using to track into your DAW? Most interfaces have DIN MIDI ports built in and that would certainly work to send the clock/transport you need.
If you have the means to record more than 2 channels into your DAW you could track one track at a time out the mains then send the metronome out the CUE outs. Record one track at a time doing your best to hit play on the OT on a downbeat. Record the click of the metronome to a separate track and use it to line up all of your takes. That’s about the best I can think of without a way to send clock to the OT.
Trying to think outside the box for you 
Hey yes- Oh well. So far having excellent luck using a one bar count in on ableton with matching bpm + having 1/16th quantize turned on in ableton) and pressing play on the one and so far working fantastic. Luckily my loops are short. hopefully all is good it seems?! THanks yall
Why don’t you record internally?
- no editing (already perfect length)
- up to 8 stereo loops at a time
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I fouynd out the hard way that this isn’t overkill at all if you do anykind of seamless looping with timestretch turned off, because MIDI over USB has enough inherent itter that loops that were seamless when the OT was was the master clock will usually click when the DAW is the master. How badly and how often will depend on your specific setup and the actual sounds, but on all but a small minority of setups that use MIDI timestamping (if yours does you probably already know) it WILL happen, because USB MIDI timing is an order of magnitude less accurate than the OT.
Expert Sleepers USAMO is the most affordable option as long as you have a spare audio out (even the onboard audio on your computer will be fine), and if you jsut need it to send clock to a few things it’s more than enough. I resisted dealing with MIDI interface jitter for years, but live looping on the OT was the thing that finally mdae me have to do it and it was absolutely worthwhile.
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Can attest; I love my Multiclock. It’s shocking how tight things are with it. Using the audio sync from Ableton to the Multiclock is rock solid. Where there used to be jitter +/- of 1 to 1.5 on a regular basis, there is maybe 0.1 on a rare basis. It changed everything for me.
Hey there- wait so I can clock timing with the USB? Here’s strange thing- year a ago I had a disaster area thing I used with a Chais bliss pedal. I had midi with pedal. The octatrack and laptop were connected via usb and nothing else and it still worked. Confused how it worked when I had pedal in. How was it able to read midi with out a cable then but can’t now? All I’m trying to do is sync up timing from ableton to octatrack vice versa whichever will slave the other if possible via usb. Otherwise matching tempos with count in and manual play isn’t end of world.
Man, it’s simply not possible.
I’m running 3 Elektron devices all tightly MIDI synced to Ableton via Overbridge. It just works a treat! Also saving up 6 inputs on my audio interface.
Overbridge does the same the ERM does syncing via reference audio impulse.
It’s why I started using OB and loving it.
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