The Octatrack's sound, really?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#41

The OT is my fourth and newest Elektron maschine. A4, AR and MnM have its own, very specifc sound charakter which fit very nice to my other gear.

IMHO the OT is a ‘state-of-the-art-WYSIWYG-audio-maschine’. Means - its output when recording a pure (= directly from the synths output) sample depends only from the input (resp. recording) setting.

On 24-bit resolution with fine adjusted gain of the input channels I can’t hear any differences between sample and original synth sound. If this quality would be my point of attention, it is tricky from time to time to find the optimal configuration. I use this setting when the OT plays a loop while manually playing a melody with the same (recorded) synth-sounds. To my ears this is the most important marker.

That’s it about the sample quality. If I want an overdrive I use my old guitar pedals. The sound (outcome) is much butter to contral than on overdriven inputs - this is imo similar when driving an old guitar amp over a hifi-rig, it really makes no sense.

#42

Make the effort to use good conversion rate software before importing into the OT.

Other tips include toggling the default timestretch algorithm off a track if you’re not feeling it and playing back as FLEX files at 24 bit, if relevant.

Set your dynamic recorders to 24 bit. These default with each project do its best to set up your audio preference steez as a project, save it, then use it as a template for each of your projects.

#43

to get best playback results for samples, especially sample slices … what is the recommendation for preparing the samples?

max peak -0,1db? or max peak -3db or -6db? 16bit or 24bit? bouncing with or without dither? so for samples chains the warp makes no sense … so better turn off?

#44

I tend towards 24 bit, 44.1kHz & normalise to -6dB if I’m prepping anything on the mac.
-6 is a throw back to my Akai days, works for me.
If you sample directly on the OT it attenuates by 12dB. Thus my files are set to +12dB if I’m for eg using the transition trick. If I’m grabbing snippets & stacking on several tracks usually +6dB. I don’t normalise on the OT.

Going back to comments about sound. I think ‘neutral’ is the appropriate word when it comes to the OT. It’s not for eg the S950 which had a colour to it in a good way IMO.
Even the S5000 had a crispness to it that I couldn’t get with the same material on a PC!

#45

I’d be ok with the OT if the converters don’t impart any mojo; all this talk about recording into another audio interface with a computer first in order to get the best sound is concerning though. If I decide to invest in an OT rather than a nice audio interface for my laptop, I’d expect the OT to kind of be a one-stop-shop for me. I’d be using the OT’s audio inputs to record sounds from my drum machines and synths. If the OT doesn’t affect the sound at all, that’d be good. I have a Focusrite Compounder I’d like to use with it that can be overdriven a bit to impart character when desired. One final question; say I create a 5 minute song on the OT. Would it be possible for me to run the audio outputs into my Focusrite Compounder and back into the OT’s audio inputs to resample the whole song as a new sample after being processed by the outboard compressor?

#46

^ Prints
Dataline samples all his stuff directly into the OT, or he certainly did last time I saw him. He liked to work fast! His stuff sounds great!

Yeah, no problem routing out & back in via a comp or whatever. Be worth setting up Scenes for pre & post listening so you don’t get feedback.

Not sure you’d get 5 mins, will have a look.

Cheers

Edit, as I thought, 84MB of RAM per project if you’re using ‘Flex’ machines. For large files it’d be better to record to your computer then transfer & use as ‘Static’ machines.

Would you need to record that length? I tend to sample loops from MD/MM.

#47

Don’t expect the OT to give the conversion quality of an RME or similar convertor. I’d day it’s more on the level of a Saffire.
It’s a strange one - certain aspects of the OT are transparent. But I find its dynamic range anything but.
Bottom line - if you’re wanting a fat one shot machine then this is most definitely NOT it. If you want a creative resampling tool, this is a good buy for you…

#48

I thought I read someplace that it was possible to reallocate memory somehow to resample an entire song (up to 6 minutes) internally as a new sample. I didn’t know if this only worked when resampling internally, or whether this could be applied when sampling from the audio inputs.

#49

+1 dataline sounds great. Sold the box to me tbh.

