Octatrack Tips & Tricks (OT Tips)

good stuff! I am actually having the full manuals printed and bound at a local print shop since I like having a physical hard copy to read without using ipad or computer. Plus makes reading easier than stare at screen. People beef about not OB support but my biggest gripe is that Elektron is too stingy or cheap to provide a full hard copy printed manual for the MK2 products. They did provide for MK1 and sad they are not doing this anymore.

Fab find. The ot midi is my fav midi sequencer. Thank you

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Today’s thing.

On track 8 with delay trig control setup…

Add trigs for turning delay SND to zero , some to non zero
On the zero trigs , change the time value on the delay
Make the track free running , as one2
Make it a weird length and time multiplayer
Add a bit of a gap at the end of the pattern to reset the values , allowing you to easily stop the playback and make it sound normal.

Play track
Trig track 8 to play your pre specified delay control pattern whenever you want , press t8 to stop it.
Instant controlled delay things , let it play through , stop in the gap to return to normal or stop it during your trigs to have it continue trggering

Confusing ? Probably
Overall it hasn’t taken long to figure things out , there’s lots of options I haven’t used yet but I’ve done all the typical weirdness , not sure why I didn’t dig into octatrack earlier.

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when sampling and resampling tracks, naming the file quickly requires lightning-fast reflexes [perhaps this is overstating the case]…

although i have already mentioned how upper caps and lower caps letters are the same for every letter, two levels directly above or below each other …

here’s another trick of the trade: the letter V sounds very similar in sound to the letter F, and these two letters are directly above/below each other.

now that i write this supposed “tip”, it doesn’t actually seem as valuable as i thought it would be.

anyway, naming files. it’s great. the alphabetical arrangement becomes like an organisational database technique of itself.

Freat tip. Vank you!

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Vorgife me, I’m vrifolous, I ferivied, I’m not sure V and F sound the same, it’s convusing, that’s maybe avvectife.
I know you’re a verfent OT writer, gifing it new vlafours, fifivying wafevorm’s names.
Gife me vife ! :slight_smile:

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Put grease on your hands and they’ll move quicker .

Use concrete to slow them down.

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it’s all about infusing that quintessential “va-va-voom!” into the track naming experience.

So valerius.

Can you time stretch the name processing algorithm?

Voraciously enjoying the vivacious vivification.

Back to regular tips and tricks, it would seem the Octatrack Autochannel is only engaged when the Midi side of the OT is active.

Otherwise, when working on the Audio tracks, the Octatrack’s Midi side of things only responds to the incoming Midi channel in a regular fashion - eg. if Channel 9 is set to Autochannel, and Midi side is active then playing on Channel 9 will have access to any channel that a Midi track is set to …

whereas if the Audio side is active, then the Midi side of things is only going to respond with a Midi track that is also set to Channel 9.

At least this is how it seemed to work the other day. Maybe i became slightly confused when trying to work with the Octatrack, three hardware synths, midi ins, outs, thru’s, and a Machinedrum.

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HOW MIDI IS ROUTED
If an audio track and a MIDI track share the same MIDI channel, the MIDI track will block the audio track from sending out data while the audio track will block the MIDI track from receiving data.

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fascinating! in this scenario however the Midi tracks in question were all between 9-16, and the Audio tracks, although Midi channel activity not being used, were on Midi channels 1-8.

anyway i could be mistaken, maybe Autochannel does work when the Midi light is not lit, it just seemed to only work as Autochannel when the Midi side was ‘active’ (for want of a better word).

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That’s it.

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Something useful i discovered tonight is using the Noise Gate (Proj Control Inputs) as a cue-send effect …

Earlier in the evening i was recording a flute line multiple times from a vintage physical modelling synth through 3 guitar effect pedals … layering the audio tracks resulted in quite a noticeable noise floor.

Individually they were okay recordings, the hash was very indistinct and unnoticeable. But then layering them each time the hash noise grew in volume.

It was actually a pretty cool warm hash noise, not irritating. And yet not very professional. Very noticeable.

I should have put a low-level Noise Gate on the appropriate inputs to start with. At first it seemed like the layered tracks hash noise was there to stay.

But then, tried muting the track, Cueing it through the Cue Outputs, back into the CD stereo input.

Then, while listening, adjusted the Proj Settings noise gate level … too little was sounding ineffective, too much was creating jittery interruptions in the actual audio. Found the sweet spot around 43.9db Noise Gate value.

It would be cool if Noise Gate was an actual OT Effect, instantly accessible, but anyway this was a fairly easy workaround.

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best tip i can give after years is this, its very easy to implement too.

spend as much time as you possibly can on it and don’t be afraid to ask it silly questions, what will you do if i do this? It will respond.

IT WONT BREAK AFTER ALL :sunglasses:

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Make a track with slices or samples locks each 2 step or less.
Press track + stop several times = manual slutter fx.

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set lfo 1 to random and Start Time
set lfo 2 to random and Hold Time
set lfo 3 to sine and Filter Base

to avoid clicks set Att to 1 or 2

while operating Track and Stop, also adjust Rate manually for abstract Pitch comedy.

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Tip to keep the best of a long recording “quickly”, without audio editing : record 64 bars, add 64 slices, and reorganize them.

Memory Config > Dynamic Recorders = yes, Reserve = none
Scale Per Track, Master Pattern Length = 1024 (64 bars)
Recording Setup 2 > Qrec = PLength
Recording Setup 1 > RLen = Max, ONE2

If you use a One shot trig to start recording, press twice corresponding Rec button to stop recording, before the end of the pattern, eventually just after the record starts.

Choose a track with 1/8 scale and divide tempo by 2. Place 64 trigs. Apply 64 slices grid and linear locks.
Reorganize bars.

Resample when finished.

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This is also great for pre processing a drum chain , e.g. Distorted , vocodered , static , even muting if you blank out some of the samples.

Also good for timbre shifts on synth sounds , resonance , filter , anything that can’t be achieved by altering a parameter on the octatrack itself.

Also means you process 1 sample in a daw to change / compress / saturate entire drum kits assuming whatever you do. Is within the same sample length.

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