Octatrack: Is buying this a mistake in 2021?

There is one selling in Gothenburg Sweden bought this winter so 2,5 years warranty left for 13.000 SEK. Maybe worth a trip? :grin:

sounds really cool. The 5000/6000 has hard disk recording and playback but I’m not really familiar with the SMPTE features, if it has any. I don’t need to use it very often and when I do I use the MPC. I’ll have to check the manual. I honestly mostly use it as a sample player for old, 90s and 80s sample libraries these days (which is probably how most people used it when it was new) but I’ve been thinking about actually recording an album on it for a while. It still has HDD recording (external AND internal, but I don’t remember if you can do both at the same time - I assume not, since it’s also stereo-only) and streaming from disk. There’s also an internal MIDI file player that could pretty much fill the same role as that SMPTE feature you’re talking about, assuming the internal timing is tighter than external MIDI (which i theoretically SHOULD be, but that doesn’t mean it actually is).

EDIT: nope, the word SMPTE doesn’t even appear in the manual at all. I guess it makes sense, it had already been downgraded from a standard feature to an optional addon in MPCs a few years before the 5000/6000 series came out. I could have sworn there was a SMPTE option for the 5000 that was standard in the 6000, but I was probably thinking of word clock.

It’s probably pretty similar. The SMPTE playback on S1100 is called ‘Q-Play’, which is a cue list to play back in sync to tape/video. You enter the positions of the samples on the list in SMPTE time and it will play back in sync. Can run on internal clock as well if needed.

BTW I was talking about the HD recorder mode earlier, which is something separate from the SMPTE cue list feature that was there from day one on the S1100. Sorry for any confusion. HD recordings are only triggered by a specific MIDI note if I recall correctly, not locked to SMPTE, though it may be possible for takes to be played in the cue list later on.

Ah OK, I did think you meant the 1100 HD recorder could also be synced to SMPTE but I was also jumping off and jsut talking about the HD recorded in general, too.

/derail

Wow, I can’t believe that the MkII is 6 years old, which is almost the same as the gap between the MkI and the MkII releases! How time flies. I really want Elektron to release a MkIII, a proper sequel product!

2 Likes

There’s an app a thread for that:

It contains nothing of any value though.

When 2021 comes back, don’t buy an OT, it will be seriously outdated.

2 Likes

Late to the party, but yeah this. People drag around 25-30 year old digital synths and grooveboxes simply because they are what they are in the way they are.

Elektron might release a mkiii tomorrow, but also they might never release a sampler like the octatrack ever again, and they might just straight up discontinue it next year.

Them not doing another Octatrack feels the most likely to me, they’ll likely want to retain the 2nd hand market value and usefulness/legacy 20 years down the line.

Should you get an mki/ii Octatrack?
If you need it’s current features: yes
If you’re not sure: no

3 Likes

Depending on your use.

I would give a read at the manual and see if it can add more to your setup than the other options. For me, any of the other you listed are actual competition :slight_smile:

By the way, is the mki also in the same price range?

I did get one.

Yep. And most likely in 2024 as well :upside_down_face:

4 Likes

Just bought one…
No this is not a mistake…

All current products are watered down aspects of this power house…

5 Likes

whopper m8.

enjoy :sunglasses:

1 Like

I’m inviting audiopilz to this thread……

Hang on, let me update the spreadsheet … Oct '23 … still not a mistake.

Done.

3 Likes

I think this is key. I have one since almost two years at this point and slowly start to use more of its features. It always has a place in my setup just as a way to connect my digis to Ableton or to effects pedals and occasionally back from the DAW into OT. The four inputs and cue out as well as the MIDI sequencer make it the perfect hub for audio and MIDI.

It’s also always useful in my mostly DAWless workflow to bring longer samples/stems. The fact that it has eight tracks that you can easily select/mute/fade makes it a good tool for gradually jamming out a track once you have a few elements/layers from other synths.

It’s also just really useful once you’ve coded your brain into the Elektron workflow to then have a device that can record audio starting and ending exactly at step xy. And to then place that recorded audio on trigs, plock stuff and go crazy with the crossfader.

It has recently grown on me as a good idea generator this way. Once you have your core elements, record them and play around with plocks and fader. It really helps for getting tracks closer to the finish line by giving you sections that sound more like remixes and work as interludes/transitions. Or it often gives me textures that make the overall composition a bit richer. And they often fit, even if you transform them quite a lot, because they come from the same sounds as your main elements and thus share a certain vibe.

Oh and the compressor is really useful in a DAWless setup imo to push the sound a lot before actually producing stuff. If only the effects were a bit better, I think I could do most DAW stuff just within OT. Like if OT had a reverb on the level or Valhalla or more expensive pedals, a lo fi mode closer to GenLoss and some experimental/granular delays like Microcosm, I wouldn’t need much more. But it already is great the way it is.

2 Likes

Im not 100% sure about this but: The Octatrack is not complicated. Its complex. Some techniques are complicated but as in any complex system one starts with the simple stuff and work upwards. Its deeep and if anybody feels that its complicated its because you makes it complicated too soon. On the other hand: I struggled so hard with getting my head around resampling but now I cant understand what I found complicated about it. Like the swedishnorwegian synthfluencer Cuckoo put it: Its just things you need to learn and when you know them you know them. Something like that. OT RULES.

5 Likes

It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. That’s the beauty

2 Likes

It’s a completely stupid device but I love it.

I’m pretty sure they could have concocted some kind of Easy Mode, or put on some slightly more helpful defaults. Then it might have been a bit less off-pissing to new users.

That said, I know it well now and I’m hardly a genius.

1 Like

I think it only a mistake if you don’t use it a lot. If you have a lot of disposable cash then that doesnt matter but the OT is pretty expensive and super deep. It can do so many things. I love it as a hardware recorder. Sample on. Save the sample and then name it so you can find it. And then you have long samples or perfect 4 bar loops of your gear that you can drop in the daw.

It’s a mixer, a beat machine, an fx box, a looper. So many things. If you think you will slowly expand into using the functionality of it then its one of the best pieces of studio gear out there imo.

2 Likes

Admin should pin the official product presentation and the subsequent update videos of all the Elektron machines within their own category. They answer so many basic questions people have. They sure helped me a lot.