Are you leaving the USB cable plugged in? That’s the only thing that caused major issues for me. Aside from that it sounds like you should get ahold of Elektron. They’re super helpful.
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Thanks, yes I do have the USB cable plugged in, but not connected to my computer. I’ll unplug it, and I did send in a support ticket just now.
It’s very important to pay attention to which mode you are in when arming a record trig, or sampling in general. If you are in step record/play mode, this can give you different results. If it’s not arming, press the record button and try again.
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I unplugged the USB cable, and so far I have not seen the recording trip up. Could it really be that simple? I hope so!
One thing I noticed too is that when switching patterns which have different parts, the AED button does not work unless you press a track button first. That was tripping me up a lot, as it shows the sample from the other track on the other pattern. If that’s not normal then I’ll have to send it in for repairs (Elektron support contacted me).
Thanks. I’ve checked the settings on the recording trigs as well as what mode I’m in before I arm.
The mystery is why power cycling makes it work again.
After owning the OT for a little less than a month, I finally had time to connect it to my other gear to learn how to do basic recording into it. Nothing complicated, just setting up several flex tracks. I also have a new mixer which allows me to send audio from any combination of my other synths into the OT, which was fun. I can see why others have cautioned that the OT is difficult to use at first. What took me about 2 minutes to figure out in Logic for recording samples, with the OT it took a few videos, watched several times (Flavius Beck), and then going through step by step to make sure I had all the settings correct, easily over an hour of playing with settings to get everything right so I could hear what I was recording and get a sense of where it was coming from and where it was going (sort of). Finally got everything set up correctly to get audio in, and will need to do it several more times from scratch before it is part of my “muscle memory.” Seems pointlessly difficult, but I will take the word of others that it is this way because it allows for lost of options (which I might discover later are important).
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My suggestion was that you may possibly be in the record trig mode instead of play mode when arming your buffer. The reason it would work when you cycle the power is because the OT automatically goes back to play mode when restarted. Very simple, but important thing on the OT to understand in order to get sampling down.
Edit: Just to clarify. I may not be using the proper terminology. You can switch between “play” mode and “rec trig” mode by pressing the record button, next to the play button. Like I said in my previous post, if you are having problems arming your recorder buffer, press the rec button. You may be in the wrong mode. Happens to me all the time. After a while you check first.
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No.
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Alright, please let me know if this is expected behavior (see video below).
I was able to get track 8 to record by holding it and pressing Record 3 (thanks for that!!!).
However, I’m still mystified why the record trig works some of the time. Is it simply that I’m in grid record mode, and that stops record trigs from working?
Note that I like to be in grid record mode so I don’t accidentally arm all tracks by pressing YES.
I think its because you’ve set quantise record to pattern length or 1 bar - it waits that long before initiating recording.
There is record length setting also on page 1 ,which is what you are after (I think) and that is how long it records for (1 bar or pattern length say).
About you sample not changing after pattern change, yes that is expected behaviour. Settings in pattern menu change this. Plays silent and something else I’ve forgotten 
).
Been great hearing you guys 1st experiences and yes - OT certainly trips us up.
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Thanks, and happy to share 
I should have showed that in the video, as it doesn’t start recording after the patten ends (which is 4 bars).
Still, I’ll try turning off QREC as it may reveal something I’m doing wrong.
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I don’t have my octatrack in front of me at the moment, but I think I had some issues with recording when I had set the quantise record to pattern length alongside scale setup’s master length set to “infinity”. I have the feeling it didn’t wait until the track wrapped round but instead until the “master” (or pattern I guess) wrapped round, something that never happened due to it being set to infinity, and so recording never started.
I’ve had my OT for years and you’re definitely right to try keep it simple, when I tried to use it for everything it got too complex to be fun, and I ended up in weird edge-cases where my brain couldn’t wrap itself around its UI and it felt buggy.
I also know I’ve had some weird things with recording and playing back on the same flex track and moving the playback to be 1 microstep increment after the recording trig made it work.
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My session last night was better.
My record trigs are still working intermittently, but at least I have a work around with holding a track button and then tapping a record button.
My overall workflow is taking shape. I have 4 patterns, and these use parts 1-4 respectively:
1 - Composing
2 - Looping
3 - Drums
4 - Recording
I typically start with drums, and this is basically what I think of as “Digitakt Mode”.
Once I get a beat I like, I arm track 8 which grabs a 4 bar loop.
Then with the sequencer running I change to pattern 4 for recording guitar.
