OT doesn’t accept odd bar numbers unless you specifically set it up for a known-in-advance number. Otherwise it’ll assume that you’re recording either 1,2,4,8 etc bars. If you record 5 bars, it’ll assume, 8 and apply timestretch to fit your 5 bars into 8 bars.
Oh! Turning off time stretch doesn’t solve that?
Ok I think I figured it out! We both made stuff more complicated than it should be: merging both our approaches produces a very simple and efficient way to do this.
We need two switches (for a MFC10) or a single one (for a MidiCaptain or a Morningstar).
- Autochannel=11.
- For each track: in rec setup: RLEN=max; QREC=PLEN; QPL= PLEN; LOOP= On.
- In SRC setup: Loop=ON; TSTR=Normal.
- In the sequencer: A one-shot trig on beat 1
Switch one: Ch11 CC59 val 60 (starts quantized combo rec); Ch11 CC49 val 127 (mutes current track); Ch11 CC52 Val 0 (disarms one-shot trig)
Switch two: Ch11 CC59 val 60 (stops quantized recording); Ch11 CC49 Val 0 (unmutes current track); Ch11 CC 52 Val 127 (arms one shot trig).
No need for midi loopback or microtiming; works on the active track; minimal number of footswitches needed (I can do with 3: one for the record stop-start, two for selecting the active channel.
Voilà!
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But aren’t you tied to pre specifying the length of each track? I thought you were trying to avoid that.
Not as long as we stay in power of 2 divisions. I didn’t find a solution for odd bar numbers on-the-fly (yet, but I doubt there is one) but this is already so much better than pick-up machines!
Yeah … pickup machines are not very useful. Flex for just about anything i do.
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Yes. You can eventually add trigs with 1st trig conditions to stop / restart loops.
Depending on tempos, loops may drifts after a…very long time ?
Pinging @Bryan_T for tempos ! 
No, I used QREC = PLEN, 16 steps pattern.
Not sure if it solves the problem.
Afaik no way to trigger active track sample playback. Notes C2-G2 are track specific. Same for Plays Free tracks. Maybe I missed a possibility…
Rec / Flex doesn’t seem concerned.
Pickups problem…when RLEN is set to max…
Ah with Timestretch on, it is another story. I disable it.
Hoping for that for sure ! 
Have to check that, but I sold the MFC10. Should be possible to test with Plays Free midi tracks. I have a FC200, a Live Logic and a midi processor at worse…
Afaik same results with CC59 or notes.
I’d disable timestretch.
I can’t remember why Combo Rec was problematic.
Overdub is problematic, as it redefines length. I think I prefer to record individual tracks. Undo simple by recording again.
Not sure to have the courage tonight !
I actually don’t know about drift. More likely that they get discontinuous regions (clicks) when the drift is avoided.
I do have a master spreadsheet of tempos that should loop seamlessly. Putting that together was a labor of love!
For my own uses this mattered because I like to have audio cross the end/start of loops. Long reverb tails, for example.
Yes. Could you post link ?
I think clickless tempos are potentially better to avoid potential drift.
And Octatrack has to be master of course…
https://www.elektronauts.com/uploads/short-url/x1BKlgE647yJXpb0UFy8lqrBY8v.xlsx
Here’s my labor of love. It has the BPM (including the decimal part), the multiplier on the scale, the number of trigs, and the total loop time.
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Sure it solves the problem, I described it in the post just above. The secret is a one-shot trig, not track-specific sample-play commands
I have been running some loops for at least 20 mintus without drift, but yes, it could be tempo dependant
I found that turning it off made the loops drift immediately
Yes, I found that too. Instead of stopping recording and playing the sample it goes into replace mode. I’ll try Combo Rec to initiate recording and INAB to stop rec + play when I have a bit of time.
So do I. Having 8 tracks to loop is more than enough! I would have liked a command to quantized STOP a sample that’s playing back looped though. I don’t think that’s possible.
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Thanks for this! I did all my testing with a BPM of 100, 64 pattern length and 1x, and did not experience drifting. That combination is indeed in your list. I’ll check againts combinations that are not listed to see if there’s a difference. This is starting to become interesting!
The million dollar question is if you experience drifting with other tempos. Try some that aren’t on the list and see if it is an issue.
My expectation is that the Octatrack is really good at keeping things happening in time, but that can be at the expense of audio quality.
Disable timestretch.
I am not interested in power of 2 only recordings…
With CC52 Arm Track do you mean ? I may have tried that, but maybe I gave up because of MFC10 limitations. I have to try again…
So it may work with auto chanel…
(I meant that from my tests, the behavior with CC59 or equivalent notes is the same.)
I just jammed with a 8 bar loop running for over half an hour at 131.1BPM, scale and master track 16, was absolutely tight all the way.
Doesn’t work here. Immediately out of sync. If you have a solution that works I’d be all in!
Yes, that’s the trick. But it’s possible with the MFC10, you can send up to 4 midi messages per switch (we only need 3)
I don’t have it anymore, and IIRC not possible to send 4 different messages types, didn’t work with different CCs with different values or something…(for CC59)
Timestrech off in my video, no drift. There are solutions ! QREC / QPLAY ?
3 ?
Note to start
Note to stop + message to play (C2-G2 or CC52)
That’s good news! Sounds like something else was at play when you had the drifting issues.
Midi jitter ?
Because I mute the audio on the track I"m recording on because I don’t want previous recordings to play when I record
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What about disarm track ?