MPC to Octatrack... Thoughts?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I’m a noob to the all of these Elektron devices. I’ve noticed them over the year but ignored them. Never really gave them any thought, nor did any research on them. Recently I decided to research the Octatrack and I have to say Im really impressed with it’s capabilities. I’m a former MPC2500 user but now I’m heavy on Ableton and the PUSH 2 controller.

About 2 months ago I finally decided to sell my 2500 (a decision that I slightly regret now :pensive:) because Ableton/Push 2 does everything the MPC’s can do but much faster. My entire setup is pretty much in-the-box. I own a Mininova and Triton but everything else is software. So my dilemma… well not really a dilemma as much as my effort to incorporate a hardware sampler in my setup. I mostly produced hip-hop. Sampling and chopping is my bread and butter.

So… I would like to gain some insight from veteran Elektron users on what benefits the Octatrack may have over an MPC? I’m not looking to see which is better, because they are both great machine. I’m saying for someone whom is sampler, chops samples (Dilla is my muse) and loves to make a sample his own, what benefits do the Octatrack have over the MPC? If any…

The sequencer videos I have watched on the Octatrack really intimidate me. It doesn’t look as intuitive / straight-forward as an MPC. I would love to gain some insight on what the learning curve is like as well. I’m ready to pull the trigger, but hesitating because I’m unsure.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated! :slight_smile:

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#2

I’m not a MPC veteran ^^
But I can tell you what makes Elektron machines different : mainly the fact that you can record the automation of knobs during the playback, the same way you can in Ableton, thus “sculpting” the sound very easily.
And this for any parameter : on OT, this would be volume, retrig, sample slice, LP filter freq, etc. etc.

On OT you can also define Scenes (macro for which you have set the value of different parameter). You can either switch directly form one Scene to the other, or gradually fade from one to the other with the slider. Much fun can already be done with only these few things.

If you like playing with samples, then you might find the OT pretty fun to play with, it’s an instrument made for live playing with samples… Not THAT hard, but with plenty of possibilities…
It’s solid, reliable…

I would advise to read the manual, you will see the different modules of the :elot:, what it’s capable of, then understand what you see on videos a bit better…
The manual may be a bit long, you might not get everything at the first time, but you will definitely HAVE TO read it from p.1 to the end, no way to avoid this.
Merlin’s thought on OT is the second thing to read.

From what you say, I think you would have years of fun with such instrument !!

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#3

It’s going to come down to your workflow.

Do you like to chop samples and play them on the pads? The OT doesn’t.

Do you like to record audio and contort/stretch it? Octa does that without breaking a sweat.

The MIDI step sequencer on the OT is rad, but MPC is better at handling MIDI polyphony. OT cuts off all previous notes before playing the next notes, so you can’t layer notes if they’re not played at the same time.

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#4

Manuals…uggh!! :confused: Reading manuals makes cringe… I would do it if necessary though.

I’m just wanting to experience something new. The easy road would be getting another MPC, but I want to try new things. I’m thinking it may inspire me to make new sounds, and help me sculpt a new vibe. I also think it would complement Ableton well and give me a hardware option for my live gigs.

I love playing with samples, and making them unrecognizable. So the Octatrack’s features in that regard make me lean more towards purchasing one. As I stated, my vibe is sampling/chopping and being able to play them.

I really appreciate your feedback! Thanks! :slight_smile:

#5

I definitely record, chop and play more now. That is definitely my workflow. I do use the step sequencer on the PUSH quite a bit, but the majority of the time I’m playing the sample back by hand. I was under the assumption you can play the trig buttons? I know there aren’t velocity sensitive (which I don’t really care that much about) but I thought they could be played…

I most likely would not playback samples hitting the trig buttons often, but it would be a nice addition. Can you not record to the tracks by playing the trig buttons?

The MIDI polyphony may be a setback… Not dire, but I do layer at times. I’m not opposed to a work around.

#6

The video help a great deal as well. Is this you?

Thanks for sharing it.

#7

The main limitation of the OT is that there is only 1 sound that can play at a time per track. So, where on an MPC you can have a track and assign a whole bank of samples and play them all polyphonically with the pads, on the OT you can have 1 single sample per track. You can slice up that sample and play the slices with the trig buttons, but you can only ever be playing 1 sound at a time. Alternatively you can have each track on the OT be a sample, and then you can have all 8 voices playing at once, but then you’ve just limited your entire project to those 8 samples unless you get into p-locking/sequencing/slicing/etc.

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#8

Also, playing sample slices from an external controller is not directly implemented, there is some trickery involved to get that to work, and even then it’s kind of wonky.

If you’re a pad player, the OT is probably not the right tool.

