OT as a master fx unit

hello guys

I´m working on a set that have a diferent configuration than my usual rig…

on this one I´m going to use ableton + push together with my hardware set up…

so having ableton this time I´m thinking on using my OT as a fx unit,what I want to process here is the master out of my 16 ch mixer…

so basically what I want to ask you guys is this:

I would like to use the fx power of the OT for process the master output of my set up the same way a digital dj would do with Traktor…

any suggestion on how to route the OT for this?

also…would liek to hear suggestion for mind blowing OT fx combinations for processing the master out of the mix…

thanks in advance…

i would try and utilze the four inputs. 2 stereo coming from your sound card. the filter and reverb sound great together. the bit crusher and delay also sound great. set up track 1-4 to stereo a+b then track 5-7 to stereo c+d. assign track 8 as master fx track. you can do crazy stutter delay fx on track 8. use the cross fader to transition from track to track. possibilities are endless really.

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mmm thanks Geneoart but that´s not the set up…

what I meant is this…

I want to route the stereo mix of my 16 ch mixer in order to process the master output from my gear thru the OT fx and process the audio like digital djs do with traktor,just to experiment and record the gig…

I think what geneoart said applies, but his suggestion was to split your 16 mixer channels into the separate stereo inputs of the octatrack for individual processing, using neighbor machines to create great effects stacks. Yu could probably use assign groups or aux sends on your mixer to divide signals in certain ways. For instance, you could have your synth tracks going to the OT a/b inputs and anything with drums going into the c/d inputs.

I would consider creating a bunch of different scenes that affect the incoming sound in different and radical ways and either using the slider to morph between the scenes or use the arranger to automate effects settings. If everything is being sequenced from ableton already, you can use the arranger liberally with patterns as short as one step and as many or few repeats as you want to automate scene locks as finely as you desire.

Another cool thing to do with pre-sequenced music is to use the recorders as a means to manipulate live audio. One example would be to place a recorder trig on the first step of the fourth bar of a sequence and a playback trig linked to that recorder on the ninth step of the fourth bar with the playback rate reversed for an interesting fill. That’s just one simple example of a way you could use the recorders to deepen the sound of incoming audio. Use your imagination.

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@Lymtronics thanks for clarifying that for me. you have a great way of explaining things.

I sometimes plug my OT into the main inserts of my mixer when I want to sample from the mixer’s main outputs but still want to use its master faders to control the overall volume going to my monitors. It might not fit with your setup but I thought I’d throw it out there in case it might help.

I am considering using the Octatrack MK2 as a sort of Master effects unit. I’m using a Behringer X32 as my main mixer and it will be set up to allow me to control which track out of 16 will be sent to the external effects. This can be any combo of 1 track to all tracks.
My question is, does the Octatrack have any noticeable latency with processing audio? Being that it will be feed and returned back to the X32, which has something like 1.6ms latency each way, I’m concerned that adding all the latencies together might get into the noticeable range.
edit: oops, I just realized this was a three year old thread.

I made a test once, playing a sine and recording it with Ot. IIRC it was around 1.5ms.

Edit 2: not sure what was my previous test.

Just made a recording, playing a sine to Cue Outs plugged to INAB and recorded it : the record is around 136 samples late, equals to 3ms.
I added neighbors, used thru and recorded internally, the result was the same.

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Thank you so much for the test! All together with the latency of the X32 it shoukd be sub 7ms. That shoukd be fine for live scenarios.
Very much appreciated :+1:t2::+1:t2:

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To the OP, lets go at this backwards shall we? You seem to consider NI Traktor to be the benchmark in the type of FX tricks you want to pull off. So, can you please list your favourite Traktor FX tricks and FX stacks and their macros or special mappings?

AFAIK Traktor has a fairly ”basic” FX structure, you should have no probs emulating most of the Fx combos with a bit of planning and some scene-fu… But obvs you cannot expect a 1:1 translation of the FX algos, like Mulholland drive etc

Is anyone using an Ableton + Octatrack + Overbridge hybrid setup? I figured out how to route out Ableton into the Octatrack, syncing it together with Overbridge with my RYTM, while sampling it in real time with OT and effects while also using the versatility of Ableton. This is a really powerful setup, and I just might acquire a few VSTs for this!! If only the OT can control Ableton parameters, that’d be overpowered!

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But it can. Just send some CCs from an OT MIDI track into Ableton. You can control almost everything with MIDI CC in Ableton Live.

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You’ve got ableton, an OT and a rytm and you’ve never got into midi mapping yet? You’re in for some serious fun

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It’s not useful as a master FX unit. First off the effects are really really bad. You’d be better off with a digitech multiFX pedal. Seriously, i’m not even joking. They’re worse than old digitech. New digitech stuff is WAY better. Even current behringer stuff is better. The only thing with WORSE effects is ableton itself.

Second the OT is useless as a mixer. There’s a -12db drop on any audio you’re putting into the digitech, which means you need to boost the hell out of any audio you right though it, which means raising the noise floor. Say goodbye to any reasonable level of audio fidelity. You’re going to get noise noise noise.

But I’m not using a Digitech effects pedal?? What do you recommend then?

Most of us have gotten it to work and sound just fine…
Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many users and they would have never made a MK2…

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The OTs effects aren’t great, but to say they are better than Abletons?
Ridiculous
Stop blaming the tools, you need to start looking at how you are using them

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Very questionable

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There are no bad effects.

That said, depending on what you mean by “master FX unit” the OT might not be the best tool for that particular job. If you mean putting it on the master buss of an ITB (or OTB) mix, so that everything is running through it, I’d be pretty hesitant. If you mean using it as your primary effects unit on aux sends, then by all means give it a shot! Although if you’re doing that with ITB mixes you’ll have interface latency to contend with, but that’s manageable.

By the time I graduated from college in the mid 2000s I was so sick of working ITB I got a beat up 8 track and did everything on that for years. I didn’t have the money for any outboard gear so the only thing I had for reverb was a reissue EHX Polychorus on an aux send, in echo mode with the delay time set really short. It sounded great.

There are no bad effects, it’s all about context and how you use them.

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Maybe there are no bad fx, but ”effin good!” fx certainly exists.

I wouldn’t rank OTs fx as such though. Usable and flexible yes, but not OTO et al level goodness…