Making Ambient on Octatrack MKII



Hey, folks! I’ve been exploring somewhat new territories for myself, trying to come up with some neat textures and cozy atmospheres. Mostly it’s Octatrack with occasional sampling of some other gear (AR on r08 for example). Tell me how I did!

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:+1::+1::+1::+1:sounds nice. Need to hear more.well done

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Thanks! I’m gonna try to stay on schedule and record something new every week, so stay tuned!

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Will do.just having a quick listen to your album on bandcamp. Did you use ot on that and what other equipment.sounds good :+1:

Nah, that was before I’ve got OT.
On Ease I’ve used Keys, Rytm mk1, DSI Evolver (desktop), 0-Coast, TB-03, some VST’s. I’ve been recording everything into Ableton, then arranging and mixing with additional fx processing, etc.
Now I’m limiting myself to OT most of the time, sampling some random stuff and trying to make something out of it.

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these are really, really good!

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Hey, thank you! You can check out other tracks there, everything with MA, R, and C prefixes in title is made on OT. “MA” tracks are harsher and are mostly percussion-heavy, though. I’ve been using comb filter on most of those as well, got addicted to it for like half a year after getting my hands on OT. I’m good now, though, haha.

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R08 is great.

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Very cool. Parts sound like Oval to me… which is super. I’ve been experimenting with similar textures & techniques recently with my OT, but your stuff sounds better. :slight_smile: Really dig R05. Care to share some tips?

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really, really nice

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Funny that you’ve said that, because Oval has been coaching me, hah. “MA” tracks on my SC are made for his “Music Assignments” during that course. He’s been also a huge inspiration for me so I guess it’s no surprise that my music may sound similar to his. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to his “Do While” track and Ovalprocess/Ovalcommers albums.

As for the tips, I like to take small pieces from other music, stretch it to oblivion and make something “musical” with it. It creates artifacts and glitches that just sound nice to my ear. Lately I don’t use more than 4-5 flex machines on OT so I can use more neighbor tracks for FX.
Also it’s always great to do something you didn’t do before just for the sake of doing it. For example, on R08 I’ve used AR snare and kick sound engines to create melodic bass-like sounds and sequenced and processed it with OT then. Stuff like that, you know. Even if the inital idea was kinda meh, you could still stumple upon something interesting while doing it.

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Nice work! :smiley:

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Great info… and inspiring! I don’t know about his MA course. I’ll look it up. Cheers for the tips! I’ve got to keep my efforts simple I think. Turn off some of the machines and focus on one or two.

Thanks a lot, guys!

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R05 is really nice. I really like texture. Great work!

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This is really beautiful. You have inspired me. Thank you for recording and finishing and posting these pieces!

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Just to clear up: MA is not the name of the course, it’s just how I abbreviated “music assignment” to name the tracks I’ve been working on during his course.

And yes, focusing on one piece of gear at a time really helps to spark up your creativity.

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Really, really nice. My girlfriend just asked what I was listening to. She digs it too!

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Oh, that’s sweet! Glad you both liked it!

really nice tracks! did you record these straight from the OT live? or you arranged them ITB?

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