The drums are at unity gain, so it’s cool that when it switches you hear no difference.
But I decide to explore looping first, so I jump to pattern 2, it’s set up the same way so I still hear the drums.
I press track 1, then tap record 1 and look at the page indicator as I get ready to improvise.
When it starts, I see the “+” on track 1, and play some riff. I add a few more layers/notes as loops.
I press record 2 and turn the vol down on my guitar as it still records the last loop (I wish this would stop recording immediately, as I really like using PLEN so that I can get both hands on my guitar).
I repeat this for tracks 2, 3, and 4 so I have tons of guitar layers going.
I mess up a few times, but I just press record 3 and Yes to clear that loop.
Now that it’s sounding decent, I want to bounce the guitar layers to a single track, so I go to pattern 1 for composing.
Note that I have not stopped the sequencer, and it’s always rolling.
I add a few effects to tracks 1-4, and adjust volumes (btw I love the chorus effect, and don’t understand why people say the effects are lackluster), I mute the drums, and arm track 7, which pulls all the guitar loops together into a 4 bar loop. When track 7 starts playing, I mute tracks 1-4 to avoid getting double audio, and change back to pattern 4 to record a guitar solo / melody.
I set track 6 to use MAXLEN, and arm it. I play a melody, but screw it up. As I’m in the record setup page, I use FUNC+PLAY to clear the recording. The next take is better, so I keep it.
The last step is to stop the sequencer, save the 3 samples (guitar background, drums, and guitar melody). After I saved them, I change track 8 to MAXLEN, and record it all together (the whole thing is only 40 seconds long). Then I save that track, then plug in the USB cable, change to disk mode, and copy the file to my computer.
I’m going to try to do something like this routine everyday and add more elements to it, such as messing with the samples as I mix them.
The workflow will get smoother as I refine it, and practice it (the true power of iterations 
). I found that bouncing tracks got messy fast, and that’s something I want to work on. It’s a real challenge doing this without pressing stop, but I feel that’s what Elektron boxes excel at. It makes you think differently when the sequencer is rolling
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Man, after this morning I’m seriously considering selling the OT. I’m had some real ups and downs with this thing.
How I want to use it, is leading to things not working well. I see record trigs not firing reliably, pickup machines failing to overdub, and recording buffers showing the wrong info. I’m pretty certain it’s not me at this point, and it’s really more that I’m using the OT in a way it really wasn’t intended for. I spend more of my time debugging things vs making music, and that’s starting to wear me out.
I think I might be be happier running my guitar into Bitwig, and recording it there. Sure it’s boring to go ITB, but at least I won’t be fighting with it.
I’m not completely done with the OT, but close
Edit: I’ve decided to keep the OT. As many people pointed out, the OT takes a lot of time and commitment to get comfortable with it.
I’m 5 months into my OT journey. I still have moments like that now and again. I’m still keeping mine, however. When it’s fun, it’s really fun.
If I sold it, I’d have to get a mixer, a sequencer and some pedals. Oh, and a sampler 
.
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I’ve had lots of up and downs too. I’m over a year in and I still get tripped up sometimes. I have moments when I think of selling it, but I think I’ve accepted that it’s a journey and it really offers a lot. It’s not as immediate as other gear, but it’s pretty essential to my setup. I know others pick it up quickly. That said, I’ve never even considered using pickup machines, so I can’t comment on that. Record buffers on flex tracks are a big part of how I use it.
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Are going to change the title to OT OTWO?
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Lol - not yet
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Not sure if this would help, especially as you are much further along than I am with the OT, but it has helped me to make a very strong presumption when things are not working as expected, that it is NOT A BUG, but something I am doing differently than what the OT expects me to do for the results I am hoping to obtain, which is why I find myself, while learning it, to have videos and the manual out, having to go back and forth between OT and the help resources several times before getting it right. That might be reason enough to get rid of it and go with something that isn’t so exacting in terms of expected process in the UI, something that is simply less demanding and more obvious. I plan to keep mine for at least a year before making that decision. The good news is, I don’t think the used prices will be going down on these for the next year.
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I have the OT since two months, and thanks to the Masterclass Video Workshop made by @twinnpeaks (thank you so much) my experienece with it has been amazing.
I gel with it so well, I’m faster on the OT than with the DT that i owned for almost two years. Its all i ever wanted for my live Techno. I even sold the DT.
But thats just me however 
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Can you provide a link to this Masterclass series? I’d like to view it myself.