Seriously WTF is this thing, and why the F*** am I learning a second language just to use it??? I’ve owned it for months and still haven’t got it to work for me.
Is there an “Octatrack for Dummies” guide somewhere?
Is there an intuitive video tutorial somewhere I not finding?
This is the must un-user friendly hunk of metal I ever spent money on!
Got a feeling he’s ruined a few patterns because of … PARTS… maybe a read of Merlin’s guide could help. Don’t worry, I love the OT, but I could frikking strangle it at times…no other Elektron box makes me turn into shades of red like the OT.
To be honest I don’t much get the use of parts in live situation. It really seems like a studio feature in order to have different templates for sound design.
Using it musically feels strange, like why not use a scene?
Personally I just ignore them when I’m jamming.
I think parts are brilliant, you can apply completely different effects without messing with your patterns. Another great example is using through machines on one part and flex machines on another.
The only issue that is a little tricky with them is that parts are “sticky” to whatever pattern you use them on. So if you are on pattern 2 and you change to part 3, then go back to pattern 1, if you change to pattern 2 again it will be on part 3.
My suggestion would be to do the following two things:
Don’t bother doing your sampling in the octatrack while learning how to use it. Instead spend a couple weeks or even months working with imported audio.
Don’t use parts when you are new to the machine. You can avoid parts completely by starting to learn the machine with just one pattern assigned per bank. Once you get the hang of that, use 4 patterns per bank, and assign the four available parts to them. Then, once you understand that, make use of the full 16 patterns per bank, and share the 4 available parts.
Hopefully that helps, that was my strategy to becoming comfortable with the Octatrack
I’d say complex/obfuscated designs make stuff complicated, more than anything else. I still love the OT, but it is definitely not an obvious machine like the other Elektron boxes.
Now, I’m not someone who likes to sit and figure out every little nook and cranny on a musical box - I get paid a pretty sum to figure out complex systems in my real-life job, so forgive me for not wanting to do the same on my spare time.
The thing is, the OT is a drastically different conceptual machine than the other Elektron boxes. I don’t think it’s complicated, it’s just really abstract. It lets you work with audio in a way that has really only been done on a computer prior to this.
Samples aren’t manipulated in notes, but relative pitches, speed, stretching, etc.
Do you consider Ableton Live to be prohibitively complicated? The OT is essentially the cramming of a lot of those features into hardware, and as such means that it has to be much more abstract.
I guess the part (lol) that ticks me off the most about the OT, is the fact that I need to constantly babysit certain aspects - like PARTS and sample slots; I can’t work the same carefree way that I do with the MD, MnM, or even the A4.
I’m cool with 90% of the functions on the OT - it’s only the way things are saved/remembered/associated that pisses me off - I should not feel like I’m running a daycare when I make music on the OT.
Anyway, it’s all cool since I’ve decided to live with these annoyances - but I will chime in, in kind, when someone points out that they’re having trouble with this box. Not everyone has an accountant’s brain…
EDIT: and as for Ableton Live, no I don’t have any problems with that, as I’ve never overwritten anything by accident with AL! It remembers everything it needs to for me…
Like I said above, I don’t use parts and therefore it is impossible to reload a part.
I have literally never had the problem you are describing. I totally agree that Parts a bit of a half-baked aspect to the OT, but Elektron has made it easy enough to just totally ignore them.
Conceptually I think that the OT has many ways of approaching it.
Working in the studio, I use parts to switch between playing and sound design. I sample what I want out of the sound design part and drop it into the musical part. You can’t overwrite recorded audio once it’s saved (at least not easily).
I also don’t think of tracks in terms of the main sample loaded onto them, but more like combination step sequencing and bus tracks. If I want to reverb a hit, I put it on the reverb track. If I want to flange a synth note I put it on the flange track. In that way I think I work differently than most with the OT, who adhere too strongly (imo) to the “default sample” loading way of working.
Like I said above, I don’t use parts and therefore it is impossible to reload a part.
I have literally never had the problem you are describing. I totally agree that Parts a bit of a half-baked aspect to the OT, but Elektron has made it easy enough to just totally ignore them.
Conceptually I think that the OT has many ways of approaching it.
Working in the studio, I use parts to switch between playing and sound design. I sample what I want out of the sound design part and drop it into the musical part. You can’t overwrite recorded audio once it’s saved (at least not easily).
I also don’t think of tracks in terms of the main sample loaded onto them, but more like combination step sequencing and bus tracks. If I want to reverb a hit, I put it on the reverb track. If I want to flange a synth note I put it on the flange track. In that way I think I work differently than most with the OT, who adhere too strongly (imo) to the “default sample” loading way of working.
If that makes any sense…[/quote]
Yup, it does. I’ll try doing something like you do on my next OT track.