I’m considering picking up an OT after work today. I have owned all other Elektron machines except the Sidstation and have sold them so I hope I’m not making a mistake.
I intend to route my other gear through it and use it to capture loops and mess with them for studio use, and also to try and get a live set going in the near future.
I currently have a Teenage Engineering OP-1, Waldorf Blofeld, DSI Tempest, DSI Evolver (desktop), and a Monotribe. In order to make room and free up some funds I will be selling the Evolver and my Boss RE-20 delay pedal, along with a few other bits and pieces.
I figure it will help me get more mileage out of my Blofeld too, since I can sequence up to 8 parts on it with the OT, plus I also will be able to capture a lot of the cool jams I get going on for later use in songs.
Do it. Quite fun putting OP1 tracks into OT for reworking. Learning curve might be a bit steep at first, you need to get your head around the parts/slots/projects arcitechture, but there are some very good tutorials by a few of the guys on here, have a look on youtube for octatrack tutorials, the Elektron ones are ok but the users ones are better and go into more depth IMHO. But it is a incredible machine if you click with it, some don’t but some do. Me, I still find certain things on it a bit annoying/frustrating/dumb but it is not difficult to use, just a bit awkward at times, having said this it is probably one of the most powerful samplers available.
The timestretch is not very good, and the pitch range is more limited that many other samplers, but the performance features and sound quality are very good.
I don’t think the time stretching weakness will be much of a sticking point for me. I usually establish my tempo right off the bat. I suspect that it will work just fine in a slicing/mangling context.
My main concern is the investment. For similar money I could replace my PC laptop with a Macbook which would give me more confidence about using Ableton Live in a Live setting. I just have the typical OTB fantasy that everyone does about miracle machines getting me away from the computer and making me feel more inspired.
I suppose if I don’t click with it I can always sell it for a moderate loss. I see it being super fun in conjunction with the OP-1. I usually record some tape tracks, then export the loops to my PC to further develop in Ableton Live. Being able to do this in the OT would be great. The more I can develop ideas pre-computer the better, I guess.
Unless you actively dislike the sound, I suggest trying to hang on to the Evolver, at least until you’ve had a chance to control it from the OT. The ability to use OT LFOs and parameter locks on MIDI controllers can breathe new life into stale gear…
…though having said that, I didn’t notice the first time that you also have a Tempest, that chances the equation a bit