what do you think of the OT as a standalone effects unit for hardware synths/Keys?
I play in a band with a real rhodes Piano, and some vintage analog Synths (Korg Monopoly, Octave the Cat) and would run all of them through the OT as an mulit FX unit, without the sequencer.
I´m scared I´ll loose a bit of the vintage all analogue sound because of the OT, but having a dedicated reverb&delay&chorus pedal for each instrument is too much.
Usually, in other projects, I use the OT “as usual”, but now that I own the OT, I might as well use it as my main effects unit in the band as well.
Experiences? Will it kill the vintage/analog flow?
It works well as a 4 mono-channel mixer/fx device.
Though i am not convinced it will always work without the sequencer.
for example: Thru-machines only work, if they are triggered atleast once.
and the easiest way to trigger them… is probably with the sequencer.
some effects are only changed when its triggered (although this is a hunch, and not exactly tested with my own fingers)
But appart from that… yeah… i think what you want is possible…
u might even have more fun with a foot-pedal… that way you be able to control
sequencer with foot and change patterns (and with that parts) for difrent effects
and use the same foot-controller to use the fader… (u can control that with midi)
Would i do it myself like this?? not exactly… i make weird idm/ambient/noise
so i love sequencers i did use it as a 4mono-channel mixer…and had fun
Well, of course I also do like the sequencer and rhythm-based electronic music, that´s why I bought the OT and it´s great for that.
But beside my electronic side I am also a “normal” Piano and Keys Player, who plays in several bands, and until now I played my vintage Keys with several effect pedals (EHX Memory Man Deluxe, Hall of Fame, Crybaby wah, etc.)
So now that I have the OT (not for long) I might as well use it also for my keyboard-playing in the band, and preferably with the sequencer off, just as a mixer and FX-unit (like having 4 times delay and reverb separately for my 4 Keys, or chorus for the rhodes, or whatever. The OT as an 8x2 array of effect pedals, or easier 4x2 for the 4 inputs).
Just scared that the digital OT will kill some of the analog vintage vibe from my vintage keys (rhodes/Korg Monopoly/Octave The Cat).
Of course, the only one to tell if digital with your analog gears is good enough for you or not… is you (which I am sure you know already). The only way to tell is: test it.
With that aside:
If you´re using the pedals you mentioned with your keys I´m guessing that you switch “presets” (ON/OFF) of different combos of your pedals in realtime. But alter settings mostly inbetween songs? Perhaps adjusting some or few parameters for adding textures somewhere in realtime too, i e delay time/feedback…
This could of course be done with the OT as well, however altering parameter settings in realtime may or may not be that “comfortable” since some parameters that you might want to adjust might reside in the second pages of any of both effects aviable in each track.
You might be a bit confused regarding the delay time parameter in the OT, it always relative to current tempo (of sequencer). Unlike any delay pedal.
On the other hand you´ll get some nifty features like Delay Control (in Trig Mode), that perhaps could add some nice textures to what you´re doing on your keys. Not exactly one of your common delay pedal features, I might add.
As already mentioned, many things needs to be fired of by LFO or sequencer trigs. But on the other hand, they CAN be fired of just once if you want (one shots), no need to turn off anything (if you want) nor re-trigger either (if you want that instead). It´s up to you to program that behaviour.
The same goes for flex buffers actually, with a little imagination and some clever programming you could probably imitate some mellotron-like sounds with the exception that it would/could be based on your keys input in realtime…
I´ve for example managed to get something similar to (strings) staccato with quick sampling and playback (although both re-triggered externally). And that was with guitar + shimmer (pitch shifters).
Thanks for all the infos, I´m on the road this week, so I´ll try everything next WE.
Yesterday evening I just had the spontaneous idea, that the OT could (besides being a killer electro machine) make my life also easier in a “normal” band situation, replacing all my effect pedals and the mixer. We´ll see if I can live with the loss of having all effect parameters in instant reach anytime - the great thing about pedals.
I would also integrate the sequencer for fx-behavior sequencing.
But in PlaysFree tracks, so you can manage certain pattern motions. Like the pad motion on the KaossPad…but with heaps more flexibility VS more programming needed for surgical results.
Aside this…great idea to emulate the Mellotron…i would give this a try!
PlaysFree tracks, are these tracks the ones disconnected from the sequencer that you need to trig manually instead? If yes, is this possible to do via NN or CC?
The mellotron idea struct me when reading OP´s first post of using/having a real rhodes. Mellotron is an very interesting instrument, although I´ve never been near one or heard one in real. But I like the lo-fi character it brings to whatever sound that are in it!
Question is how would you(/we) “construct” the mellotron concept in the OT?
Given the OT limitations and all that, i e:
How many tracks needed?
Single Cycle waves (and which sounds)?
How to re-create tape wow/flutter (=pitch and/or rate to random LFO with low depth)?
Multiple MIDI channels (one playing/controlling each track) from a midikeyboard?
[url=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron”] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron
Come on brothers: opinions, thoughts, tips, workarounds etc?
