As I understand, the Elektron workflow is based on old school trackers. So, as I begin saving up for an OctaTrack - will a tracker like Renoise maybe prepare me for some of the more advanced aspects of working with Elektron boxes? Might be a silly question I know 
Short answer: No.
While it’s technical based on trackers (step sequencer, parameter locks on steps etc.pp.), the workflow itself is completely different to the spreadsheet-like tracker workflow.
5 Likes
Maybe the best way to prepare to OT workflow is a simpler elektron machine, like M:C maybe…and you can keep it later on as being a synth groovebox does not overlap.
I bought it couple of years ago but I was not prepared for it, I had a very long break from anything music related and it is a very deep machine…loved many things about it ( I wish digitakt had that x-fader) but hated those deep menus.
2 Likes
IMO working with a tracker is more like working with an Excel-sheet. Scrolling up and down, moving a cursor on the screen and fill in numbers to places given by columns and rows. It’s very formalistic and more about entering data rather than playing an instrument.
Working with an Elektron sequencer is like playing an instrument … imagine that those 4x16 buttons are 1/16 notes, hit one to have an event, keep a button down, tweak any of the knobs and listen how the pattern and sound changes, apply LFO or ARPs, send the audio of one track to another … apply all those FX …
2 Likes
Honestly I don’t know that anything can prepare you for an OT. It’s a spaceship.
Merlin’s Guide but even then, the OT is physical.
Maybe another Elektron device like @Seta said, but the OT is still different in comparison.
Like I had a DT and DN before the OT and only a handful of things carried over. Enough to get something going on first boot but a lot of differences the more you use it.
2 Likes
Don’t most OT owners prepare by purchasing one, selling it and then buying another? That was my method!
9 Likes
Yes, I bought it to years ago…sold it. May buy one…
Don’t know, if they are the majority of the OT users, but they exist, of course.
But there is also the other breed … having no trouble putting the manual on the table, getting their heads around one machine after the other, and opening the manual before scratching their heads for too long … 
3 Likes
Just collect some sample chains & loops and have fun when it arrives 
3 Likes
I feel attacked.
I suppose I am a mutt, then. I read manuals before and during ownership, and still had a good bit of noggin’ scratch through my 2nd go around.
3rd OT now though and finally some calm seas.
3 Likes
A tracker is something else. I would not advice it. I just can tell you how I prepared for it. And to be honest I don’t think it is that hard to understand.
But I know what I want to do with it and read and searched this forum a lot before I bought the OT. I read the Manual twice and made notes. Also read the holy Merlin guide and made notes. I learned the Elektron sequencer and menus by owning a Digitakt and Digitone. That helped me major. Because I understand the structure and don’t need to learn those stuff.
So my advice would be if you don’t own a Elektron device: get one. If you choose a Digitakt you already can taste a bit of the sampling and mangling on a lower level. And the sequencer is awesome. Still love my DT sometimes over the OT. True to get really familiar with the box so you really know it inside out. That way you can save up for the OT.
The next step is read the manual. And please do! I see a lot of questions in this forum which all can be answered by just reading the manual and remember it. So take notes of what you think is useful for your workflow.
Decide what you want to achieve with the OT. It can do a shotload of stuff and if you want to do it all, yes then it is a pain in the *ss in the beginning. Read everything about what you want to do with it and take notes. So you know how it works en what doesn’t work. Realize that if it doesn’t work it probably never will work. It is pretty much done with updates.
Watch YouTube tutorials to get inspiration of what others do and learn from it.
The time I got my OT I found that a lot of thing looks familiar to me. Now it is just to get muscle memory so it gets automation. But it works. I already knew it flaws for the most part. And yes sometimes it doesn’t do what you want. But that is with everything new.
Good luck on your journey and have fun!
1 Like
Oh please don 't … did I say there are only two breeds?
Edit:
You know what? I purchased the OT only because I needed a hardware sequencer, but didn’t realise that I needed a linear sequencer and not a step sequencer. After falling in love with my first and only OT playing around with the sampler, I took some time to try what I purchased it for in the first place … and was a little baffled, because it didn’t work as I wanted it to work … because it couldn’t work like I wanted.
Nevertheless … I never considered to sell it
1 Like
that part wasn’t in response to you
yea, OT is wild.
Maybe the best preparation I had for it was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as I’ve surely let out a load of sighs, just like the Heart of Gold.
1 Like
I had a Digitakt and I loved every second of it. Also, the self loathing for screwing up with money having to sell it is beyond repair. Well, maybe not completely beyond. I guess an OctoTrack would be a good “sorry to myself”?
My main reasons for wanting an OctaTrack is that I loved the Digitakt, and then I heard Sir Aphex Twin, and the genius duo of PTU from Russia are avid users - that just got me very excited.
2 Likes
I know that kind of excitement. But I try to tend not to go for it immediately, because in my experience that turns 90% of returning the unit as I don’t really need it or it doesn’t do exactly what I want.
So I would see try to search as many as you can about the OT so you really know you need / want it. Perhaps rebuy a Digitakt meanwhile as you loved it so much!
1 Like
I don’t think that buying gear, because some celebrity is using it, is a good idea at all.
I understand this appeal completely, but there is one hard fact: Gear doesn’t make us succsessful. Our own creativity and imagination is the limitation and this can’t be changed by any gear.
If one of us does love to work with samples and loops, likes to mangle sounds in different ways, then an OT or MPC might be exactly the right tool to express the artist within. If you loved the DT for what it is and what it gave to you, then the OT might be for you as well … just with more features
1 Like
I’ve never owned an OT, but there are a couple of OT courses here. I watched the older one when I had a monthly membership and I think these courses might be helpful in learning the architecture and basic flow before you get your hands on a unit. If you get a monthly pass you could watch both and cancel after that, unless you find other videos you want to watch.
1 Like
That’s true, but I don’t look at it like that. In my mind, being a huge Aphex fan - when I hear he is using a specific machine and doing wild things with it, I want to try that machine too and see if I can recognize some of his techniques and inspirations. I view the OctaTrack as a unique instrument, like a guitar. Obviously, I won’t be able to play like a grandmaster just because I get one. But, the ways in which the instrument is designed for playability and sound is going to teach me much of the same stuff that the masters have learned themselves - eventually / hopefully.
1 Like
I think a good preparation would be to brainstorm, and gather ideas and experiments. When you get the machine, then try to execute on those ideas and experiments.
/thomas
1 Like
IMO that’s the best approach to be creative and successful with an OT. I whish you the best to get one soon.
BTW: I am guilty of buying “celebrity gear” as well
I got an Eric Clapton signiture guitar only, because I love his sound and there is a particular electronic inside to generate exactly this tone.
1 Like