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Yea, I use the OT extensively as a stereo looper. It works great in every respect (once you have a Project set-up to formulate the OT AS a Looper)…EXCEPT that it can’t be a midi slave. But if you’re going to let it be the master…its amazing. And sure its got loop aging/feedback via the Gain control in the pickup machines. And sure its goes straight to overdub mode automatically! What I love about it is that it quantizes everything to its sequencer. So, if OT is your master clock in your rig (which it needs to be)…everything syncs up to it VERY well. Its quite easy to make long ambient looping arrangements. Simply press record just before the next beat marker…and it will punch in automatically in perfect sync. Because you can set the loop length (64 steps on the master loop, but multiples up to 256 or more on slave loops), it will punch out automatically in perfect sync with your entire rig.

MY only wish is that there is a way to make a MASTER loop (the first loop) longer than 64 steps WITHOUT causing the OT to automatically adjust its master tempo. SINCE the OT is required to be the master clock when using it as a conventional looper device…then I don’t want to have it suddenly jumping in tempo to line up with my master loop. It just causes all my other external gear (drum machines, arpeggiators, etc), that’s synced up to that master clock, to jump in tempo as well. Not musical at all!

I’d rather have the ability to insert 128 steps, rather than MAX, on the master loop!. You can allocate the memory for 128, even 256 steps easily. Why can’t you pre-assign the loop length of the master loop to more than 64? Your slave loops can easily be 128 or 256 steps (setting the length control to X2 or X4) and stay within the memory allocation, no problem. But why not with the Master loop?

And why must the OT automatically adjust tempo to fit the loop length of the master if it exceeds 64 steps? In the original Electron tutorial video for the Pickup Machines, its shows that you can MANUALLY sync the sequencer to the master loop. But in practice, and in carefully reading the manual regarding pickup machines, it seems that the OT AUTOMATICALLY makes this adjustment…WHEN THE MASTER LOOP IS >64 STEPS…and there seems no way to defeat it! It should be user selectable! A guitarist who is using the master loop to define a tempo “freehand” will love that feature. A synthesist or DJ trying to keep a bunch of gear in sync will loathe that feature! Two legitimate uses…why is it not user-selectable?

Most of the key to using the OT for long loops is in the Memory Configuration. Its best, for this purpose, just to turn Dynamic Recorders to ON…and NOT to allocate ANY memory per Track Recorder (this is for using all 8 tracks as pick up machines…a true Looper device). There’s more than enough memory on board, even at 24 bit recording, to have up over 256 steps on 7 out of 8 tracks (because for all practical purposes, the 8th track -really the first track- is the master, and it must be only 64 steps for some odd reason).

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