So after reading the forums and watching videos and also seeing an OT second hand, I bit the bullet and bought one.
I’m going to use it for studio production at some point but it’s first task will be to be the master brain behind some future live shows.
I’m going to render stuff out in Live into a mix of short loops (1 - 4 bars) and longer (128 - 256) bars in length. On top of that I’ll have the A4 and RYTM (the Dark Trinity in effect - ahyeahh!) coming in and out to give everything some extra spice.
Right now I’m completely stumped with how the OT handles longer files. Switching the pattern time division down to 1/8 still doesn’t run the sample in full. Also need some to loop while others don’t.
Reading the manual it all seems that this is possible but there’s so many settings to switch on dotted across the whole manual it makes everything super confusing.
I figure peeps here must have done this and have some good tips and best practices. With this in mind, I’m wondering if anyone has any good tips or pointers to past topics or videos covering this.
Help!!
OH/
PS: I love how each track can have it’s own signature and time division - wish the RYTM & A4 had this.
So long samples work fine, but if they don’t fit in the 1/8 division then you can do a few of different things.
If you change patterns and another trig isn’t triggered, the sample will continue to play until it’s finished.
Loops work the same way, but continue looping until another trig is triggered.
This approach is fine if your song plays continuously through patterns predictably.
If it doesn’t ie you want to go to a pattern that’s halfway through your long samples you will have to use slices. Slice the sample in half or quarters for example, and then program each applicable slice in the patterns.
You could also set up one-shot trigs to activate your long samples. Once they are triggered the trigs won’t restart the sample unless you activate one-shot trigs again.
Personally I prefer slicing my long samples as it allows me the freedom to begin playing patterns without hearing silence. So for example pattern 1 trigs the long sample, but pattern 2 has no trig at all. If i want to start on pattern 2 = silence.
Also if you create a slice grid on your long samples and then create linear locks you have far greater tweakability, and just opens up so many doors for creativity!
You can reverse slices, pitch them up or down, shorten the lengths etc etc. It’s a goldmine!
Thanks for the tips. The slices within a long sample sounds like it could work, I could split the sound in half (or quarters).
I have a question about One Shots…
“You could also set up one-shot trigs to activate your long samples. Once they are triggered the trigs won’t restart the sample unless you activate one-shot trigs again.”
When the playback head comes back round to the 1st trig within say Pattern A01, will it re-trigger the One Shot or ignore it?
Part of my music involves long drones some of which might last an entire track yet which also won’t loop if I was to sub-divide them into chunks.
I’ve started reading Merlin’s “Some Thoughts on Elektron’s Octatrack” which is helpingn me get to grips with the overall architecture.
It will ignore it unless you manually activate it, which can be done by pressing Enter/Yes. If record mode is enabled Enter/Yes will only re-activate a one-shot trig on the track you have selected.
Also if you want one-shot trig re-arming to be less dangerous (accidentally pressing Enter/Yes is easy) you can enable Func+Enter/Yes in the options menu.
If you are using the arranger Func-Enter/Yes will be automatically activated, as Enter/Yes is used for selecting patterns in arranger mode.
Your long drones will find a very happy home on the Octatrack!
