I’ve seen a couple of posts out there for using p-locks to gate/stutter incoming audio to a sequence or using the slider but I can’t figure out how to do it manually with a trigger button (so it works like a morse switch, when I’ve got the button pressed down the audio is heard, when I release the button the volume goes to zero).
I’ve never tried that, but shouldn’t it work when you set very short amp hold and release times on a thru machine and then just trigger that machine by hand with the trig button?
You could also just set a trig on step one on the track with the thru machine, start the sequencer and gate audio with amp volume.
Turn amp volume down and use an lfo and/or scenes to pull the volume up/down.
Use scenes on lfos to switch between the three lfos (lock lfo depth) and/or use scenes to change lfo speed.
Experiment with different lfo trig modes.
Or set the track to plays free, put a trig on step one and trigger by hand. Now you can also make use of p-locks, because your triggering the whole track, not only the thru machine.
Thru track, amp Hold=max, Rel=min, trigger with sample trig button (9 to 16) . Works as desired.
It’s a bit clicky, so you might want to set attack and release to slightly above zero
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Great, thanks. I’m still at the stage of where I learn something new about the octatrack I forget something else so I’d completely forgot about the existence of the 9-16 manual triggers 
I needz more coffee^^
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Sorry one more question That works great for incoming audio but I’d like to the same thing for an existing/looping sample as well. The trigger keys retrigger it and the scene buttons need two presses to mute/unmute.
That might be the best you’ll get without an external controller. Keep in mind the mute buttons do the same thing, so no need to burn a scene unless you want control over several tracks at once.
Unfortunately that won’t work for my use, want to use it to produce rapid/rhythmic ‘stuttering’ effects which I can’t do if I need two separate button presses to mute/unmute. I’d hoped there’d be a way to do it on the device itself as I don’t usually have a MIDI controller hooked up, if not then looks like I’ll have to set some pads to change the MIDI volume.
Interesting! Have you considered using scenes with a square LFO set to amp vol? Maybe not as spontaneous but you could set up a few of them with separate rhythms and/or affecting various combinations of tracks… or set fader to rate
Plays free with hold mode?
Edit; Probaply not what you‘re looking for, because you would retrigger the loop with each button press, but a midi controller that toggles amp volume from -64 to 0?
I’ll give that a try. I love messing around with volume/gating as a rhythmic effect, I don’t think it’ll do the ‘playing the gate live’ thing I’m after but it sounds fun for something a bit more programmed.
Sorry I’m a bit new to the device so I’m not sure what playing free/hold mode means. Feel free to refer me back to the manual on that though!
Plays free mode disconnects the track from the sequencer, so you can start/stopp by hand.
There are several trig modes for plays free. Page 75 in the Mk1 manual.
Propably not what your‘e looking for, though I guess, cause you would retrigger the loop with each button press I think.
Ah gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. Yeah that won’t do what I’m after but it’s good to know
Seems like manually gating/stuttering ongoing audio isn’t a common thing people tend to do (which is a shame as it sounds super cool) so a momentary MIDI control to change the volume might be the only way.
Shame as I’m just using the Octatrack/Analog 4 setup on my desk these days. I might see if my techie soldering friend can make me a single arduino type pad that does that
(I’m useless with that kind of thing).
Try to assign scenes to amp volume maybe? Hold down scene button and on the amp page XVOL will appear.
Hit the crossfader like mad 
I always used the filter with lfo modulation and several scenes for stuttering audio…
If you hold function while pressing the trig keys in tracks mode you can manually trig a trigless trig, haha… This will launch the amp/fx envelopes and lfo without launching the sample. You’ll need to go to the amp setup page and set amp and optionally fx1/fx2 to (R+T) for the desired envelopes to react to trigless trigs…
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Sounds like that would work great for doing it via a pattern or LFO but i want to play it manually like an instrument - so when I press the key/button the volume is on but when i release it it’s silent.
EDIT: I’m guessing the same applies to Open_Mike’s suggestion too? Doesn’t solve my problem but it’s helping me learn more about how to do fun volume programmy things on the machine
When you hold function and move the amp volume encoder, volume will snap from -64 to 0 and back to zero instantly.
Maybe this would do?
This works for several parameters in the Octatrack, not only amp vol ofc.
I’d like to see someone do that 5 times a second to make a stuttering rhythmic effect 
I’m talking about doing how you like, using the trig keys in tracks mode in live play like you tried, just make the amp setup settings first then hold function when you hit the trigs…
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