After watching this video, I think I might also like an Octatrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS3bRn9Lzv8
(and maybe a Peak and then all I’ll need is some talent! 
)
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I had one for like a year then sold it, bought a brand new one before MK2 came out then sold it late last year… I pretty much read the manual in and out, didn’t really understand parts, and the samples that I recorded into the Octatrack were crap and didn’t make any sense. I think I tried being too “experimental” which lead me nowhere within my compositions.
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I’ve bought it to go with other gear and use it for its slices and scenes,
I think I’m starting to see a lot of people get lost mangling sounds and seeing the OT
as a complete daw trying to do everything with it and get frustrated
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Wise. Beware, maybe you’ll want more. 
Yeah true 
, but I’m not in a rush to learn it all so will try not to let it slow me down with the creative process
The OT drives me insane.
It is so much fun, and it makes me come up with stuff I never would otherwise.
Then, I get all like “I can 95% of this in Ableton, and I am tired of all the cables and being careful with gain staging and clicks and getting samples on/off the OT.”
Then, I see @jayhosking’s video. And, then I feel the OT pulling me back. Yeah, I can do most of that in Ableton, but it’s just so much more fun and hands-on in the OT.
@jayhosking I LOVE that video and the other recent one you did. It’s brilliant and inspiring. Can I ask you a couple more questions?
Can you tell us about the scenes you use? I love the crunchy ones in the “crescendo” part at the end.
This might be a big ask, but since you seem open about your process, I figure why not. Would you be up for sharing that set - without the samples? No pressure.
In that spirit, here is a post I made about how to print-out stems of an entire OT arrangement with Ableton so that you can further mix inside a DAW.
Many thanks!
Hey, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate them. I only started down this hardware path in the middle of last year, and only started doing videos this year, so it means a lot to hear that people are watching it.
It’s true that you can make all of these sounds in a DAW. I’ve used Reason for years precisely because the wiring and setups are so similar to hardware. And yet I’ve never made music anything like what I’ve been making on hardware over the last year.
Every piece of hardware has deliberate design decisions that frame how you use the device. The Octatrack is no different. For me, the Octatrack rewards most when you take advantage of it as a performance device, and I find I get frustrated with it when I’m doing things other than performing (esp. before setting up the scenes, which I try to do last).
The “crunchiness” of those scenes in the crescendoes is due to extensive use of the lo-fi effect on the individual tracks. I think it’s the secret sauce of the effects, even ones that are less crunchy. Specifically, instead of fading out some sounds, I’ll hard pan them to the left or right, crank the sample rate reduction and bit rate reduction, and then they add some weird stereo crunchiness while the ear is focused on whatever other tracks remain. Sometimes I’ll use the amplitude modulation with an LFO on the rate of amplitude modulation, so you get weird radio-like effects. Sometimes I take advantage of the distortion and correct for gain. But really, it’s the sample rate reduction in combination with bit rate reduction that creates those really pleasant crunchy moments.
I’d be more than happy to share the set. Thing is, I only get little snippets to work on music (I’m pretty slammed with actual work) so I can’t guarantee when I’ll take the time to transfer the files off the Octatrack. Do my best, though.
And I appreciate you contributing as well! I’m not too keen on exporting from the Octatrack (like I said, I think it mainly works when you’re performing live on it) but if I ever do any non-live work, I’ll be sure to take advantage of this!
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I’ve had this feeling before too, except with Studio One. I half-considered selling the OT then made myself sit down and do the things it was good at and now I can’t imagine not having it.
You can always have both, of course. Just yesterday I had a piece that I thought was 100% composed on OT, so I recorded it into Studio One. Well then I decided I wanted to add some keys and a horn part, so I might as well do it right then and there in the DAW. Much, much easier recording individual lines and longer progressions with variations in a DAW than it is on Octatrack…So why not play to the strengths of both worlds? I often find myself sitting at the Octa and coming up with a melody or chord progression that would be too much of a pain in the ass to get recorded and looped properly…Why confine myself to just one piece of gear when this limitation rears its head?
The workflow is ever changing I suppose. What I do know is I’ve had a ton of happy accidents on the Octatrack I most certainly would not have in a DAW. And I like DAWs!!
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@jayhosking
Thanks for the reply and sharing that info! Really informative! No pressure at all to share the set.
I love what you said earlier about how that song has stretching artifacts and sample misalignments. When I first got the OT, I used to worry so much about that stuff, but clearly, it does not matter LOL.
And, I agree with your thoughts about hardware.
@GirTheRobot
Well said. I agree.
