Sample chains Vs Sample change

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Is there a benefit/difference between using sample chains to cycle through different samples on one track, over programming cycling through the sample pool samples on one track, or vice versa?

2

Well, with sample chains you can have 64 kicks in one file instead of 64 files. The sample slot list can contain up to 128 samples.

You can run out of free slots very quickly depending on your projects.

If each of those samples can contain 64 slices, we have 128x64 = 8192 slices at handā€¦

This is for the flex machines, add to this the static machines, you get 16384 slices at hand.

You should read the small guide Merlin did about the OT if you want to get more in depth :wink:

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3

Thanks

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4

also, with chains, the Start parameter can be modulated by LFOā€™s to scan through the samples, but the Slot parameter is not an LFO modulation.

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5

Thanks thatā€™s useful information. Only just bought my Octa and was wondering about LFO cycling samples for chord progressions etc. I wrongly assumed you could do this with sample slots for some reason. But you can just program sample slot changes on one track with plocks right?

So is Chains how most people load their samples in general. Do most people just have all their favourite kicks (for example) on one Chain, load it in every project and then just set the start point to whichever kick they want? Or do people only really use Chains for crazy sample cycle effects?

6

yes, mostly everything i put in the OT is in the form of a chain.
there is a massive difference between cycling through samples with an LFO, and p-locking a slot to a trig. LFOā€™s allow for real time manipulation of the chain, changing LFO shapes, speeds, depth etc. Itā€™s a completely different world from using slots.
Furthermore, 128 slots is quite limiting, but 128 slots x 64 samples per slot is a lot more opened !
Thereā€™s zero reason NOT to use chains. Sure, it does require a bit of preparation, but the results are so rewarding, that one would be missing out a big part of the OTā€™s power by not using them.
More uses include creating chains with different notes from a synth, all sticking to a particular scale. You can then create random arps from the chain. If you include silent slices in your chain, you will get random silent steps as well, which can inject a lot of variation in a straight 16th sequence.

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7

Sounds really interesting. Can anyone point me to a good guide on building and using chains please? Especially the technical info for building them, length, number and length of samples, space in between samples etc.

Thanks a lot

8

beating stephane to the buzzerā€¦

9

orā€¦if you want to keep your chain making in the OTā€¦hereā€™s a little guide I did some time back:

if you want to stay in the OT to make chains rather than use Live etc:

this is a direct port from the ableton method of making chains using drum racks and midi triggers.

Keep things organized and set up a dedicated chain making project.
lets say you want to make a chain of short one shot percussion sounds. if necessary set your project tempo accordingly (and turn time stretch off for the samples) to give the individual hits time to play to completion without being cut off by the following trig or use trigs at the correct beat divisions for your material 1/16ths, 1/8ths, 1/4ths etc

[ul]
[li]load up slots with as many samples as you want in your chain (up to 64)[/li]
[li]lay out the same number of trigs[/li]
[li]sample lock each trig to the samples in your slots[/li]
[li]set up a track recorder with a one shot trig to record the track youā€™re placing trigs on (default amount of ram assigned to the track recorders is 16 seconds. 64 steps or 4 bars at 120 bpm is 8 seconds for example.)[/li]
[li]press play[/li]
[li]save your recorded sample[/li]
[li]load the sample to a slot, slice it, name it and save it (important as the slice info is not by default saved with the sample)[/li]
[/ul]

This method ensures you have the same temporal distance between your sample starts in the chain for the OTā€™s auto slice divisions to work. I donā€™t know whether itā€™s quicker than having samples of silence to paste hits into but I suspect when the dedicated project is set up properly , it is.

Also by setting up the correct tempo multipliers at fractions (timestretch on or off depending) you can even make chains of quite long phrases that you have sampled previously.

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10

If you donā€™t want to do it on the OT and happen to use Windows, I made a windows application for chains a while back. I use it a lot myself.

http://www.elektronauts.com/t/octachainer-v1-0-uploaded-a-tool-for-sample-chains/10334/84425

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11

Thanks Abhoth, Iā€™m probably being blind, but I couldnā€™t see a link to download v1.1?

Iā€™ve tried this, but just get an internal error message from Elektronauts: http://test.elektronauts.com/files/index/120

Iā€™m on a mac, but Iā€™d like to see if the new version will work under Wine.

Thanks

12

Its in the files section as ā€œOctaChainer v1.1ā€.

http://www.elektronauts.com/files/download/120

Iā€™m very interested in knowing if it works under Wine or not, so please tell how it goes. :slight_smile:

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13

Thanks, Iā€™ll try it later today and let you know

14

Seems to work fine with Wine under OSX.

It has produced a combined wav file and an .ot file.

I only got my Octa today (new user), where do need to put the files on the CF please?

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15

Iā€™m not in front of my ot right now, but I think you want the AUDIO folder.

16

OK, put both wavs and .ot file in the audio folder, all loads up fine.

However, I canā€™t work out how to modulate the exact chop times. I can put an LFO to modulate this, but it just triggers it at random points in the combined sample.

How do you get it to trigger exact chop points within the sample?

17

make sure you slice the sample into the ā€œcorrectā€ number of slices
AND
make sure you turn the Slices switch ON in the Playback Menu
cheers !

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18

Thanks, have it working now, brilliant!

Iā€™m using the program above, which chops it all automatically for me, works great.

Iā€™ve done 2 so far, one with 9 chops and one with 16 chops. both seem to work fine, although obviously, if i choose a slice greater than 9 or 16, it is just silent.

What is the ā€˜correctā€™ number of slices?

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19

glad you got it working !
there is no ā€œcorrectā€ number of slices, although the OT slices in multiples of 8 by default. But you can add or take away slices manually.
Also, thereā€™s nothing wrong with having silent slices, if for example you want to be able to ā€œmuteā€ some steps by having a trig play a silent slice.
So, in practice, Iā€™d stay with 4/8/16/32/64 slices to begin with, until you get familiar with all the possibilities that slices offer
Cheers

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20

Thanks.

When using slices, is there also a way to modulate or plock sample start points of the individual slices (other than just the slice points)?

Itā€™s nice having loads of samples in one file, but being able to modulate start points is also very cool.