I have a pickup machine on track 1 and a drum loop in a static machine on track 2. The loop I am trying to capture on the pickup machine is in 7/8 at 92bpm but everytime I try to capture the loop the octatrack reads the bpm as 105 and then therefore the drum loop on track 2 is not played back at the right tempo. I think this is happening because the octatracks algorithm is attempting to analyze my loop on the pickup machine as if it were in 4/4, hence the tempo disparity. Any ideas on how to solve this?
You’re right about the underlying assumptions going on, often these can work against you, it’s one of a few things I hope to discuss on a workarounds thread for pickup machines soon. I’ve collated some issues and that’s a good topic to throw in the mix too. I don’t have a definite workaround, though I suspect there may be others who can contribute one. but have you tried syncing the OT to the master pu machine. Press hold pickup track and press tempo. Also try experimenting with Slave pickup machines with Len val at off, I’ve found the nature of master and slave can be meddled with by playing with Len off, haven’t tried using pickup sync (as above) with this, trig modes are worth a look depending on the sync/Len/rlen setup, sometimes you can get slaves becoming master pu track!
Thanks for all the helpful tips. I’ve tried a few of them out but I’m still unable to get the octatrack to behave how I want it to. I’ll keep trying and I’ll also be on the look out for your workaround thread. I find it strange that you can’t adjust time signature information on the octatrack as easily as you can on an mpc. Hopefully a future update will add that feature.
Try setting the rlen on the pickup track to 14 prior to recording, does that help?
Hm, sound s like a good plan, I tend to just set max for flexibility and let it do the rest, I hope that this pans out polyrhythmicly, but my hunch is that the OT will try to 4/4 it
28 or 56 should work (or not) just as well. Hopefully it works, don’t have access to my OT right now to check for myself.
Other things to consider are the trig mode and qrec, I think I always use one2 (because I don’t understand the modes too well) and quantize to 16 or plen which I believe should work for you as well.
Doesn’t necessarily help the OP but I’m glad to be wrong about the pickup machines not being able to work outta phase(or being only capable of 4/4 loops), it really works well musically for me but takes a bit of setting up in terms of lengths and syncing to prevent false tracks taking over master sync, super chuffed
I got to do a little test run.
So it seems that if the sequencer is stopped, there is no way to tell the OT that “this pickup machine will record a loop in 5/4 time”. If you have a number of steps defined in rlen it will just record for that length in the current tempo which is usually not very convenient.
What I wrote earlier about setting the amount of steps (via the rlen parameter) does work though if the sequencer is running, but only for the Master. So you can’t first set a 7/8 (14 steps) drumloop going and use another Pickup machine to loop say a 5/4 (20 steps) bassline. I think the usual multiplied lengths apply to the Slaves, so no polyrhythmic Pickup machines for you.
I also found that If you have the sequencer running and have set the rlen to “max” and use the hold mode to capture a loop (in this case the pattern was 14 steps long and I tried to sample a 14 step loop coming from input A using the hold mode and rlen at max) the OT thought the captured loop was 8 steps long and adjusted the tempo accordingly…
On the contrary, I’ve just had hours of improvised fun with polyrhythmic pickup machines, possibly my eureka moment with channeling my sound aesthetic through the OT
Oh damn sounds like fun, care to elaborate? 
I need to spend some quality time with the OT. Between cooking and watching the kids it’s very hard to focus on anything…
Thanks so much for all of this info! I’m still having trouble getting it work consistently though. I have my pickup machine on track 1 set to RLEN 28 and TRIG ONE2. I have the drum loop which is also in 7/8 loaded in a static machine in track 2. In pattern 1 I have the sequencer set to 28 steps but without any trigs on it. Pattern 2 has a trig to begin the drum loop. I hit play on the sequencer in pattern 1 and then I attempt to capture my loop on track 1. The weird thing is, the first time I attempt to record the loop it reads it as 105bpm. However, when I erase that recording and try again it reads it as the correct BPM of 92. This keeps happening for some reason. Is this because of something I’m doing? or is the octatrack still having trouble determining the BPM? Does my set up sound right to you? Also, please share more about your eureka moment with pu machine polyrhythms. I’m very interested.
Also, another problem I’m having is that even when I do loop the part at the right bpm it is slightly pitched down upon playback. Any ideas?
Keeping it simple (there are so many interrelated settings)
I simply recorded a thru track (a4 noodles feeding that)
Four PU tracks
First rlen 32, then 28, 24, 20
Every track has Len off
I used trig of one on them all too
Then just tapped a–b on the respective tracks to get recording/overdubbing
No need to use pickup sync key combo
Each track played at the real time speed and for their relative lengths, so the piece constantly shifted in phase which is great with the right textural material
It was eureka for me because it allowed me to work outwit the 4/4 paradigm and easily with minimal setup, having a bit of scene fun, but essentially just using it as looper, much fun was had, which is always a good sign when nothing interrupts your workflow, a few random dub aborted gremlins, but it was fine for me today
My experience previously was that it normally stretched or assumed a 16 count and messed about with tempo etc, but it was seamless today
The key was that previously I wouldn’t have preset lengths but would have liked to do that by one2 timing, this way above works best but just requires you to predetermine lengths, although multiply is still available
I’ve had plenty of phasing fun with flex tracks before when you put them in plays free mode, but this allowed easier overdubbing and worked more like I would have hoped originally, I guess it’s just important to figure out the sweet spots and constraints and work within them, I’m looking fwd to setting up foot control or iPad control etc
For the OP, it may be necessary to force sync by having one PU track in the same time signature as the drum loop and set this track as the pickup sync master before you add the 7/8 stuff which the OT may tamper with
This must be why it didn’t work for me, thanks for pointing this out.
fix the problem with the arranger.
give a tempo to the pattern you are playing.PLay it as a loop, it’s it !
Dunno how I missed this but some great ideas there, avantronica!