Some Questions for the Octatrack Savvy

dust_ward · 2013-12-18T21:59:28.000Z

Hey Guys,
I already have a Monomachine, Machinedrum, and an A4 and I’ve recently got it in my head I really want to pick up an Octatrack as well but I have a couple questions that I was hoping some of you guys who are more familiar with the unit could answer for me.

Firstly and most importantly, I’ve heard about the issues with the bent CF card reader so I was wondering if it’s possible to just load the machine up with like a 32 or 64gig memory card or something huge like that and just kind of leave it alone and load up samples either via USB or by live sampling through the inputs without a lot of ejecting and re-inserting the card?

Secondly, I make mostly heavy ritual/ drone/ doom music by live looping my voice/ my breathing and some sparse scrap metal/ drum samples through a bunch of EFX and I was wondering if the OT is indeed a good machine for real time looping/ sampling on the fly like that? Can I be live looping some stuff w/ the pickup machines and sequencing drums with another? Does it do sample warping like the UW function on the machinedrum?

Lastly I was wondering how many minutes of sample time you get with a big memory card? anyone got a rough breakdown?

Anyway thanks for taking a look.
Take care.

METAGEIST · 2013-12-18T22:12:00.000Z

Hi dust ward,

sample management via USB works fine. So YES to your first question.
I do not have a machinedrum so not sure what “sample warping” means. But OT is very fine for live/realt time looping/sampling/mangling on the fly! Very …
The sampling time does not depend on the size of your memory card. Live sampling uses the internal RAM, its size is fixed.
The manual says:

The total amount of RAM memory available to a project is 85,5 MB. This memory is shared between the track recorders and the samples loaded to the Flex sample slots.

You can do the math: 80 MB for stereo sampling 16 or 24 bit, 44,1 khz

dust_ward · 2013-12-18T22:23:40.000Z

Cool, thanks for the info! The sample management/ CF card thing was my biggest concern.

One more question I had was, is it possible to sample in mono as opposed to stereo? I run my whole setup out through a pedalboard and into to a big 8x10 bass amp so stereo is not strictly necessary for my purposes and sampling in mono might save me some RAM.

deHaan · 2013-12-18T22:26:57.000Z

Yep that’s possible

dust_ward · 2013-12-18T22:35:07.000Z

Sick thanks! looks like the OT will be the way I go then.

I’ve been using a setup of two loop pedals for a while now and have been wishing for a just little more control over my loops beyond just record/ playback as well as a little more loop time. Thought about getting a BOSS RC-50 for a while but I felt like that just gives me more tracks with the same limitations of my current setup. The OT seems like it will give me the ability for more layers, some potential for sound-mangling, and a longer loop time as well as a sequencer for my drum sounds. Pretty awesome.

izzymonkey · 2013-12-18T23:02:00.000Z

Sample mangling or warping (preserving pitch or not) is a strength of the OT.

You can easily slice, dice, purée, slow to molasses, or spin up into gritty, glitchy noise. Essentially, you can - on the fly without stopping - make raw source material unrecognizable.

smais · 2013-12-18T23:26:58.000Z

I have the broken CF pin thing, and I’d still say go for the Octatrack, it’s that much fun.

KrisM · 2013-12-18T23:29:39.000Z

[quote=““dust ward””]
Lastly I was wondering how many minutes of sample time you get with a big memory card? anyone got a rough breakdown?
[/quote]

http://www.sounddevices.com/calculator/

StinkyBeat · 2013-12-19T04:37:24.000Z

[quote=““dust ward””]
Cool, thanks for the info! The sample management/ CF card thing was my biggest concern.

One more question I had was, is it possible to sample in mono as opposed to stereo? I run my whole setup out through a pedalboard and into to a big 8x10 bass amp so stereo is not strictly necessary for my purposes and sampling in mono might save me some RAM.
[/quote]

You can sample a mono input, but if you save the buffer the saved file is always stereo.