Octatrack + A4/MD ? Help me I'm tortured

Elektron Gear Octatrack
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So recently I got the money for Elektron boxes, exciting isn’t it! Actually I can get two boxes at a time! BUT, there’s a serious problem: which two to get?

First to claim, I’ve read every machine’s manual, maybe not the whole thing, but at least I know what they do, so I did my homework.

I like samples. Even if I don’t, the Octatrack would make me do, :slight_smile:. So Octatrack is a must. Actually I got a chance to play with it back in the days, it’s truely amazing. Besides a sampler, it can function as a excellent drum machine, and a digital synth unit. Put a percussion/drum loop in it, even only one track will lead to some crazy result!!

BUT, as it can do some really cool percussion vibe and glitchy stuffs, I know I also need the punchy classic drum machine sound(X0X, FM…). Yeah you can use samples, but I think it shouldn’t work like that. When you tweak the drum samples on Octatrack, you won’t get the same result as tweaking on a dedicated drum machine. And I personally think Octatrack shoudn’t work like that. It should work with loops and slices, not one shots!! (What do you guys think about this one?)

Then MD(not UW) just draws my attention. I’m not an analog purist.If it sounds right that’s it. And MD sounds really good to me!! TRX is close to analog drum sound, and I can get the feel. Besides it can do FM and Physically-Informed drum sound , and it’s full of tracks and lfo and distortions!!! So that’s a good option!

BUT,Now my stuffs are too digital maybe? And when it comes to melody, I don’t have any real synthesizer to play with(except for the computer). Sampler is restricted when it comes to write melody. And another problem to mention is that they’re actually not the latest generation of Elektron products. The new TRIG CONDITION implement on analog series makes Octatrack’s sequencer a bit of awkward: it’s not the best any more, :disappointed:.

Actually I really like the whole TRIG CONDITION thing. WHAT?! You can p-lock some random trigs!!! AND You can p-lock the randomness(not sure about that)???!!! That’s thrilling!! Another little feature is that, the new analog series can do manually pattern jump with beats going on(I mean from 5th step of A01 to 6th step of A02,did I express it right?). That’s a thing Octatrack can’t do(whywhywhy…). And finally you got disconnected LFO.(But I think it’s no big deal on digital machines, right?).So my lust for the A4 aroused.

Talking’bout the analog 4’s sound, I know it’s DCO, and I can hear the difference. So that’s a downside for me. But the FX and new sequencer really shine. So let’s add it to my Octatrack! But what’bout drums…

So I can’t have them all, I know that. I mean even if I got myself all the Elektron boxes, there still will be limitations. So what I want most?What music I like? Recently I’ve been digging 2562 a lot. Aerial and The New Today are really good albums, I think. Regarding the interview, Dave Huisman works with samples and analog synth(Studio Electronics?) a lot. Andy Stott’s albums suit my taste as well, actually he uses a MDUW for the drum.

But before all that new stuff, I’m a big fan of Portishead and Massive Attack, and really into that sample-based hiphop feeling breakbeat groove. I’m not really into dancefloor-minded stuff, but they’re good music indeed.

Now I’m tortured between these machines , this or that i dont know… So I think maybe the ALMIGHTY elektronauts community would help. Many thanks, guys!

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I’d go with octa and A4 to start with, and use drums from a VST or something cheap like a volca sample till you have the cash for a better drum machine. Remember the OT has 8 midi sequencing channels so something like a Nord Drum would be a great match, but the new mfb tanzmaus and tanzbar lite machines would fill your xox desire quite well. Probably new stuff will drop at namm this week as well.

You’re right about your intuition on the OT: it’s a better machine for slices than oneshots, and trying to use it for everything, as your only machine, will lead to frustration. It’s better doing what it does best within a larger ecosystem of gear (although many have done amazing things with it alone).

Other thoughts: the OT sequencer is not as limited as you think. Pattern jump will probably never be there, but trig probability can be faked pretty well with an LFO, and it’s also the only elektron sequencer with imdividual track scaling as well as length (so one track can run at 1/4 speed while the others are at 1 speed, for example).

I think Andy Stott uses the MD mainly as a sequencer for other stuff… In any case there’s so much signal destruction going on that the drums could be coming from anywhere :smiley: i’m a big fan too.

Good luck, and buy used if you want to save cash for a drummachine!

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I’d suggest a chicken. They are cuddly, low maintenance, good companions and provide eggs for sustenance. With the added benefit that if it all goes to shit, you can eat them for dinner.

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Thanks, Anfim!! What a lovely community!! :joy:

Definitely love the new MFB drum machines, they sound great, but maybe not as capable as machinedrum. So the tortureing begins…

The interview of Andy Stott… A Tube King sits right besides the MDUW, I think that will explain a lot… :astonished:

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I know the benifit, BUT, How can I sample it??? :confused:

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I know the benifit, BUT, How can I sample it??? :confused: [/quote]
Noobs…

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Just found out that A4 can’t do imdividual track scaling, oh whywhywhy
Thanks for the tips!

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I agree with OT+A4.
A4 can do drums quite well, so you can make some loops or one shots and resample them in the OT, maybe integrating them with samples loaded in the OT.
And if you have a little extra budget, the Nord Drum is a perfect buddy for the OT.

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I’d go with the OT & A4 combo. I pretty much echo Anfirms comments, so what he said.

Or a chicken and learn how to sample, and collect eggs. Life skills.

