Pickup machine / looping with a verse and chorus?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

I am super interested in using the Octatrack as looping device - and for the most part, I have everything working - except in the cases where I have a song with parts that need to be played serially.

Here is an example of what I am trying to do:

Track 1 is the master track - it has a unit length of 1. Lets just say it has a drum beat that will always be looping.
Track 2 is part A (Verse). It has a length of 4x master track
Track 3 is part B (Chorus). It has a length of 4x master track

I want a simple way to toggle between playing track 2 and track 3 (switching at track boundaries). Track 2 and track 3 are mutually exclusive. If one is playing the other one shouldn’t be playing. I also want an easy way to cue up playing one while the other playing. Lets say track 2 is playing and 1/2 way through the loop I hit a button that basically should play track 3 next. I want to be able to do the same thing when track 3 is playing - by switching back to track 2.

Any ideas?

Certainly, I am not the first person to have wanted to do something like this.

p.s… I should mentioned that I am interested in doing this in a live situation, where my hands may not be available editing things on the Octatrack - so I am looking for something that can do this with MIDI controls / footswitch.

2

What about using patterns ?

3

I am unsure how to use Patterns with Pickup Machines. I am quite new to the Octatrack so it could be possible - however, the manual clearly states:

“Pickup machines are not possible to sequence, nor parameter lock. The screen graphics for the Pickup machines also di er a bit compared to other machines”

So that has lead me to assume that Pickup Machines are hardwired to be looping tracks that cannot be triggered the way flex machines or static machines can.

I hope I am wrong.

4

Could you give us example of a song structure you’d like ?

You can’t use trigs with Pickups, their recorder is linked, but you can play their recording in any flex track. You can plock some Pickups parameters to scenes, and you can control crossfader and scenes with midi CC messages.

You can assign Parts to patterns, and change machines, track parameters, scenes…

The advantage of using patterns would be quantized changes. You can choose a quantized pattern change duration.

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5

Sure… For a little background, I am currently using a Boomerang III looping pedal, which has both parallel and serial tracks (but they are hard-coded to specific tracks / loops) - I will explain kinda how I use that pedal:

I begin by recording a loop on the “global” or master track. On the Boomerang this is loop / track 3. This loop is the master and all other loops will be synced to this loop’s length ( other loops can be integer multiples of this unit length though).

I usually use this master track for a percussive loop that will be going on throughout the song , i.e., this loop plays (unless muted) during both of the serial tracks.

I overdub the master track until I build up the backing / percussive track I want for the song.

When I am ready to lay down the Part A (verse) loop, I can press the Rec Arm button on the looper for track / loop 1 - this will arm track 1 and automatically start recording as soon as the master loop repeats (I can arm this track anywhere during the master loop and it quantizes the recording to whenever the master loop repeats). I can record track 1 for however long a want - it will quantize to an integer multiple of the master loop unit lengths - I hope that makes sense.

I can overdub onto track 1 as much as a like (using a different button press than the rec arm button - but its not too terrible difficult).

Whenever I am ready for the chorus (part 2), I rec arm track 2 - and as soon as the master loop repeats, part 1 is automatically stopped, while part 2 starts recording. When I am done with recording part 2, I again hit the track 2 rec button - and track 2 will now loop at integer intervals of the master loop. I can add as many overdubs to track 2 as I like.

I can now switch back and forth between the chorus (track / loop 1) and verse (track / loop 2) by selecting their associated track buttons. They will always switch between the two tracks whenever the current track ends.

I can also undo the last overdub of any track, and add new overdubs to any track, at any time that track is playing.

It seems like such a simple concept. But I just can’t figure out how to do this with my Octatrack.

But basically, there needs to be some concept of serial vs parallel - or mutually exclusive vs non-mutually exclusive tracks. The octatrack already has the concept of a global - unit length track. But I am trying to figure out if there is anyway to implement these mutually exclusive tracks.

If you want a video example of what is going on, here is one of the best examples I know of, other than the Boomerang tutorial videos:

btw… this is not me - but this is just a really clear video as to how to create a song with a verse + chorus + master percussive loop

6

Ok I think I understand what you want, I had an Rc 505 with similar possibilities (and more).

So with T3 as percussive track, you’d like to record T1, and mute it while you start to record T2 ?

That is not simple with OT. :slight_smile:
Quantized Mute and record at the same time is not that easy to set with a regular midi foot controller.

I think it easier with 2 patterns with different parts, 3 Pickups.
I have to check.

1 Like
7

Not ideal but it works :

Patt 1 Part 1
T1 Pickups Level 108 (Verse)
T2 Pickups Level 0 (Chorus)
T3 Pickups Level 108 (Drums)

Record T3, T1, arm T2, send program change to swap to patt 2.

Patt 2 Part 2
T1 Pickups Level 0 (Verse)
T2 Pickups Level 108 (Chorus)
T3 Pickups Level 108 (Drums)

Rec Setup 2 : Qrec =Plen, Qplay = Plen

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8

What I do for this is to use a pickup machine for T3 and then regular flex machines for T1 and T2. If Qrec is set to pattern and you have record trigs set on the first step of T1 and T2, you can just send a program change to get the pattern you want. For example.

Record percussion or whatever on T3.

Switch to a pattern with T2 muted and a record trig on step 1 of T1.

Play until you get something you like on T1, and then switch to a pattern without a record trig on T1. T2 can still be muted.

Switch to a pattern with T1 muted and a record trig on step 1 of T2.

Record your chorus on T2 and then switch to a pattern that just plays back either T1 or T2.

T3 is running the whole time.

You can’t really overdub this way, but if you don’t need more than three or four layers of “overdubs” on your verse and chorus, you can fake it using multiple tracks. That way, you also get the benefit of being able to manipulate the individual overdubs.

I’ve had a lot of luck with this, except that I find the pickup machines to be unstable and annoying, so I actually use an Echoplex Digital Pro for the T3 loop and then sync the Octatrack with that. Then use I flex machines to build various loops.

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9

You can overdub with Flex if you combine INAB and / or INCD with SCR3 = CUE or a chosen track.

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10

Oh! Now that’s a cool idea! Never thought of that…