OctaChainer v1.2

OctaChainer is a Windows and OS X GUI tool for creating sample chains and slice data for the Octatrack and Analog Rytm. It allows you to arrange samples in the order you want, and then creates a chained .wav file and corresponding .ot file.


New in v1.2
Three slice modes:
Normal - creates a compact sample chain and a slice for each source sample.

Grid - evenly spaced samples. This mode does not create an .ot file. Mainly intended for Rytm users. Use the “Add silent slice” button to add slices to get a slice count that suits your needs.

Steps - creates a compact sample chain and uses the BPM and “steps per slice”-dropdown settings to add slices at even intervals. Intended use is for long samples that you want sliced so that one slice equals, say, one pattern in your project.

There is also a new Octatrack attributes section for gain, BPM, etc, and some other minor enhancements.

[Moderator’s edit (20 November 2016); @Abhoth asked me to paste new links for download:

Windows:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10263930/OctaChainerv1_2_Win.zip

OS X:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10263930/OctaChainer_v1_2_OSX.dmg

/moderator]

I’ve uploaded the source code here:
https://github.com/KaiDrange/OctaChainer

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I should mention that I haven’t spent much time on testing, so although I don’t know of any bugs, there probably are some. I seriously doubt using this can harm your Octatrack in any way, but as always with these things, use at your own risk. :wink:

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Love your work :heart:

Give this man a cookie people, awesome stuff here.

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thanks for your work abhoth

Nice. Thanks.

This program is fantastimo!

I’m loving grid mode for 128 snares in one file, works a treat.

Thanks for sharing Abhoth :slight_smile:

Ah, that grid mode allows for 128 “slices” hasn’t even occured to me. Nice!

Great work! Thank you!

Looks great! I’ll definitely have to try running this under Wine.

It occurs to me that sample chains could also be really useful for chopping in an MPC.

Hi Abhoth,

Thanks for the update! I’ve tested here and the new grid mode is working well.

Cheers!

**For others on OSX it works using VMware Fusion (I’m using a Win7 image install).

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Thank you so much for making this!!!

Could anyone answer one or two questions for me (just got my ar 2 weeks ago)?

When adding samples do I have to have a certain amount of samples (the ar goes from 0-120 in terms of selecting the startpoint) to make sure that the start points will exactly match the start of the samples?

Do the samples have to have the same length or does the program add silence after the shorter ones so I end up with samples having the same length?

I suppose as the options are given the program does nitrate and frequency conversion so I would have to chose 48 kHz 24 bit for the AR?

Ar the settings in OT attributes of any meaning when using it for chains for the AR?

What are the different slice modes and the add silent slice for?

Sorry for being a pain.

Runs on Win XP through Parallels by the way.

I don’t own an AR myself, but as I understand it, yes, you need to make sure that 120/sample count is a whole number. Hence the “Add silent slice” button to add extras.

In Grid mode the program automatically adds silence to short samples so that all are the same length.

The program does not do any sample rate conversion. So if you, say, select 22kHz output from 44kHz source files it will play back slower, not get reduced in size. I did consider adding this, but I didn’t trust I’d be able to do it as well as professional software, so the sound quality would probably suffer. Instead the output data remains unchanged except for mono/stereo conversion. From what I understand, the AR automatically does sample rate conversion, so probably best to just keep sample rate the same as your source files and let the AR handle it.

The OT attributes does nothing for the AR. They are only used by the “Normal” and “Steps” modes, which does not make sense for AR owners anyway. These modes create a small .OT file that contains these settings and “slices” for the Octatrack, meaning all samples in a chain doesn’t need to be the same length, as they need to be on the AR. In these modes the “Add silent slice” button adds 1 second of silence. Perhaps to be used as place holders or something. I was thinking cases like a chain with kicks starting at slice 1 and snares starting at Slice 32. Then silent place holders could be used so that new kicks can be added later on without affecting positions of existing samples.

Thanks for the XP info!

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Awesome!

Thanks for your answer and this really useful program.
This totally changes what can be done with the ar.

Thanks for coming with this dude!

Any time you’ll be around Salento (Puglia, South Italy) I’ll do everything you need =)

My best hug,
GiGi
d^_^b

P.S.
not tested it yet…too many things around , but being grateful is a must for an OT owner!

Don’t forget the handy RYTM sample slice calculator if you want to use slices of different sizes. Right now I’ve been using chain sizes of 12 on the RYTM, that way it’s easy to increment by 10 to get your start and end points.

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Ooh, I haven’t seen the slice calculator before. Nice!

I gave this a try yesterday, seems to work perfectly. Thanks.

Big Thanks from me too! A week ago I didnt even know that this technique existed. Its such an improvement of workflow

I have a large set of samples but the bpm’s are out as I have left the tail end on. in OT I have been cropping the end using trim page so that the bpm reads 120 then slice with slice grid.

If i use octachainer and set equal slices and bpm to 120 will it work from the start position and slice correctly,ignoring the last extra time, or will it divide up the length equally?

In “Steps mode” it will slice from start every x steps. The “left over” tail will be a shorter slice.

That was the idea, anyways. I haven’t actually used this mode much, so it might be worth it to just try with one sample first. :wink: