Picking up an OT tomorrow :))

I just put an edit up there, I use a separate bus from my mixer to the OT to not get a feedback loop, what mixer do you have?

A xenyx qx1002USB

I see that it has “ctrl doom outs” but I’ve never been able to figure out what it does exactly.

And yea with that setup do u hear ur external delay while monitoring or just after you’ve had some stuff recorded in.

Thanks btw

In my particular setup I have the delay always available and monitored from the mixer…

The delay has its own channel strip and most of the time I leave it routed to the mixers main bus and not to the OT using the second bus I mentioned.

Instead of having a delayed signal recorded in the OT, I prefer to route an instrument from the mixer to the OT first where I capture loops pre delay. This track is being cued back to the mixer, which in turn sends it through the aux to the delay, and finally to the mixers main bus.

When I play the instrument to record the loop I hear the delay, and when the loop plays back I hear the delay, but the delay is not in the recording. This gives me flexibility to adjust the delay settings after the loops are made because the delays are not “burnt into” the recording, and also allows for smooth loop points.

If I wanted to record the delays into the OT I can alternatively route the instrument to the delay from the mixer, and route the entire delay output to the OT from the mixer.

The mixers mains are sent to an audio interface for recording, my monitors are attached to the control room outputs. This allows me to send a full healthy signal out the mains for recording, while the control room outputs have another level knob so I can monitor at any volume…
The delay is finally captured in the recordings along with all other sounds coming out of the mixers mains…

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Okay so I got it all rigged first night with blew me away for sure. Most capable sampler I’ve messed with or seen. The cross fader is crazy. The pickup machines crazy.

Got it rigged so I can just send instruments with an aux send. Gonna get a new mixer so I can send two different signals into it.

But yeah man I love this thing already.

And I’m no expert but I think the whole thing with it taking “years” to understand is dramatic. I was able to make a beat within my first couple hours with it. It’s definitely pretty quirky and not ur typical sampler but thats what makes it so magical.

Now I’m plotting on a rytm to replace my digitakt :upside_down_face:

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Did you read the manual ? :smile:
DT can be complementary I think, but if you don’t need much midi tracks, go for AR.
A4 can be great for drums too.

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Yeah I think some people get carried away with how difficult it is.
On the surface, it’s dead easy.
However, there are some concepts I’m just now comprehending a few years in.

YES

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Yeah I’m running the DT into the OT using it solely for drums now.

Can’t the OT do everything the DT can as far as midi though?

Yeah I think if anything I’ll learn more ways to simplify what I’m tryna do or like little combinations of things that open new doors. But like the guy who sold it to me said he couldn’t really even figure out how to even sample stuff into it lol.

I have referenced the manual quite a bit.

And YouTube has been really helpful.

That new rytm is like 1.5k tho smh. I’ve never spent that much on any gear but I’m hoping some of the mk2’s pop up. I’d throw like 800-1k on one

Almost everything I’d say. I don’t have DT but I know the specs. Envelopes may differ.
Concerning midi DT can plock ProgChanges, Ot can’t.

Was considering a used OT mk1 since a few week waiting for a good deal to pop up ( still under guarantee, first owner…) Last night woodbrass thrown a few mkII at 1100 euros ( brand new, not B-stock ).
My credit auto-slipped from my hand. Expecting delivery early newt week…time to watch some workflow videos I guess…

Congrats. Might sell mine for an mk2 one day.

I recommend peeping out cuckoo’s videos. And the ones on the elektron YouTube page are good too and not crazy long.

I read Merlin’s guide and for me it was more like an introduction to what the Octatrack does as opposed to how to do it.

But yeah man I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

I don’t understand people’s frustration with it tbh. The menu diving isn’t even all that bad. And you can setup a template project. I found the mpc 1k workflow to be a lot slower and clunkier.

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Just a quick question : you can apply conditional trigs to midi note when using midi tracks right ? Meaning the note message will be sent according to the trig condition ?

Yes

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Check out the Mackie vlz4 series, particularly the 1202…
They have a special alt bus, it’s an OT’s best friend. You connect the alt bus outs to the OT and anything you want to sample you just press the alt button at the bottom of the channel(s) and it sends the signals to OT instead of mains, in stereo. Leaves your auxes still available, and you can set up a cue channel external aux fx situation like I described…
If you search the forum you’ll find lots of info and recommendations for the vlz4’s…

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Seconding the VLZ1202. In that price range I prefer the sound and ergonomics of the Soundcraft stuff I’ve used, but I was given an old 1202 last spring and the alt output and portability make up for the knobs being kind of small and the lack of faders and serviceable but lackluster EQ.

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I just find it so nice for the OT…

I’ve got my Rytm living on OT’s a/b because I sample it all the time to always have more than one beat available: live Rytm, sampled Rytm, various warped sampled Rytm…

The 1202 lives on c/d and all of my other gear is connected to it. The OT’s mains and cues each get there own channel with the cue’s set up to send an aux to my external delay, or feed my other aux send.
The 1202 mains go to the interface for recording, and the interface comes into the mixer as well, I just make sure to never monitor the signal the interface is getting from the mains to not get a feedback loop…
Control room outs go to speakers…
I can send anything to the OT(alt3/4), and anything to the delay, and it all gets recorded. And I have a free aux to play with…

Sounds close to what OP wants to set up…

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What would be the best way to record the master track from the OT into a track on the OT. A static or flex machine?

Would I run into any problems with like a 5-6 min track?

That mixer looks perfect for what I need btw. Thanks. I could record tracks with and without effects very easily.

I was thinking I could run my interfaces secondary outputs back into the mixer through the alternative outs and just solo that when I wanna record a full track back into the OT but if there’s no major time limits it might be best to just sample internally.

Recording on the OT isn’t directly related to flex or static machines, the recorders are their own thing and record independently of whatever machine type is assigned to the track. Flex machines are used to playback unsaved recorder buffers in ram, and flex or static machines can be used to play back a saved recording…

Here’s the max sample time, but this is without any samples loaded…
16 bits : 8m28s (508s)
24 bits : 5m39s (339s)

You can run secondary outputs from the interface to the mixer, just make sure the signal the interface is getting from the mains for recording is never routed to those secondary outputs. For recording in the DAW I just leave the channel that inputs from the mixer’s mains as “no output” and move the recording to another track with “no input” for playback.
You can route the interfaces secondary outs to the OT by pressing the alt3/4 button, same as any other mixer channel…

As long as your OT is setup to be monitoring from c/d, you never notice when you change the routing on the mixer because it’s being monitored either way…
Of course there’s also lots of other routing situations/behaviors to come up with between the OT’s controls and what’s available on the mixer as well…

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Thanks! With a midi processor this will be a beast for self program changes madness.

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Yeah, one day I’ll get a bome box and get some wild stuff going on.