OT: One box to rule them all?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#41

Hey Ande! Great rundown of your aims and logic to get there! Essential sounds is a good focusing concept also for looking at what one truly wants vs needs. But I wanted to comment on your setup and lay out some concerns I have going forward. These center really around having loads of different boxes live …as my hunch is that I’d rather have a simple setup that goes deeper e.g. OT on drums, samples and sequencing the Rev2 … I also sing using the Roland VT4 which is an awesome device btw…

What do you think? Is a multi box setup something the brain gets used to over time?

When I get my OP1 back I will explore this setup properly and can live record into DT with my keystep so it’s not too plodding.

The key issue is lacking song mode the DT still feels like Im operating more than playing. Plus after looking more into what the OT can do the DT feels simple …as a drum machine perfect but in my central box goal the OT can do that and more + with song mode

Seems like I just need to buy the fecking thing. However any experience here folks porting songs from DT to OT?

#42

We started going all Octatrack on you but I’ll say the DT seems pretty awesome for what it is, and the OT’s a bit of a challenge to learn. It takes some time and perseverance to wield one, it certainly does a lot more stuff but with that it takes much longer to get the hang of, you got to be up for it. It’s been known to drive some people crazy in the first few months or so. It’s super geeky… :grin:

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#43

Hey Mike , how does the OT deal with starting off with an arranged project but wanting to then jam out and improv say at the end? The main reason I moved away from laptop as backing track was that lack of flexibility. I have a guitarist playing with me and balancing structure with jamming is our ethos :slight_smile:

#44

I barely ever use the arranger or song mode, I mix and match patterns between boxes for improv jams. Haven’t really looked into it… I think you can just jump in and out of arranger…

#45

This changes things. Your voice could be a lead, which makes the A4 as a lead synth less important. Drums can also be done entirely with your DT, so also this would also be covered, such that the only exclusive use case (from my perspective) of the A4 would be Bass. In this situation I would probably also rather go for OT, because you get an awesome loop box on top, which you can use together with your voice and you can also use the Rev2 for bass.

This is a bit tricky. The elektron boxes luckily have a very similar workflow. I started out with only an A4 and then added an OT about 6 months later and at least the basics did feel very similar (I suspect the same would hold if you are familiar with a DT). So, it is not like learning the functionality of 2 different instruments. The Rev2 is pretty much knob per function, so there is not very much for the brain to get used to and which is great for live situations. I think I can handle the functionality of the 3 boxes in a live situation although I have to admit, I wouldn’t be able to sing at the same time. The main problem I’m struggling with is to remember what parameters would be nice to tweak in a live situation. There are some helpful things like the performance macros on A4 or the scenes on OT, but you still have to remember what it means to go from scene A1 to A2. My low tech solution to that problem so far is to write these things down on a piece of paper.

#46

I still am confused by my OT MKII tracks lit red when active, while on my Digitone red means muted :frowning:

#47

I still am confused by my OT MKII tracks lit red when active, while on my Digitone red means muted :frowning:

Oops. Now, this is annoying. :woman_facepalming:

#48

I should have said: “is one of the many mute states” … because the DN’s mute system is guaranteed WTF in it’s own right

#49

shouldn’t be a problem. you can program in a song/arrangement and have certain sections you want to loop/jam out on. you can also arrow up/down to the next line (i.e. pattern with relevant settings) you’d like to play and it will go there when the current line ends. as long as your jam partner gets a nod that this will be occurring, and when, it should be fine.

song/arranger mode is awesome. and quite powerful. but a lot of people don’t use it because the instrument is so “live” already, they want to run with that. but you can certainly do both.

#50

Hey Everyone

Firstly thanks so much for all the info and engagement! This truly is a great little community!

I have decided to order my OT next week ! Look forward to more chats once I get it :slight_smile:

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#51

Octatrack rules them all!
Don’t let anyone tell you different… :grin:
#OTRules!

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#52

Akai MPC LIVE IS prwtty great for sequencing. But it sequences internally with captures and holds 64 voices. It can sequence 99 tracks in a single sequence. It has above competent midi and a single stereo input, or possibly a left and right balancing mono inputs. The fx are decent with a couple sweets. And there are 30 some odd fx.

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#53

Oh, and the seq lengthin the mpc live is unlimited, but for length of memory capacity.

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#54

Use midi sync’d with OT for some real fun :heart_eyes:

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#55

Music ProOctatrack Center…

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#57

Hey All

Got my Octatrack last week from musicstore.de … man those guys really don’t reply to emails :frowning: The box is good , but there is a small flattened bit of metal on one side - not big issue but was trying to gouge some store credit for that.

Any experience with customer service with musicstore.de in case of returns etc? Thomann are amazing to deal with but the OT was 100 euro more expensive there

Making my way through the manual now :slight_smile: Taking 2 week staycation soon in order to get up to speed and sample over all my band’s tracks from my Digi to the Octa

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