A lot of insights to be found in the science lab february (2015) thread, just to keep potential readers of this thread aware of it:
http://www.elektronauts.com/t/ot-what-have-you-learned-during-the-scilab-challenge/10824
Octatrack probability hack using MIDI arpeggios:
http://www.elektronauts.com/t/octatrack-probability-hack/18049
Great thread indeed!
My little participation :
Create pattern variations with āsilent trigsā and scenes,
On a track, create some trigs with pLocked VOL to 0 (even doable between other trigs actually playing), and then have a scene that locks this track XVOL to MAX. When using this scene, the silent trigs will play, like you get another track running 
Kind of scene locking partial mutes!
Use it with one shot trigs for lots of variations!
Cheers
5 Likes
Here are my favorite OT tricks that I havenāt seen discussed before, outside of my ramblings on forums.
- Use the LFO designer to sequence notes, because you can modulate the order of the sequence with LFOs and you can use it for intertrack modulation. One example
- Design quadrature-phase LFOs, use them for circular modulation of 4 parameters, and morph the speed or direction of the circular motion with scenes. For example, swirling a sound around 4 speakers. Also, you could use quad-phase LFOs to create a Shepard tone / sonic barberpole with just one sample of a sound whose pitch is rising - repeat the sample across 4 tracks, delay the sample progressively by ā90 degreesā on each track, and route a quadrature-phase triangle designer LFO to each trackās amplitude. I donāt know of another hardware sampler that allows you to do something like this.
- To get probabilistic Note On action, route a random LFO to note velocity (such that the LFOās level and/or the base velocity level entail that the LFO will make the note hit 0 velocity sometimes) and turn off velocity sensitivity on whatever synth youāre sequencing. (You can still sequence velocity with a MIDI CC if your synth is flexible enough.)
- āLatchā up to 7 notes on the arpeggiator by holding them down in Chromatic mode and then keeping them held while you switch back to Tracks mode. In TRUE arp mode, you can build up a sequence this way. You can remove notes by going back to Chromatic mode and re-pressing the latched keys (shown as still held down on the keyboard visualization). These arpeggio āsequencesā can be stored to parts, but they will be wiped from memory as soon as you pause or stop the sequencer. This is kind of like how you can latch the performance pads on the Rytm by switching modes while holding a pad down.
- You can do some bizarre physical modeling of flutes by putting the Chorusās feedback at its max and bringing its delay close to minimum.
Iām pretty sure #4 is a bug, but itās a fun one ā please donāt fix it, Elektron!
I also love that you can ratchet notes in the microtiming page (press up!), as well as via the arp.
15 Likes
Since the audio pool remains the same across projects, I intend to work between two projects. One for composition and and one for sound scavenging. The sound scavenging I just work on recording sounds and arranging samples to be spliced and rearranged. Therapeutic, I reckon. Just sound experiments and noisy nonsense with no need to make sense of anything. And then to take those globs of sound and arrange them in something slightly enjoyable will surely be an interesting process
1 Like
What do you mean ārachet notesā?
Oh! A really cool thing I enjoy doing is sending selective arp to my MnM, A4, and AR. The AR-right now- is the least useful. But with the A4 and MnM itās like opening up a retrigger function for some notes, but also with note variation added on. The midi capabilities of this thing are amazing, and Iāve actually learned a lot about the concept of midi just from using this machine. I thought it was cool as a sampler alone, the midi implementation makes it like the holy grail of music
Retriggered notes within the same step. Classic Berlin school trick.
3 Likes
Ooooh! Nice
Iām not sure i can replicate this on a per Trig basis, am I missing something - you also mean pLocked to -64 I presume and youāre implying 1 scene only ?
1 Like
Hi,
Yes, thanks for correction, I meant pLock VOL = -64.
I donāt really understand what you mean by āper trig basisā, you can silent one or more trigs on a track and " unsilent" them with the dedicated scene(s). I guess its a bit like the one shot trigs trick but with scene-lock.
Iāll take an example (the way I ādiscoveredā this trick)
This is only for sequenced tracks with one-shots I guess,
Say you have all tracks used for a pattern, but you want an additional hihat line to be played on top at some times (but not playing when no scene is active), you can place sample-locked and silenced trigs between, say, your kicks in the kick track. Then have a scene (or more) for which XVOL is locked to MAX for this track. When you donāt use this or these scene(s), you donāt hear the hihats (kind of muted), and when you need them, activate the scene with the xvol lock.
Hope Iām clear. This is not the āultimate trickā but can greatly enhance the live joy
Iām still not replicating this behaviour, pLocked AmpVol trigs remain off, maybe needs a step by step for those of us (i.e. me) not in the room yet on this 
Using XVol usually requires moving between two scenes (one locking XVol to Min), youāre talking about parameter locking rather than scene locking the āmuteā - Iām not with you on this one yet - just curious
Ah ah! Maybe Iām totally unclear
I got the OT a few months ago so I may be wrong with the terminology?
For this ātrickā I use both pLocks and scene-locks.
Scene-locks seem to āforceā or override the trigs pLocks, on my OT anyway.
XVOL doesnāt need 2 scenes, if scene slot A is deactivated, track amp VOL is defined by the partās trackās amp vol parameter. The silenced trigs wonāt play as they are plocked to xvol=-64. If scene B is active with a scene that scene-locks the trackās XVOL to MAX, then moving xfader to slot B will make the silenced trigs actually play, at the volume defined in the part.
Iāll have a look on my OT, perhapās am I wrong somewhere lol
Not for me at any rate, thatās why I was curious - thereās one step missing or weāre on different pages It sorta relates to a recent thread where the outcome you describe is what was sought but all the solutions were different iirc
OK Iām on the OT right now and I realise I made a huge mistake :
I scene-lock trackās amp VOL and not XVOLā¦
Iām a bit dumb there
Gotta edit all the posts here where I was saying LOUD a wrong processus ah ahā¦
Thanks to you!
Edit:
I just checked and indeed XVOL scene-lock doesnāt override the VOL pLocks.
BUT, for the 2-scenes needed for XVOL duties, I can still say that you can do it with just 1 scene. I.e. using a scene with XVOL=MIN will āmuteā the track. Doing it right now with no problem between inactive A scene and active B scene.
Cheers 
3 Likes
I do this, but no need for a new project if you are not using all the banks. I just have one bank set up for sound capture. Another bank for live looping.
3 Likes
Brilliant! Thank you!
Bump for mk2 arrivalā¦
I noticed Octatrack Tips & Tricks (OT Tips) got some attention,
This threadās good tooā¦
Happy 
ingā¦
1 Like