Sequencer hassles. Doesn't do what it says in the manual!

So here’s the chain of events:

  1. New project
  2. Working in Part 1, assign pattern A01
  3. Sample loops assigned to static machines on tracks 1 to 7
  4. A good hour spent setting up effects, LFOs, scenes etc
  5. Save and rename Part 1
  6. Switch to Part 2
  7. Assign pattern A02 to Part 2
  8. Assign a new sample to the static machine in track 1
  9. Save and rename Part 2

Two things are wrong, and not as described in the manual:

  1. When I select pattern A02, all the track effects settings and all my scenes disappear. They only appear as saved when I switch back to pattern A01.

  2. When I select Part 1 again, the new sample I applied to track 1 is still there! It should be my original sample as saved in Part 1.

What is going on? I understood that you could use different sets of samples in each Part and that scenes and track settings applied to Parts, not patterns. I carefully saved everything as I went along.

Hi, Seenfromspace,

1. When I select pattern A02, all the track effects settings and all my scenes disappear. They only appear as saved when I switch back to pattern A01.

If you want the effects from Part1 on Part2 you must copy the part first, then change your samples/machines etc. I assume this will also keep your scenes.

2. When I select Part 1 again, the new sample I applied to track 1 is still there! It should be my original sample as saved in Part 1.

May be you are replacing the sample on the Sample Slot, if this is the case the right thing to do is to replace the Sample Slot on the Machine. Remember that when you change the sample on the Slot, all Machines that uses that Slot will play the new sample.

Thanks for this.

Sorry - I don’t understand the difference between changing the sample and changing the sample slot.

I did copy the pattern from A01 to A02 - forgot to include that in the description! All the trigs copied over fine, but not the FX settings or the scenes. Anyway I thought all that was connected to the Part, not the pattern!

Patterns holds triggers and values.
Parts holds machines, fx, etc.

If you change a Part for a particular Pattern, the Pattern will continue playing the same triggers/values but the results could be completely different depending on what is on the new Part.

Picture Patterns like an old fashion MIDI sequencer, and Parts like four independent racks on your studio where you can place sound modules and effects.

Changing a Part is like unplugging the MIDI cable from one rack and plug it into another rack.

P.S. So far I’ve had a lot of success with loops of various lengths (produced in Logic) and using Scenes to remix them with FX, LFOs etc. I’m very happy with the results, but this has restricted me to 7 samples, allowing 1 track for an external synth on a thru machine. (MIDI program change pain is another sad saga!)

For seamless transition to another piece using another set of loops, I imagine we use Parts? The manual describes stuff (badly so I can’t get it to work) but never mentions music!!! Is this how it’s done? The way the sequencer is implemented seems incredibly clunky. I’ve used hardware sequencers for years and never had this trouble.

Now regarding the sample slots.

Machines can’t load samples directly from the memory card.

To have samples available to your machines you have to load them first on the audio pool.

The audio Pool has 128 Slots for Flex samples and 128 Slots for Static Samples.

Once you have loaded some samples on the sample slots you’ll can access them from the machines.

Remember that a machine doesn’t read a particular sample but a particular sample slot, so if you have several machines that are using “that snare” you loaded on the slot 12, then you load other sample on the slot 12, all those machines will start playing the sound you just loaded on the sample slot 12.

Thanks - that’s a helpful analogy!

However I’m still unclear why Sample-B that I assigned in Part 2 was still in track 1 when I switched back to Part 1. Why wasn’t Sample-A there, as saved?

We’re slightly out of synch here;)

Thanks for that explanation. If the manual only explained how you would do things in a musical context I might have understood that from reading it. I’ll look again at all that when I get in.

Much obliged.

To make transitions you have different options.

My favourite one is to use record triggers to convert the 8 tracks in 8 samples, and then automatically start playing the samples instead of the real stuff, then I change banks or parts and the old parts there are still sounding, then I manually start the 7 tracks one by one, each time I started a track the new machine silence the older one, in this way you can achieve very smooth transitions.