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I know the benifit, BUT, How can I sample it??? :confused: [/quote]
:+1:
OH, please forgive my ignorance…
Mr.Chicken is indeed a good companion, which I will never deny…

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Thanks for the reply!! Seems like A4 is the way to go.The percussion out of it sounds interesting! And it makes a nice synth as well!!

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Hey yonsta !
First thing first : do you need to resample + do you need to sequence other devices ?
If yes, you should choose between OT or MDUW.

If not, ie if you’re OK with just using samples, I would suggest to get the AR first. This machine is really incredible, and easy to master. Really consider it.

One thing btw : I would advise to get only one Elektron at first (and AR is OK as a standalone instrument).

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The main problem that you appear to have is that you are basing your thinking on other peoples’ perceptions of the coolness of the instruments and their features, and not on what you need to make music. You listed many influences, but do you have a strong idea of the music that you want to make?

You didn’t tell us anything about how much experience you have in making music, or what gear (if any) you already have (apart from a “computer”). So anything you read above is the result of people thinking about their situations, and not thinking about your situation.

If you’re really set on starting with an Elektron, and you’re so keen on the Octatrack, then start with that, see what you can do with it, and then see what you tools you think you need to add to it to improve your music. That allows you keep your options open in case you need the money for a synth, a drum machine, monitors, or rent etc.

Your mind will be fully occupied with learning the OT: no need to complicate things at this stage if this is your first hardware purchase.

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[quote=““Lying Dalai””]
…

If not, ie if you’re OK with just using samples, I would suggest to get the AR first. This machine is really incredible, and easy to master. Really consider it.

One thing btw : I would advise to get only one Elektron at first (and AR is OK as a standalone instrument).
[/quote]

yonsta, think about this advice from Lying Dalai very carefully before you spend a lot of money.

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yonsta, think about this advice from Lying Dalai very carefully before you spend a lot of money.[/quote]
+1 agreed, if I wanted to get some warm Stott dubby vibe, i’d pull out the AR first because of its magic sauce from all the stuff post filter - I wouldn’t recommend it unless you were fundamentally interested in its synthesis palette (which is quite broad anyway) - A4 is an amazing all rounder - OT is very special too, though I’m not so fond of its filters, incredibly powerful and flexible - tough choices

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I’d definitely buy A4 + probably OT.

A4 can produce super wide range of different sounds: leads, pads, really great drums and so on! It has great effects section so it can be used in any genre including ambient and dub. IMHO it’s the most easy to use and funniest device from Elektron. You don’t need to download sample to it and so on – just plug and play. A4 has analog stereo input with possibility to use internal FX on external sound sources. My favorite instrument!

OT is sampler. It means that it can replace any hardware with right samples. Just load samples/loops to CF card of instrument you are needed in and you will get it with OT. You can load the whole tracks or multitrack and play it live. It has crossfader with set of scenes which is uber-cool tool. Loops vs One-shots – up to you. You can have both loops and one-shots on the same track. For drums you can create one file with sample-chain for i.e. kick + snair + tom + clap + … etc, assign it to the track and easily slice it in 2 sec. and program whole drum part using only one track. You can use single-cycle waveforms (or chains of them) so OT will act as wavetable synth (but it isn’t very useful). It has individual tempo multipliers per track so you can use samples up to 512 steps in length or even longer with one-shot trigs.
Be prepared: sample with changes in pitch and time stretched will sound with some artefacts but you can live with this. Also it has a midi-sequencer (just connect everything with midi) and can sample external sources. Internal inputs has AD converters so I personally don’t use OT as a digital mixer because you can probably hear some degradation in sound of external devices.

AR is also great machine. It has solid low end and overall sound but drum synthesis engine isn’t so deep as in A4. Also keep in mind that synth engine isn’t tuned for melodic staff. Yes, you can play chromatically with analog engines but it is difficult and sometimes impossible to tune them to play right pitches. But here is workaround – sample playback engine. You can load one shots of instruments like piano or synth or even single cycle waveform and play chromatically. Surprisingly, AR makes chromatic transposition without degradation in sound quality – much better then OT does. Also samples sounds great with analog filters and overdrive (but you have small amount of memory for samples and they are mono 16 bit 48kHz).

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[quote=““Lying Dalai””]
Hey yonsta !
First thing first : do you need to resample + do you need to sequence other devices ?
If yes, you should choose between OT or MDUW.

If not, ie if you’re OK with just using samples, I would suggest to get the AR first. This machine is really incredible, and easy to master. Really consider it.

One thing btw : I would advise to get only one Elektron at first (and AR is OK as a standalone instrument).
[/quote]

Thanks for the advice!

Actually it’s the powerful sampling functions on the Octatrack that interests me. That you can slice the samples and randomly place them on sequencer is really inspiring. It’s like the Octatrack can deal with samples on different dimensions, and you can get an idea that keeps envolving.

Rytm is a great machine, and I got a chance to play with it few days ago. But unfortunately, everytime I write a pattern out of it, it sounds like TRAP… :astonished: (I found that I can’t resist myself to do that) It’s of course not a bad thing, but I feel more limited on it than Octatrack.

And when it comes to sound designing, AR has its limitation, and that’s why I got less interest on it.

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yonsta, think about this advice from Lying Dalai very carefully before you spend a lot of money.[/quote]
Thanks for the advice! I indeed should make some serious decisions on how to spend these money.

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Whatever you decide, I highly recommend you start with one instrument and explore it for awhile before buying another.

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+1

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