New thought: 16 patterns of a bank as a 2D grid

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

For now I am thinking of each bank of a Project as a ‘jammable section’ (song) of a live performance.

So, as we know, each bank is made up of sixteen patterns. My new idea was to think of them like this:

01 | 02 | 03 | 04
-----------------
05 | 06 | 07 | 08
-----------------
09 | 10 | 11 | 12
-----------------
13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Of course, nothing actually moves, I’m just imagining them like this.

the idea

Closer to the top of the grid, there will be less rhythm/drums, and closer to the bottom of the grid there will be more rhythm/drums.

and

Closer to the left of the grid, there will be less harmony/melody, and closer to the right of the grid, there will be more harmony/melody.

So, from a blank bank I start composing things on pattern 11. I build up 8 tracks that sound nice together—this is always the easy part with the OT. But now (!) I have something to do. Say I want to hear a variation with some of the drums dropped out. Instead of just muting the drums—which tracks are the drums again (?) —I copy pattern 11 and paste it on pattern 7; then I take away some of the trigs from the tracks doing drum stuff. Then, copy/paste pattern 7 to pattern 3, take away even more drums.

So then, I’m just walking to adjacent squares on the grid, copy/pasting patterns adding and removing trigs as appropriate to get more or less of drums/rhythm or harmony/melody. Moreover, if I need to vary machine settings I can copy and paste the Part, associate it with the specific pattern and affect the variation that way. When performing, I don’t even need to know that this was done (!).

Now, when I switch into a new bank, I can know how to vary and jam it without having to remember all the details of how it was composed. I just know if I want more musical elements I go ‘right’ in the grid, and I want fewer drums so I go ‘up’ in the grid (or whatever). With some juicy scenes set up, moving the fader and switching patterns I can get a lot of variation.

I am getting better at the various copy/paste finger contortions necessary to quickly produce the variations, but there’s more practicing to do in this area.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these ideas, and any related tips or follow ups you may have. I have not thought of a great way to compose long elaborate sequences (e.g., buildups) in this framework yet—pattern chaining? arranger? who knows?—for example.

Anyway, the OT is fun.

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How do you arrange your music with the octatrack?
Octatrack variation between patterns
How do you keep your tracks organized?
#2

yes but where do all the drum fills get stored?

ahah just being silly although really it’s a question for myself, as im avoiding programming in drum fills … just trying to get the drum grooves happening atm.

i like how you are viewing things geometrically and then almost spherically as regards less or more harmonic elements, very cool.

#3

Haha, exactly!

I have used fill mode (and fill trig conditions), but it’s not part of my current daily workflow. It’d be insane if every pattern had fill things also, yeow! Right now I am working with one bar/one page patterns mostly, for simplicity. Maybe fills are more viable with multi-page patterns since less energy would be spent just switching between patterns during performance.

I am also experimenting in this framework with having pattern 01 be an intro variation and not just ‘very little drums and melody’. Maybe pattern 16 could be dedicated to being a fill, and could be thrown in between other patterns. hm.

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#4

lol i forgot about fill mode.

#5

It has it’s own set of limitations, but yeah, potentially useful here. ha!

#6

Your 2D grid seems a good idea, not sure if it suits me as I barely know what will I do musically, and in general. :slight_smile:
One shots are still easier for me with you want to use crossfader at the same time !
And you can add TRC to one shots !

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#7

@sezare56 - are you talking about one-shot trigs?

It seems like if you use one-shot trigs to make a fill, the fill will play the first time you visit the pattern. Is there some way to avoid this?

#8

You can deactivate them at any time, before you switch patterns, or before you even hit play. Press the exit/no button…
I turn the yes/no arm/disarm off in the personalize menu and then it’s function+yes/function+no. This helps me not arm/disarm accidentally…

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#9

I was using this, now I’m not afraid anymore. :slight_smile:

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#10

OIC - thanks. :+1:

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#11

I totally understand. I’m still just trying to think of ways to reduce the cognitive load of performing with the OT; memorizing which elements are on what tracks in every pattern is too hard for me—some organizing principles seem necessary. Do you organize things in any particular way?

A fun journey of learning we’re on here. ha!

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#12

An option with a default disarmed state would be nice.

#13

They’re only armed when you turn on the device or load a new project…
You just press no or double stop before play…
I love some options, but if we get more I’d save it for something else…

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#14

Enough to put a mess ! A first neutral one shot can be safer, or a pattern with one shots to disarm them…or just think about No before Play.

You mean to arm them I suppose…

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#15

Oh right, my my brains only at %50 charge… Looking for the power adapter… :smile:

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#16

Try Overbridge ! :slight_smile:

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#17

if using the Octatrack in a simplified fashion to perform live maybe somewhat similar to Traktor for original content… to play back prepared original 4bar loops, and not changing Pattern but rather crossfading to new 4bar prepared loops from track to track … well i think Fill Mode could still be useful then.

As there are a limited amount of tracks to be working with, only seven if Master Effects Track 8 option is selected, it would make sense to conserve tracks, to somehow limit the amount of new 4bar loops being assigned to new tracks.

Thus, a prepared “Fill” version of an original 4bar loop could be selected to “play in Fill mode” - and even though it isn’t anything but a 4 bar “Fill” variation of the 4bar loop on there already, that means another track is free on the Octatrack to allow for creative remixing and revisiting of previous 4bar loops that did not need to be erased to make way for the 4bar loop Fill version.

#18

Check out the Personalize Menu. There are 2 options to change the behavior of the one shot trigs.
from the manual…
“DISABLE YES/NO ARM will when checked disable the one shot trig arming and disarming when
simply pressing [YES] or [NO]. Note that when this arm/disarm functionality is disabled, the same
functionality can be achieved by pressing [FUNC] + [YES] or [FUNC] + [NO]. Read more about one
shot trigs in section “12.4.5 ONE SHOT TRIGS” on page 66.
DIS. STOP-STOP ARM will when checked disable one shot trig arming when double pressing [STOP]
while the sequencer is stopped.”

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#19

See my post above ^^^^

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#20

I already read it, I know those options. I’d like all one shots disarmed by default when you turn on / change project. :content:

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