Strangely it seems as time goes on the OT gets more and more worth it… 
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You hit the nail on the head there.
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Well the P5 and it’s family are knobby synths, and the musicians I played with actually did a HUGE amount of tweaking live but never saved is as a preset, because that didn’t make much sense to them. They knew where their starting points were (the presets) and they had deep understanding of how the machine worked so they could reproduce their stuff anytime and some were real virtuoso’s at that, on top of being outstanding pianists/keyboardists.
I work the same way, basically. I rehearse and rehearse over and over again until I know what I will do on stage and how to get there, and just need the starting point located and I think it doesn’t really matter much if I start with a factory preset from a synth, or if I made it from scratch. I just want to know what I can do, and where the parameters are so can get where I want. (EDIT: just to be complete: when I use samples in a piece, I almost excusively use my own recordings or, with the OT mostly my live loops and streams. I always have my little pocket recorder with me and spend quite a bit of time culling and editing field recordings to be used as samples)
The whole “total recall” way of seeing thing has been really introduced when the computers started to be the centerpiece of the music production. Then laptop’s became fast enough to use them on stage as well. As a result, for many, music has become more a matter of switching stuff on and off. Because of the very nature of electronic music, because we can produce something that sounds good even you’re just starting to learn, it’s way more difficult to tell who is a virtuoso or not. Unlike playing a violon or a guitar, it’s also quite easy to fool both yourself and the audience by relying too heavily on pre-produced content.
(This was not intended as being a critic towards anyone , I firmly believe that in the first place it’s all about enjoying oneself. It’s how I experienced the evolution over the past 40 years I started professionnaly in 1978 and pioneered in synths and computer-assisted music ever since the early 80’s and the Commodore 64, so when you mentioned the Prophet 5 of course I needed to chime in as the 61 year old fart I might have become 
… )
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Good points, I think that the whole “just press play” nature of a lot (but by no means all) electronic music often relies on too much pre-produced content, I wonder why this is? For me personally on the rare occasions I get to play live, I want to have as much to do as possible else it gets boring and feels like cheating. This isn’t to say that I’d never have pre-produced content in my set, although not always it depends on what I’m doing, but sometimes I feel that a lot of “live sets” are nothing more than a micro managed automated playlist, with a bit of live tweaking.
In the modular community recently “patch from scratch” has become a bit of a buzzword, but for me this is always how I’ve approached modular synth performance, I think I was one of the first people to coin the phrase about 7 years ago when talking with a certain well known and well loved member of the modular community about performing at a modular meet. I know plenty of other modular synth artists definitely do and have been doing it this way for years too, some of them even making their own custom modules to suit their needs (a notable and excellent example being headcleaner) so in that sense I think it is easy to spot a virtuoso, because you can’t really fake it, you have to know the instrument inside out, and know how to get it to move through the set in interesting and entertaining ways, and so on. But even “patch from scratch” now, with the advent of modules that are really like a whole synth/sampler/drum machine in a single module, has become a bit like “just press play 3.0”
I’ve nothing against presets, sample libraries or backing tracks or any other conveniences, I can see why they are useful, I don’t often use them myself though, mainly because I’m not a musician in the sense that I don’t play a traditional instrument not even keys, so my live performance it is different from the “just press play” brigade, and different from a traditional musician/band, because I try to have as much live stuff happening as possible otherwise it gets boring to perform, changing sounds and making sequences and structures on the fly is me playing live. I guess it is more similar to a DJ than a musician although I’m not a DJ either.
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I have the same experience except that i kept my digitakt… I sequence it through the midi OT and i find the duo pretty exquisite…
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Go on then! 
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Who fits into that category of “non-musician who enjoys music”? To me, this sounds exclusionary and unkind.
If you make music, you’re a musician. Nobody except yourself gets to judge that.
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^ Well world be better without their ‘music’ imo. Id feel less cluttered, if nothing else.
In one of the latest interviews autechre said they doubt anyone would even notice them if theyd stared making music today
Edit: pls stay unpublicized until youre good enough!
But whos gonna say whatz good enough? Itz much easier just to prohibit all music production technologies 
Slippery slope stuff here… we might as well not elaborate
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That Autechre comment is true. You have to be the first in music. I remember an interview with the Human League in 1981. They felt they had missed their opportunity of success because seeing Gary Numan on Top of the Pops followed by numerous bands using Synths meant they wouldnt be noticed. Fortunately they had a few months in the window of opportunity and went on to have great success. Gotta be the first or close to.
I won’t be shocked if I buy back a Digitakt at some point. I just really wanted an A4 and something had to help fund it
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It’s an extension of DJ culture, which goes hand in hand with dance music.
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Plus unlimited downloads of pre-produced content over the internet.
I wasn’t shocked when i got meself the digitone 
Pretty sure you will make them machines shine, you seem to be passionate about it all ! Cheers to that
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Hi all,
I am trying to avoid making a separate thread about this, because the Ableton vs Octatrack conversation is tired. But, I am struggling a bit with this question and my use case.
Maybe this is a good place to ask.
I know this is a personal decision, and I am not expecting anyone to make it for me. But, I value different perspectives immensely.
I do not use the OT for live sampling, and I am not interested in doing that. Yet, that is such a huge part of what makes the OT unique. The MIDI sequencer is super cool with the LFOs, etc., but I can do that for days in Ableton.
So, that leaves the sampling and audio part. After Ableton added time stretching to Simpler, I am not finding much else in the Octatrack that - for me - makes it worth the “cost” of the extra time it takes to get audio loaded into it. With Ableton, you just drag your audio right in, and there is no separate step of either transferring audio to OT via USB or sampling it, let alone getting that audio back into the DAW for arranging and mixing.
Don’t get me wrong: As a complete package, the OT is incredible. And, I love it for that. But, I am finding that the cost/benefit of keeping my sampling, slicing, and manging in Ableton makes sense given how much faster it is to get to content. I.e., removing that separate step of either transferring audio to OT via USB or sampling it seems worth it to me.
I guess the things I love most about the Octatrack are:
- The immediacy and the whole being greater than the sum of its parts;
- The happy accidents;
- The creativity and decision making that comes from its limitations.
But, I find myself wanting to “go faster” with finishing work, and Ableton seems to make more sense for me.
My brain keeps making me feel guilty for spending time messing with OT, when I could be going faster in Ableton.
So, I guess the questions are (for those who have made it this far):
- For the use case described above, am I overlooking anything?
- What other advantages does the OT have over Ableton?
Many thanks; I appreciate your time and thoughts.
I feel exactly the same way.
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I don’t want to use DAWs, eventually to finalize a project, so I’m not objective.
That’s essential to me, OT’s main strength with crossfader / scenes, even using resampling just as an fx. Example here with just an OT demo drum loop, resampling CUE as main fx (various pitch and recording feedback) :
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This sounds amazing, is it mainly comb filter? Or are you playing the rec buffer through patterns that have a bunch of plocks?
Mainly resampling CUE, with plocked pitches and feedback (CUE send from the Flex track playing CUE recording = pitched feedback).
Comb filters add a particular sound to it, but main fx is resampling.
One bar pattern, scene locks parameters for variations, and feedback “control”. Hard to control btw. Hard for me to make subtle things with OT! 
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Wow, that’s amazing. Sounds incredible. Would love to know in more detail how you did if you have time/are able to share the file
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