OctaChainer v1.0 uploaded - a tool for sample chains

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I just uploaded a small GUI application I made last weekend that allows you to drag and drop audio files into the tool, rearrange them, etc. and then generates a .wav and a corresponding .ot file (with the slice info etc).

It looks like this:

screenshot.jpg449×582 48.8 KB


Note: All samples will be missing some bytes at the end, so don’t use this for single cycles or other perfectly looped material. Other than that it should work fine. (The missing bytes appear to be caused by something outside of my source code, so fixing it might be a bit of a hassle).

Tested on 64bit Win7 and Win8.

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#2

I put some tr626 samples in the list, press “create”, it asks for a filename but doesn’t create anything? What am I missing?

#3

Hmm. There should be a .wav and .ot file in the path you specified when pressing create. If there isn’t, then something is horribly wrong.

It works at my end (just retried with the files from the zip), but it could be that the application requires something that I have installed but others don’t. I have various development tools installed on all the computers I have access to, so I might have missed something.

#4

Nice one! :+1: Look forward to checking this out. Thanks for sharing

#5

I think I spotted the problem and uploaded a v1.01 that at least fixes this on the computers I have access to.

There are bound to be other bugs, but I hope that this version at least works! Thanks for trying it out, JSZ.

#6

I’ll check it out today… Looks sweet!

#7

Thanks, I hope it works for you. It is a nice combo with Recycle, btw. I slice all sorts of stuff in Recycle, export the slices to a bunch of wavs and then drop them all into OctaChainer.

#8

do you know if there is a way to export traktor loops? Could make it easier to dj on the octatrack with a file containing intro and “cue points” etc…

is Recycle enough for accurate loop extraction from produced tracks?

#9

I’m sorry but I still can’t seem to get it working. Seems like a very useful tool when I get it to work :slight_smile:

#10

Argh. I apologize, JSZ. I have a hard time deploying it correctly. There is probably something the audio decoder requires that you don’t happen to have installed. :frowning: I got hold of a Win8 laptop with hardly anything on it, and it works an that, at least. So hopefully it will work for some of you.

With an a4 on its way in the mail I’m hopefully too busy having fun to do anything more with this for a while. But the missing bytes bug annoys me and if many of you can’t even get this to work I will try to do an improved version in a couple of weeks time. Both issues are related to an audio decoder included in the framework that I decided to use. In hindsight a bad call. Shouldn’t be much work to fix once I have an evening free to do so.

The framework I used for this (Qt) is cross-platform, btw. So I’ll upload the source code once I consider this project done in case someone wants to do a build for Mac.

#11

.ot files are just project files for the pc?

#12

No, .ot files are specific to the Octatrack and contains the attributes for your samples. Slice settings in this case. So you should copy both the .wav and .ot to the octatrack.

#13

thanks it’s awesome!!

just played 1h with 3 sample chains 1 kick, 1 synth bugs and 1 field recs :+1:

#14

It works great!! I just took a bunch of folders full of single drum shots and made slice chains out of them… I like that it sets the OT slice points for you so you can combine odd length files and also odd numbers of slices…
NICE, THANK YOU!!!

#15

this looks really cool!! mac version?

#16

Thanks, I’m glad you find it useful. I don’t own a mac, but if there is a mac owner here with basic programming knowledge I’ll gladly provide the source code. Most likely it is very easy to port it. I meant to write it in such a way that it would be, anyways.

A couple of tips:

  • you can listen to a slice by double clicking on it
  • setting the default paths in the options section speeds up the workflow significantly when doing lots of chains.
  • This combined with ReCycle is very powerful. I converted loads of .rex files to perfectly sliced sample chains in minutes.
  • I’ve made a “project folder” and save the project file for all the chains I create in case I want to rearrange or add more to them later on.

EDIT: I didn’t mean knowledge of the programming language “Basic”, I meant programming in general. This application is written in C++.

#17

+1 for mac version.

Thanks Abhoth for the effort!! Bkinsman said it, looks really cool.

#18

btw you can batch load!

#19

i’m trying to use that on the mac with wineskin … basically everything works… except the output of a file

any idea what this could be?

#20

Yes, the audio decoder use Windows MediaFoundation (WMF). This is a new-ish media framework for Windows that replaces DirectShow. I think it was introduced in Vista, but both WMF and DirectShow are still in use.

My guess is that either WMF isn’t working with wineskin or that DirectShow is somehow used instead of WMF. In either case, the application doesn’t create a file. (I should add a proper error msg about that, btw).

I don’t know much about this or of wine, so I don’t know if it is possible to get it to work or not. But I do intend to do a v1.1 where I don’t use the audio decoder for .wav files. That was a silly idea in the first place. If/when I get around to do that, chaining “normal” .wavs should work fine, but you will still run into problems with mp3s and .aifs.