Octatrack -- Songwriting (radiohead sound)

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#23

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice… it has made interesting reading!

i have also watched a load more vids on the OT (and mpc live); also the digitakt.

I know someone who is selling an OT mk1 for about the same price as a brand new digitakt you see… so this makes it all the more appealing…

I already have a standard tascam dp24 recoder/ mixer for audio… and a roland jdxi synth… so feel that i could easily record the guitars/ vocals into the tascam and import the stems into OT… plus use the synth for midi…and also sample it i guess

i don’t like DAW’s… as i previously used cubase vst for quite a few years… and it was a pain in the arse more often than not

the idea of mangling audio in ot (plus using it for drum loops etc); all in one hands on box is more appealing to me now… i am not intimidated by its complexity…as i won’t be needing to use all of its functions right off the bat… plus the vids have given a good glimpse of it’s workings… whether this will translate into me being able to actually make something happen in it is yet to be known… but i feel it can be something i can work with for years… and that is interesting.

in terms of music i am mostly guitar based, but also like to mess with anything rythmic and arps/pads… but the music always mostly comes through the guitar and the melodies i hear… which means that i won’t be programming multiple midi synths in a ‘logical’ way… but more of a general improv way… a mangler, fiddler and experimenter… rarther than a writer of music on paper/machines. if you get me

am very close to pulling trigger on the OT…

#24

After reading this description I had the impression that this exactly copies the traditional workflow of using a multitrack recorder like in the old days and working with a reel-to-reel machine. If no DAW shall be used, and the particular highlights of the OT are not required, my spontaneous idea would be to use gear like this …

  • Zoom R8 or R16 or R24
  • Tascam DP 24 or DP 32 Portastudio

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to talk you out of the OT. As the others already mentioned, the OT can do, what you asked for. An interesting feature of the OT is that it can stream very long audio samples directly from the mass storage and allows us to use most of the typcial sample-mangling processes on the streamed audio too.

The OT comes with four line-in audio inputs. Many of the affordable “portastudios” have 2, 4, or even more inputs. Some of them have instrument high-gain inputs (passive guitar or bass) and 48V phantom power for mics, which the OT doesn’t.

BTW … Have you checked out MPC Live or MPC X (or MPC 5000)? They can do multi-track audio recording AND are stand-alone groove-boxes too :wink: The MPC X provides high-gain inputs and 48V phantom power too.

JFYI … I have the OT, which was my first Elektron device … and three other boxes from Elektron too. I love them all, but I wouldn’t use them for the workflow as described, at least not, if I had (and I have) more “traditional” alternatives :wink:

#25

Just FYI I have never had much luck using OT as a live looper for guitars POST fx, ie guitar -> fx pedals -> ot

The reason are two fold:

  1. theres no way to cross fade the start and end of a sample as it loops (without using multiple tracks), so if you have any ambience like reverb or long sustain it will very clearly loop
  2. ot can be quite clicky when it records stuff, its only really good for looping percussive stuff (where you wont notice a click on beat 1 if its a big kick drum or something), or stuff that has natural silence where it loops, or both, like a sparse drum loop pre fx.

You can run it like guitar -> ot -> fx loop but thats pretty limiting. Also the pickup machines just dont work very well, search for clickup machines thread here. People will say just add a short fade at start and end but it doesnt work consistently.

My 0.02

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#26

Interesting. Which loopers do that?

#27

MPC 1000/2500 with jjos or MPC4000 do cross fade looping

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#28

I think, when it comes to the OT, there are only two things you really need to know -

It can do what you want it to do.

You cannot figure out in beforehand, how you’re going to do it, though. The OT will transform your way of work. Approach it, knowing that you’ll be able to get the results you want - but prepare to rethink your tactics to get there, for all the right reasons.

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#29

Any looper that automatically goes into dub after you hit the switch to close the first loop. It’ll just overdub the tails at the beginning of the loop. The Eventide H9 can do this, and I believe the TC Ditto, too.

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#30

Everything from guitar pedals to ipad apps I have do it, with varying degrees of control.

I’ve tried making seamless loops ITB with the OT, you can fade in/out and mix paste the faded start/ends, it gets close but you still often end up with clicks. To be fair to the OT sometimes when I do it with a DAW I still end up with clicks even with microfades at the start and end as well.

#31

This will happen when you don’t respect the phase of the sample (very simple example to visualize the core problem: if you loop only one half of a sine wave instead of the full cycle).

#32

In fact, I have both. If you go from record to overdub, any looper does that, including the OT, if you configure it to do so. If you go from record to play, no looper I know of does an “intelligent crossfade” that was the sense of my question. I’ll check with my DittoX4 and TimeFactor when I’ll have a moment, they’re currently shelved