Octatrack setup

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hellow everybody¡¡¡¡ New here¡¡¡¡

I would like you to give me advice to synchronize all this equipment to my new acquisition of the Octatrack MKII.

Actually I have everything connected to Digitakt via midi and the audio outputs to a 16-channel Mackie.

I just bought an octatrack that I am completely unfamiliar with and I would like advice on making a good setup for this equipment. Let’s see if you can give me ideas…

Hardware:
Octatrack
Digitakt
Digitone
Poly D
Minilogue
Behringer TD3
Behringer Edge

Thanks¡¡¡¡¡¡

#2

Maybe do a drawing - so you find out what is easy for you to connect?

2 Likes
#3

Your set up is somewhat similar to mine.
Daisy chaining midi gets a little laggy after 3 devices in my opinion. So I got a midi solutions quadra thru. Best bloody thing I ever bought.

So my midi chain goes,
OT master
Out to DN
Thru to TR8S
Out to Quadra thru
Out to 4 analogue synths.

Each box has its own audio channel on mixer, I have a send set up to send back to the OT for sampling.

OT as master works best for capturing quantised loops.

Thats just how I do it. Might work for you.

2 Likes
#4

That’s a lot of gear. I would probably first identify what exactly you’re trying to do before getting into the details of MIDI routing.

The OT really excels at sampling other instruments. These days I try to keep a smaller working setup than yours, but I always make sure any signal can be captured by the OT, because that’s how the OT magic happens IMO.

Does your mixer have aux channels or submixes? At one point I was running a big 16 channel Mackie mixer (CR1604) and using its aux channels to selectively send signals into the OT. Maybe that’s an idea you’re interested in pursuing? I don’t really know what your musical goals are, but thought I’d mention it, because it was a pretty flexible audio routing when I did that.

1 Like
#5

I use the OT MK2 as the center of my setup. In the OT I develope “templates” for a) sampling in or b)
only audio in but no sampling.

On the Midi I use a 1 in and 10 thru out interface. Midi in from OT Midi thru to the external gear (Alpha Base, PWM Malevolent, Moog Mother 32 + Dfam and Roland Bass Line TB-03. Take care for the correct midi channels the external gears needed.

All Audio out (which are not used to sample it in OT) are routed to a digital audio mixer.

1 Like
#6

Sorry, i have a midi thru 5…

#7

More power

#8

Is it better to pass the audio output of the synthesizers/Digitone and Digitakt through the mixing console or through the octatrack?
Because the OT only has 4 mono audio inputs.
I had thought about only going through the OT with the Digitakt and the Digitone.

???

#9

Totally up to you. Do what ever works for you.

#10

I have my OTs 4 individual outputs going to 4 mono channels on my mixer. My mixer has a mono group which is connected to input A on my OT, so if I want to live resample any of my instruments I just press a button on my mixer to send it to the OT.

1 Like
#11

I would focus on OT alone for a bit. Get familiar with it then add other gear.

1 Like
#12

yeah this is a good option. gives you the ability to send anything to the OT for sampling. also the Mackies usually have the option that the muted tracks go to an alt output. so you could have that routed to the OT, or use the aux busses.

as mentioned, it’s up to @oluquero to do whatever they wish, and there’s lots of options. I would probably send the output of all machines to the mixer, then have two auxes (I think the 16 channel Mackies have four auxes) send to OT input A/B, and two auxes sent to inputs C/D. one input pair would go to a thru track with effects on it (because @oluquero doesn’t mention having any effects) and the other would just be for sampling.

getting your head around the OT - while figuring out how to make the above work - should familiarize you with it well enough to know if you like that setup or want to try one of the many other options.

#13

There is no better or worse. Sounds like you may need to spend some time drawing a diagram of a potential setup. Here you are going to get a shitload of opinions, but you have put in your own work and figure things out. Of course, peeps here will be happy to help along the way as you try to figure things out for yourself.

Grab a piece of paper and a pencil, and draw, draw, draw.

1 Like
#14

Anyway thanks a lot!!!
Great comunity!!!

#15

octatrack as a main connect to the conductive labs MRCC midi sync 1010black box and Digitakt and 3 controllers program changes and parameters on each box.

IMG_1534
IMG_15344032×3024 1.47 MB

#16

agree