So, I’ve been thinking this would be a great opportunity for the OT for a while now:
Why don’t they create a ‘Turntable Machine’, that simply allows manipulation of samples as if they were being played out on a turntable? This would allow ‘scratching’ by means of either a midi controller (Traktor-compatible hardware, or Timefrog come to mind) or even the use of a knob on the OT itself, and the fader could even double as a scratch fader (with adjustable slope). The OT has such strong time stretching algorithms that it would seem like this would be relatively simple to implement. This would certainly make the OT even more performance-oriented.
I guess this is wishful thinking b/c it seems development on the OT has slowed down significantly in favor of A4 and AR, but it’d be nice if they kept developing the OT, and surprised us with some more machines like what i’ve described…
i buy MD MKII+ before Christmas, and Buy OT, A4 in April and AR a couple of week ago… I perfectly in hands MD, A4 and AR. Not so much for now the OT but i’m not work a lot for now with it. (but i see what i can do, also the FX seems to be nice at my ears.)
I wait for my Sync system, because i want to made a live with the computer in the chain. (Sync Gen2 pro)
I also hope they not release too much new machine and keep the DEV for all existing one. I probably offer me the Monomachine as Well.
I don’t want to rain on your parade… cause the idea itself is not bad…
but… I don’t see it happening soon…
I think, that this dj-scratching and listening to the dj controller (if you could actually connect it. most controllers I know, work over USB) would bring the octatrack cpu to its knees…
And I kinda wonder how many of us have a dj-controller that actually spits out midi through a real midi plug (din-midi) instead of usb-midi…
Unfortunately, no. You can hear artifacts even at a difference of 2bpm to the original tempo. It is very good at keeping samples in time, but rather poor at preserving audio quality. For example, you will hear phasing bass drums immediately.
In the meanttime, if you are after repitching (your scratch idea is already covered by the RATE playback parameter), you can use this, which offers slightly better audio quality, at the cost of a complex one-time setup procedure and use of external gear (ios device+midi interface): http://hotoolz.tk
Surprisingly, it is perfectly reliable, i just played a two hour gig with it last week.
Lotta variables under this blanket.[/quote]
Not really. Play at 120bpm a rhythmically articulated file covering the full frequency spectrum (i.e. A techno track originally at 122bpm) and you will immediately hear it. You won’t notice this as much if you play drones or ambient, or even stems. But rhythmical bass is unforgiving in this regard.
The trade offs within OT are: beat mode will seem quite tight, but introduce unusable inharmonicity. Normal mode will mess up transients (“phasing” bassdrums) while staying more or less musical.
Repitching has been top of my wishlist from day one and remains so.
We probably have different tolerances for this. I repitch and retime full bass-heavy mixes all the time, often quite significantly. I know what you’re referring to but I’ve got to go way way further than 2 bpm to get a deal-breaker sound issue.
Ok, but if I understand correctly, when you retime a track, you do adjust the playback pitch manually to suit? (say, 127bpm to 120bpm would be roughly minus 1 semitone).
If yes, then you do manually what I wrote a patch for, to automate the repitching simultaneously for two tracks, dependent on master-tempo (too much fumbling for me, otherwise).
To me, retimed tracks without repitch, or repitched tracks without retiming don’t sound as good as an “old school” style repitch… (think: no timestretch, or vinyl, tape)
This would mean we have about the same tolerance? : )
and btw. which timestretch mode do you prefer when doing this?
Couldn’t you jury rig something to do this with the current OS using a MIDI controller and some kind of MIDI scripting language like ChucK or Reaper’s JS? The rate control goes +/- 100% so it seems doable, although the latency might be an issue.
Maybe it’s just me being too much of a traditionalist, but scratching with a knob seems gimmicky, and the OT crossfader is by no means tailored for serious cuts.
JuanSOLO do you actually know what the Timefrog can do?
Because the metal plate, to me, it’s just something cool to touch, but at least not worth the money (i really dont know also how much it costs).
Im actually curious about all the other functions it hides under the blanket.
P.S.
im going to make a fast reading of the manual, even if some people who owns it swear that it doesn’t disclose the real surprises the Timefrog has .