OT Live Situation

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Well I really need to get myself out of the information vacuum and create a live set game plan using the Octatrack. I need some guidance from the experts and then I will take it from there. Here is what I have planned (currently I have been half-ass jamming using the OT and all gear but not transitioning tracks/parts and I need to stop being lazy):

Setup:
Jomox999 (master clock)->Octatrack->Minitaur->Tetra or x0xb0x (plus many guitar pedal). Individual outs from Jomox, stereo set from Octatrack and mono outs from synths plugged into mixing board.

Intended use of Octatrack: to launch synth pad sample loops, to launch percussion loops other than those from Jomox that I have already made, to play synth parts not from the Minitaur,Tetra or x0xb0x and to send MIDI notes to the outboard synths. For live, I intend to play my own productions somewhat arranged/live edits.

Questions (need advice):

  1.  Octratrack synth parts (exported from Ableton as 1 bar or 2 bar lengths): The Octratrack has limited sample length so am I better off importing non modulated/relatively dry sounding synth chord/arp progression, simple pads and then tweaking about with internal effects or guitar pedal effects for live?

  2.  The live tracks will include samples and live triggering. What is your best advice from transitioning tracks given my intentions and setup. (Parts, scenes, banks, fader transition track, volumes etc).  Note there will be no audio plugged into the OT inputs.

Other than that I have a handle on the rest of the live setup and my intended use of the OT. I plan on building up the drums, adding in synth parts and jamming about then stripping it back down to drums, switching tracks then building the samples and synths back up again.
I do understand there are some topics on this but I still can’t extract the information I need to fully realize the live set. Hopefully you guys can help!

2

@1: I would import samples which already contain modulations. You can still add more on top. Several layers of modulations sound nice, at least in my opinion.

@2: Having read your last paragraph, I would say that you don’t even need resampling for transitions. Play with your Jomox, build OT/synth stuff on top, reduce synth stuff, change pattern/bank etc. on the OT while the Jomox is in focus again. That’s how I do it with my MD+A4 live setup, very basic, very straight-forward procedure.

3

Thanks for the response. I think I should be able to use static samples for a modulated longer synth sequences and flex for anything looped.
Lastly for changing actual samples and MIDI notes for the next track can that only be done in Parts or Banks? I am going to have roughly 10 live tracks with not more than 4 or 5 “Tracks”/track

4

Go with a bank for each song. Bank changes are quantized, so using them to drop in new tracks is ideal.

Also, if you’re only using 4-5 tracks per song… Maybe setup a pickup machine on Channel 7, and a master channel on Channel 8.

You could use Channel 7 to make a loop of your current output, which you could modulate even further/slice, etc.

5

… and remember sample locks. you might attach different pickup samples to different patterns or even bars/steps inside patterns.

6

The way i use my OT is as a drum machine mostly. But i also use it for loops and vocal samples. I actually only use one bank, and not even all 16 pattern locations. Most of the sequencing is done on the fly. I always have the same layout:

Track 1: BD
Track 2: SD
Track 3: HC
Track 4: HHs (i use sample locks to get the OHH samples)
Track 5: Ride Cymbal
Tracks 6-7: Loops/Vocal Samples
Track 8: Thru Track for processing my x0xb0x

Simple usage, but effective for what i need. With the inclusion of the Microbrute, i’ll probably end up using Track 7 for triggering the sequencer with a trigger voltage sample i have.

I never redo studio work, every live show is unique.