TBH I kind of wish there was a low quality mode that sounded MORE like granular synthesis, since the artifacts are all I ever really use timestretch for, even in software.
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It was Anders Bergdahls OT demos and attempts to explain what he was doing ( some language barriers but he tried his best to communicate ) that sold me on the OT. I figured I’d uncover whatever it can’t do later- all i cared was “Holy smokes you can do THAT and THAT with just one OT and a guitar???”
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There’s one thing that OT can do that not even a computer or any other device can do as far as I know, and that’s setting up complex live recording chains with DSP and effects. I.E. have a loop running, record the recording of the loop with a percentage chance to record the recording of the recording while recording. Lay down a bunch of conditional trigs to make some kind of weird generative sampling and resampling chain with stuff controllable via steps and crossfader.
OT isn’t a laptop. It isn’t there to be your conventional daw. It’s an idiosyncratic hardware sampler and live mixer. If you don’t have any other gear and sitting down and making conventional regular music is your goal, OT isn’t for you. If you wanna do dawless tracks, sample and manuipulate instruments, and have something to mix and sequence your synths without computer. OT could be your ticket.
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Sorry, for some reason I was under the impression Anders deleted his tracks from Soundcloud, otherwise I would have posted the links earlier. He has more than these on SC but he later moved on to Eurorack modular stuff. Disclaimer: I’m partial to psychedelic guitar textures and experimental stuff.
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You can even plug a guitar straight in OT.
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100% one of the first things I did when learning the MIDI stuff of the OT was to connect my Nordlead 2 and finally have well synced LFOs.
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Saying…I have a DT and then saying the OT seems outdated means…you ain’t neva dun touched an OT.
The OT is dateless.
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I fully agree with this! That’s, for me, the whole essence of this box.
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I got OT driving eurorack. OT + FH2 is awesome.
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I can see why but for me not so much.
When I use it with other boxes, the other boxes are often more specialised in what they do, and I outsource tasks the OT could do to these machines, meaning synth or drum machine. I could still use it as midi sequencer, but my A4 or DN have a nicer way to putting in notes imo. I also often don‘t have the need to sample a synth line, cause I already put enough effort into the synth sound itself and the melody to have exactly what I wanted. No need to further mangle it.
For standard fx, like reverb or delay I also prefer other boxes. So it ends up doing very simple tasks or nothing at all when I use it with other gear.
But for me its magic comes into play when I use it on its own. Just starting with a simple sample loop, some drum sounds and nothing else, and creating completely new sounds from very simple and few material is my main use of it. Creating a full song out of only few sample snippets, just focusing on getting something very different out of them. The the arranger makes creating a song very easily, but messing with cc values to have other gear following the arranger gets me out of the moment and is tedious for me…
Anyway… just my way of using it. I prefer it as single box, otherwise I only use it as simple drummachine
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I’ve only just started working with midi on the OT. I’ve been experimenting with having four different midi sequences sending to the same device and switching between the sequence variations by muting/unmuting the channels. For example one channel might be long bass notes and another might be more of a ratcheting style sequence. I haven’t even gotten into using CC’s or using parts to switch presets yet and I’m already amazed by the possibilities.
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This is veering heavily into speculation, but I think the root of the issue here is this;
Having never used an ot I cant answer this, so advice from long time users might provide inside:
Are the current idiosyncrasies/bugs/annoyances of OT enough to warrant a mk3? Or are they entirely workable to the point that no updates are needed to “modernize” it and its likely we won’t ever see another OT, (eg MD and MnM never got mk2… were they as timeless as everyone says OT is? Do they have issues people still wish solved?)
IE “theres no point waiting around for what elektron might do next, instead just get one now”?
Get one now if it does what you need it to right now. I don’t think we’ll see another OT. But I do think they will create a new flagship sampler at some point in the next few years.
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Yea I saw a MK1 with box etc (even the screenprotector tape still on) for $800 CAD (~$600) on a local buy and sell group… almost jumped on it.
I do really like the look of the mk2 as I’ve got digis so used to that look. but its twice the price (used… nearly 3x new) so it would be a lot to go up!
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Imho, yes.
Well, there are MD and MM mk2s, but also yes, imho.
You mean MD and MM? There’s a problem with individual outs and main outs on MD, they are out of phase.
But there’s an unofficial firmware update for the MD which also brought new features.
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Just get it. Spend some time with it, see if it gels, sell for a profit or pass on the good price to the next buyer if you don’t like it. (Assuming everything is working well)
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Yes, this works fine for my acoustic-electric guitar, as it has an onboard preamp.
My electric guitars however have passive pickups and I felt the input signal straight from any of those guitars was too low for plugging in directly into OT, even with the Amp on the OT cranked to the highest setting. I got better results from using an external preamp with those guitars.
Read that post that you referenced again, and it appears he used an Eleven Rack to preamp his guitar, with its output connected to OT.