PlaysFree tracks, are these tracks the ones disconnected from the sequencer that you need to trig manually instead? If yes, is this possible to do via NN or CC?
I think so…never tried to trigger externally but the MIDI implementation at the end of the manual looks like that you can with midi notes 24>35.
About Mellotron…i was sure you already had a good experience in emulating it.
The problem is polyphony…imo
Unfortunately, no experience in emulating a Mellotron. But happy accidents in other aspects gave me the experience that you can use the flex tracks recorder/playback trigs in such manner. By tweaking some parameters (i e envelope) to fit the purpose that it appears somewhat similar to how a mellotron works (but with realtime inputs).
In my case this was the “strings” experience, which basically was me playing guitar into a shimmer effect (pitch shifters) as well as having the OT afterwards sample it at certain trigs, then out from the OT into a second pitch shifter. The bouncing strings heard in the background are in fact the recorder/playback trigs of the OT sampled of the guitar (+ two pitch shifters) in realtime. The fact that the playback of the recorder trigs are after they´re recorded (which they has to be) adds to the “realism” or the sense of them being separated from the guitar itself.
[url=“Stream Strings by miketheman79 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud”] Stream Strings by miketheman79 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Polyphony is the biggest issue, that´s why I thought of having 3-4 tracks dedicated to playing “chords” of whatever sound one would like to play with (either realtime or samples). But this would mean that one would have to get 3-4 separate midi channel NN output from the keyboard, otherwise all channels won´t be trigged. But by using 3-4 tracks (in chromatic mode) using the same type of samples could lead to at least some mellotron-like sounds…
I used to run all my gear thru the OT, but after a while I noticed a slight reduction in sound quality compared to my older productions. Now i’m routing everything thru a mixer and all is good again. The OT does change incoming sounds a bit. It makes it more flat sounding
Oh well, I tested it out with some analg stuff and did realise some change in the audio. It is still pretty good conversion though and probably better than most samplers on the market. Shame that the OT can’t direct audio to the main mix without converting to digital. I would probably route everything through a mixer with some sends going to the OT for fx.
Well, I had my first gig with Octatrack as a mixer/effects unit/live looper.
Basically - great!
I put my DSI Prophet 08 Stereo at IN AB, Döpfer Dark Energy Mono at IN C, Nanozwerg Mono at IN D (Urzwerg Pro as sequencer).
Track 1&2 were Flex Machines, so I had 2 Tracks to capture my Keyboard-Playing on the Prophet, and the Mixer setting “Dir AB 127”, so I can always play the Prophet Live in addition.
Tracks 3&4 were Thru-Machines, assigned to IN C and IN D, mainly with Delay, Reverb, Bit Crusher etc. for the 2 Monosynths.
Track 5-7 “normal” Flex for some samples, 8 as Master.
I had the luxury to have a Live Drummer, and because I`m mainly a Piano/Keyboard Player whose roots are Jazz&Funk, we had a great time jamming.
The sound quality seemed good enough for live, I didn´t notice anything disturbing, but I still have to check it out in the studio, if the OT does anything “bad” to the analog machines.
But so far, so good. OT=2 effects each for up to 4 synths, a mixer, plus a live looper that´s always perfectly in time!
Well, I had my first gig with Octatrack as a mixer/effects unit/live looper.
Basically - great!
I put my DSI Prophet 08 Stereo at IN AB, Döpfer Dark Energy Mono at IN C, Nanozwerg Mono at IN D (Urzwerg Pro as sequencer).
Track 1&2 were Flex Machines, so I had 2 Tracks to capture my Keyboard-Playing on the Prophet, and the Mixer setting “Dir AB 127”, so I can always play the Prophet Live in addition.
Tracks 3&4 were Thru-Machines, assigned to IN C and IN D, mainly with Delay, Reverb, Bit Crusher etc. for the 2 Monosynths.
Track 5-7 “normal” Flex for some samples, 8 as Master.
I had the luxury to have a Live Drummer, and because I`m mainly a Piano/Keyboard Player whose roots are Jazz&Funk, we had a great time jamming.
The sound quality seemed good enough for live, I didn´t notice anything disturbing, but I still have to check it out in the studio, if the OT does anything “bad” to the analog machines.
But so far, so good. OT=2 effects each for up to 4 synths, a mixer, plus a live looper that´s always perfectly in time! For Live - just great.
there´s no recording from this recent gig, but there are some small Youtube-Teaser we made on our first rehearsals a while ago. There´s not yet OT, I just got it a few weeks ago, mainly for Live-Looping and to reduce my setup (as you can see in the videos, there´s a lot of stuff to carry …)
The more I´ll master the OT, the more gear I want to reduce. My goal would be Rhodes Piano (or Nord Stage) & Prophet 08, and OT sequencing 1 or 2 small synths, and everything thru the OT. We´ll see.
Here´s the Videos, as said, not yet with OT:
and that´s my jazzy side, with Grand Piano, Rhodes, Korg Monopoly & Octave Cat:
The whole Live-CD is officially published and for sale
i did use it as a 4mono-channel mixer…and had fun