OT : First Steps

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#42

Boring probably.

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#43

I agree!

And in my experience having these kind of conversations now, as you do, will automatically help some things to click later in the future, by having them half-aware on your radar. That’s why reading the full manual also is very fruitful I think, to have the bigger picture for trouble shooting. But first, keep things simple when you start, and don’t worry too much to fuck things up:) The bigger picture will show itself! (Just like I got a new puzzle piece regarding the Vol 0 = -12db just now:)

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#44

Default LEVEL value is 108. Around - 3 db compared to 127 :wink:

#45

Is that why it’s the weird 108?

#46

Hey and if I can ask: Before I dig myself deep in that thick Gainstaging thread, to ask it in ballpark scale: Which other Elektrons did you currently have @sezare56, and how far open do you have the volume know of those machines? I really have no idea what people tend to do, if full open is normal, or more towards half. (Or does this kind of question really make no real sense without researching the workings of the whole gainstaging subject…?)

#47

Can see there’s some excellent gain staging/machine discourse going on here and will gratefully read it in a year or so. I am in the “don’t throw this thing out the window” phase. Currently able to turn madness into slightly more rhythmic madness, which is fine.

3 Likes
#48

Oh yeah and regarding what to start with: XFader Scenes are actually great fun to quickly go allout with, in my memory. Not really much to mess up with, as long as you remember to just go back to your default scene or clear your scene to start over. So they’re a great way to have big impact, settings scenes to affect FX and tuning and stuff, in the starting days:)

#49

OT/A4/DN/DT, but I didn’t make serious gain staging yet with them together. Planned, as I have a new mixer with meter. Before I was checking OT leds, almost red or briefly red.
It’s possible to be full red without cliping btw.
You can try with a sine wave.

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#50

Perfect, thanks. I started with trying to stick with green leds, already promoted to often-orange. But good to hear this again, that it’s fine to run them hot in the deep orange.

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#51

i feel ripped off. i keep seeing these references to a lovely printed manual. i got a quick guide but thats it. i’d probably still use the PDF but i want a cool elektron book for the coffee table :confused:

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#52

Agreed. The OT is a piece of gear that really benefits from a nice printed reference manual. You will refer to it a lot in the beginning.
The fact that mk2 doesn’t include one is a real mark against it compared to the mk1 imo.
It sounds weird but I feel I retain information far better from a physical book than from a pdf version… or maybe I’m just weird… :man_shrugging:

2 Likes
#53

Print and bind?

#54

Of course, and that’s what I’ve done for a lot of my gear. My point is that I feel the OT should ship with a printed manual, I think any gear as deep as the OT would benefit from one.
Don’t think it would be as jarring if the mk1 didn’t have a printed manual, but when I upgraded I did feel a bit disappointed to not see a manual in the box.

#55

You learn faster with a quick guide! :content:

I admit a printed manual is much better if you want to read the whole manual, but for chapters or quick search I got used to pdfs…

#56

I promise you, do not dismay!

I’m on my 3rd day using this and I swear I nearly lost my mind … At one point I was worried I’d never get it to work for me.

Here’s what I want to tell you … I was just able to really master grid and regular sampling and as soona s I got it I was like OOOOOkaaaaaay. I see now.

What I originally thought was unnecessary complexity is actually the open environment nature of this device. There’s oftan multiple ways to do the same thing. This isn’t because it’s chaotic, it’s because Elektron designed this to be a platform that you can kind of built a workflow in a modular way, and the ways are almost infinite. Everything can be connected in ways you decide and so the initial learning curve is so damn intense.

Many devices are designed to walk you through a workflow, but this one says “OK, here are all the building blocks, design your own workflow”. Coming from the deluge I knew I didn’t want to use this as a drum machine. I wanted to chop up my beats from my drum machines, recreate them, and then record multitrack sections of my songs and kind of remix them before recording into Ableton. Kind of an MPC workflow and then recording into an arrangement into the DAW. So this is my workflow, but you may have a different one.

For example: I initially thought when sampling, “Why am I not seeing any visual feedback for this sample coming in? There’s no record light on, and no waveform?”. Well the answer is, you can hit the AED button, where you will edit your sample, and before editing the sample this screen will show you the waveform of the audio as it’s recorded.

Here’s what I suggest:

  1. Read the Merlin guide while you’re sitting around somewhere.
  2. Decide ahead of time how you want to work with this thing, or just choose something you want to learn.
  3. Watch this “Simple Sampling” video from Cuckoo, it’s a MKI but it doesn’t matter, the devices are more similar than I had thought originally. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJT_JoWO2tU
  4. Then watch this quick and dirty Elektron series until you know the basics. Watch the videos and try to mimick these processes. Use the manual as a reference to really understand the button combinations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w_PlGzqTYM

I promise you, once you see this is a really complicated environment that you need to learn in chuncks you’ll have an appreciation for how bananas this thing is. In a way, I feel like I neeeded to use the deluge to understand the Octatrack. It’s a sampler, but it’s not a sampler. Like the famous “This is not a pipe”. This is whatever you want it to be. Thank god for YouTube, can you imagine no forums and no video tutorials and trying to learn this thing? If you did it with just the manual I take my hat off to you and bow.

7 Likes
#57

And if you understand German @twinnpeaks course is a gem, really.

https://www.dvd-lernkurs.de/octatrack-masterclass-complete-bundle.html

2 Likes
#58

Its -3dB, from the max 0dBFS at 127(midi max, or 100% full midi signal). A default of mid VOL at 108, is 84% of the max VOL, or somewhere around -3dB, or 15% fader pull down from UNITY gain. Like when you pull back the Spotify output level. Key take away is that, if it were a mixer fader, some have a +dB range above UNITY gain, but when seen on the octatrack, there’s no visual clues to what is happening. I think of it exactly like the AMP section of synth oscillators, which have a VOL or LEV output control, and those are always MAX KNOB TURN= MAX OUTPUT, instead of imagining a mixer fader.