Octatrack: Is buying this a mistake in 2021?

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The OT is the best thing I’ve purchased in 2021

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The only mistake I’ve made buying an Octatrack MK2 in 2021 is that it’s made me consider selling the DT! I’m going through mental turbulence at the moment as there’s no way I can financially justify keeping both.

I can’t believe how much fun the OT is with sample chains and assigning scenes to the crossfader. Cool patterns are just flying out of this thing. I use pattern chains in the DT as well but it’s always fiddly getting the start/end points set up and takes me out of the flow temporarily. Kinda addicted to making chains for individual kinds of sounds as well as kits for 909s and 808s.

Haven’t even started sampling loops into the OT yet, at the moment I can’t get my head around it, but that’s going to change when I can be arsed to RTFM.

PS: couch sessions with the OT powered via USB brick are heavenly.

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I’m pretty sure you have something like 8 minutes + of record time. I get it’s a problem if your playing like phish or greatful dead style infinite jams, but it’s not that bad.

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Yeah, mmm… I missed my DT as I had the same dilemma. Literally regretted selling mine as I didn’t insure it for shipping and it was ‘lost’ cough-stolen, and just lost my money from it all together.

I’ve been using the OT as my looper in a duo that does 60-90 minute Krautrock jams for a year and I’ve still never run out of sample memory, even with 4 or 5 pickup machines in parallel.

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I humbly disagree! the few extras came together with a nasty bug that makes the machine currently useless for live setups. The false button triggering is super annoying and defeats the performance purpose of the machine!

I would recommend trying it. Then if it doesn’t work for you, return/sell/trade and try something else.

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Does anyone have a list of the specific button combinations that cause problems? I’ve done about 75 livestreams with my MKI since the 1.4 update and I’ve never noticed it. Is it a MKII-only bug?

I’d love to know how the latest bugs are making it worthless? I updated my MK1 and it has taken it to the level of my old ASR10 by implementing sample pitch based on the keyboard note. I will agree it isn’t the best machine on the market but it probably will still be in the studio in 10 years time unless I end up performing again.

I guess it might be an issue with some MKII’s. In my case I have issues when muting multiple channels while in mixer mode. So far what I’ve noticed is Trigs 2 + 9 affecting Trig 10, Func + Arr triggering Midi setup mode and buttons that don’t trigger sporadically. I use mutes, specially when un/muting multiple channels at once a lot, so for me this issue is a no go.

I’m using the original OT, I haven’t personally noticed any issues with 1.4. Not to say that bugs don’t exist, just that I haven’t been impacted in my use scenarios.

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Same, haven’t noticed anything except a freeze once. Fixed with it with rebooting the machine.

The machine is so deep, I’m certainly not using all the features, but it seems to be stable enough for my uses. The only way to know if the OT will be good for you is to give it a good long try.

From looking at the other threads about this, it seems like it’s something that only happens with some MKIIs. Maybe an issue with debounce and switch tolerances or something?

I don’t think it’s ever been unstable per se. There might have been (and still are) some bugs, but it’s a stable machine for sure.

Only three months left til I can post “Is the Octatrack still worth it in 2022?”

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I feel it’s an issue with the MKII’s, it would be interesting to know if it’s a batch issue since mine is from 2018 according to the sticker with the SN in the back of the unit. Just an assumption though.

three months for Elektron to fix the bugs, so that I can recommend it again for 2022. With the current state of affairs my unit is useless for any meaningful utilization, specially live performance.

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Just because of Mixer/Quick Mute, or scenes 2/10? How much would you sell your useless unit? :content:

:thinking: 1 year and 3 months logically, you have the whole year to recommend it…

I’d also like some bugs correction, but I wouldn’t expect something before 6 months. Hoping I’m wrong.

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