the long and very often misunderstood world of Parts & Patterns. I think I have a rough working idea of how these work and their relationships. I was using a Digitakt several months before picking up an Octatrack and using both in my setup now (and having a friggin blast!). I think I know the answer, but wanted to confirm with the power users on the forum with respect to changing patterns and the settings for each audio track (Amp, FX, envelope, etc settings). Based on the architecture of the OT, the audio track settings apply to all patterns, right (parts need to be leveraged if you want to change sample settings across patterns)?
Using it leads me to believe this is true, the reason why Iām a bit confused is because you can change audio track settings per pattern on the Digitakt (ex. Pattern #1, Sample #1 has a long hold time where as Pattern #2, Sample #1 has a short hold time). This same functionality requires Parts on the Octatrack as that is the area that holds the info for audio tracks, machines and the associated settings.
Iām selfishly hoping that the Digitakt way of having different settings per pattern would work. I know Iām wrong, but figured I would ask the question in order to put me out of my misery - LOL.
IIRC DT doesnāt have parts/kits, just patterns and a pattern in the DT contains sequencer data, parameter settings, audio track levels and samples etcā¦
On the OT, each pattern is always linked to a part; Parts contain machine assignments with their set parameters, assigned sample slot, fx assignments and parameters, scenes, midi track settings.
Patterns contain the sequencer data, trigs, parameter locks, track length.
Like kits on the silver and analog machines, this adds a layer of complexity to sequencing, but allows for great flexibilty.
Want to try different samples and/or fx? Copy the active part to another and make the changes. Save when content and switch between both if you like.
Use the four parts to structure your track (intro, part a, part b, outro style) and send program changes to synthesizer that are sequenced over midi.
Use parts as saved templates to have several starting points available within a project.
This was the biggest workflow change I had to make when I got my OT early this year. At first, I was confused when a pattern I previously worked on sounded all wrong, all of a sudden. I still forget from time to time, but overall, once you get used to using parts, itās not that bad, and potentially more powerful (you can change FX slots, samples, etc.).
Thanks for the detailed reply! Yeah I understand the differences in the internal architecture between the Digi and OT, I was more hoping beyond hope that you could get different sample settings across each of the patterns (outside of using parts).
What are the recommendations for doing something like this from the community. Lets say you have 8 samples loaded into Flex machines across each of the 8 audio tracks. I donāt want to change samples, but I want to work with the same samples and just use different settings. As I see it there are a couple of ways to approach this:
Use Parts, so you can get 4 different variations of those 8 samples, but along with that get access to different scenes and fx settings, etc
Use P-Locks to make the changes on the parameters you want (may start to get hard to track all the differences across 16 patterns if you go this route
Kind of a cop out, but you could load those 8 samples x number of times (within the 128 sample limit) and then each pattern would use a different version of the sample (so it would live in a different sample slot) so I think that equates to 16 different variations across those 8 samples.
Any other ways of approaching this? I think I just need to get more comfortable/familiar with scenes. Right now Iām using them for BASIC operations (turn up the sends for efx - woohoo!), need to up my scene game - LOL.
Youāre definitely on the right track. Iād say (and I have to take my own advice) keep practicing. Try a few different things and youāll start to get a feel for what works best for you, or works best for the particular project youāre working on. I need to up my scenes game as well.
Thanks man, yeah, itās just about getting the reps and building that āmuscle memoryā. I know the architecture is super powerful, just need to better understand how to leverage it. I think I know what Iām doing tonight!
Yep, just p-lock what you want to change across your patterns. Scene locks override p-locks, so you can go crazy with p-locking and use scenes for fx, transitions etc.
eventually you want to absorb parts - they are very easy - forget what you think you know and donāt relate them to the DT
in your case i would use parts and link them to patterns, you could p-lock but why leave parts untouched when they are there to be abused and will keep you and your work safe? also you cannot screw them up if you save them
i see parts as carriers and safe places and i use multiples in pretty much every bank of patterns i create
Once you link another part to a pattern it remains associated with that part so every time you switch to it it has that associated parts settings. Each bank has 16 patterns and 4 parts. Thereās lots of ways to use the OT but for example if you linked patterns 1-4 to parts 1-4 on every bank youād have 64 patterns to use that operate in a similar way as the DTā¦
Having multiple patterns linked to the same part allows for setting tweaks that carry across pattern progressions, great for improv. A common recommendation is for each bank have patterns 1-4 use part 1, 5-8 part 2, 9-12 part 3, and 13-16 part 4. Thereās no right way to go though it just depends on how you want to operateā¦
Cheers - thanks for that, definitely helps! I like the idea of braking it down to each bank having 4 different ākitsā, easy way of thinking about it.
Thanks Open_Mike, that helps a lot. Was playing around last night with setting up different parts, starting to make more sense to me. Just need to play it it a bit more to get some other ideas around usage.
You only have four parts per bank, so you canĀ“t give each pattern its own part.
A part contains machine assignments and their associated samples,
track parameter settings/setup page settings for audio and midi tracks (midi channel, midi cc and midi program change for midi tracks are also controlled by parts), FX slots assignments as well as 16 scenes. A pattern is always linked to a part. If you want to link a pattern to another part simply open the part selection and select a part, press yes.
Remember you can always use sample locks and parameter locks if you want to change things like which sampled is triggered, how effects are used etc. DonĀ“t have to always use another part.
How do you make use of a bank on the Octatrack? I divide each bank into four āsongsā (patterns 1-4=part 1, patterns 5-8=part 2, patterns 9-12=part 3 and patterns 13-16=part 4).
For stuff that needs more than four patterns, I dedicate the whole bank of 16 patterns to one āsongā and use parts for stuff like intro, part a, part b and outro. You can of course do any combination possible and you can of course use more than one bank for a āsongā, but no more than 4 parts per bank on the OT.
Mate thats exactly what i needed to understand, how to arrange it all per bank and songs. Thanks so much. So , just to clarify, if i dont want the song to have any variations or more thank 1 pattern , per part, after pattern 4 i should change the bank and continue that way correct? Im just interested in mixing sounds between the octa and the syntak and its mainly beats and sounds.
If youĀ“re only using one pattern on the OT per āsongā, each of these patterns has its own part, then yes, after that go to the next bank and continue there.
Most of the stuff I did last year only used one pattern on the OT for a āsongā. The Analog Rytm and other machines basically did the work, OT was there just to mix everything, add some fx and play some texture samples, pads and maybe some percs.
So I had four patterns in a bank, each was linked to its own part.
i organized it on the OT so that the same patterns on the Rytm would correspond to those on the OT. So for example A01 (part 1) on OT corresponds to A01-A04 on the Rytm. A05 (part 2) on the OT corresponds to A05-A08 on the Rytm and so on through banks A-H. Banks I-P on the OT are for experimenting and using parts as preset storage for effects, midi tracks and routings (a nice way to make use of otherwise unused banks on the OT).
Bu thatĀ“s just to better keep track of things, you can also go pattern1=part 1, pattern 2=part 2, pattern 3=part 3, pattern 4=part 4 and then the same thing on the next bank.