Well, I was totally accustomed to PUMās not starting when I press the main play button, but I left my equipment on overnight and today, the PUMās DID start when I pressed the main play button. I captured it on video (attached), because I was almost sure that after a restart the situation would return to ānormalā (PUMās not starting) and indeed! it did! I have no clue what that was. Is there a secret key-combination that got reset when I rebooted? Anyone?
You can connect or disconnect them to transport using PU track button and tempo button.
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Thanks! Another mystery solved. Itās not in the Key-combinations list in the user manual.
Yep, thanks didnāt know sync was changing play behavior. Something to try tonight!
SEQUENCER TO PICKUP SYNC The Octatrack sequencer can be tempo synchronized to a Pickup machine recording. This is useful if you want to mix pre-progammed tracks with Pickup machine loops and donāt want the sync of the sequencer to drift.
Press [TRACK] + [TEMPO] to sync the sequencer to a Pickup machine loop. The BPM value normally shown in the top left corner of the LCD will at the same time be replaced with information about which Pickup machine that is controlling the sequencer BPM. To see the tempo of the loop the sequencer is locked to, open the TEMPO window.
If Pickup sync is activated when the sequencer is stopped and Pickup machines are playing loops, pressing [PLAY] will make the sequencer start playing the next time the synced Pickup machine loop starts over. If no Pickup machine is playing, the sequencer will start playing immediately when [PLAY] is pressed.
Here is a more exhaustive list. 
ot-buttons-478140.pdf (299.6 KB)
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Yes! Iāve tried it and it works. And if the sequencer is sync with the PU you have two options: All track stopped, press Play will start all toghether, or you can press Track (of the PU) + play and start playing the PU loop, then press play and the sequencer start playing the next time the synced Pickup machine loop.
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Ooo Yes! Apologies for my ignorance, here I found how to send PC to control Patterns and be able to use Flex as PUM with two patterns:
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Ok so this plays 1 PUM only when you press main PLAY (canāt start several PUM at the same time), and it locks the tempo. Canāt stand it. I defenitely prefer Flex and Iād rather buy another looper than use Pickups. 
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One way you can start all PU and tracks at the same time is to hold all track buttons whilst pressing play, it is how the Octatrack got its name because you might need a 
to help 
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OctaOcto
I guess you could use midi to launch all pickups at same time if you didnāt have an Octopus on hand.
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I wonder why after so many years of complaints about the PUMās, Elektron does not even bother to fix it.
There are basically 2 things that should be retouched in order to convert the OT into a perfect looper: 1- The ability to turn off the master / slave relationship between pickup machines (and thus the automatic tempo changing that goes along with it) . And 2- The ability to turn timestretching off.
Thatās it, Elektronā¦
.
*Sorry for my english.
Iām probably wrong, but if you turn de sequencer sync with your PUM, PUM isnāt have timestretching.
Although it is true that the PUM can be improved a lot.
I think if they could be set to follow transport or play free per track it would be more consistent with other machine types, also the ability to record with pitch and the ability to P-Lock them would be on my list.
As they are at present I think for most looping duties flex machines are superior in almost every way. For experimenting they can be quite useful, but as I said before often after using them I load the captured audio into a flex slot, because it is moe flexible
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In that case, as far as I understand, tempo is locked to synced PUM loop. No tempo change, hence no timestretch for that PUM.
I wonder if this can be used to have more precise tempo, like 103.125* instead of 103.1 or 103.2, loading a sample at the right tempo in the PUM.
*Tempo ātunedā to A440 Hz
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When you open the tempo menu while in p sync mode, we still see the available modifier icons (encoder, arrowsā¦) . I tried several key-combinations in an attempt to modify the tempo while in p-sync to no avail. Technically it should be possible, a question of modifying the rate + TS compensation of the PUMās. Is this another hidden key-combination I missed or is it just a display bug?
Maybe in the audio editor of the PUM itās possible to change the BMP of the captured sample (page Attributes), I havenāt tried it yet.
But, I think that if you want to mangle or work more in deep with the PUM sample the way is a Flex Track.
I contemplate the PUM, within its limitations as a looper, when I want the sequencer follow my loop, then I sync the sequencer to the PUM, not timestreching, and that the rest of the tracks go in time with my loop.
If I turn the sequencer as master BMP, I use PUM, but I try to rec the loops in the PUM adjusting me to the tempo of the sequencer (1x, 2xā¦), so that the minimum timestreching is applied to my loop, althought grateful that the loop is timestreching to the tempo, otherwise it would not sound in time.
Exist other reasons in which I use the PUM sometimes, in experimental waysā¦, although yes, it is true that it is limited.
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I just set Qrec and QPL to PLEN and I donāt have to worry about timing or time-stretching.
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Main advantage of Pickups with easy overdub (OT master clock).
Thatās what I was going to say.
Enjoy your new HX stomp! Sending p-locks and MIDI LFOs from the OT to my helix is so much fun. Map a bunch of pedal parameters to one of the expression pedals (Iām guessing the stomp has this as a possibility even if it doesnāt have a physical pedal) and then just send the expression pedal position CC (1-3) from the OT to the helix and itās like a giant automatable macro control.
Anyway, I donāt like the fussiness and tempo changing nature of pickups so I use flex machines to loop. Itās more complicated and fallible and takes more concentration to get the timing right but it seems to give me more interesting results (loop phasing, odd lengths, etc).
Dirty flex looping:
Set loop in playback setup to on. I have recorders set to quantize play and record to taste (I use Qplay 4, Qrec 4). When I press rec ab, rec cd, or rec src 3 it starts recording my loop on the beat (ONE2). Then I just hit the track samples pitch 0 (C6) button and the rec ab, cd, or src 3 button at the same time to stop recording (quantized) and start playback (unquantized). This doesnāt give me quantized playback start but itās close enough for my needs and if I want to nudge it to be quantized I can use the trig buttons in track keyboard mode, the track + play command combo, or drop a play trig on the sequencer. Iāve setup my helix to do all this with my feet if I want, but most of the time I just use my hands.
Makes regular looping feel boring!
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Thanks for your interesting input, glad we share some approaches. 
And yes, with HX Stomp it ispossible to control 2 expression pedal assignments via midi ! I mainly focused on amp / cab sounds, and I plugged an external exp pedal. I tried OT midi control of a wah, but it was not very reactive, like delayed / smoothed like not handling CCs fast enoughā¦
Interesting idea! Theorically it can be quantized with QPLAYā¦ 
You trigger rec/sample trig* by hand?
With midi loopback a quantized play free midi track should also do the trickā¦yes pretty sure. I already could trigger recordings and play free track with play free midi tracks > quantized recordings with various length, played quantized.
Canāt wait to try that again.
*Btw itās note depends on track, and itās not C6. Or you meant in chromatic mode?
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