Octatrack or mixer or something else?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

I currently have a MD and an A4 and am having great fun jamming out with these. Being away from the computer is great (and was the reason I got into hardware)! But now I want to start recording my jams and maybe taking them further. I’ve been thinking about getting an octatrack so that I can introduce sampling etc. Obviously I would then need a way of getting the OT output into my computer (or a recorder). An alternative would be to get a mixer and a soundcard and integrate them with Ableton, but tbh I would rather avoid this if possible. Another alternative would be to get a hardware recorder (like the zoom R16) and use that to record and ulimately transfer to ableton for finishing off.

Any advice or suggestions? What do you do? I want to keep things minimal and stay away from the laptop as much as possible.

Cheers

2

just wait for overbridge. I expect you’ll be able to take your MD into the A4 and then USB the lot into a PC/MAC.

Or at least, see what overbridge looks like (winter namm demo perhaps) and decide then.

3

You can record full tracks internally on the OT as well, as long as you don’t exceed the 85,5MB limit which means approximately 8 and a half minutes of 16 bit stereo.

4

Overbridge is likely to be great, but I imagine it will be a while before it arrives…

I didn’t realise you could record internally (resample I guess) on the OT - presumably you just route the output channel into 1 of the tracks? Has anyone any experience of doing this?

5

I bought an OT to do just what you described. It works, but I found that using a small mixer was in the end more convenient.

Something like the XENYX 1002USB is super tiny, has 4 stereo input channels, and comes with a decent USB audio interface built in for less than $100.

6

I have done it a few times, route the main out to a recorder and you’re set. You can also do stuff like first record drums and a bass synth for example, tweaking as you go, then load those samples to Static slots thus freeing the RAM again, play them back while recording your lead sound or whatever, repeat as long as needed.

Then you have a bunch of live played tracks all in perfect sync with no fuss, ready to be chopped and rearranged if need be. There’s a lot of options.