Hey there I’m interested in using the OT to enter the dawless realm of studio beat creation. I was curious if there are any experienced OT users that sample themselves in the same use as audio tracks in a DAW. I’m looking to lay down bass and key tracks in the OT to go along with mangled samples and chopped drums. And as well as a way to monitor pre recorded tracks while sampling yourself in. Is this completely impossible or tedious and if so are there any work arounds or other hardware suggestions other than the MPC Live.
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Welcome.
That’s how I mainly use the OT. No Daw.
Guitar, bass, synths, voice…
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I do. You may also find it interesting to sample things a second time - things which have already been through a daw (or completed on the octatrack). ie. using your own mediocre tracks to sample into new, better tracks.
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Achemical madperson!
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Hey sezare thanks for responding my next question would is there any kind of arms mechanism can I monitor myself before recording or is it just sending direct audio as soon as you route an input
@hip.e.scum Several possibilities.
With DIR AB and DIR CD parameters you can monitor inputs AB / CD.
You can monitor inputs AB / CD with THRU machines, add fx, record them.
If you record with Pickups machines, usefull for overdub, you can monitor what you record.
If you record and play with FLEX, you can play what you’re recording directly with trigs.
…
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That’s my primary octaflow for the last five years. Recycled music.
With certain types of music I think our ears are very used to hearing samples. Without the associated minor artifacts our own music just doesn’t sound as thick or “real”. Resampling adds that. Going a bit off topic I realize…
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Compression/mastering too!
I’ve been really into this idea, especially with the Octatrack. I plan to multi-track material with other gear into a DAW, then dump those files into the OT.
I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with this process just yet, but I did use this method on a recent track, albeit in a DAW; I took a long (probably 60 minutes?) live jam with a Nord Modular, and just kept editing it, bouncing it, and editing it again until the original material is almost unrecognizable even to me.
I like the results, it keeps me away from the traditional “arrangement” phase that I just don’t do well with, I can generating new ideas with limited material, and it’s produced sounds and textures I’m so far pretty proud of.
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I do a lot of recording to Ableton of actual instruments, and then push it over to the OT, while also recording some directly on the OT.
Edit:
Good story, mr_bernard.
If you’re trying to copy a DAW workflow, I think you’ll find it tedious. If you go at it as a learning objective, I think you can develop a workflow that suits you that you won’t find tedious at all. I know I rarely think of the OT as tedious, but that took some practice.
I’ve been creating new jams from old stems. The OT is really really good at that. I haven’t tried remixing entire songs yet but I imagine it would be fun (and easy). The slice mode on the OT is great. If you copy a sliced track then you can play stems polyphonically.
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