Recording performance on the Octatrack

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Check this Can the OT do this?

Yeah itā€™s possible to record a shortish jam on OT while performing if you have enough ram available. Really wish elektron had provided some way to record 8 ā€˜performanceā€™ stems. Even if limited to like 5 mins. Seems really obvious as a feature considering there are 8 track rec buffers and no separate track outputs. Guess the way the data traffic works is just too much to write to card without problems whilst performing :frowning:

You seem to have things worked out for yourself, but Iā€™m not quite sure why you say that you would separately record both the live instrumentation and the overall performance, unless you have a specific need for that.

does that mean if i want to record all 8 tracks of a sample based performance separately and i use 16bit buffers, i am still limited to only around one minute maximum recording time?!?

Yes. Reduce that limit even further if you are using any flex machines to play back samples.

You seem to have things worked out for yourself, but Iā€™m not quite sure why you say that you would separately record both the live instrumentation and the overall performance, unless you have a specific need for that.[/quote]
Hi Peter,
What I mean is, letā€™s say someone is playing a guitar plugged into the OT. We perform a song, during which he plays guitar, and I am playing around on the OT, messing around with samples and doing crazy stuff. Iā€™d like to keep both his guitar performance, and the twiddling of all the OT knobs and controls. What can I save?
I think I can save the guitar performance, by saving his Flex track as a static and writing it to SD. I donā€™t think I can save all my twiddling of the knobs and controls within the OT (I guess - maybe I can?) but I can record the performance of them (along with the guitar of course) as audio either in the OTā€™s RAM or to an external source.[/quote]

Yes, you can do what you want - I was only trying to double check that that was what you actually wanted to do.

For recording i would think a mixer with this added recorder may be a good & cheap solution.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/cymatic_audio_live_recorder_lr_16.htm

I do not have a personal experience with it.

What you could do is: record the guitar through the octatrack with its FX, and then using the OT in studio configuration to send the guitar signal to the cue out.

The cue out is then send to the mixer, and then recorded via the LR16.

(Probably it can also record directly at the LR16, probably it would be a good idea to use the EQ to shape the signal.)

A small Allen Heath 8-16 track ZED FX , and that LR 16, would probably allow a computer free recording, and even a bit of post processing.)

You can set up audio track 8 a a master out which everything else runs though and then record that using a single buffer and get something like 5.5 minutes at 24 bit and 8.5 minutes at 16 bit. No need to record stems individually unless you want to mix them later. You can also record dubs of each part separately and load them as static samples right from the machine. So lay down drums recorded as a performance to track 8 and load them as a static sample, thus freeing your ram again, then a guitar track, synth track, etcā€¦ I just use external stuff controlled by midi (or its own sequencer in the case of another Elektron piece), so I can do my mixing in the machine and have an idea of how I want to manipulate things in real time with mutes, performances on the rytm or a4, cross fader stuff, or whatever and record that live as a wav I can drop onto my computer.

You canā€™t record all of your tweaks as data unfortunately. You could make pattern chains and live record all of the knob tweaks per pattern (but doing it as a chain so you know how they relate to the next pattern), but it wonā€™t record mutes or crossfader tweaks. You can record the audio with all tweaks, but if youā€™re trying to perform live it not be fun, it might as well be an iPod at that point. I donā€™t know if the OT mute buttons and crossfader send cc information. If they did you could record the stuff to another sequencer and play it back, but thatā€™s another piece of gear or computer or something and not as elegant a solution.

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But obviously you want to have separate tracks that you can mix in your DAW later if you want decent results.
Recording each part separately and loading it into a static machine afterwards before recording the next one is a nice idea. But it only works if your music has a clear four to the floor pattern based structure. When things are more loose it becomes impossible. And what if you have the fader mapped to several tracks?
The OT needs a record to CF function badly. Otherwise it kind of feels like a dead end street for musical ideas.

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I want to record direct to the CF card if itā€™s possible. Iā€™ve only found a way to record to the flex tracks storage. Is there a way to use the OT more like a hard disk recorder?

Set a one shot trig on the recorder. It will only let you record 33 seconds at most. To do this you go to the settings and extend the amount of memory available for flex recorder to the maximum. You then edit the sample and save to your CF storage.

OK thanks. So thereā€™s no way to save a live 2 minute synth jam to the OT right?

Not exactly. You can record them in segments but not as a whole, for that, Iā€™d recommend just recording straight to your DAW and importing the jam

Hey Username, go Project>Control>Memory and set Flex Format to 24-Bit, Dynamic Recorders Off, Recorder Format to 24-Bit however 16-Bit gives you the longest recording time of around 8 and a half minutes, 24-Bit gives you around 5 and a half minutes. Set Reserve Recordings to R1 thatā€™s Track Recorder Buffer 1. Reserve Length max it out if you donā€™t use Flex Machines.

Set Track 1 to Flex Recorder 1. Record Arm [REC], Function Bank [EDIT] and input a One Shot Trig in Trig Edit>REC.TRG. Then PLAY to record. Once recording has completed, hold T1 and EDIT>LFO to Crop Selection and you can add Fade Ins and Outs. Once completed those operations press Enter/Yes and Save Selection as Sample and assign to first available Static Machine Slot. Assign a Static Machine to a free track and assign the recorded sample that will playback from the CF Card. Enter a One Shot Trig on the Static Machine track and press Play. Press Enter/Yes to Arm all One Shot Trig tracks again after stopping playback.

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Iā€™d add : you donā€™t want to use FLEX machines on other tracks to keep memory for sampling.

I usually use Dynamic Recorders with no reserve length. Not sure itā€™s the best.

DYNAMIC RECORDERS
YES makes it possible for track recorders to exceed the track recorder memory and utilize any free Flex RAM memory.

When you change Memory Config usually you canā€™t hear samples anymore. Reload project or power cycle.

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I second dynamic recorders versus reserve lengthā€¦
Dynamic recorders makes sure you can use all ram for recording, but it doesnā€™t eat your flex memory if you want to use it for playback.
I use reserve length for 2 tracks just to make sure I can always sample at least two 8 bar loops and donā€™t have to worry about it.
If you reserve too much it seems a waste and can lockup your memory, just reserve what youā€™d need in case your in deep and allocated all your memory, so you know you can still sampleā€¦

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I didnā€™t even realize that, filosofem. Thanks for clearing that up!

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