Octatrack only as a MIDI sequencer?

Yeh I dream of Elektron doing a Squarp type experimental midi sequencer brain thingy… yeh man… good stuff

Read some more of the manual, and some credit card hemorrage later:

Hate the xfader cap though, it needs to go. Getting a grey coolorcaps hard plastic fader to replace it. No crabbing with the original fader :joy:

Thanks again for all your help and insights!

4 Likes

I actually just recently got myself an OT too. I enjoyed following your journey here as it answered a lot of questions I had too in the begining and even now (from an AR perspective, PARTS = KITS {but only 4 of them per bank}) It’s so much nicer having the OTs arranger (minus Direct Jump :frowning: ) and extra LFOs.

It’s such a PITA to learn though. Oh well. I know it’ll be worth it.

Have fun! These two together make for one of the most formidable duos is hardware. Soooo much cotdamn fun.

3 Likes

Indeed! The OT will take a while to learn, but I already prepared for this mentally so I’ll try to keep a humble and a patient attitude for it.

I do hope some updates to the OT OS will still be forthcoming. The CC delay bug would be nice to get rid of, and repitch-mode-style static sample playback would be a very welcome addition

Enjoy your OT sir!

Coming back to the topic with some first impressions:

The octa sure has some unique aspects when it comes to midi sequencing! For example, the scale function is not the same on the AR, the OTs implementation is more comprehensive, allowing different time signatures (multipliers) per track. Wish this feature was on the AR as well.

Then theres the arp, love it. Generative melodies by stacking LFOs on the notes et al :ecstatic:

Lastly, the “plays free” in hold mode - talk about MIDI phrase sampling!

I am totally in love with this thing - getting an OT second hand would have felt like cheating tbh, it has exceeded my expectations already! Combined with resampling to AR via Mobilelite Wireless and STROM, I can now fiddle with my rig well into my sixties LOL

5 Likes

If you enjoy stacking the arp sequencer with the note sequencer and enjoy generative or complex melodies, you might enjoy my favorite OT MIDI trick:

  1. Create a step sequence on the LFO designer (bonus: you can edit multiple trigs at once in this mode like you can on the AR, as well as invert and randomize the whole sequence)
  2. Route that designed LFO to Arp Transposition (NB: the arp doesn’t need to be on) on any MIDI track as LFO1, in SYNC TRIG mode at a speed that totals to 128 (e.g. 8x multiplier and 16 base speed)
  3. Route a second LFO to modulate LFO1’s speed
  4. Route a third LFO to modulate LFO1’s depth
  5. To quantize the notes to a tonal scale, choose one in the arp menu (likewise, the arp doesn’t need to be on for this to take effect)

Now you have a serial “theme” or “subject,” variations of whose musical expression can be quickly generated from LFO2 and LFO3. Also, since the sequence within the designed LFO is tied to the Part, you can tweak it into new shapes and then recall the original sequence by reloading the Part. (Like reloading patterns on the AR.)

Another trick with the arp and LFOs: if you route an LFO to NLEN while the arp is on, you can produce some interesting rhythmic modulations.

23 Likes

Much obliged for the tips! :thup:

is this a Bome-Box there in the right? :open_mouth:
I’m already waiting for this little midi-brain!

Yes, I use it for remapping the mixtour to give the OT the right CCs it needs for the combo to work. Currently having probs with the mapping though (too excited to get back to sussing it out as I’m lost sequencing MIDI on the OT lol).

I was originally thinking of using the mixtour for controlling the internal audio mixing on the OT, but might actually use a physical DJ mixer instead. Making the controller work the way I want to seems challenging, because I want the trims, linefaders and the xfader all to work in a way that allows post-fade fx like my Ecler NUO 2.0 mixer does…

cool, thanks for the info. But how the hell did you get one? They are just beeing built and should be released somewhere this autumn afaik? so how did you get hold off one? :slight_smile: Just curious cause I’ve been waiting for this thing to come out, since it’s announcement last year at NAMM.
Have fun with your setup man.

Bome was selling a couple of preproduction models earlier. I just got lucky I guess. The final version should be out sometime this year.

The beta firmwares are already quite good, so I am hopeful the bomebox will be very usable from day one.

1 Like

awesome, thank you for the insight!

whoah! You’re already deeper in the BB than me it seems. How are you translating the frossfader cc if I may ask?

thanks to all, very good an enlightening thread !

thanks for your reply. Seems like you are knee deep in bome stuff already! I’ll pm you soon so we can continue some discussion regarding these.

Cheers

1 Like

another nice trick coming from the combination of octa + pyramid that I’ve enjoyed but underutilized for a while : the "assign incoming cc message to midi effect parameter " allows you to do intertrack modulation from the OT, and with designer LFOs and TRC involved I found that I prefer this over the cirklon for generative sequencing :slight_smile:

for example : use midi track 2 to transpose (or make a key or scale change) midi track 1 (via routing to the Scale effect), or change its notes’ velocities (via the Equalizer effect). the cool thing here is that track 2 can be running at a different length or division to track 1 and have different TRC. something I’ve always wanted to be able to do within the OT.

other cool stuff possible only in this combination, too, like modulating per-step probability, swing, and the delay/ratchet effect with a midi LFO.

5 Likes

Thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole of the MIDIBox SeqV4…

Sooner or later maybe I’ll make some music. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

We’re crossing paths I guess, I was about 1/3 of the way through building mine and had just gotten a front panel made when I was able to get an Octatrack and even though the MBSeq is a much deeper sequencer the OT scratched enough of the itch that it has been at the bottom of my pile of projects ever since.

I did finally get all of the encoders and switches for the front panel this winter so hopefully I’ll finally follow through on it over the summer. A MBSeq with all the i/o options installed seems like just about the best hardware sequencer you could ask for, even with just the Wilba front panel much less if you added all of the other optional controls.

Are you still using these? If so I’d be interested to hear any updated thoughts.

1 Like

I’m primarily using a Five12 Vector for sequencing now. It’s a very different workflow with different strengths from Pyramid and Octatrack (which each have certain advantages over Vector), but it suits my priorities really well (i.e., being able to iterate on a basic melodic concept through inter-track modulation or ‘sub-sequencers’, and allowing the time scale of a track to be more fluid). I’m selling the Pyramid but will miss many things about it, like its chord mode, display of CC modulations, Euclidean mode.

I still pair Octatrack with the Vector but mostly just use it for CC messages and sequencing those, which is a relative strength of its UI.

1 Like