#9

The OT is a very different beast compared to an MPC

I’d recommend another 2k5 or a 1k second hand (with fat pads and maxd out RAM) with JJOS

The OT has a max polyphony of 8 voices. It’s more suitable for sequencing, effecting and live looping IMO than doing layered boombap MPC-style.

But if you can test one for a while before buying, check it out! It’s something very unique, hard to explain actually :diddly:

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#10

i think, if you don’t like manuals, the octatrack is not for you

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#11

I came across this as well… Pretty awesome use of the OT for some hip hop.

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#12

Yeah, I know… No one likes reading technical manual when some gear is waiting to be used right besides :wink:
But as painful as it is, not reading it would be missing a lot with such gear, especially if it’s your first Elektron.

Oh no, I should have made it clear ! I just love this video, think it was the one that triggered it for me :smiley:
Makes me think I haven’t made a track purely out from :elot:
Should try.

Come on, it’s not like you need to read it every day.
Once is sufficient, so you have to read it carefully, then things make sense progressively.

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#13

Maybe, but for me personally, using the OT only became clear after mastering the Rytm first. Tried an OT a long time ago without any experience with elektron boxes and couldn’t get any grip on using it aside from some dabbling with the pickup machines. The MPC on the other hand, I was cozy with it almost instantly.

#14

Good point @tsutek. I relate to this.
And @panelist’s remark above about pad playing… Maybe an AR would be more appropriate, @overtimechris, if you’re note that interesting about resampling…
More straightforward…
You might not dig the pads that much, coming from an MPC, but the sound is impressive !

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#15

i played with mpc, with maschine, with ak and with ar… never had probems…
ot gave me a headache, I sometimes love it, but a lot of times I hated it
and I am not the only one…
very complex, bad feedback of action and state (!), but fantastic possibilities and if you get it, you will probably love it.
I only used flex machines, they were very nice. But at the end… I think the sound is much weaker than the ar or the ak
also I had too many times of headache when I wanted to have fun by making music. Maybe i have to give it another chance. At the end, I love sampling and I love the possibilities the octatrack gives me.

so… if you want to have fun and need an easy to play instrument like the mpc or the maschine or ak or ar… then go for something like that

If you want to find out a lot and do your best to understand it, go through step by step videos that are very nice and made with a lot of passion for the instrument and then master an instrument that gives you a lot of possibilities, many magic accidents and so on… then go for the octatrack.

Many people bought and sold it then again bought it and sold it.
Many people love and hate it.

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#16

Basically this.

I have a love/hate relationship with both the MPC and the OT. I try to keep a fairly minimal setup, but I really do think it’s best to have both these machines because they offer very different but complimentary features. When I have just an MPC, I hate that it doesn’t have a good step sequencer. When I have just an OT, I hate that I have limited poly and no pads. I currently have an OT, but may soon ignore my minimalist tendencies and finally pair it up with an MPC. I keep waiting for something in between, but… I haven’t found a singular modern sampler that I click with.

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#17

Very well put. A box that combines the strenghts of the MPC with the insanity of the OT would be pretty close to an ultimate solution.

Pairing both together might work really well. I am having crazy fun pairing an OT with the Rytm, but even this might not be an adequate combo for someone who loves layers and layers of samples, linear sequencing and vast polyphony.

Then there are rumours about an upcoming Roland sampler/MPC - perhaps a new take on their venerable MV880?

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#18

samplrs.jpg1632×920 311 KB

Both.
But really they are two sides of a coin. I thought the octatrack would oust the MPC for me, but so far it hasn’t. The MPC is still king if you’re looking to really PLAY your samples. Nothing beats that feeling of banging on a soft rubber pad for super expressive beats. Longer patterns here too without sacrificing grid resolution.

On the other hand, the OT has infinitely more complex modulation and sequencing possibilities for your samples. Like you could never get the sort of off the wall grooves with the MPC as you can with the OT. The real time pitch shifting, p-locks, sample locks. It’s nuts to me to be able to do that without having to stop the pattern and spend 10 mins editing parameters and wait for effects to render like the MPC.
The OT is definitely complex, but there is also a well thought out method behind the workings of it, and once you get the button combos down, it’s cake. I was really intimidated the first day, but by day 3 I had 75% of a new live set built up. You’re still gonna need to read that manual though. Like MANY times.

Good luck with whichever one. You can’t lose really

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#19

Yes, both.

#20

The OT is super fun to jam on and get very experimental with. But I found it limiting when trying to compose a song structure. I had my OT for about 4 years and made a couple tracks with it, but I recently traded it for an MPC on Craigslist.

I prefer the simplicity of the MPC and the ability to easily draft arrangements is awesome. The convert function in the Song mode section is a god send. I can string together several sequences and then convert them to one long sequence. Then go in and overlay all kinds of stuff.

Plus, I think the MPC has such a nice groove to it.

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