#50

I thought I read someplace that it was possible to reallocate memory somehow to resample an entire song (up to 6 minutes) internally as a new sample. I didn’t know if this only worked when resampling internally, or whether this could be applied when sampling from the audio inputs.[/quote]
Yeah that’s right you can but thats all you memory allocated. Of course, once recorded you could save as a Static then start again!

#51

Don’t expect the OT to give the conversion quality of an RME or similar convertor. I’d day it’s more on the level of a Saffire.
It’s a strange one - certain aspects of the OT are transparent. But I find its dynamic range anything but.
Bottom line - if you’re wanting a fat one shot machine then this is most definitely NOT it. If you want a creative resampling tool, this is a good buy for you…[/quote]
I have some pretty big sounding instruments that I’d be sampling that might actually benefit from the OT’s converters’ “tamer” quality; maybe even help bring all the strong dynamics together into a balanced mix idk. My main synths are a Tempest, Virus Indigo 2, and an Electribe 2. I’d really like to not have to also buy another audio interface for my computer if I choose to get an OT.

#52

Virus was a big part of my setup for a long time & it sounded wicked when sampled by the OT!
Like others have said, what you put in you pretty much get out. It doesn’t impart ‘character’ like other samplers!

#53

Thanks for all the info; it’ll really help me as I decide.

#54

I’d call the OT transparent, if a bit sterile. Which is not a bad thing-there are advantages to knowing that what you put in will come out the same. I’m a big cheerleader for Elektron, but I do have to say that one thing I noticed right away with the MPC 1000 I got this past week is that it sounds much punchier to my ears than the OT (and MD and MNM, for that matter). By all accounts there is nothing special about the MPC1K converters, but it does seem to impart something on the sound to my ears. I’m still learning the thing, so maybe there is some EQ or compression or something natively on the MPC that I don’t know about. I’ll see if I can do an AB test this weekend and will post it up.

#55

Yeah, this is how I feel. Love my OT – it’s the main box I make music on – but I’ve tried doing drums on it and I have trouble getting it to sound right. Going back to MPC1000 for that purpose while I handle the rest on OT.

#56

I did a sample comparison between the Rytm and Octatrack earlier in the week. Sampler-A was the Octatrack and people mentioned they thought it had more bottom end.

TBH I could not tell the difference between the two. It is a very subjective thing just listening with your ears. To determine if there is actually any difference you would have to use some real science ie. analyse the samples with some proper equipment/software etc in a professional setting.

In the end, if there is a slight difference, its not going to make a good track sound bad…there are too many other aspects of a track that will do that before the convertors on an Elektron box will cause any issues :wink:

#57

I used to go down these same hair splitting alleys on Gearslutz 8 years ago until I realized how much music I wasn’t writing because I got so caught up splitting hairs.
.
Just dipping my toe in this time to say that greater productions than ours has been made with lesser tools than ours.
Follow your bliss and try not to get caught in the weeds.

2 Likes
#58

The Octatrack is way more than a sampler. Thats kinda the point, for me at least.

#59

[quote="“jamrod”"]

Yeah, this is how I feel. Love my OT – it’s the main box I make music on – but I’ve tried doing drums on it and I have trouble getting it to sound right. Going back to MPC1000 for that purpose while I handle the rest on OT.[/quote]

Man, if all I have was an OT for one shot drums I’d be pissed! Strange dynamics in this thing for those up center sounds.

#60

not to say you can’t get the OT to sound great through any basic interface/handheld recorder/converter with careful gain staging and mixing inside the OT with it’s built in digital EQ/compresor/filter but any type of dedicated channel strip / dynamics processor paired with a nice converter will give you more headroom and room to experiment and drive your recordings past healthy levels without harsh distortion/artifacts.

of course your stuff is going to sound like shit by going into the red at all times but running your individual outs through any type of dedicated mixer or channel strip will give you much more breathing room - especially when experimenting with extreme settings.

if you want stuff to sound great while jamming while experiencing the least amount of latency it might be worthwhile investing in hardware but all of this can be achieved with built in standard dynamics VSTs in ableton/logic etc post recording