Using external pads to play on Octatrack

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi All,

I am pretty sure that this would be a very easy midi question but I have no idea where to start. The whole midi thing is still a bit of mystery for me.

I know how to send/receive clock or how to sequence a synth on Octatack but I don’t know the opposite.

I would love to use pads from DSI Tempest and play them a sample in a chromatic mode on Octrack. These pads are wonderful to play with in comparison with Octatrack’s buttons.

Is there anyone who could explain me how to achieve it, please?

Many thanks in advance as you are always super helpful guys!

Best!

#2

You have to play C5-C7 midi notes to control samples / pitch.
Appendix C of the manual.

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#3

Thanks, I use manual, it’s just that midi…
I think that my main problem was with Tempest, now I got it.

Ok, I managed and it is working but when I sequence a sample from let’s say track 4 on Octatrack and I switch to track 3, track 4 is muted and the sample is not playing. It starting to play when I press track 4 again.

Am I doing something wrong or does it have to be like that?

Thanks!

#4

Maybe a Note off problem…
How did you set up the Tempest?
Which notes, channel…?

If you can use a software midi monitor such as Miditest or Midiox…you’d be able to see if Tempest sends Notes off or not.

Is the track led still green?

#5

Tempest definitely sends the notes as I play a sample on Octatrack using Tempest’s pads.
I set up channel 7 on Tempest and 7 on Octatrack. I assigned a pad number 16 on the Tempest to play Octatrack’s sample in the chromatic mode on the Tempest in the range C5 to C7 as you advised and only that range works. Track is green. Everything is fine expect that when I record a notes on the Tempest’s sequencer from the Octatrack’s track 4, 3 or whatever, it is going muted when I am selecting another track on Octatrack, however when I am switching to the previous track I can hear the sound. Obviously it is not useful at all as I can not do anything more on the Octatrack.

#6

So you play a sequence from Tempest, channel 7, and use OT AUTO CHANNEL 7?
In that case, only the selected track is played.

To play several OT tracks from external midi gear you need to use several audio tracks midi channels (default are 1-8), not auto channel.

You can also record the sequence on OT audio tracks with auto channel, track by track.

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#7

I’m trying to just play the pads with an external unit. I’m playing it but the I can only play one from the sample start. Is there anyway to get it to play slices?

#8

Not without some serious MIDI “hacking” using an external MIDI processor. I haven’t a link to the thread at hand where it got explained (maybe @sezare56?) .

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#9

Triggering slices with midi notes?

Long thread. To sum up, you have to send a Control Change CC48 (crossfader) before the note of the track, and assign slices to the crossfader. Add CC17 before CC48 if you want to record in Live Recording.

MPC1000 can do it. With a midi processor you can do it with any gear sending notes.
Possible to add velocity to VOL.

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#10

@tnussb Much appreciated guys! I’ll check it out.
I’m trying to program drum beats into a 1/2 scale timing so that I can have a 128 beat track looping on a single pattern. I noticed that the live-record mode only live-quantizes to the 16th beat. So I want to disable live-record quantize and use a DAW to program the beats to quantize so the ending drum fills can be in a 32 beat if needed. Using this technique would allow me to consolidate 16 patterns into 2 songs instead of using 1 song per bank, which is normally 2 64 beat patterns for a 128 beat loop. I might be tripping but I think it would work. I’m not sure how to access mutiple trigs in a single trig like when you hit [TRIG + LEFT/RIGHT] it only shows 1 of them otherwise I could manually adjust them. Am I tripping?
I would be in heaven. =)
I’m programming it through Reason so I may have some issues with advanced midi.
Thanks again! ~J

#11

I guess you misunderstand how a step sequencer and the scaling (like 1/2) works.

First of all: within each step there can only be one trig. You can move the trig forward or backward within its corresponding step (microtiming), but you cannot set a 2nd trig at the same step or move a trig outside of the borders of its step.

With scaling set to 1/2 the length of a single step is doubled. You won’t get 128 steps, but each step takes simply twice as long. It’s like reducing the tempo of the corresponding track to 1/2.

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#12

Thanks again!
Yeah for some strange reason I think I was able to get the Octatrack to record an additional trig in a single trig/step. I made a vid.
I’ve probably lost my marbles…
Youtube Vid showing 2 trigs in a trig.

#13

You can repeat trigs with Trig Counts* in Microtiming page but you have only 64 steps max per pattern, whatever scale settings are.
*Edit : and Retrig of course, I thought you were in midi mode.

Ah and in your video, I think the “doubled trig” has the following trig with negative microtiming around -12 (half step, not sure of the displayed value, maybe 1/32), so it seems doubled.

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#14

Nope, that’s still not 2 real trigs on a single step. By turning off the live quantizing the trigs are not forced to the rigid grid anymore, but micro timing (+/-) is recorded for each of them, too. So the trigs can be positioned anywhere within their steps.

With micro timing you can get two trigs as close together as 1/384, but both will still remain within the borders of their corresponding step.

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#15

ARR! so weird…
I understand now.
Thanks dudes! Let’s do some jams. =D

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#16

You can even swap trigs order, make the first one play after the second one.

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