Ok I will try to keep this as simple as possible.
I’m trying to put together a 1 hour live-set with the Octratrack and the Digitone. I love this set up but my main issue is that important parameters like ENV Depth, Delay Send etc are per pattern, which means that if I am not careful, values can jump quite a bit depending on how much I fiddle with them.
As I understand it, I can just sequence notes on the Octratack and use the Midi CC to control parameters (and thus, scenes), however:
- This means I can’t use the KB Fold feature or scales on the Digitone, which I rely on heavily when composing/improvising.
- I am not sure how easy it is to program chords on the Octatrack
So, either I stick with my problems or bite the bullet and sequence everything on the OT, thus losing the Digitone’s scale/chord functions.
Am I right in this? Does anybody have a good workaround?
Bonus credit: Can someone walk me through an example of a use for the Midi arp with the Digitone? Apparently its a powerful feature of the OT but I don’t know what I am missing out on!
I’m using the same setup.
It definitely simplified things to get everything programmed on one machine, especially to use mutes.
The downside is that scenes can’t be used with MIDI tracks and that i find the arp settings way more understandable on the DN. I could never recreate the same stuff with OT arp controlling DN than on the DN itself.
If i’m correct you can always set arp scales on DN and ut will correct whatever note sent by the OT.
On bith machines you can always reliad part ir pattern after you tweaked them to come back to the saved state.
To program chords you’ll have to set the notes yourself on the OT (i guess you’ll have to know theory or at least the nites you wanna use).
Keep in mind that if the track is off on DN but on on the OT sending notes, there will still sound out of the DN. I found it more practical to keep DN tracks always mute on the DN.
If you still keep programmed stuff on DN, you might want to set CC In to off.
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I see, if the scenes don’t work with MIDI then I think I’ll just keep the process as is. It’s kind of a bummer but I guess its part of the learning curve! Thanks anyways
What’s the draw back for you to not be able using scenes with MIDI against having to do things on the DN live?
For me, it was liberating to be able to operate mainly from the OT. It lets me be free to just tweak on the DN and reload if necessary.
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I guess you’re right. I think I’m too reliant on that chord/kb fold feature to find harmonies and melodies on the fly in an improvisational way, but this is nothing that can’t be fixed by plugging in a midi keyboard on the OT.
If i could have the Digitone simply be a storage for midi notes and control everything from the octatrack, that would be a perfect compromise. It seems like thats possible by making sure I use the reload and save pattern functions more consistently while sequencing everything from the OT.
The focus on one machine I’ve found is quite important too.
This wasn’t such a problem before but now that I am putting together an ambient-focused liveset with the OT + Digitone, sudden jumps in parameters can really mess me up!
Well, for instance I always leave the track 3 for live playing.
I guess you can do that. You can mute DN tracks manually from the OT and keep your stuff done on the DN as well.
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I appreciate your input. I’m going to try sequencing everything on the OT and seeing how I go, I think it will be an improvement
A follow-up question if you don’t mind: have you used pick up machines with the DT? Or do you mostly stick to thru machine with effects on top? Trying to figure out how best to manage different tracks on the DN doing different things .
For example I like using the OT delay or reverb, but since the THRU machines sums all the signals, I inevitably also put a delay on the bass i have on the DN and I sometimes don’t want that. How do you work around this issue?