Octatrack Wishlist for next OS update

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#21

My top two wishes have to do with making pickup machines more flexible and all of them seem within reason (with the possible exception of no.4)

  1. Ability to toggle on/off time stretching on pickup machines (like you can on flex or static machines)
  2. Ability to toggle on/off the thing that makes a master pickup machine automatically change the octatrack’s global tempo
  3. Cross fading parameters for loops
  4. Polyphonic loop playback (at least so you could play chords with the chromatic mode… nothing too fancy)
#22

+1 on the MIDI Scenes (sorry for the broken record)

+1 on File management and exporting banks. Considering most of us use Banks as “songs” for live sets, it shouldn’t be a several hour setback every time we want to make a new set list.

+1 on better FX. Can we have the A4 reverb please?

When selecting an effect, go to the main effect page.

Compressor with a gain reduction graphic. Could be 10 pixels tall for all I care, but something would be nice.

These are mostly small complaints about the best goddamn sampler on the planet. Peace.

#23

oh yeah - Normalizing Static samples

#24

Hmm I don’t really understand this one.

How do you normalise a sample that is not loaded to RAM, and streams only from the CF card?

#25

Dreaming but another 128 flex slots (total 256) wouldn’t go astray.

At this point any type of update would be a positive move.
Its been too long between drinks.

#26

no doubt already suggested by someone:

slice to transients with sensitivity controls (like phatmatik pro, kontakt etc) and auto populate trigs to trigger the loop intact.

#27

…rethink all this pick up machine concept…
what we need is a real and normal looper in first place…
no master and slave levels…one pick up machine, that is dubbing right from the start and straight away…
free the performer from setting the basic loop lenght and fix it to grid, so that we can hit record and record stop any time we want without bothering the fixed main lenght and always have a certain piece of rotating “tape” in front of us to dub to…

but whatever you do…get the bugs straight first…this through machine bug leading to constant weeping after part changes if left open is a shame, really…
and it’s on the list for more than just a while now…

some more weird fx algorithms would be nice, of course…but all in all i think the fx are pretty good…
can’t complain about the quality myself…don’t expect them to be hi end here…but effective…and that’s what they are, pretty to the point…

if i hear of another new machine coming up soon, no matter how fancy that one could be, before you start working on your old ones again, i seriously loose trust in this company…

you got a nice bunch of machines in your shop now…they all need some more attention beyond the time of launching…get back to where you came from and be famous for your former skills again…making what we got, better and better…
the ot is no lifetime investment yet…
if you loose your vibe of sustainability, you’re lost…don,t take the apple route…you can’t afford it…

#28

Regarding the OT CPU and the quality of the FX algorhithms:

I really don’t believe computing power is the issue. Some ancient FX units (and samplers) have better FX, from an era where computers had like 500kB of memory and could barely play a few channels of audio. I think the algorhithms could be improved, with the available computing power.

I know, OT does a million things at once, and has 16 FX slots. Still, some of the FX are plain bad or at least not worth wasting a valuable FX slot for. Minor tweaks here and there might easily do the trick of improving them considerably, without having to rewrite the whole OT code.

I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I think better FX would turn a good machine into a great machine.

#29

+1 on file management. It’s a real pita and totally amateur from a professional company
+1 on converting scenes to parts
Record cross fader movements

#30

Hmm I don’t really understand this one.

How do you normalise a sample that is not loaded to RAM, and streams only from the CF card?[/quote]
Meaning you don’t understand how it would be possible for them to program it? Is it really a stretch to ask for this?

#31

Record cross fader movements

Yes, it would be great to have crossfader write the parameters it is controlling via scenes.

+1

#32

Sorry, coralhex said it already and better

“Option to use crossfader for live-rec of p-locks (with slides)”

#33
  • Remember Track Mute settings per Bank.
#34

…oh, and i got another one…

how about tempo trigs…?

the option to fix tempo to certain patterns, without getting lost in the arranger list…

would make it the real playbackmachine, you’re promising…

or is there any other chance to drop 20 different playbacks in a row without changing manually to correspondant individual temposignature each time i have to start a new one…

#35

Play a midifile…

#36

…don’t get it…you mean slaving the ot with an external clock and defining tempochanges with the master clock…?

i’d prefer tempo trigs…

#37

Ahhh! Every time I visit elektronauts I hope there would bei a new OS version. And than I am disappointed. And then I tell myself to be more patient. Now I almost feel like I have to convert to buddhism to learn more of this patience or to let go all expectations. Isn’t it with some type of buddhism that they teach you how to let go attachement to the outside world?
ohhhhmmmmm
ohhhhmmmmm
:thinking:

I still feel attached to the OT and love what it does. But I am sure this machine could be doing much much more.

ohhmmmm
oohhhhmmm

Maybe I should put my impatient feelings into some work for a octatrack session. Something like a “waiting for new os”-project. :zonked:
And if it is done (imperfection rules) I should post it on elektronauts.com, followed by “crying out for new os” and then the forthcoming “desperately waiting” and “longing” and the last project would be “let it all go” or “being through the desert”.

oohhhmmm
ooohhmmm

I see, I am still no buddist. Much to fixated on my own subjectivity and desire.
So a better project could be “tickling the programmers” or “swedish torture”. This reminds me somehow of the video campain for the octatrack. It was so dark, desperate …

ahhhh! :sob:

#38

You reminded me of this song. They created this at the start of Moogfest 2014 and clearly they had some hang ups for not being invited to play there. It is awesome in its 80’s style horribleness :joy:

#39

Thanks automux! Yeah, that is the spirit that is haunting me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
hahaha
waiting is … something to suffer

In nooks all over the earth sit men who are waiting, scarcely knowing in what way they are waiting, much less that they are waiting in vain. Occasionally the call that awakens– that accident which gives the “permission to act — comes too late, when the best youth and strength for action has already been used up by sitting still; and many have found to their horror when they ‘leaped up’ that their limbs had gone to sleep and their spirit had become to heavy.(says old Nietzsche)


swedish torture … hahah

#40

I love the Octatrack as it is…

Two improvements that would help me are…

  • Changing Arrangements without needing to stop playing would be great for playing live. Since Arrangements can have names, which makes playing live a lot more comfortable if you see what the name of the next track is that you want to play.

  • thru machine that has CUE as an input, so I don’t need to do the external cabling thing and freeing up inputs and outputs if I want to create an effects bus.

That’s all.

Cheers,

Cheez