Melodic parts on the octatrack

Hey there. New to the Octatrack, coming from the Digitakt.

How do you approach melodic content on the OT? I’m used to single cycle waveforms + 4 octaves pitch range on the DT, but apparently that won’t be an option on the OT (2 octaves pitch range).

Do you build sample chains and slice them? Do you create the melody in a DAW and use the OT as a playback/mangle machine?

You can use the Rate Parameter, to pitch the sample down even further, Rate is set to Pitch in the src settings by default.

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I like to use chains that contain several octaves of single cycle waves, but using rate to pitch down also works well.

Rate=32 is one octave down, 16 is two octaves down etc.

You can ofc also sample chromatic chains from your synths and then play back and shape the slices with OTs amp env and filter.
Sample with filter open, notes long enough.

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I use a synth via thru machine.

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…single cycle waveform tricks were invented for THIS…
u can go way beyond all dt terretory with the ot…

I have an endless collection of pad/chord sounds, stringed together in sample chains. All in different keys. Using the filters and reverb, melodies sort of make themselves, depending how you set up you samplechains. A lot of the time I have 5-6 different pad/chord sample chains with 64 different chord/pad samples loaded into my static slots. If I want a certain synth sound, I turn on the MnM and go from there.

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You can create Param with amidi processor to play chromatically the retriger or the comb filter.
More than two octave …

Do you store a chord/note progression of one synth as a chain, or do you throw random chords of multiple synths in one chain and build the melody kind of randomly?

I made some 64 sliced sample chains of chromatic single cycle waveforms.
5 octaves and 3 semitones.
You can add pitch + rate to it.

1.18 MB file IIRC.

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ok, I think I’ve seen some of your posts about it :slight_smile:

When building your chromatic chains, is each note a single cycle ? How did you manage the slicing in order to get 64 perfectly looping waveforms? Did you generate the waveforms on a computer, then build a chain using octachainer or something like that?

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Yep.

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To echo some other’s sentiments. here. you can P-lock your Rate parameter for extended octave down range. Make sure that time stretch is off and rate is set to pitch in the tracks playback setup page.

IIRC it should work as follows:

  • 64 Base 2 Octaves Range
  • 32 shift Down 1 Octave
  • 16 shift Down 2 Octaves
  • 8 shift Down 3 Octaves
  • 4 shift Down 4 Octaves

I’ve never needed to go that low so the accuracy below 8-16 May not be there but it feels linear to me?

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Yes.
8
4
2
1

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