Sample chains: Kits vs. "one of a kind". What do you prefer? And why?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#3

It depends on whether you use the OT more like a drum machine, where each track hosts one instrument, or groovebox. In the drum machine approach you can easily fade specific elements in and out and easily shape elements individually, in the groovebox approach you can use more elements at once.

I use a blend of the two, with emphasis on the drum machine approach.

Tr1: 64 kick oneshots,
Tr2: 64 things that pump against the kick, sub/perc combos with 1/16 delays and sidechaining prepared in Ableton, sometimes also the same chains as in Tr1 with different settings,
Tr3/4: 64 Hihats or Cymbals, sometimes different one-of-kind chains p-locked per step or pattern,
Tr5: 64 longer elements, vocals, drones or sampling from mic etc,
Tr6/7: kit chains as in a groovebox, or 64 percs, or 64 claps, or recorded drum jam loops,
Tr8: master FX.

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#4

Thanks AdamJay and MK7 for your fast reply! Very appreciated.
Thomas

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#5

I’m sorry for asking such a basic question, but I don’t understand what you mean by using sample chains to have 64 kick one-shots on track 1, etc. I understand sample chaining in terms of p-locking different samples on a single track, but your explanation of how you are implementing sample chaining in your workflow has me realizing that i don’t fully understand sample chaining. Would you mind breaking it down a little bit what you are doing? Much appreciated!!

#6

I think MK7 has a sample chain of e.g. 64 kicks selected for track 1. Then he can play with the slices of that chain (modulate the start parameter). You could even have a LFO changing the slice during play. Hope that helps …

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#7

How is that chain accessed though? How do you point a track to 64 specific samples? I’m confused.

#8

Aren’t you familiar with slices on OT?
If you activate slices, the start parameter selects the slice #.

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#9

I use slices the same way adamjay does. Mainly same kind of sounds in it. hats, rides, stabs, perc1, perc2 and so on. for things like when I want to have a tanzbar drumkit for instance, I have it all in one chain. reviewing the sounds is super fast this way, and you can use different slices per step or with the lfo and so on. lots of happy accidents there too.

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#10

Maybe I don’t know what a sample chain is. I thought sample chaining referred to p-locking different samples on a single track. [i’ve only been an OT user for 4 months] Are you saying that a sample chain is taking slices from one single longer sample?

#11

Those are sample locks.

Yes.

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#12

Just to clarify.

A sample chain is a group of samples combined into 1x sample ‘chain
You can do this in a sample editor , batch them , or use octachainer (3rd party free app. Use search for it )

Octatrack can access start/end points once the chain is setup
Default playback would be sample 1
When set to ‘slices’ mode you parameter lock ‘sample start ‘ to actually select the different slice.

If you were to arrange your sample chain on the same way you could arrange drum kits and easily swap to another sample chain that could be a completely different drum kit , it could be bit crushed, mono , eq’d , compressed. As long as the slices correspond ( eg slice 22 clap sound is still a clap sound ).

Depending how you compile your chain the slice could be in a different point in the sample (ie it could be 3minutes into the chain but still be the same actual slice number )

In the files area you’ll probably be able to download pre made sample chains.

Start small and learn how they work.

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#13

I use both. Kits and ‘one of a kind’.

Kits for drum sounds. So then its easy to have a whole beat made on one track.

One of a kind for things like synth sounds, pads etc.

#14

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this. This is a fundamental ability of the OT and I obviously was not understanding it.

#15

A combination approach. Took a lot of time to create but I still use them a lot

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#16

One of a kind for easier scanning through different samples to find the one that fits best.
This is also known as the law of specificity.
If I need a hihat I don’t want to listen to anything else but hihats. If I want Kick drums, I don’t want to scan kits with mixed sounds.

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#17

That’s a good point.

I also often just use the crossfader to scan through 64 ‘kits’, mapped to the slice number of each one-of-a-kind chain. Buildup… drop with a different kit.

To reduce the risk with this approach, I sometimes use Tr7 to sample a backup of the old groove/kit first and carefully normalize the loudness and punchiness within the chains, such that the next sounds good, no matter what comes next.

Just a small move on the fader with large impact. Skipping through kits can’t be easier than that.

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#18

That’s how I do it too. Works great for me.

#19

I use “one of a kind” chains as well as “kits”.
Favourite kicks/snares/hats etc. in chains, with or without different velocities, 'classic drum machine chains, odd percussion stuff like cooking utensils and fav single cycle wavs. Noise chains (white noise as well as different kinds of filtered noise), fm basses chromatically sampled with different velocities, raw oscillators chromatically sampled etc. etc.

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#20

if i make mixed drum chains…

i often setup 8xkick , 8 x snare , 4 x ohh, 4 x chh , 4 x clap …, 4 x rim, 4 x etc etc etc etc.
basically simplify the variant types and the amount for each… make it easy to remember.

same with synth sounds… ussually specific notes through similar ranges of octaves.
and tend to make them all at 120bpm.
i often also fix their spacing to make it easier when using the same sample on digitakt so it makes the sample start/end parameter a little easier to work out (its regular space/incremement for the numbers)

#21

I am reading with great interest! Thanks for all your replies, together they highlight the possibilities of the OT (and his friends). There is enough input for getting me started.

#22

…it’s a finding process…but after a while, u realise, it’s good to have dedicated trax for dedocated sonic jobs…bum and tschak and bass are best to handle overall, if they’re separated elements on dedicated track engines…

64 slices max…well once u experienced, that pretty much any sound can be become pretty much any sound within ot’s sound mutatation capabilties u can narrow it ALL down to one or two chains containing all ur favourite edges…ur most favourite kik sounds…all in one row…ur favourite snares all in one row…and that’s about it…
those two chains, template like already fixed to flex engines as beeing part of ur blank project…

all the rest is better to have in kit selection chains of any kind…
which have then no need to make u think about the edges anymore…those can now better containing anything else but that…

u ca also think of separation of frequency ranges…designing a kik chain means also, there could be some more low end stuff in there…lots of trigs still empty once u setted ur kik pattern…so there’s still space for some low end toms or bass sounds…

same with the other end of beat edges…snare/clap…not bad to have some hi hats or shaker sounds in there, too…to fill up further trigpositions inbetween…
while any bass line approaches should always just contain more bass sound snippets…

and ALL the rest need no further rules…just go crazy and use snippets containing whatsoever from where ever…

designing sample chains for certain approaches is only stress in first place…after a while u really gonna start to enjoy it…especially once u know, u don’t have to think about those essential edges anymore…

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