Playing the Octatrack

Hey Everyone,

So, I’ve had the OT for a few weeks, and I’m at the point where I’ve got a few different projects in development. I wanted to ask peoples’ advice on ways to perform with the OT. This is what I’ve got so far (and can change on a per part basis, of course):

  1. 1-2 tracks for pickup machines running my acoustic bowed and plucked instruments through.

  2. 1-2 flex machines for sequencing/odd trig or two assigned to recorder buffers of the above pickup machines.

  3. Usually at least 3 (or more) dedicated tracks for percussion/FX/other samples.

  4. Master track (and others) with echo freeze delay (assigned to scenes) and filter.

Obvious ways that I’ve found to PLAY the OT:

  1. Scenes
  2. Using echo freeze and scenes as a way to add “fills” to my patterns.
  3. Tweaking parameters and using the part reload function (remembering to save my parts each time I load the project for reload part to work!)
  4. Starting to do some “on the fly” pattern building as a method of performance on the OT.
  5. Haven’t started doing this yet, but will be experimenting with playing the trig keys in slice/slots/chromatic modes and using realtime record mode.

Any other suggestions of unique ways you’ve found for playing the OT would be greatly appreciated.

If you’re sequencing chromatically and have an external keyboard, you can play in a sequence by clicking…

Hold a trig down and press a note or chord on your keyboard. It’ll record velocity and up to 4 notes. Quickly make a pattern this way.

It’s like an inbetween to playing it on the keyboard and sequencing.

Hmm, that’s pretty cool. I’ve given up using keyboards on stage, as I’m more of a string player, but great tip nonetheless. Cheers.

I see my methods as sitting somewhere between the folks that want to build all their patterns from scratch (ala the “Improvising from nothing” thread) and having everything pre made and just launching everything. But then I think so are most people, and I’m pretty sure no one (or not many) is on the later extreme.

Coming from a stringed instrumentalist background, obviously a large part of my performance ethos is based in performing on strings. This is where I’m coming up with “something from nothing”, though I am striving to integrate more similar techniques as applied to the OT. Also,those stringed instruments are counterparts, as it were, to others’ set ups with external machines and other gear. But I love to hear different philosophies and methodologies for managing the interface between performer and instrument (as well as performer and audience).

I feel you on the live respect. I come from an instrument background too, and I am currently in a two piece ambient band with a guitarist.

Do you know how to loop efficiently then?

If you have a record trigger and a play trigger with the record buffer as the active sound, it’ll play while you record. This is useful because as you play you record, and then immediately when you have something you want, you have a near perfect audio loop to mangle. You can then save that file, put it on another track and keep looping.

The reason I say this rather than using the actual looping machine, is because personally this makes more sense. I’ve failed miserably to use the looper function.

With that technique we play pretty much from nothing. Just having the patches set up really.

Yeah, I’ve considered that method. and want to dive into learning it soon. I have only tried looping with pickup machines so far, so I haven’t really grasped manual or recorder trig sampling. Do you use one shot recorder trigs, btw, or do you do the continuous sampling methods?

Looping via pickup machines I’ve gotten down quite well and will integrate the other sampling methods eventually. As you say, for placing trigs and sequencing those methods don’t require using another separate track, but then the trade off is that you can’t overdub on top. But it was an incredible feeling when I was able to loop on one track and then place sample trigs on another track assigned to the looper track’s buffer! That’s sick! The OT is truly the electronic instrument I’ve been waiting for for quite a long time. Ableton Live (which I’ve used for years) is wonderful and I still use it extensively, but the OT has replaced it for live use. It’s now Ableton Desk :slight_smile:

Hi,

I´m a Jazz Piano/Synth Player and play in an Electro-Live-Duo with a Drummer.
I play Nord Stage (for Piano/Rhodes/Organ) and a Prophet 08, run both through the OT (for FX and looping) and use the OT as a midi seq. for another small mono synth (Dark Energy) that also goes thru the OT
So besides all the thru and Flex tracks (which I use for looping, no pickup machines yet) I only have 2 Tracks left for real samples, but that´s enough for some rhythmic loops as a background, as I do have a live drummer.

Usually it´s all improvised, but of course you remember the good parts from former performances and gradually these turn into “songs”, which sound different every time.

I´m also really happy with my OT, it serves as a 4 channel mixer, FX unit, midi seq. and live looper. Amazing. I just have to spend more time so I really can reach every parameter spontaneously without thinking. Practicing the button combos is like practicing scales or chords on piano - because the OT is a real instrument that wants to be played - and has to be practiced. With patience.

Greetings from Austria
Andajazz

Greetings Andajazz,
Curious, how do you route your Nord and Prophet through to loop with flex machines? I’ll have to try it again today, but I found I still burned at least one track for my stringed instruments to apply effects (I’m using the OT as my only FX unit) since I could only monitor these instruments dry through the DIR parameter for recording to flex machines (if I used no pickup machines).
Also, you’re spot on with regard to practise: just like any other instrument, the OT expects this!

