I beg for pardon if this has been asked a thousand times before (and it has, I have read quite some forum threads).
How does a simple recording setup has to be made on the OT.
I know the difference between r-buffers and tracks.
I know how to route at least AB & CD to the recorders.
Where I do not succeed is to record to the buffer an let it be played afterwards.
I have a good understanding of the OT as a very capabable Digitakt.
Stem-player from CF-card. Playing free squences etc.
I thought it would be a good idea to ultimately start using the OT for what it was actually built.
I think if I could record to one buffer and play it back by the same track…or set another track to play that buffer
I could make more complex experiments from there on.
Could it be that I have to microtime any of the trigs that start playback or recording?
I´d be thankful for every hint
PS.: Of course I want to get more complex.
The goal would be to make something textural by recording my guitar and manipulate it with a midi pedal on the fly.
But first recording…
I’d start with a Flex machine on Track 1. You can record to the buffer on Track 1, then use the buffer as the source for the Flex track. In other words, point the Flex track to Recording1 (top of the list of sources).
You’ll need a playback trig on the Flex track to tell it to play the buffer.
What type of recording do you want to do a recording started (by a trig or just a recording by button press unquantized)? Which OT do you have?
Also…yes you need a buffer and a play track assigned to the buffer. You can go into edit and watch the buffer recording as well.
Thank you for that hint.
I have read this and the Synth Dawg Notebook up and down.
Thing is, I get confused very soon.
I tried to record something (a 4 bar loop with Rlen & Qrec at 64) that shall instantly be played back after recording.
I tried to do this with one shot rec trig on Flex-Track 1.
So I placed a rec trig (via the track trig edit menu FUNC + Bank) and a playback trig.
The track does not seem to play back what I have recorded.
Track 1 shall play rec buffer 1 (but does not obviously.
I can see my recording in the AED, though.
I can also play the recording in the AED using Func + yes.
I guess my playback trigger does not trigger the recording on rec buffer 1 and I can´t get my head around why.
Obviousley I am doing something wrong or under some misconception of the machine.
I´d love to be enlightend.
I thank you very much for taking the time to answer an trying to help.
Yes Sir and sorry for not being specific enough with my question in the first place.
That is exactly what I was trying to achive and it does not work.
I have a rec trig (one shot for later arming again and not constantly overwriting my previous recording) and a playback trig on track one.
Pattern len is 64, Rlen is 64.
I get a recording that I can watch (and play in the AED via Func+Yes) but it is not played by the trigger on Track 1 which is tied to R1 as a Flex-track.
So I am stuck here. Really appreciate if you could tell me what I am doing wrong (which I consider is what is happening).
Make sure the correct recorder buffer is asigned to the flex track (start with flex track 1 and assign recorder buffer 1 - any flex track can play back any recorder buffer and you can sample with a track that’s playing back something else).
When you place the rec trig, hold it and select the correct source (leds for inputs a/b, c/d and internal sources light up when you press them - this tells the recorder buffer which source to sample from).
For internal sources, or if you want to only sample from input a, or maybe b, go to the recorder setup and use the encoders to specify the sources to sample from.
Then the recorder trig will point to that source when you press+hold the trig to select the sampling source.
OT’s sampling is pretty flexible, but all the options take some time to learn.
I´d love to use the OT in an other way as usual when it is the backbone of my live set.
Normally it plays stems and I use it to perform (partly) pre arranged structures while live playing other synths and the OT.
In this situation/track the OT does nothing but delivering clock for 2 Digitakts and some other machines.
I thought I could record some guitar and mangle it on the fly by setting up some track trigs etc. to play back the same recording and effect it.
More ambient stuff I guess. I´ve heard of people doing this.
I don´t want to use Pickup machines as they are more difficult to manage and I would lose lot´s of the OTs possibilities (trig lock, cross-fade, you name it).
Atm I fail playing back a recording that I have made, sadly.
Thank you for offering help. Very much appreciated.
Due to its wide range of possibilities, many users find the Octatrack difficult to operate intuitively. Tasks that are actually quite simple sometimes require multiple settings in different places.
This means that you can’t just turn it on, press “play,” and set a few steps.
You have to think about what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it beforehand.
Long story short: there is a YouTube video with step-by-step instructions for almost every configuration.
I guess I watched quite a lot of them, sadly I still don´t know why the recording I made does not play. If you could point me to right tut I´d be thankful.
I know the OT quite well (at least in it´s other functions).
Flex tracks are so much more flexible and I think can do everything Pickup machines can do (Pickup machine is simply a recorder buffer tied to a track).
If you go through the little check list I wrote above, it should work…
Also make sure no tracks are soloed and you can hear the track that plays the recorder buffer.
For checking external sources, a Thru machine works well.
I am sorry to say that I pretty much did everthing you suggested.
Just asking:
If you do so. You can record, and the OT immediately plays back what you recorded after the recording stops, right?
Thing is, as soon I assign rec buffer1 to track 2 and place a playback trig on the first step it plays my recording.
So I think the routing (inputs etc. is working).
I am using a synth (instead of guitar for working the process out) on input AB and the dir level set to 127 for no attenuation.
I did that, only AB is selected (AB lighting up when holding the rtrig presse, right?)
It plays back when the sequencer encounters a play trig (sample trig). You can sample and place a trig to start playback anywhere, but when recorder trig and play trig are on the same step then yes, it does exactly that (record length/pattern length also plays a role, sorry, I’m not trying to be pendantic here, there’s just sooo many settings that work together…but in your case, yes, it should do that^^)
So, just to recap, you manage the sampling part (Func+yes) plays back the correct sample, but you cannot play it with a trig?
No fx or scenes blocking playback? (You can initialize amp page, fx page etc by holding that button and pressing clear and mute scenes (function + scene a/b button turns scenes on/off)
Playback settings are set to default? (sample start point for example can mess with playback or if you have rate at zero the sample/recording won’t play)
Even neighbour tracks can mess with playback if you have a neighbour track that’s muted.
So I am not under some misconseption about basic things…that´s good and thank you very much for validation.
I can play it on track 2 when I direct this to rec buffer 1 (on which my recording resides).
It does not play on track 1 for reasons I don´t understand yet
This was it probably. I made some weird settings in the src page that seemed to block playback. Sadly I can´t say what it actually was.
Initializing the pages was the very tip I that helped me out.
Also check that you can play back a recording normally by pressing the appropriate sample trig key (9-16 for tracks 1-8). If you can hear it fine then there shouldn’t any issue with LFO/scene/FX etc.
I suspect your issue might be to do with a combination of not microtiming the play trig, and perhaps you using a standard record trig instead of a one-shot, which would mean that your buffer is getting wiped every time the sequencer hits it again.
But not on track 1? Then the sampling part seems to work and there has to be something in the playback (Source page on OT mk2), amp, lfo, fx1, fx2 or scenes blocking playback.
Are any tracks cued or soloed?
How many steps does the pattern have? If more than 16, check the other pages for trigs (OT by default copies trigs when pattern length is made longer, you can turn that off in settings).
You are my hero Schnork. The idea to reset all settings (I thing it was something on src page) cured it.
Sadly I can not reproduce what was causing it, but it works now as intended.
I am very thankful to all of you and for the input you gave me.
