If you have QREC enabled it won’t start recording immediately if the sequencer is running, it’ll wait until however long you’ve set it to.
BTW if you happen to set the master track length to infinite, a PLEN QREC setting won’t work, because there is no pattern restart point for it to work from. Worth experimenting with all these things depending on your setup.
Thanks. Will give that a go
I don’t believe this is accurate, I’m pretty sure you can record from AB/CD/Int while in the record setting page. It’s probably something else like the QREC thing.
Hope so 
How do I set the master track length? As in track 8?
In the Scale menu, accessed by pressing FUNC + the PAGE button.
If you don’t use the per track setting you won’t see it. Thought it was worth mentioning though as it’s something I’ve run into with using plays free tracks where the master length would restart individual tracks unless I set it to infinite, then the PLEN becomes useless so I just set QREC to 64 or whatever.
Going back to your OP it just sounds like you need to use one-shot record trigs and set the RLEN to something other than max in the record setting for the recorder.
Edit: Ah hold you want to do manual recording, well you could use a one shot record trig and arm it I guess, but yeah just QREC + an RLEN setting should work, otherwise you would need to press the record button again after it starts with the ONE2 mode.
For example: Press a record button as the sequencer is running, it waits until the next bar then you see the little + symbol to indicate it’s now recording, when you see that you can either wait if you’re using RLEN that isn’t max, or just press the record button again and it’ll stop after it reaches the next point determined by QREC.
The way I’ve been using QREC and ONE2 is for variable bar length recordings, so if I let the sequence run on to the next bit and hit the button then it’ll record two bars.
I do wish there was a way to set a record STOP trig, or set a max length longer than 64, but alas.
How well does it work if you set the master tempo to half your speed, but set every track except the one you want to sample into to X2 scale?
Not something I’ve experimented with. Probably wouldn’t be useful for me with how I want to use plays free tracks but I’m sure it would work for someone.
That’s the beautiful thing with the Octatrack, it gives you tremendous flexibility to create a pretty unique sequencer/sampler instrument. You do just need to take the time to experiment and learn what all the settings do and how they interact.
Good advice. I’ve owned mine long enough to know this is true, but embarrassingly I’ve not taken the time to learn this aspect of using it properly yet. I shall, one day.
No.
Master sequencer length is not the same thing as ‘track 8 as Master’ length.
It is a global setting for the pattern.
You can have a master sequencer length of 256 steps (16 bars) and a track 8 master length of 3 steps if you want.
There’s a lot to learn with the octatrack. Its architecture is much deeper and more advanced than the later developed digi boxes.
That’s a good one 
The Digitakt also has this concept. On the DT is called M.LEN (master length) and it just sets the number of steps that will play before the sequencer restarts on all tracks. It’s useful for example if you want to do polymeters
Sampling troubles ? If it tames your troubles, I’m in ! I have enough material these days…
Not enough ram or slots for all my troubles either, need that mk3 
As long as its got the hard round buttons from the Mk1, I’m in.
I mean on top the other trickery!! My biggest issue is lack of inputs. Another stereo pair would be helpful. So you could have drum, bass and chords/melody.