Hallo, I’m fairly new to the Octatrack (MK2) and I need some help regarding sampling. I have managed to sample with the Flex machine, no problem.
But when I want to sample with the Static Machine, I always end up with an empty sample slot.
Could anyone please enlighten me how to prepare and sample with the static machine?
Cheers!
You cant sample with a flex machine.
You cant sample with a static machine.
Flex and static machines do not sample anything. All they do is play back samples from the sample slots.
There are 8 track recorders. 1 for each track.
You have access to those at all times, to sample any source, regardless of what machines are loaded onto audio tracks.
Check the manual for more info on track recorders and how to use them.
Ah, thank you! Now it gets a little bit brighter!
The next questions I now ask myself is why I only can use the track recorders when the Flex machine is activated (which I have done and works great as said) but not when the Static machine is activated on a track.
And the other question would be: How can I sample directly on the CF card and not into the RAM?
Thank you in advance!
You know what I mean? When the Static machine is activated I cannot see the Recording Tracks in the SRC Setup. Only when the Flex machine is activated. Why is that?
And I do not have access to the track recorders when the Static Machine is selected, so not at all times I guess, or am I understanding this wrong?
Hi, there are a lot of Youtube videos about OT sampling. Its a little bit triky but works.
Okay, thank you very much, Dayflight!
It seems I have kind of a wrong workflow to get to the recording track buffers.
I will try to adjust it. 
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I use the recording buffers 1-8 then assign to free flex or static. The big difference I see is assigning to static keeps the ram free. Depends what you want to do.
Thank you @Francis!
Could you perhaps quickly explain how to access the recording buffers without going the way over the track buttons?
I double click the track button. When I start a project i set the record buffers to each track I’m going to sample on.
Okay, @Francis, so let’s assume all your tracks have Static machines. How would you get the recording buffers?
No you do t do that. Let’s say I’m going to do a bunch of sampling. Typically I just set T1 to buffer 1 and in project memory I increase the memory for T1 to 30secs or whatever. Then as I sample I assign short samples to free flex and long ones to free static and build up my samples from there. I like sampling in OT. Other people make samples on computer and load them to OT. Once I have the samples done I will make another project and use a mix of flex, static and whatever. Hope this helps.
Flex machines always read from RAM memory. Static machines always read from the CF card.
The buffers for recording always use the RAM memory.
If you want a static machine to read from a buffer you’ll have to save it to the CF card first and assign it to a static sample slot. You can do this from the audio editor.
And vice versa if you want a flex track to play a file from the CF card you will need to load that sound into RAM by using the flex sample slots.
Thank you very much for explaining me your workflow, @Francis. I hesitate to do the same, but it’s definitely one way.
You can access recording buffers even if all your tracks are static machines by pressing FUNC + Rec 3, and selecting “edit this recording”. That will bring up the audio editor screen for that particular buffer.
There’s also a BANK + Rec1/2/3 shortcut which does the same thing, but if you have quick record enabled you’ll start overwriting the buffer which probably isn’t desirable.
That’s a great explanation, @GurtTractor! Slowly we“re getting there. 
Now I just need to figure out how to get to the audio editor quickly.
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Ah, thank you so much! You wrote that parallel to my last comment.
I think that’s the workflow I was searching for!
Great! 
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