New OT (MK2) owner here! Have it for about 5 days now. Fully agree with this statement!
I’ve been dreaming to get my very first OT for about half a year. But the learning curve that gets mentioned so much made me postpone it until now. In the meantime I got acqueinted with DT and DN, so the sequencer and the Elektron menu structure I already had gotten familiar with. And only making electronic music now for about a year, but have been putting in a lot of hours:)
Now, having the OT, in my personal experience I can say I feel it’s actually not too bad, how difficult it is. It’s not to be compared with DT and DN, which will have you set up and grooving véry quickly, But if you put in the effort in advance to read up on the OT, read the manual, watch a bunch of Youtube, and get familiar with the basic terminology of the core components and architecture, I found it was quite doable to enjoy the experience quickly:)
I already had thought about what I wánted from it. Or, at least, what I wanted to try it for in the beginning (I’m sure it’ll change in time with all its functionality). That helped. And, to come back to the comment by @cold_fashioned, it helps to focus on one thing at a time. Here’s the first things I’ve got down for now. More functionality I’ll learn along the way, but with these I feel I’ve got my first bases covered and can happily start making music already.
First I tried to make a Static and Flex machine play some samples. Check! Now that’s in the bag, and on ice for now. Second was setting up two Thru machines for my DT and DN. As I’m really curious to use it as a live mixer (which I didn’t have yet). And wów, it’s súch a treat to finally be able to use Cue to hear the next song you want to mix in!
Third was setting up two flex track, to sample loops from DT and DN. One for transitions, recording a loop, playing it, and in the meantime advance DT&DN to the next track that I can preview via Cue. Awesome! And the second flex track to sample bits and pieces from DT and/or DN to bring back in the mix in a later song - just for fun (again: I’ve never had a mixer and this is just só enjoyable, to have this new flexibility to improvise with, on top of the more pre-made DT&DN tracks that I tend to improvise less easy with).
Fourth was setting up the Cue-Out to send to external effects pedals and back into C+D (I’ve got DT and DN in mono in A+B), to use the crossfader for. Which automatically makes you learn how to set up scenes.
I’m súre there are a million things I’m not aware of yet, but all this above already got me really excited, and all within the first three days of getting it. Now in my fifth day and I’ve started making my first néw music with it, after these first days of setting up, learning, and mixing previous material.
Hope this helps people thinking about getting one. In short, I’d say: Know what you’re getting into, get some knowledge in advance, read up etc., and set your expectations to not being able to immediately make music directly after unboxing. Make sure to minimalise your setup for a while to keep things focussed. And keep the manual close. But then it’s actually quite doable in my experience! (I really was a bit afraid in advance hahaha)
And I haven’t even read Merlin’s guide yet (BLASPHEMY!)* *(Will start with that soon I promise:)
New to contributing here on Elektronauts, as also that is a bit scary, with so many knwoledgeable people around. But now I had something to share - about my beginner experience haha - hope it helps someone!
Cheers:)
myself
