OT - sound quality

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#843

I use the OT when I want the OT sound, the MPC when I want MPC sound, etc. Not just the sonic signature but the entire workflow gives different pieces of gear different sounds.

Isn’t that kind of the point of using hardware in the 21st century?

EDIT: For me, th eOctatrack is unmatched for sample-orented improvisation but in almost 4 years I’ve never once created a finished track with it. The MPC2000xl isn’t that great for improvisation because there are too many important things that you can’t do without stopping the sequencer first, but for going from nothing to complete arrangement (either sample-based, MIDI sequenced or a combination) nothing else I’ve used in hardware or software comes close, I can sit down with no plan at all and have a finished track in somewhere between 2 and 6 hours depending on how complicated it is and how focused I am. A DAW usually takes 8-20 hours just to get to the point where I’m ready to start mixing. But the type of music I make in every case is totally different and the way I mix is totally different, so no one approach replaces the other two.

If I had to choose one it would still be a 90s MPC, some rack gear and a small mixer though. For me that’s the fastest and most inspiring.

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#844

Unfortunately I didn’t succeed to record my tinnitus with OT. Over 20khz?

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#845

I always assumed (especially given their origins with the SIDstation) that the original Elektron team came at least indirectly out of the tracker scene and the mature Octatrack firmware is kind of the mutant offspring of Octamed and a really nice loop pedal.

#846

what kind of music do you make?

and would MPC One be even faster than MPC2000xl?

i’d like to try MPC but i dont know which one to buy

#847

From the OT manual introduction:

When we developed the Machinedrum UW, one of the goals was to allow for a creative use of samples. Once the machine was released it became apparent that especially the RAM machines, which made it pos- sible to record sounds in real-time and instantly play them back, were utilized in ways we originally couldn’t even imagine. Users around the world used them to incorporate live sampled shortwave radio sounds in their compositions, make instant remixes of 12” records and to more or less conceive new genres of music. It was obvious that the RAM machine concept harbored a tremendous potential. This was the starting point of the Octatrack. We wanted to create a machine that would regard recorded material not as inflexible sounds, but rather as something highly malleable. This is one of the reasons why the Octatrack exists. The other one is because of the stage.

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#848
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#849

Interesting how you work on the OT vs MPC.

Funny, even it’s not my taste, I watched the Junkie XL studio tour you posted. By thinking he sold a lot of his old gear and now how dominant his Cubase DAW as center hub works. So no OT or MPC or any sequencer/looping based instrument there.

The whole aspect of different concepts is quite interesting. Could be more a concept used as environment to be creative, to work in. I get that for how it reminds me using the OT. Also about where the AR, Quantum, Kyma, Chipsynth FSC and Radium stands for. Even that I don’t have a OT anymore, it does have its own way of inspiration as a concept.

Sound design and sampling is a kind of alternative to not go into modular Eurorack world. Even in retrospect this rabbit whole seems a lot more complex :space_invader::robot::alien::ghost:

#850

NoiseLab, you just get juice from replies to this ridiculous argument. I don’t even know why I’m falling for the trap. Can everyone just ignore these types of questions/statements. There is no grand order of arbiters of taste and sound. Just read the comment and zen fart it out of your hypersensitive brain. My OT sounds better than all the music made on that Sound City Neve desk (for those lacking humorous bones, I’m being facetious)(bye)(bye)()

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#851

Could be.

#852

Everyone from INXS to Echo and the Bunnymen claimed the OT sound quality was the reason for using it exclusively on all their tracks. Even New Order used it on all their OnlyFans subscribers releases. That’s only anecdotal evidence but so is yours so nanny nanny boo boo. :grimacing:

#853

Well, the thing about sound quality of the OT. Neutral or character? Just superlative? Future classic like the MD? We just don’t know and history will tell…

#854

“Who cares” is the real answer. Why do you care. (The lack of a question mark is intentional)

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#855

Hell, I don’t know.

A while back I did this concept album based loosely on one paragraph from an early 70s Tor Åge Bringsvaerd short story, sequenced entirely on the MPC2000xl with samples of 90s and early 2000s library music and some hardware synths and effects (off the top of my head there was a TX802, Red Sound EleVAta, Alesis QS 7.1 and S4+, Roland EF303, Akai MFC42, Alesis Wedge, Ibanez HD1000, an 80s rackmount Digitech 2 second digital delay I forget the name of, a Boss SE-50 and a Mutable Instruments Anushri):

Every track was mixed live through a cheap, 90s, 1u Ross rack mixer with no EQ or anything, just level, pan and one aux send. Straight to stereo, mastered to S-VHS through a modified DBX 117 compressor and then dumped to digital and given a bit of EQ.

But nothing else I’ve done sounds much like it, it’s just the most purely MPC+synths thing I’ve actually put out in any form. Lately I’ve been mostly livestreaming OT-heavy, improvised krautrock as part of a duo online and doing portastudio tape-swaps with local friends.

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#856

Yeah, I’m not particularly interested in his music but his gear related videos are fun to watch.

#857

I’m going to assume this is a rhetorical question because no, no we can’t. That’s pretty much established. This thread will never end.

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#858

Ha. It was more of a religious plea. A line in the sand for believers. So to speak.

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#859

I liked your track btw.

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#860

He‘s a producer… with looooots of gear. I don‘t know any professional not havinga DAW as his center piece. Everything else is hobby or a pure live artist — just too time consuming not doing it that way. Also think about OT‘s sound degradation :grimacing:

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#861

I only know he did a Terminator sound track.

Well, Brad Fiedel T2 score with his two Fairlight CMIII’s is a work of art!

#862

I would just like to chime in and say that I do think that the OT does have a specific sound quality.

Whether it is good, bad, or neutral is beyond me. I am just here to hear myself type.

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