New to forum. Introduction and Octa question

Elektron Gear Octatrack
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Hi. I’m excited to be part of your community. I’m sure I can learn a lot here and I hope I can contribute and be helpful. Looks like a great place.

I’m waiting for my supplier to re-up on the Octatrack MKII. This will be my first Elektron device. I’m very excited. One of the really exciting things is that it’s such an open ended machine. I’m also glad that there is an actual, printed manual included with the machine.

I’m interested in many genres of music. From Merzbow to J.S. Bach to The Carpenters. I also do Frippertronics style looping. I’ve used Ableton Live since it was first released. I’m looking forward to getting away from the computer. I began that process when I dusted off my 4 track and dove into modular. The Elektron machines look like the answers to all of my prayers.

I have a couple questions. they may not make sense, but I have no experience with these machines. Thanks for your patience.

  1. Are the order of the effects changeable? Can I put a delay before a distortion, and the other way around or is there a fixed architecture?

  2. Along with electronic and experimental music, I plan on attempting to make pop music with the Octatrack. I’m sure I will have to drastically alter my approach to songwriting, but has there been any notable success making pop music with the machine? I was listening to the album Point by Cornelius last night and thinking the Octatrack might be a good place to make something like that album.

  3. I’ve watched many Octatrack tutorials on youtube, but are there any “project tutorials” like the ones that come with Ableton live? Something that walks you through the process using include samples?

Thanks for your input and patience. I’m very excited to get started. Looks like it will be about two week, and I’ll be on my way to a new creative universe full of wonder and joy… not to mention the steep learning curve and frustration :slight_smile:

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Hi! Welcome!

  1. There are two slots. Some FX are common to the two slots (hence interchangeable), a couple are bound to slot 2 (Delay, FX). You could use neighbour tracks add upon the FX chain over several tracks.
  2. I know that Loney Dear makes pop(ish) music and uses Octatrack for looping. My last video with the OT MkII is kinda in the pop realm.
  3. I like Elektrons workflow videos. They also have OT specific videos. @cuckoomusic makes very well liked videos on several instruments - OT being one of them.

My own OT MkII video:

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This is probably one of my biggest gripes with the OT. I love putting delay and reverb before filters or flangers as it changes the sound drastically. It seems so silly to have to waste an entire other track just to be able to do that small thing.

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I don’t think there is a printed manual included with the MK2

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