Octatrack MKII Slicing stems in sync with ableton

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi everyone

So i’ve had good fun loading in stems of tracks i’ve arranged on ableton using trig locks to trigger different samples to switch between patterns etc. Great but obviously you run out of sample slots quickly so I have turned to slices…

I have read you can use a stem trick with slices to have one stem contain all your kicks, another your bassline and so on which would be perfect for me but i’m struggling with exporting the stems correctly to slice up and use p.locks to trig the different stems/patterns. When i load the stem in and create a slice grid, it doesn’t match (i’ve checked the original tempo and set the OT to the same bpm). I also don’t understand how to manually place slices in so I could try line them up this way…
Could someone make sense of this or perhaps point me to a video? I’m on the verge of getting a looper with midi to get a decent length loop sent to another channel of a dj mixer while i change projects on the OT but the slicing technique seems like the golden key here.

Thanks for the help!

#2

Nothing difficult with loops. 1 loop = 1 slice.
Ex : Export a sample with 4 loops with equal length / tempo, apply a 4 slices grid.

With one shot sounds like kicks, the time between the beginning of each sound has to be equal.
Ex : kick1, 1 sec after kick2, 1 sec after kick 3…
Make a 64 sec sample with 64 kicks, apply 64 slices grid.

Audio Editor > Slices > select slice start position with Level knob > Fn+Bank > ADD SLICE HERE.
Select End with knob C.

To create slices with different lengths like drum kits, use Octachainer or Octaedit softwares.

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#3

I’ve got a little something to show you… maybe tomorrow, or the next day or two :open_mouth:

PM me if you want a sneak peak because I like you :wink:

1 Like
#4

Like a kitten with a lunar powered cat toy, @sezare56 just couldn’t resist…

Everyone else has to wait till [ checks notes… ] Tuesday.

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#5

What a tease

#6

Thanks so much for the help!

For what i’m using it for, the loops tend to vary a little… with the leads / melodies often being longer than the drum parts, do they all need to be cut down into 4 equal loops per file with the same length to be able to put the slice grid on and it just fit perfectly? With this in mind i suppose they samples have to have the equal spacing between them as well?
I’ve tried setting ableton to 64/16 and lined my stems up using that grid (advised on another post) but it hasn’t worked out as smoothly as planned…

When i try and slice manually it lets me create the one slice but not anymore :confused: So frustrating I feel like i’m close to solving this haha

#7

ADD SLICE HERE adds a slice. The marker must be on a non-sliced area of the waveform for this alternative to appear.

Move the Level knob to go out of a sliced area.

4 was an example. The CREATE SLICE GRID function divide the sample in equal lengths.
But you can set the number of slices, or delete some slices to make a longer slice (moving Slice End).

Example : make a 64 bar sample with different loops (1 bar, 2 bars, 4 bars etc), same tempo.
Apply a 64 slices grid.
In SRC/PLAYBACK SETUP set Slices to ON, LEN to Slices mode.
Set the corresponding number of bars with SRC/PLAYBACK page LEN.
1 = 1 slice = 1 bar
2 = 2 slices = 2 bars
Etc.

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#8

Try adding a Slice outside of the active Slice.

If I recall correctly; you can’t create a Slice that overlaps another Slice.

Edit: Refer above post from @sezare56

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#9

ahhh there we go! i think my brian just went up a level in octatrack haha. I have now tried out the manual slice adding and that works great :slight_smile: but yeah i think i need to use the example you’ve explained here otherwise lining up each manually added slice would take ages and not be perfectly in sync.

I’ll report back on how i found it hopefully this helps others get their head round it as well!

#10

Or use Octachainer
https://ticticelectro.com/2017/08/26/octachainer-v1-3/

Or OctaEdit (ultimate soft for OT)
Check Chainer Module for slices.
http://octaedit.com/features/

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#11

I’ll give that a try today as well, seems like to could be a shortcut to creating the slice grid correctly right? are there any settings I need to watch out for, like trig quant direct? Also i assume I should be using the ‘octatrack slices mode’ from what i’ve read…
To my understanding I load up for example all my kick stems into the program which then puts them into one quantised WAV file to slice up in the octatrack without the hassle of moving the slice points myself.

Thanks again people! super helpful

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#12

Default Octachainer OT Slices mode should work. Don’t forget to copy the .ot file generated with the sample. It contains slices and other parameters (Audio Editor’s Trim, Slices, Attributes).

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#13

I’ve been trying to export 4 bar loops (16 steps) one after another using octachainer or ableton up to 64 bars but it still isn’t quite matching :confused: I matched the bpm in ableton when exporting as well as in the octachainer but no luck. I’ve taken a screenshot of my ableton project and octachainer, do you see any issues i’m missing here?

Thanks!!

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#14

The samples you exported seem to be 24 bit and the OctaChainer is 16 bit.

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#15
  1. Melo 2 is missing (14 samples in Octachainer / 15 “Slices” in Live)
  2. Why “TimeStretch normal”???

What do you mean by “no luck”? What doesn’t work as you think it should work?

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#16

Ah yes! I will add the extra melody to the octachainer method and try that again… thank you

#17

yess i’ll change that! would that change how the time stretching works?

#18

I assumed having it enabled would be useful for a live performance if i’m moving bpms (i’d only be moving from 125 to 128 if anything, but i guess i could keep the set at one bpm). What settings would you recommend no time stretching at all ?

I meant that when i load it up, create the 64 slice grid it works for the first bar fine but it slowly drifts out, by the time i get to slice 21 where the kick ‘OT - kik 1’ should play its out of sync with the grid

#19

I don´t really know but the OctaChainer settings should match the audio file attibutes.

I´d set timestretch off but you can make 2 chains and try with both settings.

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#20

Today is, [ checks notes… ] Tuesday… so, you know what that means @J0n35y ?

Or check the OctaEdit thread to see the new Chainer module coming in OctaEdit v2

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