What you mean with “clunky”?

The limit is 7 samples at the same time,. but you can have virtually endless samples playing on the same pattern

But that would depend on how you´d like to work in the musical context YOU prefer. Examples:

[ol]
[li]1 track = 1 full drumkit (sliced) sample.Gives you the possibility to lay out (as in “programming”) any of each different separated drum hit (i e kick, snare, toms, hihat, cymbals) in each and every step you want in the sequencer. You are also able to LFO modulate and/or randomize these selections at each step, which in itself also includes lots of options (i e free-running, triggered and so on).[/li]
[li]1 track = 1 samplechain of i e snare samples (different snare sounds in each slice). Gives you the possibility to variate just one piece of your drumkit. By giving it an dedicated track and just variate which slice that will be heard in any step. You are able to LFO modulate and/or randomize these selections at each step. The rest of the drumkit can be “packaged” together on another track, thus providing you an solid ground onto which you may improvise (and record too if you want) the hell out of just the snare track. Either manually, by LFO or both.[/li]
[li]Several tracks = each track with their own dedicated piece of the drumkit. Gives you the possibility to play (via all track triggers) and record the whole drumkit in realtime. Thus recording your own “playing” but still using samplebased sounds (taken from anywhere). You can have lots of LFO modulation/randomization of each tracks sliceselections to provide such variation. This is partly like in both examples above.[/li]
[li]1 track = 1 full drumkit (sliced) sample. Gives you, by using the slice trigger mode, the possibility to combine the method in option 2 (i e different drum hit sounds), with option 3 (playing/recording each piece of the whole drumkit). IF the samplechain consist of different hits of the full drumkit. Downside = you only got 64 slices in the slice grid, and you gotta remember or at least have a structure of where each hit sound resides.[/li]
[li]1 track = 1 full drumkit with each drumkit piece in their own sample slot. Gives you, by using the slot trigger mode, the possibility in option 3 but still only utilizing 1 track. Combined in sort of similar way as with option 4, but where you trigger each sample slot instead. Upside = you´ve got 128 of them. Downside = you gotta fill all up yourself. They may cut each one off too.[/li]
[li]Parts of anything in any abovementioned options, in a way YOU prefer. All may not be possible at the same time, since they all got their pro´s and con´s. And we are just scratching the surface here…[/li]
[/ol]

^^^
Wonderful post.

^^^

naaww…

:kiss:

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :zonked:

+1 great post.

And if you would like to peek deeper into the rabbit hole:

By using external gear, could be MIDI routing/processing. Specific instruments and/or modules with them. Example:

One of these options might be possible to be used together with drum triggers + module (converting to MIDI). If you´re able to select both different MIDI channels and specify which MIDI notes that are sent upon the triggers being hit.

It could get even more interesting when considering that you theoretically could have one or some of the tracks set as Flex track with just recorder buffers, and have either the sound output from the drum trigger module inserted into the Octatrack. So while the OT sequencer are automatically recording the audio input from that drum trigger module, the MIDI converting side of that module triggers other functions in the OT. Thus having them in a symbiotic setup.

Or if a whole different instrument are being connected to that Flex track instead. An track with recorder trigs spread out in the sequencer, while the drummer are triggering the (playback) track trigs…

/Alice

:wink:

My gripe with the manual is illustrated very well by my failure to understand something as basic as it’s the pattern that governs the Part that is playing, and hence the collection of samples. I was struggling under the impression it was the other way round, and was getting very annoyed that nothing was working as I thought it should from my reading.

It’s happened time and again that whenever I make some progress with the machine, usually with help from the nice Elektronaut people here, I’ve tried re-reading the section on the feature that I’ve just sussed out to see if I would have understood it by a concentrated reading. And time and again I’ve concluded “no”. I wouldn’t have understood it properly from the description.

@gbravetti - thanks for your help with this. It’s been a minor breakthrough :slight_smile:

@seenfromspace,

anytime :wink: