Hey all - forgive me, I am a total novice with the OT! But I was wondering: can you set different samples to trigs (i.e. kick on trig 1, snare on trig 2 etc.) and then live record/jam on loops with multiple samples? Or can you only chromatically play one sample that is loaded onto a track via flex machine? I’m looking for an MPC sort of style of playing different samples ideally, and was curious if that is possible on the OT. Thank you!
You can play / record trigs 9-16, and assign a sample for each track. External midi possible.
You can also play chromatically, +/- 1 octave, but recording is possible only on 1 track. Ext midi.
In 2 special Trig modes, you can also play the 128 sample slots, or the 64 slices (max) of a sample. 1 track only for recording, no ext midi but slices can be played / recorded with a midi trick, requiring a midi processor.
Edit : no midi processor needed with 0S 1.40 new modes.
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By external midi possible, are you saying I can map samples to a midi controller and play them the way I could play MPC pads, say on a keystep/beatstep?
Yes.
Simple way of explaining how i “finger drum”.
Make a samplechain with bass drum, snare, hhat, a couple other samples of whatever. You can make samplechains in OctaChainer (free download) very easy. Or do manually on the OT.
Load samplechain into a track. Turn on slice mode for said track. Now, turn on slice mode by hitting function-down arrow. Now when you are in play mode, not record mode, the slices will be spread across the 16 trig buttons, shown as green lights. Now hit record. Bobs your uncle. You can have up to 64 slices… If I wasn’t clear, just research slice mode.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about octatrack is in here
(Or free pdf download from the elektron website.)
You can also change the trig mode with Func+[up / down arrows] to slots mode, or slices if you have sliced samples.
Then you can play 16 samples with the 16 trigs, and easily switch to other ‘banks’ with scareful sample management.
I use this all the time to play one shots samples and vocals while playing live.
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I want to upgrade from DT to OT, but I’m still a little unclear on this particular functionality. 
Can the OT be setup like the DT where the samples/tracks are all available at once on different trigs so you could “play” the basic beat in while the sequencer is running?
I’m trying to relate it the DT just for this particular use. I know OT has way more to offer, but just to get started on it, I need to keep some of my workflow till I learn it completely.
Basically, if I just wanted to use the OT as a “drum machine” with drum samples on the 8 tracks (or 5, whatever), and play in my beats, will it work like the DT in that regard?
I watched a video and it looked like this is possible. It looked like the samples were on trigs 9-16 and the guy was playing them, but I can’t be sure.
How do you do that? With sample plocking and intern sampling then slices?
Regarding the OP question, there is an option (Map TM) since 1.40A firmware to retain the different trig modes for each track. It is very useful when you want to use a midi controller and trigger slots samples on track 1, slices on track 2, chromatic on track 3 for instance.
I’m not completely sure about your question? How to slice? Or how to… Hmm
How do you make chains within the OT? I only use Octachainer so far but it would be useful to know how to do without a computer.
Previously on Elektronauts:
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Yes, using slots mode. You can play tracks 1-8 on trigs 1-8, and the MIDI tracks on 9-16. Basically the same as the DT.
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Thanks,
So, it looks like I can upgrade to the OT, not lose any real functionality or workflow from my DT until I get my head around the rest of what the OT can do?
Is that fair ?
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if you are committed you will not regret owning an OT
Well, I will say that I enjoy instruments that take longer than a day to learn. Makes them stay interesting longer.
What I would like is to be able to get started quickly on it and have it replace my DT without a huge hill to climb, then I’ll explore its other features at a different pace.
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Pretty much yes. A few small differences but you can cover 95% of what the DT does and waaaaay more on top.
Always prefered slice mode, but I can think of a useful scenario now for slots mode: layering sampled drum hits with a drummachine. Maybe latency on the midi tracks… 
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I just got the OT few days ago, coming from 2 years of DT only.
I don’t have many time to play with the OT yet, but from what I learnt from reading the manual I can say it’s simple to learn. If like me you are used to the DT, a lot of things come easily like the sequencer, plocking, copy/paste/clear, trig preview, live rec, microtiming, etc…
But in the other hand there is tons of news thing to learn and it’s pretty cool.
Setting 8 flex machines and you have a bigger DT. It’s quick and easy to finger drum a beat, the longest part is to choose your sample in the sound pool.
But if you love the DT for it sound, there is 2 differences: the OT sound “darker” or “warmer” and if you use stereo sample, they will sound differently because OT is really stereo and DT sum L+R in Mid. I have vinyl drum samples and they sound better on the OT because you hear the real mixing and mastering from the record.