Yep, I hear what you’re all saying about the Octa.
I am still loving the a Rytm demos and having watched all the videos many times, both the sound and workflow appeal to me,
I get it’s not a sampler - that’s ok I will use my DAW to make one shots etc as always.
Like I say, I will probably end up buying the Rytm this year and Octa next year - I don’t spend money on myself often so I can treat myself
The limitations may also force me to finish stuff instead of endless eq tweaking and vst presets etc.
I believe the Rthm will provide me with many years of fun regardless of how it compares to the Octa in terms of sample handling and once Overbridge is out and I’ve got eight tracks of analog goodness running into my DAW I am sure the possibilities will be endless.
I have to say of the elektron machines I found the octa the most complex and fiddly of the bunch.
For me in terms of ease of use and satisfaction it goes . A4 > MD > MnM > OT
I imagine the AR will be similarly easy to use as I found the A4 & MD rather than the octa which is the only Elektron gear I ever sold in annoyance & frustration.
I tend to agree that the OT is a bit more fiddly to use than the other boxes (I currently use the MD and the A4). My annoyances included:
[ul]
[li]Lack of dedicated A-H “Bank group” pattern selection buttons, somehow making pattern selection less intuitive/immediate (even though the OT was my first Elektron box).[/li]
[li]I kept missing whether or not the box was in “MIDI” mode, making me select or (un)mute the wrong track repeatedly.[/li]
[li]Location of the track buttons around the display didn’t feel right as you often end up covering the display while selecting a track; I would have preferred to have the track buttons in a single row with the display higher up (I’m probably one of the few people who actually prefers a smaller display like on the A4… ;))[/li]
[li]Even though extremely flexible, recording always felt a bit like a hassle. I would have preferred some kind of “simple mode”.[/li]
[li]Loading projects seemed to take rather long, even on projects with only a few short samples. I like to be able to turn my boxes on and start jamming almost immediately.[/li]
[/ul]
Giving these, I still think it’s one of the nicest samplers I have ever used and the MIDI sequencing is really well done.
[quote=“” t""]
I tend to agree that the OT is a bit more fiddly to use than the other boxes (I currently use the MD and the A4). My annoyances included:
[ul]
[li]Lack of dedicated A-H “Bank group” pattern selection buttons, somehow making pattern selection less intuitive/immediate (even though the OT was my first Elektron box).[/li]
[li]I kept missing whether or not the box was in “MIDI” mode, making me select or (un)mute the wrong track repeatedly.[/li]
[li]Location of the track buttons around the display didn’t feel right as you often end up covering the display while selecting a track; I would have preferred to have the track buttons in a single row with the display higher up (I’m probably one of the few people who actually prefers a smaller display like on the A4… ;))[/li]
[li]Even though extremely flexible, recording always felt a bit like a hassle. I would have preferred some kind of “simple mode”.[/li]
[li]Loading projects seemed to take rather long, even on projects with only a few short samples. I like to be able to turn my boxes on and start jamming almost immediately.[/li]
[/ul]
Giving these, I still think it’s one of the nicest samplers I have ever used and the MIDI sequencing is really well done.
[/quote]
I’m still getting the hang of the work flow on my OT but I agree on the MIDI tracks. I would love to have a second set of track buttons for them because yeah I get a bit confused at times switching back and fourth. I am looking at external controller options to help with this.
I don’t do recording directly on it so I can’t comment there, the demo’s look straight forward enough but I real world might be different.
What speed CF card do you have? The new ones come with a 266x but the older ones were the 133x’s I think. From what I have read you can use up to 400x before you no longer see an increase in speed. So on my 266x I load a project in about 3 seconds or so. It might be worse with more sample slots being used and filling up the flex machine RAM. I do know I under utilize my OT so YMMV.
This is my first sampler so I don’t know what to compare on it to anything else. I really could have been fine with a Kaoss Pad 3 but I liked the idea of having room to grow. I scoffed at the scene feature at first because it just looked like an excuse to “look cool like a DJ” but I am finding it to be one of the more interesting features for quick changes and adding dynamics.