I will say that the OT inspired me and changed my thinking in a lot of ways, and I took a lot of concepts and ideas and applied them to Ableton. For example:
- In my Ableton template, I have 8 audio and 8 MIDI tracks, which are all bused to some “repeater” tracks, so that I can do repeats like the OT. Those buses have dummy clips on them, so that simply hitting a pad on Push causes a repeat. So, row one, pad one does 1/4 repeats, row 2 does 1/8, row 3 1/16, etc.
- I have a master repeater track and a master FX track, where I create dummy clips, which activate and deactivate certain device combinations, which are very similar to OT scenes. And, I setup the macro mapping such that the first 8 macros on the FX track control whatever effect my dummy clip has actived. So, e.g., I can hit one Push pad to get bit crushing and turn Push’s knobs to adjust it, then I can hit another Push pad to get a drench-y reverb, etc. The first Push pad on that track resets everything to the default and deactivates the effects.
- I setup a default Simpler rack, which mimics a lot of the controls you get on the OT’s SRC page.
- I set some of my Ableton clips’ warp mode to Repitch and mess with the master tempo to get some of that slow-down/pitch-shifty stuff you can do with the OT.
I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking of. But, still even with all that, I miss jamming on the OT.
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I’m likely going down the octatrack route now. It was bound to happe. I already have an MPC Live, Digitone and OP-Z which i have as my main set up. The MPC Live is so great in many ways, but it’s that creative sample mangling that I am really missing. I am a vocalist at heart and will be using the octa, as a mixer and a vocal sample mangler.
I will probably sequence a track of the octa from the OP-Z and then sequence stuff like track length and tempo/swing shifts (available via midi cc on the OP-Z) from the octa to Op-Z. I see so much potential with the Octa and OP-Z.
I’m not new to the elektron world former owner of MnM, MD and Digitakt, so I feel ready to tackle the mountain that is the Octatrack.
One question I have though, does the Octa transmit and receive midi via USB? I haven’t read any info regarding that.
One question I have though, does the Octa transmit and receive midi via USB?
No.
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No USB midi on the OT. The USB is used for transferring files to the CF drive. I use this when controlling synths on my laptop. https://www.amazon.com/iConnectivity-mio-1-out-MIDI-Interface/dp/B00CO5IRSG…
Simple. Works.
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yeah, this. The sequencer is great because of hwo it integrates into the overall OIT workflow. It’s actual feature set isn’t amazing but in the context of the machine as a whole it’s excellent.
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That’s the way to use the Octatrack! You will LOVE it 
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I logged in after a long while looking for a discussion like this.
My GAS has been to a minimum lately since my active synth duo project has been in a phase of very hard work. However, the other person is moving to another town soon and I’m not sure what will happen to our co-operation.
So I’ve been thinking I want to challenge myself and make music to play live on stage all by myself. I have never done a solo live and and I am terrified at the thought. But I feel like I NEED to do it.
My only active solo project is purposefully bound to the digital domain: everything done in DAW, released digitally only, no live performances. So the next step would be something new: pure hardware live, all by myself.
I’ve been thinking Octatrack could be the right tool for this. I already have the AR, A4 MkII and a bunch of analog keyboards from Korg. I love the Elektron workflow. But I’ve never been into sampling. However I recently got my first ever synth back. It’s a Yamaha CS1x and it’s perfect for weird sample material so I’ve recorded a bunch of stuff and imported it to the AR. But I feel like I could do much more with the source material if I had a more versatile sampler. I also have a Zoom H5 for field recordings but mangling nature sounds and urban noises in a DAW feels uninspiring. I think a constraining hardware sampler could force me to be more creative with found sounds.
I know I’m rambling and probably not bringing much to the table here… Just things I felt like typing out and sharing. I really need to find an OT on display somewhere so I can at least satisfy my curiosity about how it feels to use it.
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I bought the Octatrack the day after I created this topic,
Now just over a month later I’m seriously considering selling it,
It’s the concerns I had from the start, and I seem to be wasting time doing things
I could easily do in ableton in a few seconds…
If I wanted to go completely out the box it would be perfect,
My only regret would be if I sell it is,
with the AR and A4 you could work completely and produce with
these three alone if you wanted no computer involved
But I’m trying to integrate it with ableton and I’m not really seeing the point at the moment…
Anyone got any advice?
What are you doing that you´d prefer doing in Ableton? ´Cause some things may be worth to do in Ableton and leave the OT for what it does best.
Simpler can detect transients and sampler is more Advanced.
what would say the Octatrack does best that ableton can’t?
I have hardware and love it all. But you’re absolutely correct, Ableton can do everything, and then some more, than hardware and the OT.
I love both. I love my hardware drum machines and I also love Ableton Live. They can coexist
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Live can do everything, but it’s more a question of how much fun you have while getting the result you want. If you have a clear idea in mind, Live will help you achieve it. OT is special because you go in with one idea and come out somewhere unexpected.
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