Review: Octatrack at year 8 - Is it still worth it?

Got my eye out on eBay UK for a mk1 at the right price and I’m in :star_struck:

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I know it’s asked many times but is the price difference worth get a MK2? It’s around £300 second hand difference between the two

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i personally don’t see any advantage that would justify the extra money for “upgrading”: it is the exactly same engine and machine, except the additional buttons for quicker access to certain functions.
as soon as you get used to the workarounds with the function-button-combinations on the MK1 and feel comfortable to them, the only advantage that i personally see is the faster accessibility of parts through the new button on the MKII, but that’s only my personal preference here…

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Regarding the extra buttons , is it like wow so much better dude or yeah a bit better…

My tight fisted rationale for a used mk1 is on the balance lol

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well, this, again, depends on your experience with the machine itself.
i would say that you should find someone / a shop that has the MK1 and try it. if you feel that the fewer buttons are somehow “interrupting” the intuitive way of playing it, then you should go for the MKII. if you don’t care so much about the parameters that can be accessed a little quicker by the additional buttons, a MKI would be more than enough.

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Cheers mate, I think someone on here once did a very detailed 1 vs 2 comparison . I’ll dig it out

I think as a beginner you‘d need almost a week in the shop to find that out
Maybe exaggerating but it takes a while for sure

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absolutely true: you should, at least, have it for some weeks to actually understand its basic structure , so it should be a close friend, not a shop :wink:

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The new OT MK2 and Digitakt share the same type of display (same brightness, same technology, just different colors).

Might be the same tech, but for me it seems that the Digi yellow has higher contrast than the pale blue OT. But the bigger problem is that the OT’s graphical user interface has not been updated to take advantage of the better display.

The OT is the only current Elektron product that uses the old GUI. I think it’s reasonable to expect that it should get updated as well. At this point it might not even be such a huge effort, as the underlying tech is all there – Elektron just needs to redesign the visuals.

ive had both and honestly I’d say yes. If you can afford it. I wouldn’t put yourself out if you’d have to stretch to get the extra or anything but I really dig the backlit buttons and the screen is nice too. I wouldn’t have upgraded unless I hadn’t had to sell my old OT for emergency money but now I’ve got a mk2 I definitely prefer it

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I love my OT MK1! There was never a steep learning curve, more of having to decide how you were going to use it and remembering exactly how you’ve set it up for muscle memory per channel machines. I’ve used it as a main brain for many years and love the insane capabilities it offers on all fronts.

However, I’d be willing to trade it in for a digitakt. And before I get jumped, I bought the digitakt when it first released and shortly sold it. Not because I didn’t like it, I was having a hard financial crisis and decided the OT was worth keeping over the DT at that moment. Over the past couple of years I’ve changed my approach as well as view on how to make music and I do not require the sample mangling I once thought I’d use throughout.

I love the classic silvers but I feel I’m going to simplify my setup and either trade or sell my octatrack soon.

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I’m saying that OT is best for longer samples and fx processing meanwhile DT is a breeze for working with one shots and shorter sample.

Overbridge for the DT is a dream, but trading out your OT is going to leave you wanting for playing around with streams of audio as though it were playing between your fingertips

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Love that analogy- streams of audio between your fingers

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Like @jb I’ve owned both. Owned about 4 Mk1’s over the years actually… I’ve had my Mk2 since about Oct 17 and this is the longest I’ve owned an OT which will mean it’s no surprise that I too think the Mk2 is worth it.

Hands up, it could just be me and how I got on with the Mk1 but I find I’m much quicker getting around on the Mk2 with the small UI tweaks. And, being honest, coming to it with some prior OT experience has helped, but I enjoy playing the Mk2 a lot more than I did the Mk1. Again, I’ve learned a lot in the years since I first got a Mk1 and that will influence things too. Im waffling now though! In short, the Mk2 is the better machine but if keen to save pennies the Mk1 will take you just as far.

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The OT is the goat. Things are gonna get too computer/touch screen centric in these next few years.

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The other day I stumbled onto a Gearslutz thread from 2014 where the OP was calling hip hop from the early to mid 2000s “oldschool.”

agreed mine too

H[quote=“norbertdragan, post:58, topic:70976”]
After a whole day of staring at the screen at work, my eyes are too tired to focus on the tiny screen.
[/quote]

I hear you! Do you remember the old Gameboy magnifying screens? They were a physical magnifying glass that was fitted onto the unit for folks who wanted more than a few cm. Perhaps something simple and cheap like that exists. I’ll do some browsing.

OT is really very cool (especially as a “desert island” instrument) and I feel it’s a shame for the screen to be a factor.

Do also keep in mind that after a short while, the OT screen becomes more of a “hint” than something you necessarily have to pay close attention to and read every pixel of. I often have my eyes closed as I ambiently jam.

Edit: oh, this was discussed not so long ago :slight_smile: https://www.elektronauts.com/t/external-screen-for-octa-mk2/

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Thanks for the input!

Yes, I saw that topic. I researched magnifying options, but got overwhelmed quickly. But I might reconsider this option as I feel kinda lost and sad since I returned the OT. :smiley:

I secretly hope that Elektron will release a performance mixer at NAMM and/or update the software on the OT.

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