Two OT only setup

Hello guys

I´m planning to get a second OT and prepare a live set with just both machines, like two turntables

my question is… how would you split your tracks in 8 audio channels?

or would you rather use 7 ? and the 8th track as master fx? and how would you set this up?

or rather use stems? maybe using the two pairs of audio outs in both?

what would you do with this 2 OT?

thanks in advance

I would run the 1st OT (using all 8 audio tracks) through the 2nd OT’s inputs and the second OT would use the Master FX. This is assuming they both play the same song. If you’re really using them like two DJ decks, so that they play different songs, then I’d use the Master FX on both of them.

I have considered this myself for some point in future.

How about MIDI synch?

One master and the other slave, or a separate clock master?

Yeah, like others have said, if you’re going to play different songs on each OT then it’s pretty much business as normal. So I guess just duplicate what works for you already. If I had two I’d probably sync them and use one for drums/percussion and the other for melodies/noise etc and route both to external master fx via a small mixer. But for me personally the idea of OT + MPC1000 appeals more if I was to add another sequencer/sampler to my live setup. That combo seems almost limitless from what I’ve read on here. 2 x OT would still be pretty sweet tho :wink:

I also think about getting second OT :alien:
In my case they would be synced manually and mixed through external mixer - just like a turntables.
6 audio tracks, 1 recorder and one master track on each.

I guess what I would do is to have complete tracks on each one…

I have a Mungo sync so I can stop/load each OT without stop the music…

but I´m not really used to split “songs” in 8 tracks (or 7 if I use track 8 as master fx)…

that´s basically my question, how do you guys divide your “songs” into 8 or 7 audio tracks?

I use 2 Octatracks. One is for drums, the other instruments.

Drums are laid out like so:

  1. Kick,
  2. snare
  3. hats
  4. rides/perc
  5. sliced loop (complements main drums)
  6. flex track for recording/looping/slicing/mangling
  7. Crash (quantized trig)
  8. Master (often has a compressor on it)

I’m thinking of removing the crash track and using it for something more interesting, like a second slicing mangling track.

Instruments on Octatrack 2 are rendered stems, cut into sections of song, kind of like cue points!

Tracks are

  1. Bass
  2. Lead
  3. Bed (every other instrument in the track)
  4. Flex track for recording/playback/looping/mangling
  5. Interactive instrument

Some tracks I re-create instruments here, like a synth with a filter I can open/close or slices to trigger by hand. Something interactive and cool to tweak. Often it’s used for risers/buildup sounds I control by hand with scenes which is really fucking cool

  1. Either Neighbour track for more fx, or a spare for slicing/looping/mangling etc.
  2. Mix-in player

I use this like a virtual second dj deck to fade in the next track. I have pre-rendered introductions of my songs I can load up and crossfade in to whenever I like.
I chose do do it this way instead of looping the ending of songs and using the transition trick because I can tailor make the perfect intros with less dense instrumentation or fx, without drums etc. It’s very effective.

  1. Master

As for how to perform this… I’m still changing things around a little, but it’s basically like so…

Drums:
Patterns are arranged using the arrangements. Specific fills and sections need to happen at specific times, and manually selecting drum patterns is too stressful and doesn’t add to the performance.
If you want to skip to another song you have to scroll down the arrangement playlist to find what you want. If you need time, you can record and loop your drums while you stuff around.

Scenes control filtering, pitch, repeats, sample reverses, reverb, add extra loops, whatever! It’s fun to mess with individual drum hits across the board.

Instruments:
My latest method for instruments is to have patterns with the 3 stem tracks loaded up. The pattern is a sandbox. Once the track is playing I can record and mangle the song if I like, to make crazy transitions, new instruments to layer on top, anything. When I want to play the next song, I choose my mix-in to crossfade into and manually select the next pattern with my next song loaded into it’s part. Then I activate the one-shot trigs once the mix-in is coming to an end and voila, you’re into your next track sandbox!

It’s essentially DJ’ing with stems + much more interactivity! It’s a hell of a lot of fun. It takes a while to prepare, but Octaedit has my back now! Massive timesaver.

Physical setup:
OT 1 is midi master, sends CC, transport and tempo
OT 2 is slave, receives CC, transport and tempo

On every drum pattern from OT 1 has a midi track that ducks (most often) OT 2’s bass track. It has trigs that mirror kick and/or snare depending on what the track requires.
This gives me the power to change from one track’s drums to another’s and still have it sound natural without strange pre-rendered side-chaining.

OT 1’s output to OT 2’s CD input. I also have a Kaoss Pad Quad that is output through OT 2’s CUE output, and back into it’s AB input for extra hands on effects. I can output any track to CUE output, mess with the kaoss pad, record what i’ve done etc. Good fun.

I hope that was interesting to read and understandable! I should probably make a youtube video about this or something!

Cheers dudes

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Please make a video :slight_smile:
Definitely a lot of tips and tricks here.
Interesting idea with a mix-in player track and reversing drums.

I do like the idea of that way of working (or similar) HOS.

Yeah - a video would be great!

+1 for the video !

Great explanation. I should try your approach sometime when I have some “spare” time.

+2 for the video.

+3 for a video.
That’s a really well thought out system…as they used to say…Next Level :slight_smile:

awesome. nice write up thank you

Excellent set-up!
Could you please post a short video to illustrate?
Thanks

They haven’t posted since 2015, so I doubt it.

This more up to date thread might interest you tho:

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Thanks Craig, appreciated

1 Like