Octatrack as a looper

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hello everybody!

Me and a friend are preparing a nice live project, based on:

  • The Squarp Pyramid for midi sequencing and master clock
  • Some expander synths and a lot of pedal effects
  • MPC as a sample player

I want to use my Octatrack in a very particular way: be able to loop the master audio of our setup (the mixing desk output) in order to sample in a flash our music, and then play with this loop (e.g. slicing the loop) to add variety to our sound.

I watched a lot of videos but I can’t find my application, and above all if it’s possible.

My ideal workflow would be:
1) Our music is going through the OT, via a track, so we can also add some OT effects
2) When I want to start a loop, I start a recording on 1 bar on the OT
3) After the end of the recording, the OT is not playing the inputed music but the recorded loop
4) I can edit this loop (for e.g. slicing)
5) After playing with this loop, I go back to the inputed music to continue to play our live.

Thanks a lot for your advices, sorry for this novice question!

Have a great day

2 Likes
#2

The Octatrack can easily do what you want. The Octatrack’s manual gives some nice setup examples and these can be customized to meet your needs.

3 Likes
Octatrack 'save to new'
#3
  1. Yes you can… you got 4 mono-inputs or 2 stereo-inputs of 2mono and 1 stereo input available you can spread over 8 tracks…
  2. Yes thats possbile using various methods. A 1shot-recording-trigger being one of them.
  3. Yes that is possible, using various methods. but a good startingpoint, will be making the recording you just recorded with the one-shot-trigger play itself after being recorded. and a fader-scene
  4. I would NOT use slicing in combi with realtime sampling, i would play with sample-start parameter instead. but yes… it is possible…
  5. Yes, reverse the fader-scene u used in question 3…

So yeah: good chance you can do what you want :slight_smile: I do it all the time to do whatever with the signals from my machinedrum or other toys…

small edit: I a video, a long long time ago… that basicly shows the answer to all your questions… it just samples internal tracks instead of my machinedrum… there is no difrence between recording an input or an internal track, its just difrent parameter in the recording setup…or slightly difrent button combi…

3 Likes
#4

Thanks a lot!

  • I think you answered to one of my biggest doubt: how the recorded “loop” can replace the inputed audio? Thanks to the fader scene. So I guess I have to reserve the fader to this feature? Do I have other options to switch from the inputed audio to the loop?

  • For the loop recording, what method can you advise me? Is it this method explained in this video?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLmRRMw3nDI

Thanks for all your tricks :wink:

#5

You can use your fader to do multiple things at once… but the more complicated stuff your fader does, the more difficult it is to keep track on what your fader is suppose to do… in my video-example… i can play with it… cause its very clear what each scene did… If I showed you a video of one of my ambient/glitch songs… there be so many things happening with the fader… i cant explain it in a tutorial. nobody would get it… but its simular to what merlin described in his document on fader-techniques… it was amusing to read that one…

Did not view tarekith video completely… but the few excerpts i watched… yeah… he uses recording triggers.
fixed points in time that always start recording… I would do the same… but use “1 shot triggers”
they only trigger once, until you retrigger them…
1 is continious recording… the other is “on demand”

An other option , is to make the octatrack start recording in a quantized manor (thats what you saw in my first video)
i triggered it manually before loop started. but the octatrack quantized that to step 1 / start of bar

:slight_smile: it can be a very long explanation if i explain every step … :slight_smile:

#6

Yes I understand. I fact, I wanted to keep the fader only for controlling the filter FX, this is why I was asking if you know other options to switch from the inputed audio to the loop.

Thank you for your option suggestions! The good thing is that I don’t have to use the pickup machine I guess :slight_smile: I will try it and see if it sounds good in my live, I really see it as a tool to “deconstruct” our music, and add a “sample flavor” to the mix.

#7

Nope most reliable i know is scene… that always worked for me… that or play it live in that input machine your talking about. I (me personally) think that the input machine is more fun if you have a dedicated foot-pedal… and you actually play your stuff live… and not with other sequencer… One day i will build such a footcontroller… but that will not be today… I bet Guga will help me with the smartguy/electronics or something :smiley: so it should actually work…

#8

Just found this thread - the OP asked a question that may determine whether I get an OT. :slight_smile:

Wondering if there’s a way to cut off live input monitoring and replace it with a just-recorded loop of that input, then be able to switch back at a later point - using trigs only, not scenes (as the fader would be used for something else) Talking about points 3 and 5 of the original post. Any ideas?

#9

I’d have two patterns. Pattern 1 with a thru track audible and a one-shot trig that I could arm for sampling. Pattern 2 with the thru track silent and the sample buffer playing.

I guess you could use two parts and switch between them as well, but patterns is probably easiest.

2 Likes
#10

That makes perfect sense - thanks

2 Likes
#11

Shouldn’t someone mention the amount of time available per loop?

Is it not just 4 bars?

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but if I’m not, a looper with a 4 bar limit or complex workaround to a 4 bar limit is probably not worth consideration as a real looper, and I think prospective buyers should be made aware of that,

#12

Loops can be as long as the available memory using the “dynamic recorders” option…
Much longer than four bars, sometimes I make 32 bar loops…

2 Likes
#13

I stand corrected

2 Likes
#14

You have to use dynamic recorders, one2 mode, and rlen at max. You can set the qrec and qpl quantization to an amount of steps, or pattern length. The recording will go as long as there is memory, you have to manually enter a end record command for track recorders or an overdub or playback command for pickups, but they will follow the quantization settings to capture perfect bar or pattern length multiples…

3 Likes
#15

I didn’t find it in the manual. The options to clear a record loop are by “replacing” or by manually clearing the recorder buffer, right?

#16

Yeah I think you got it, I never clear them though I just re-record and it replaces…
While in recording setup function+play clears the buffer(mk1 here) and in the audio editor attributes “clear slot” clears the buffer and all slices and modifications made to the slot…

1 Like
#17

yeah, thanks, that’s right.
When you use the replacing option (with the “x” sign), can you set a new loop length?

#18

OK, I guess “replacing” technically is going from overdub to making a new recording without stopping, I always stop the pickup before recording again and have considered that replacing.

By stopping it first you can always redefine the loop length, I guess I never really have used the “replacing” feature so don’t I know how that behaves…

1 Like
#19

thanks.

1 Like
#20

I think Cenk does what you’re asking in this video. He gets a beat going and then samples it and remixes it in real time before switching back to the live input. He does a tutorial too but you have to pay for it. I did and thought it was well worth it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9SYHCHo5SY