Naturally looping synth samples

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hey All,

I am possibly trying to achieve the impossible here. What i’m looking to do is extend the sustain of a sample into the beginning of the next loop on a sequence. As if I was playing the same thing twice with no cutout after the first motif. Fade out adds length to the sample so i dont see that working and fade in just makes the gap between loops longer which isn’t going to have the result I want either.

I attached two recordings for reference.

What I want it to sound like:

What it currently sounds like:

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Max

Create loops on the Octatrack
#2

Try to find/make single cycle waveforms and use that- turn loop on

#3

do you mean totally changing the synth patch? I am making these on a 4 oscillator synth, mix of saw and super saw waves with some LFOs.

#4

maybe you could record/resample 3 bars (or 3 times the phrase) with the fx and then cut out the middle one, so the fx tails should sound more seemless, if they are not modulated too heavy…?

#5

I would need to use an additional track in that case, right?

#6

Ah!

Trigless lock the sample to play in reverse midway through the sample

#7

Well that sounds interesting, but I have no idea how to do it. Would you mind stepping me through it?

#8

Totally, when in Grid Recording just hold function when you place a trig, and it should light up yellow- it’s a trig that will not trigger the sample.

With this you can adjust any parameter and as soon as the track sound passes that trigger that sound will go into effect.

What you can do now is p-lock the sound to negative rate and it will play backwards from whatever point in the sample it’s currently at

#9

As long as the tails are pretty consistent between loops you can have a sample with two repeats (8 bars), set the loop point halfway through in the audio editor, and use a 1st trig condition.

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#10

Is delay an option? You could use a trigless trig like @Ryan said and set the delay and feedback high. That would ring out that tail for you. Or, perhaps, a conditional trigless trig set to ‘fill’ and then you hit the fill just before the sample changes.

#11

I’m not sure what you mean by a conditional trigless trig set to “fill”. What does this mean exactly?

#12

@Ryan That reverse rate trig actually works perfectly! How can I make it re-enable for each pass though?

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#13

have you looked at the manual for any of this? (just asking… not trying to be rude)

if you want the trig to retrig each pass, just make it a regular playback trig (red trig) with the same parameter settings as your trigless trig that you like. you could just hold function and push the trig until it’s red again.

‘conditional trigs’ are in the manual as well… they only play according to the condition you choose. ‘Fill’ is one type of ‘condition’ and it only trigs when you activate fill mode.

trigless trigs, as you’ve experimented with, don’t retrig the sample but allow parameter changes to take place where you want.

a conditional trigless trig would be a trigless trig with a condition applied to it.

…that’s the most i’ve used ‘trig’ in a comment before.

cheers!

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#15

Maybe I’m late to the party but if you record with a pickup machine you can let it go into overdub upon pattern cycle and just hold the last note or let the tales go or whatever without playing the phrase again…

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#16

I think you’ll have to just program it for each time you need it.

If you’re trying to play this live- I’ve never tried this. But perhaps you can set up a Sq Wave LFO to adjust the time to constantly alternate between forward and backwards. That MIGHT work? I’ve never tried it, but theoretically it seems like it should work.(I’d think it would need to be FREE setting, because I’m not certain if TRIG will work if nothing is plugged into the sequencer despite the track being initiated.

#17

You will want to take a look at the manual though. There is an entire world of possibilities that you’re missing by going at the Octatrack “commando style”

Especially with the Octatrack there’s a lot hidden under the hood.

It’s definitely worth studying that like you’re in a college class. It will be exciting and fun and your music making ability with the machine will be immediately impacted

(To give you a start, @PlumWrinkles was talking about “Conditional Trigs”- research it and be amazed)

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#18

I have read the whole thing and keep it open in a browser tab. I’m one of those people that learn from application, so until I apply the theory it won’t stick.

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#19

This was a good exercise. I have a pickup machine recording synth on C/D. I can record the sample, save it, and assign to a flex machine successfuly since it appears you cant place a grid recording trig on a pickup machine. I enabled over dub, but ended up with the same resulting file that I had from recording to a flex machine. Did you mean to set the pickup machine to record from the pre-existing sample and add onto the beginning of it?

#20

I was referring to playing and recording the phrase again (if possible, I assumed you played it) and using a pickup machine to capture it.

To do it you’d set the pickup machine rec1 settings to:
-Inab/Incd: however your synth is connected
-Trig: One
-Rlen: 64

And rec2:
-Fin and Fout: lowest possible value above zero
-Qrec and Qpl: 64
-AB/CD: can be used to monitor the synth through the pickup…

No trigs or recorder trigs nessecary. Start the sequencer and during a pattern cycle press [audio rec AB], the recording will then begin quantized on the next cycle. Play the passage during the cycle and then sometime during the second cycle press [audio rec CD], this will quantize the recording to stop at the end of that second cycle. It will be a 64 step recording with one layer of overdub.

At this point the sample will be looping and you can see how it sounds. If it works save it.

I thought I’d add just so you know that you never have to save a sample to load it to flex. All 8 recorder buffers are always available as playable samples at the very top of the flex list, Recording 1-8. The numbers correspond with the track number that you used the pickup or recorder on, if your pickup or manual/trig recording track was track 5 for example, any recordings made will be playable from Recording5 in the flex list. It’s even possible to load the same recording buffer to multiple flexes to warp it in different ways, every time you re-record any tracks playing that recording buffer update as well… :monkey::sparkles:

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#21

Thanks for the walk through! The result was a really awesome effect with a drone note behind the melody. It definitely sounds better than the original recording. Unfortunately, each time it loops, there is a brief moment where theres no sound still. I don’t understand why the transition isn’t more seamless.