Newbie help... cannot get my OT to sound samples

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Gentleman, I just received my long backordered OT yesterday afternoon, and was looking forward to spending a snow day with it, but I’m really having trouble. I realize it’s a deep and not necessarily intuitive machine, but having spent a lot of time with the manual and videos, I’m losing faith that there’s not something wrong with this one.

The current issue is getting a very basic sample pattern going. I have a Static Machine assigned to Track 2 (in a saved Project), and I have assigned a 16-bit 44.1K sample of my own to the #1 slot of the Static Machine in that track. (The sample auditions fine, and I have tried several different samples to make sure it’s not the file.) I can use either Trig mode or whatever you call the other mode (sorry, too much manual cramming : ) to actually create a pattern on track 2, but when I press play, I hear nothing.

I can see the number 10 trig button lighting up, showing that it’s being activated in the timing of my pattern, and when I press the record button during playback I see the pattern across the 16 trig buttons that I’ve created.

The amp level is not 0. Interestingly, when I’m not playing, and I just hit the #10 trig button, it doesn’t sound my sample either. (Is that right?)

Any ideas, guys? My money’s on my own idiocy here, but for the life of me I cannot get this.

2

maybe the sound is cued. Try pressing track and cue to uncue the track. Otherwise I don´t know…

3

hard to spot anything wrong with the information you supply, but possible causes could be:

  • T2 playback rate is zero

  • T2 track level is zero

  • T2 machine amp level is negative infinite

  • master level is negative infinite

  • T2 amp attack rate is too high

  • sample gain is negative infinite

  • the sample is CUEd, as pointed out by awkwardphase

  • the sample slot is not activated; as pointed out by avantronica and awkwardphase

-are you using the main outs or headphone?

maybe you can narrow it down already…

4

The action of pressing T10 can be replicated by pressing Track and Play - are you sure the slot is loaded, i find the selection border and inverse box can sometimes be misleading - usually you have to hit yes twice to get the content in

try Track + Edit to see if there is a sample loaded - then look at your outs/levels etc !

5

oh - and don’t forget scenes can play havoc !!

6

A few things to check:

Is the track cued? The track light will be green rather than red. There is a preferences setting that mutes tracks from the main output when its cued.

Are you using a scene that mutes that channel? Try selecting a difference scene (or no scene at all and see if the sample will play.

Is the master output turned down (obvious but worth asking ;))

The most likely problem is the envelope on that channel - check that the attack time is at 0 and the decay time is turned up for that sample.

7

Good advise, this used to bug me when I was new to the Octa but I got used to it and just do it right.

are you sure the slot is loaded, i find the selection border and inverse box can sometimes be misleading - usually you have to hit yes twice to get the content in

try Track + Edit to see if there is a sample loaded - then look at your outs/levels etc !

8

WOW! The speed of the responses here is unbelievable!

The track was not cued, but that suggestion led me to wonder whether it was muted: it was.

I am indeed an idiot.

Can’t believe it, but on the plus side I’m pretty much blown away by you guys, seriously.

9

you are not an idiot. standard first date with the OT.

10

No problem, beats the day job!

I’d guess that there are loads of users logged in today trying constantly F5’ing to get more info on the new Elektron box :wink:

11

Glad the issue was resolved.

Don’t worry, the Octatrack has made me feel like an idiot many times too. But I’ve gotten more pleasure than pain out of using it overall. :+1:

12

Thanks, again, guys. Once I got that sorted out I had a beat going in minutes and a couple nice scenes to crossfade between!

Great reverb on this thing.

13

Track muting was tough for me. I was so use to the Machinedrum, LED off (muted) LED on (unmuted).