Octatrack centerpoint... home/live use

I want to have a very light hardware setup for ambient/electronica/glitch type music, no mixers, no external effects… just OT and and a Prophet synth… possibly even for live gigs at some point.

How well does OT function as a centerpoint? Being the master out in the chain so to speak, and not relying on further hardware to tackle new live situations (eq’ing…) for venues/setups? Any weak spots that could have me running back to a laptop in 2014?

How do I tackle slow moving shifts (extremely long droning sounds) and chords using OT’s “pattern” focused workflow? And similarly with LFO (very slow filtering or panning).

I had a MPC1000 before, but I ended up spending way too much time finding new samples. In your experience, how much can you do with a basic set of samples? (maybe a lot of “raw” material, like noise, clicks). Eg how often do you find yourself reusing the samples (through new ways of processing/filtering) instead of having to look for new all the time?

I hope to be able to try one before I buy, but it does look like a potential tool for my job. Although a Analog Rytm would be way cool - it seems not to work as a midi centerpoint…

hi!

I’m currently doing what you’re thinking about (due to computer theft) but with an A4 and 303.

I find it works really well at working as a centrepiece. There’s two ways you could use it in that setup:

Use the OT to sequence the prophet over midi, or use the internal prophet sequencer and use the OT as the midi master. From either, it’s pretty easy to capture live loops and manipulate it.

OT has the ability to play long samples indipendant of re-trigs (so will play the sample, but not loop it until you say so). I’m 99% sure the LFOs can be set to free run (so aren’t clock reset)

My main use for it is for rhythmic work, a mix of drum machine, drum breaks and sampled sounds of clicks, metallic hits and pops etc. It’s very easy to make new loops or samples out of old! Either you can chop them up to make new things or create new from old

One example, been working with a very grainy distorted drum loop, that has about 5 seconds of hiss/noise before it starts. Sampled that separately and used the cross fader to add distortion/rhythmic effects too it. essentially creating a pattern out of just noise. And obvious all parameters can be changed per step too.

My only wish computer wise would be able to record really! i have multiple kicks/snares/percussion and I’d like to record that to Pro tools/logic mix it properly with plug ins or outboard and then load it back in for more mangling/composition.

Hope this helps!

Although I don’t produce ambient, I think the ot is indeed what you’re after. I build complete tracks with just the ot, a few basic samples and a prophet. My other machines, including three other elektrons stay switched off more often than not. Workflow is just great, very fast on both the p08 and the ot. It’s a lot of fun!

does sound rather ideal - only point i’d add is that (when i use it) the prophet works with nrpn midi messages (it must switch to cc i’d hope) but check that before it’s too late - you’ll loose a bit of resolution w cc on a couple of targets and maybe have fewer things you can control remotely - the p08 will benefit from the fx too

For evolving/slow you can use different track tempo dividers. For instance you could have a loop on one track that’s 16 steps and a neighbor track with 64 steps processing it running at 1/8 the speed, meaning it’s going to go for a while. :slight_smile: Then you have scenes and the crossfader. You could do something simple like lock LFO depths and speeds to scenes and morph them. Also, you can trigger tracks manually to slow things down. If you’re using delay and reverb you might not need the track to be constantly playing.

For studio use I do think a computer or some other recording device is pretty helpful especially when learning the octatrack because you’ll probably make things and lose them/the octatrack is good for moving quickly and often you can make the song working - so it’s not some thing you need to reproduce. So that’s a plus for live use. :slight_smile: You can assign more memory to a flex machine to resample long chunks, but I think that could be a frustrating 1st experience, personally I’d wait until you’re more comfortable with rest of it.

You don’t need any samples, if you don’t want to! :slight_smile: you could setup a pickup machine, make feedback, sample that and with effects turn that into whatever. Once you have effects chains setup you like you can work pretty quickly.

Ymmv, but I prefer the mpc for MIDI, not that I don’t like the octatrack, I record the octatrack’s MIDI into it. :slight_smile: Unlike the audio side I don’t find it quite fluid/mutable enough. It’s good for speed, but I’m not really able to translate that into cohesive patterns, I think because you can make 1 pattern on the audio side sound like 10+ different patterns, even with the same trigs, not so much with the MIDI. If you’re only working with the prophet though, by using all 8 tracks for it, you could totally make it work, I think, as long as it can handle the MIDI stream! as the octatrack can put out a lot.

Also, I record audio into the mpc or another sampler to do "“classic” pitch shifting where you slow down the tempo and pitch together because the octatrack has a limited range. I can’t do without this sound myself.

The OT makes the “work” part of live ambient music so super easy it is bordering on the ridiculous. This allows you to focus entirely on creativity and taking the sound where you want it to go. You don’t need slow tempo or dividers imo, but to each his own. Honestly, you don’t even need the sequencer running unless you really want it.

Additional thought: You can create amazing controllable soundscapes by simply playing a small “blip” into the delays and going from there.

I use my OT this way. AK, Sub Phatty, PEK, and XV2020 each get an input and a Thru track, leaving 4 tracks for samples (all I would ever need personally). I sequence everything from the OT as well. It works amazingly well as a mixer/effects processor besides being a sick sampler and sequencer. Mains send “bass” on one side and “synths” on the other for ease of mixing FOH. Cue outs have a completely different mix with less synths, louder bass, and click I send to a headphone amp for monitoring by the other players in my band.
It took a lot of work to get the initial template up to run all that, but now it’s pretty much a dream machine for this purpose. Highly recommend.