Octatrack Tips & Tricks (OT Tips)

Yes, I use this for a variation on a pattern. You can have the same pattern play back with different time signature settings to get really interesting changes. Copy pattern, paste onto new pattern, change time signature and booom.
It can be helpful if you’re looking for inspiration about where to take the thing next, whether it works as a starting point for something new or it’s good to go after just pasting it. It’s an obvious thing but it took me about a year and a half with the OT to discover it.
Hope this helps!

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2 nice tips i never have seen online.
first if you got freeze delay on master track and you use a midi controller (for example faderfox) to trigger the delay you can record the beat repeat on the master track sequenzer. good way to create interesting variations.
second one: i never use mute function. i trigger the amp volume with a faderfox (there you can controlle min and max cc value) from -64 to 0 value. this way i can mute the volume of the track but still have the efx fading out (reverb or delay). only thing is you have to controlle the volume of the sample in the audio editor wave form volume and save it so you have steady volumes with all oneshots loops etc.
if there are any ideas pleaze feel free to post here

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Tips with faderfox? :wink:

Second one is known, doesn’t cut fx, I do it too.
About first one, you mean change delay time with precise values ? What CC do you use ?

Studio mode + headphone jack as sub-bus

  1. Put octa into studio mode
  2. Set track 8 as master
  3. Headphone output will have both the the main and cue outs but only tracks assigned to the master will hit the master track effects on track 8. You can now use the master as a “group track” for additional filtering, volume, etc. on track 8. Anything assigned to master will be in the sub-bus/group. Everything assigned to cue will skip the master effects.

The same thing can of course be done with a mixer. This little tip may help those working without a mixer.

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you need a midi controller that can send precise ccs, therefore the faderfox. but behringer can do that to. for example for delay time i prepared 4 different buttons with the delay time efx 2 parameter 1. one with cc value 15,31,47,63. no i cant switch delay time with button push. then another button with the dry wet cc. thats it. about the volume thing. the point is to use midi controller and amp volume completely as mute with a button push. but year the not efx cut thing is pretty known.

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The arp can play more than major or minor scale, I posted this for A4 but figured it should live here too…

The common major scale actually has seven modes which translate into other scales in other keys.
The major scale in one key is actually 6 other scales if played with a different root note.
The notes used are the same notes, but give a different musical relation depending on what root key they are played over.
G major consists of the same notes as E minor for example, they sound happy when played over a G, but sad when played over an E. The other modes have different favors, G major notes played over a D note is D mixolydian and has sort of an “epic” flavor…

For example, the G major(Ionian) scale consists of the exact same notes as:
A Dorian
B Phrygian
C Lydian
D Mixolydian
E Aolian
F# Locrian

So by setting the arp to G major you get G major, assuming the root of the key your playing is actually G.
With the same G major setting, playing in a root note of A will give you the Dorian mode(scale), playing with a root note of D would give you the Mixolydian mode(scale), etc…

So any of the seven modes can be used not by selecting the scale, but rather changing the root key of the arp setting, while playing in a different root key…

Hope this makes sense, at some point maybe I’ll find or make a chart as it’s a lot to explain how to figure out which root to set…
:grinning:

Edit: link to chart : Octatrack Tips & Tricks (OT Tips)

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Boom! After your A4 post, it set me wondering if the OT did the same… thanks for the heads up!

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Thank you!!

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that’s great. Would have never thought of it, though it totally makes sense

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For other scales, I plock several notes with third intervals on 1 trig, other left notes on another trig, and alternate them each 2 steps, or as you like.
Random Arp with octaves to taste.

A Minor Harmonic
Trig 1 : A C E G#
Trig 2 : B D F

With 5 notes scales I use this sometimes
Track 1 for root note
Track 2 for others notes

Ethiopian
T1 = A, T2 = B C E F

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That’s a new one to me by definition, although I have often heard those note relationships. Almost like an Ethiopian version of the pentatonic scale, only with the closer B+C notes providing more harmonic interest.

I maid another test with same principle, I just thought that with Trc now we can put up to 2x4 notes on the same time.

DORIAN D
Trig 1 (D F A C), Trc 50%
Trig 2 (E G B D), Trc /PRE and - 23/384 micro timing.

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What’s the -23/284 do? I would’ve figured you’d want it right on top of where the previous note would have been, so I would’ve guessed -284/284 or whatever the furthest backwards value would be.

It’s 23 of 384 (384 midi seq clicks per bar from 96 ppqn [24ppqn for MIDI beat clock, int seq is 4 times higher res] ) - so it’s the finest step resolution that steps can be shifted towards, but not overlapping, the neighbouring seq step

may have been neater to write 23/24, but it is what it is I guess


edit: adding a figure for future ref - so you see that 2 and 3 can almost swap places

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A step is 24 clicks.
I don’t know if @avantronica mentioned it, but take 2 consecutive steps. :kissing_heart::confounded:

If you set step 2 to +1 and step 2 to -23, which is theorical same position, surprisingly only step 2 is played. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

If you set step 1 to +2, it will be played after step 2. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::tired_face:

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not surprising as it’s a monophonic (if audio) track, but yeah, you can nudge it so two trigs ‘almost’ entirely swap positions (96%) and certainly swap order - but they’ll work as per no nudging for TRCs ordering etc

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I thought step 1 would be first, that was my surprise, not the monophonic behavior. :wink:

How to set up 2 EQs on different tracks to be controlled simultaneously from one encoder page using MIDI loopback.

Use case: For :elot: DJing (and many other things). Say you are forced or want to DJ on your OT. You have no DJ mixer available. You want to fade out the bass on the currently playing track, while fading it in on the incoming.

Hardware:

  1. Connect MIDI cable from OT’s out to in.

Software:

  1. On track A (in this case: audio track 1), insert DJ EQ on slot 1. On track B (i.e. audio track 5), insert DJ EQ on slot 2. The other slots on track 1 and 5 should stay empty.

  2. In MIDI mode, choose a channel and set it up in MIDI control setup. Set as follows:


    This is the CC setup on the MIDI channel your encoders will be sending from.

  3. Set the MIDI control channel (on MIDI playback setup page, ‘MIDI note setup’) to, for example, 4. Any channel will do, but it has to be the same channel as in the next step.

  4. Go to MIDI: Channels (FN+Mixer). In this case, set tracks 1 and 5 to MIDI input channel 4, as that is the one chosen as the MIDI control channel in the previous step. Set track 4 input to OFF.

  5. On your MIDI control channel’s ‘Cntrl 2’ page, the top row of your encoders controls audio track 1 EQ, the bottom row controls track 5 EQ. Bass gain is on the left, mid in the middle, treble on the right.

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Yes, this suprised me too, in another context:

possibly this extends to MIDI notes as well.

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Just noticed this, great idea! Getting different modes I’d already thought of on my own but I was missing harmonic minor and I probably wouldn’t have come up with that idea any time soon.