Settings and fx chains to make the OT reverb shine

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Continuing the discussion from The OT Filter Is Awesome: Discuss Tips:

Among many inspiring entries in the above mentioned discussion, especially one caught my attention. It is @sezare56 track SAW6 posted on Soundcloud. I find this track fascinating for two reasons:

  • The lush reverb really shines and is purely OT (and is a brilliant example for the quality OT can deliver)
  • The sonic scape you can get out of six single cycle saw waveforms

As I am a newbie to the OT, I would like to learn a few things from this track:

  1. What (exact) chain of effects and their settings/parameters make up this lovely reverb? @sezare56 gives some hints (quotes below), but I do not really understand the routing. I do understand the “aux send thing”, but I am confused by master delay and master reverb and flanger on master - which adds up to three master fx, where I believe only two can be placed on any given track. Obviously I am missing something. Please explain in more detail.
  2. @sezare56 sends six midi channels to six audio tracks (I assume via a cable going from OT midi out to OT midi in). Understood. So he can use arps. Understood. But how does sezare56 ensures that the stuff we hear (a) is in tune if so many arps trigger at the same time and (b) gets a wide span of octaves out of one single cycle waveform?

Maybe the master himself (@sezare56) can support (I know, the track on Soundcloud is min. three years old). And I would also invite others to share their knowledge about the parameters, settings and fx chains they use to make the OT reverb shine.

When I fiddle around, the reverb is Ok, but not more. Far from what @sezare56 got out of the OT.

Obviously @sezare56 already gave some hints. Quote:

  1. […] used that aux send thing, in order to have a master delay and a master reverb.
  2. Not obvious but I used Chorus on tracks and Flanger on Master for the record above.

Thanks for sharing in advance. This is a great forum.

2 Likes
#2

pro tip: add an “@” sign before a user name and the corresponding user gets notified.

example: @sezare56, can you hear me?

3 Likes
#3

Ah, yes. I wasn’t aware. Fixed. Thanks.

#4

Hi. Thanks for the kind words. I don’t remember exact settings but usually for the reverb I increase HP to mid position, MIX / TIME to taste.

With RATE = 32/16/8/4/2/1 for lower octaves, and sometimes I use LEN 64/32/16/8… for higher octaves…

1 Like
#5

One tip for the reverb for a freeze reverb (nice one for a scene): EHX Freeze/Superego Effect w/ Octatrack

#6

If you can spare the LFOs, try this:

Slow triangle LFO modulating dark reverb decay time with the dpth kept very low (1-3)
Medium-fast lfo set to any wave shape you want modulating the speed of the other LFO with the depth also set pretty low (maybe 5 or 6)

Subtle (unless you make it unsubtle) but vaguely suggests that synthetic, 80s style modulated reverb sound.

#7

@sezare56 this is Clem Fandango, can you hear me?

4 Likes
#8

Thanks for the feedback!

I am already in the process of trying things out, and yes, my reverb sounds better every hour I spend time on it … Thumbs up!

Nevertheless I am struggling with some weird effect. And I do not understand if this is due to my poor understanding.

Have a look:

  1. I have set up the OT in studio mode and in normal mode (so track 8 is no master track)
  2. Then I have set up the “aux send thing”, where one track records and plays back in real time (let’s say this is track 7)
  3. No I have configured track 7 with the dark reverb
  4. Then I have a bass playing on track 1 sending all audio to cue outs (and no audio to normal outs)
  5. I can now hear the reverberated bass as the bass audio is sent to cue and cue is being picked up by track 7 (so far the aux send thing works as expected)
  6. But I would have expected that I can now influence the reverb on track 7 by changing its mix amount. Let’s assume I set MIXF to MIX on the reverb main page and set MIX to 0 on the reverb’s settings page - would you expect to hear a reverberated signal? I wouldn’t. But the audio is still fully reverberated.

It looks as if the MIX settings are ignored on track 7 and the reverb is fully wet. Why? Am I missing something?

(Side note: This is not a problem, maybe only obscure. Because I can still chose the mix of dry and wet signals on track 1 where the bass is playing. There I have the main volume for dry and the cue volume for wet.)

By the way: Happy new year!

#9

Happy new year!
As an “fx return” I’d set the reverb 100% wet, MIX setting (not SEND).

With MIX=0 you shouldn’t hear reverb, maybe a scene locked, plocks, lfo…

I made a video about fx send setup, feedback. Not readable for every country due to music rights…I planned to make another one…

2 Likes
#10

Ah, me to blame: as soon as I removed that overlooked, creepy little scene parameter on track 7, I am now able to manipulate the reverb mix setting on my aux send thing track as expected. Thanks @sezare56!

(Although I am aware of the pitfalls scene parameters can have, this did not stop me stepping right into it. Sigh. Obviously I am still on the lower slope of my learning curve …)

Now the reverb slowly begins to shine. Will soon start adding @Supercolor_T-120 LFO ideas to even more spice it up. Not to forget @Burpy’s hint. Thx!