So I fancy being a bit passive and just playing some tunes and mixing dj style on the octatrack.
So far I have
[ul]
[li]Got my tunes into the machine[/li]
[li]fixed start points and bpm’s ( internal beat detection was way off!_[/li]
[li]Setup a tune each on tracks 1 and 5 [/li]
[li]Press track 1 button, after a few minutes, press track 5 button and crossfaded all rather nicely[/li]
[/ul]
So is there any tips on making the process better?
I find choosing the next tune on each track a bit cumbersome, is there a better way?
I’ve the daunting prospect of “DJ’ing” for a wedding in a few months time.
Given their genre expectations will be everything from Frank Sinatra to Pixies, I wasn’t thinking I’d use my OT.
Thinking tracktor + a controller is the safer bet.
Maybe even I’ll just use the OT as a control surface and try to look like I’m actually doing something !
I’ve had a bit of a play at this, dj’d at a friend’s party.
I did it basically in the same way you did, but I didn’t find track selection a problem - I labelled each track by BPM and put them all in a single folder. For multiple genres I might split the folders.
Crossfading EQ/Filter settings works great to eliminate bass-phasing issues, it’s a pretty fun way to DJ! More experimentation is needed
Another thing I tried was setting crossfader scenes up for use between multiple tracks. For example, Tracks 1 - 2 and 5 - 6 have numbered crossfader scenes.
So an example, Scene 1 has maxvol for Track 1, and minvol for every other track. Scene 10 (corresponding visually to track 6) has track 6 at maxvol and every other track at minvol. You could jump between track 5 and 6 too, giving you a little more flexibility with your mixes.
You could use patterns to store different tracks, and with 4 tracks per pattern in this configuration you will get through a set with only a few patterns.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that when I have 2 tunes playing, a funky modern dance against an older funk track say, is that the older funk track can go out of sync and there is no way to speed up, only slow it down with the RATE dial.
There’s no function, as fas as I can see, to fine tunes tracks +/- a few bpm like a speed slider/pitch on a 1210.
If you set the bpm of the file to twice its normal speed, RATE 32 will play it at the correct speed and give you the option of speeding it up. You can either include the doubled bpm number in the file name, or use the file editor attributes page. I don’t know how well this will work for your purposes, I was doing it for a different reason, but it is something you can try.
SAMPLE TEMPO NUDGE By holding one or more [TRACK] keys and pressing [LEFT]/[RIGHT] the tempo of the samples currently playing on those tracks can be temporarily nudged. This does not affect the sequencer tempo.
If Track 1 track is speeding up, hold down the track key (T1 say) and hit the left arrow and it will slow down slightly.
Pressing [CUE] + a [TRACK] key will cue the track. The audio of the track will then be routed to the cue outputs. [FUNCTION] + [CUE] will reload the parameter settings of the selected part
When I press cue and track and I don;t hear anything from anywhere.
What am I doing wrong?
I’m expecting the cue to come through headphones along with the other track which has the fader on it up. In mixer menu, I have more set the fade to have more cue coming through.
I’m confused on what cue + track does.
Is there another setting somewhere I need to tick?
So I have been having a blast using the Octatrack as DJ decks. But there is only one problem. To get perfect sync, I need to be able to set the last two digits exactly in the audio attributes page.For example, you can adjust with the encoder from 120.00 to 120.25 to 120.50, but I need 120.13.
Why? Because if its not that exact, after a while the song will eventually be out of sync with the Octatrak.(please dont answer by explaining the nudge functiion).
You sync it slave with another sequencer with one more digit !
Or timestretch the song file with a computer, I don’t know how do you play that song but there are solutions.
Like…play another song !
Yep I understood after with the 120.25 value. Don’t know if you can solve this in Ot…
I would do it on a computer, I prefer to check songs before, song’s tempo vary sometimes.