In the old forum, I found the following post, which helped me a lot:

My suggestion: forget the step sequencer for sampling for now. I can sit and experiment with it and get interesting results, but for just grabbing loops on the fly, I find quantized manual triggering of the recorders to be far simpler and more intuitive. I set up every recorder on my template like this:
INAB - A B
INCD - C D
RLEN - 64
TRIG - ONE2
SRC3 - resample that track
QREC - 16
This way no matter where I am in the machine, if there’s a loop I want to grab, I can just hold any track button and hit the source I want to record, and it starts recording at the beginning of the next measure. I get a full 4 bars, or I can stop it short with a second press of the button combo. Obviously you can tweak whatever settings you need to when you’re playing, but this is a very quick starting point for me. Hope that helps someone

THIS SETTING REALLY HELPS, I just have the tracks set to INAB or INCD, not both, so I just record 1 source at a time.

I have the Prophet on AB, track 1&2 on flex, rec. buffers on IN AB only, INCD -, so I have 2 separated tracks to live sample the prophet.
[left]then track 3 thru for the prophet (FX), track 4 thru either for the nord stage or the dark energy, which is also sequenced by the OT, it depends.[/left]
[left]Maybe I´ll check out the pickup machines soon.[/left]
[left]With the flex machines&rec. buffers and the setting above it´s really easy to sample live. I just need 2 tracks for every source: 1 thru (for FX) and one flex (to sample).[/left]
[left]I´m still working on the setup, but at least it works like this.[/left]
[left]Greetis[/left]
[left]Andajazz[/left]

Very cool. Thanks for that. Sounds like a very powerful set up. I guess this is one of the great things about parts: machine assignments (amongst other things) can change completely, and so a pickup machine can become a thru machine, vis versa, or something else. For sampling when the sequencer is running, I’m definitely giving your methods a try.

Two of the main reasons I like pickup machines are: I don’t need the sequencer running to sample and loop and also for the ability to overdub and (given the right gain setting) merge between overdubbing and replacing at the same time.

It all does depend on the type of music we are trying to create. I was a little (only a little) worried that the OT would force my music to align to the grid and be 4/4 all the time. Well, that is the easiest and predominant way to realise music on the OT, but with the ability to stream large samples from the CF card as well as use more grid-based composition, and have time signature changeable per pattern, this limit is really only there if you let it.

@andajazz - thanks for bringing up that post from EU. I am still trying to find the right template for my workflow. That is going to help.

As mentioned before, I never really tried the Pickup-machines, but I´m really happy with 2 flex machines and their rec. buffers with the setting described above.
I have two independent tracks, I can for example record 1 bassline and 1 lead, and then play around with them, with trigs, effects, lfo`s …, and all separately for the two tracks. And I can replac one of the two anytime with just one click, then rec starts on the next one (so no stress between hitting “rec” and start playing :-), and is always in sync.

I just need more time, there´s so much more in the OT to learn …

Since looping has been mentioned here - and without cluttering up the forums with yet another new topic …

Is it possible to have independent asynchronous loops?

Say, a 23 second loop, a 21 second loop, and a 37 second loop, all going at the same time, recorded in no particular order?

this is a cool thread. thanks for sharing everyone. playing electronic gear (beyond muting and un-muting tracks and trigs) seems my biggest challenge

@LesMizzell: as far as my limited understanding for loops/pick up machines goes, I think you can only record integer multiples (x1,x2,x3 etc) of your master loop. your master loop being the shortest here. the order (besides having to record the master first) might(!) not matter though…

you can witness me struggling here:
http://www.elektronauts.com/t/pick-up-machines-conundrum/1948/14953

That’s a good question. I’m not sure about it in terms of seconds, but if independent means each loop on a separate track, and since we have the ability to start and stop those loops independently, you can, in a way do this, I think. If using flex tracks to loop, maybe using plays free mode and designating a different step length to each track and having the master track (I you have one) set to infinite.
Another way I’ve been playing the OT recently: Using Pro Tip Video #6, I dedicated a track to resampling the main output, with trigs and p locks placed ahead of time, and a scene dedicated to minimising the xlvl on the constituent tracks and maximising the xlvl on the resampled main output. This rocks! Great way to add breaks and variations to your material.

you can do that with flex machines, since you can trigger recording and playback without even starting the sequencer. unlike a looper however, they’re triggered independently, so there’s the added challenge of stopping recording and starting playback at the same time. there are various musical and technical ways of accomplishing that though…

  1. Re-sizing tracks on the fly. Combine with the track speed multiplier and divider . Or combine that with using function + arrow to shuffle your steps, this can get interesting because steps that aren’t active won’t move. So if you have 16 steps, but only 8 active you can push or pull those 8 active steps around without moving the other 8.

  2. One shots aren’t just useful for recorders. You can use them to lock anything.

  3. samples stay associated with record slots between parts. You can use this to your advantage by for example using a part to record with pickup machines and switch to another that automatically “loads” them into flex machines. Try combining that with pre slicing the flex machines…

  4. it’s a bummer it’s kind of buried in the menus, but you can turn the master track on and off without playback issues. It can be a quick way to route all your tracks to one for re-sampling or applying different global effects.

I wish “master” was a machine type so you could do it in one smooth motion by switching parts…

1 Like

Very cool ways of playing the OT. Thanks!

I use the Scenes as a kind of “prepared keyboard” on some projects. Each scene has a particular variation of settings that can create a melodic or rhythmic variation. Simply hold down the Scene B key with your right hand pinky and let fly.

1 Like

Re #1: Yes! This is a great technique on any of the Elektron boxes.
Re #2: Many times I’ll use one-shots to create fills or additional melody lines.

again - thanks for sharing! 3) is a great tip - I didn’t know that
could you elaborate further on 2) please? do you mean lock as in p-lock?