Octatrack: MIDI Arpeggiator featuring Ambika [tutorial video]

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

This tutorial examines the features of the Octatrack MIDI arpeggiator, a very modular sequencer-within-a-sequencer. The generative possibilities for melody, harmony, and rhythm using the Octatrack MIDI sequencer/arpeggiator are extremely vast, but due to the blasé appearance and non-obvious feature set the power and flexibility is easily overlooked. Somewhat obtuse and seemingly non-musical design decisions also make the arpeggiator rather unintuitive but I feel that overall these choices were made in order to offer significant power and variety to the end-user.

0:51 - basic MIDI setup
1:38 - MIDI arpeggiator
10:01 - LFOs for modulating MIDI sequencer and arpeggiator
13:44 - Ambika to polyphonic
16:57 - FX application
17:48 - re-sampling arpeggiator-generated audio
23:38 - sans narration arpeggiator demonstration
26:30 - Ambika to polyphonic

the MIDI synthesizer I’m using is a Mutable Instruments Ambika with six SVF voicecards, which I built some years ago from the original run of Mutable Instruments PCBs

the background intro music was created using one thru track to process the Ambika mix output, one generative MIDI track to sequence the Ambika, and two real-time re-sampling channels

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#2

dude, this voice is literally dope :rofl:

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#3

Excellent demonstration… Ambika seems like a perfect partner for the OT.

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#4

i assume you mean the Ambika? It’s one of the few standalone synths that survived my gear purges of the last few years, and I’d have to say I think it’s Mutable Instrument’s best design, and actually overshadows their module designs for me - although I don’t believe @pichenettes is particularly proud of the Ambika design I find that it ended up in a very special place due to all of the limitations of the implementation and how that informed the overall approach

I think the main problem of the Ambika design is that you will almost always be wondering what the filters you don’t have sound like - I actually built 3 Ambikas to try out a 6x version of each of the original filter boards and took me quite some time to eventually settle on the SVF boards - was a tough choice for me between SMR4 and SVF - the Ambika SMR4 is beautiful and warm, but I had to go with the multimode SVF because I loved bandpassed pads

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#5

haha he went silent when switched to RND from Shuffle )))

#6

It’s a top choice for sure, very easy multi-timbral and splits setup via parts with note ranges - I think the only missing aspect is that you can’t run audio through the Ambika filters - Shruthi-1s are cheap though! haha!

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#7

why wouldn’t I have? I stated the differences between them, then went silent so that they could be easily heard in how they work differently in relationship to the RNGE parameter - in general I found my talking less helpful than just listening while watching carefully, which is why I included an additional demo with no narration

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#8

thumbs up for doing a tutorial on this topic! Often overlooked

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#9

didn’t realize this is your video, wouldn’t have referenced as “he”, i’m sorry

i missed that part when you compare the two while being still on shuffle, so thanks for pointing that out

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#10

no problem :smiley: just was funny to me you brought up what was a highly scripted and very planned moment in time as if it were an accident :smile:

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#11

it’s just those were quite confusing to me so i’m like almost listening about shuffle looking forward to your switching to random to hear your comments about this and, well, you’re switching to it and say nothing. “i’m not the only one!”, jubilantly thought i

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#12

I couldn’t complete this - the GAS was too strong. Will finish upon purchasing. :laughing:

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#13

hahahaha! too funny!! the OT, the Ambika, or both? :heart_eyes:

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#14

Most immediately, the OT. Eventually, both for sure. <3

Damn.

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#15

As always, love your videos, Max! Thanks for your hard work and thoughtfulness.
Just started messing around with OT’s midi sequencer a few weeks ago. It’s crazy and powerful. Love the bit where you real time sample small chunks of the midi sequence to add variation. Will be trying that soon :slight_smile:

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#16

^ this is where I stopped the video.

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#17

thanks a lot!! I actually need to spend quite some time digging into the quirks of those kinds of real-time sampling techniques, partially for my own edification - there are more than a few devilish details I’m still discovering and examining that I’ve never seen discussed with true clarity or without some degree of wrong-ness in addressing the nuances (including many of my own previous statements on the subject)

:joy::joy::joy:

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#18

Btw
Midi Arp + midi lfo’s + plocks is extremely fun with a drum module like the Nord drum. Or even more with the A4 in multimap filled up with 128 drum patches

If you doubt, ask @sezare56 :wink:

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#19

yes this is very fun stuff! with monomachine it’s even all in the same package - Arp + BBOX drums!

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#20

sigh… The monomachine. I want.

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