The 'I still love my Octatrack' thread

I bet a lot of people have been waiting to see DT in action before making a decision on one or the other.

I have had mine for over six years and I still love it. It has been the centerpiece of my setup since I got it, and though I’m always open to finding something better, for my purposes there isn’t anything at the moment.

I have looked at the Digitakt to replace my Analog Rytm, since I primarily use the AR for samples and don’t care much about the analog stuff, but the Octatrack is in another league so I could only see the DT as a potential sidekick for the OT.

13 posts were split to a new topic: Sampling practice

Im keeping mine. Its probably the one box that will never leave. It’s replaced my SP-404 and a few other samplers because its just got that other worldly vibe to it. The sample and bit reduction and a little compressor tweaking on the main out ch8 will get that lofi Flying Lotus pump, and then add in the crossfader with effects and effects switching on the fly while moving the fader is just not replicated in any hardware I’ve seen. Cheers to the OT.

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I love my OT, it’s the centrepiece of my liveset - way more stable and faster to set up than a laptop based system. I am pretty up to date with all things hardware, and every other box has some pitfalls in comparison… (from my perspective)

In the studio, it serves as a recorder, mangler, step sequencer, monosynth, drone, and drum sampler - whatever I feel like. For a technical minded person like me it’s a creative chameleon, and it’s amazing how much diffferent stuff can be achieved with this one box.

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I’m pretty sure if the OT hadn’t existed and just came out right now exactly how it is, it’d have a ton more folks interested in it… It’s just not shinny and new but that doesn’t matter because it’s already been doing the next level stuff for years…

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Especially if they dropped it with digitakt, including the updated hardware. Minds would be blown

Been using my OT a lot past few days. A few things kept me away for a while (been mixing finished projects etc).

Baffles me how people complain about the workflow being slow/complicated re Sampling etc. It’s all 1 or 2 button operations. I don’t get the complaints in that area at all.

Been having a lot of fun re-finding things like slots mode, designer LFO, midi arpeggio, tempo division per track, insert fx p-locking, pickup machines, slicing + chromatic etc and finding new stuff like midi loopback scene p-locks/automaton.

IMHO people are kind of crazy to be so hyped on digitakt to the point of talking about replacing their OT with one. So much missing from DT in comparison… From what I’ve seen DT is simple/fast workflow just because it doesn’t really do much? If you use OT at its most basic then it’s just as fast. Faster for some things. Conditional trigs are nice on the DT but that’s a potential reason to ADD a DT to your setup, not switch out OT for it… Makes you wonder why people bought OT in the first place if they’re so fast selling to switch to DT. There’s very little crossover, they must have barely been using most of the OT functions…

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My interpretation of the abandoning the OT ship is that maybe some bought it as it was the ‘flagship’ sampler and it just happened to have more bells and whistles and many prefer the more stripped down DT. The simpler sampler with the Elektron workflow just wasn’t available until now. Or perhaps they realized the bells and whistles weren’t adding to their artistic practice.

Personally, I still love the OT and don’t have any interest in the DT, but those probabilistic controls do have some appeal. Not enough to buy another tool that would distract though. I could build a MAX patch for probabilistic stuff if I decide I ‘need’ it. However, if an OT2 with that came out, I’d probably cave. :slight_smile:

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Yeah, you’re right. I guess there was no real Elektron alternative back then so OT was the only choice and might have had a bunch of overkill features for some users. That’s fair enough reason to abandon it now there’s a cheaper alternative sampler. Hard to understand how those overkill OT features wouldn’t be of benefit within almost every single genre/style/workflow tho. They’re pretty incredible when added up, even years after release…

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In my experience, and many others given how often it comes up, limitations are often better than limitless possibilities. Working within constraints breeds creativity…

All that jazz…

As I’ve dipped into MAX again over the past 6 months, I have been less productive than when it was ‘just’ modular+OT, so I’m grappling with that as well. However, I’m waiting to pass judgment as I’m distracted by being a teacher at the end of the school year, dealing with buying and now moving into a house, planning a 3 week trip out west that I leave for this week, and having a mom with sudden serious health issues. So, I’m trying not to blame MAX for being less productive. :slight_smile:

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Haha, cursed MAX :wink:

I never really had that problem people speak about. Limitations vs options. I’m happy with either. Mostly the latter tho… I’m definitely in favour of fewer limitations :wink: I way prefer to be able to follow stream of consciousness impulses/workflow without hitting walls and dealing with vibe killer workarounds or re-routing cables etc to bring in external gear… Rather have function depth instantly available, even things I rarely use, than have to compromise ideas/impulses/Lose time every now and again… It’s clearly one of those dividing ‘YMMV’ things tho…

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people need reassurance haha

The OT will continue to provide me with new possibilites for a long time…
It is reliable and has so many features.
I have it since Nov 2015 and would say that I use 40 to 50 % of its features.
From the point of today I guess it will be my centerpiece for another 12 or 18 months…
There will be other synths and samplers and gadgets to accompany the OT and that is more than ok :slight_smile:
Until today it is my best buy. I would not know what could replace it…
I am into sound design, drones, soundscapes, ambient, do some midi sequencing and syncing hard- and software with the OT.

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I get it now, DT is for all the folks who think the OT is “complicated”

Got them both :stuck_out_tongue: (Live+OT)

Nah i wouldn’t say that…Live is a different beast!

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Seems that way… Kind of feels like the box another company would make if they were trying to steal some Elektron sales/ideas. Very ‘safe/previous’ by Elektron standards… Keen to hear news on the next big box. Hopefully all concerns will get squashed then, otherwise might have to start referring to post-AR Elektron as Neutron :wink:

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I’m not disparaging it, really (oh god how I’d love it’s, what, 999 midi steps or whatever). I was just referring to all the problems people are having.

Interesting idea :wink:

I was always confused by the notion some people express that something like a year is too long to learn a (somewhat complex) piece of gear. What’s the typical learning curve to be decent at violin? We insist on calling these boxes “instruments” (which they are), yet some think that they should be mastering them in a few months. It’s sounding like some cognitive dissonance is afoot :smiley:

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