Hey. Do you mean watch general quality or making sure you record in at a higher db?
Cool well on the FX , you can always loop a track out into a pedal and back into the OT right?
Thanks!
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I’ve recently moved a small amount of gear into a second studio, with the emphasis on simplicity, standing-up, seeing some actual daylight. The Octatrack is my core MIDI sequencer driving a small selection of synths that I swap in or out as needed. Currently these are a Digitone, Analog Four and Blofeld. I process the Blofeld through the OT’s effects and use the OT’s Arranger to put together complete songs. Granted I don’t try and process all synths through the OT’s effects - but I’m happy with those in the A4/DT anyway.
The whole thing works really smoothly and although there are limitations, most notably the OT’s 4x16 step approach to sequencing, I think the OT as the heart of the system makes real sense and use MIDI tracks, its own audio tracks, audio processing, effects, scenes and arrangements. I’d go as far as to say the OT is only truly satisfying when you use it all.
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OT fx are mostly ok, a few great, a few useable and a couple of not so good, the reverb on the DT is better, but you could always add a dedicated reverb and use it in fx loop with OT via cue outs. The OT dark reverb is often useable enough if not stellar though.
Other options to consider are the Deluge and Squarp Pyramid, both offer good sequencing, with the Pyramid being a dedicated and very powerful sequencer, the Deluge being a sampler, synth, sequencer of which it does all 3 fairly competently if not as powerful as dedicated separate units, it does a good job though overall.
I wouldn’t worry about there not being line outs for each track, or trying to get the mix 100% perfect in the OT. unless you don’t have a DAW and can only work with a stereo mix. if you’re using song mode, you’ll have the entire structure all there. you can record individual parts as needed (or a pair at a time, separated). if some of them need “live” tweaking while recording, you’re free to do it with more precision because you’ll only be recording one track at a time.
lots of people get obsessed with having to record all their sounds at once. bands rarely do this, why should electronic musicians…?
anyway, song mode on the OT is awesome. highly recommended. 
In general, I’d say. I mean, you should always watch your gain staging as you record, the OT’s no exception, but even so, if you got great recorded material from another source and just want to use it as is, directly within the OT, then if it’s solid to begin with, you’ll find that the OT responds really well to its material.
I’ve grown to really like its compressor, filter and EQ. It is what it is, not a lot of features going on, but it brings out a unique and very punchy character, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Perhaps this app is smthg for you. it’s just a couple quid: Harmonix - Digitone iOS App
It features (among many other very handy things) a DN song mode, i.e. it sends midi cc messages to change patterns and you can create sequences of patterns and store or manipulate them as necessary. Not the best option, but if you got a battered ipad lying around somewhere, I’d try it at least.
When considering the Deluge, and bringing in overall audio quality into the discussion, I’d say the Octatrack is better.
The Deluge is great in so many ways. But when it comes to processing audio through its filters and fx, it’s not its strongest side, though. I’d say that if you can call the Octatrack’s fx something with character, I’d go so far as to say that the Deluge’s internal fx just aren’t all that great, period.
I find that the OT can sound kind of dull at first but I’ll stumble upon things that make the source material sound light years better, especially in the the low register and in harmonics. The filter and comb filter do things that I just haven’t seen elsewhere, albeit I live in Ableton stock plugins most of the time. It’s a weird device. It won’t necessarily make your music better but it will make your music different.
Agreed, and I think we are being kind about it 
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Thanks for all the comments guys!
What is the assessment on midi sequencing on OT vs DT? LIke the Rev2 is all about the pad sounds and ideally I’d like to get the desktop version , though I do have a keystep too
Also part of me just wants to stick with my DT and wait for the OT mk3 to come out with OB etc … although someone did correctly question whether 8x stereo tracks via usb is possible…certainly using my DT over OB in Reason 10 , I noticed the SQ was not good compared to from the DT’s headphone out
Haha, yes 
the Deluge got a lot going for it. FX ain’t part of it. And, I’d argue, its interface is becoming slightly burdened by the impressive amount of features the Synthstrom crew is implementing. But that’s for another thread and another topic.
I’m running frequently 32 mono tracks simultaneously over USB, as welll as a couple of stereo returns @64 samples buffer. USB is not a bottleneck here.
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hmm yeah glad to hear that !
Again if I was able to make the DT work with a jury rigged song mode I’d rather wait it out for a true Octatrack successor … maybe in a few years as right now Elektron are focusing it appears on the Model range
Any view on use of retrokits cables for rigging a song mode?
Did you try with midi loopback?
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Whoa, I’ve never seen sezare play DT’s advocate… 
The OT is greater than the sum of its parts, and when you put them together for me it outweighs any shortcomings, it’s just too much fun and does so many crazy audio tricks… My apogee with high quality plugins in Logic sounds better, but the audio coming out of an Octatrack and the ways you can control it blow my mind. Gladly make some trade offs for this box…
I do use it as a main looper/effects/midi sequencing hub and it works a treat… Sort of has delegated my computer to just recording now unless I go into hybrid experimental mode. That’s a lot of fun too sequencing plugins from OT while sending OT tracks through fx plugins and sequencing those…
#OTRules!
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For me a lot of the fx aren’t the actual fx but rather realtime sampling with live slice remix playback and setting scenes to make things go backwards, pitch shift, retrig/retrig time shifts, and stuff like that. Once you sample a loop from other gear you can instantly warp it as a sample and all manner of audio tricks can be done. The actual OT insert fx highlight is the ability to set scenes to parameters and vastly warp your audio with the fader. You can map the fader to also change eq settings, spatializer, and such as it kicks in the effects to make them sound better. Combining loads of fx parameter changes in combo with the audio warping parameters the fx are out of this world, you can absolutely morph your sounds far, far, beyond recognition and even change the way they are being sequenced with a slide of the fader…
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If you grab an OT right now you’ll still be learning new things it can do a few years from now and you’ll have your foot in the door as far as operational knowledge goes and if there comes a sucessor (yes, please Elektron) you can sell that one and upgrade… These things go way, way, deep…
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Had a rehearsal this evening with my collegue saxophone and percussion player, 1st time I’ve been trying to integrate the OT in our music. I lived the mandatory WTF hour (and half )when I tried to showcase what I had prepared and obviously it didn’t work as prepared, but at the end of the 6 hour session he was just blown away by what the OT contributed to the project. And I only had scraped the surface.
The only thing my computer does is recording mains out (for reference pupose, I export the recording and add it to a static slot of the corresponding project so there’s no “WTF this project was suposed to be doing”), it runs MidiOX just in case I need to debug some weirdness, and it hosts Equator, a wonderful virtual MPE instrument that comes withe the Roli Seaboard. I think that @Open_Mike’s workflow is quite similar to mine (him being an advanced OT user, I am not that much… but I make some serious progress thanks to everyone over here)
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Super cool workflow details there Mike! Gets me excited to get an OT
But if I get a OT it’s a big multi year investment for sure. Given I love the sound of the Rev2 and that is 8 voice poly minimum … any ideas on best practices for sequencing pad sounds on Rev2 from OT? Ideally I can push some thick pads from OT so I can get the Rev2 desktop version …though I could use keystep with it if OT can only sequence ‘one hand’ for rev 2 …tradeoffs
Don’t forget that the polyphony count does include the tails. Especially important to consider when you play mostly pad sounds. Overlapping tails lead to voice stealing. Some synths handle that better than others. (I don’t know the Rev2, but would love to… )
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