Vasuri Kabala reporting for duty ie my story of Octatrack

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Hi, I am Kain from Vasuri Kabala, my one man brotherhood. This is diary of my journey to the heart of darkness ie to elektron OCTATRACK.

Thought it would be fun to share this journey for current and future Octatrackers and learn the magic with elektronauts.

First a bit of history. I am Ableton Live addict and been using and loving it for several years live and in my studio. Year ago I started having doubts of its live use and opened a can of worms by checking out some options. Octatrack stood out much higher than any competition being somehow elitist/mysterious machine, so I started watching youtube videos. It seemed somehow familiar right away, I remembered seeing the first elektron promotional videos when they first came, but for some reason didn’t dig deeper then. Finally this summer after watching all octatrack videos youtube had to offer I decided to pull the trigger.

Journey started yesterday, when long awaited package including dreaded Octatrack finally arrived from Thomann.

First the package and all magic slogans/logos looked elegant and Apple like. Opened it and took the machine out, found out that there was a couple of scratches on the display, so it took a bit out of first impression. But year long wait and anticipation quickly covered that, I wanted to hear how it sounds, scratches come and go.

Went with the demo mode, yes I read the manual a few pages before firing it up. Ok, nice, this seems to actually do what videos promised. Now was time to take first step into the darkness and start it up blank.

Huh, this is really huge and complicated (just like everybody told me on the internet). Downloaded Inspector Gadget single cycle waves and some else samples to my laptop and copied them to the CF-card. Fiddling around with all buttons I finally got it to actually play something. There was sound. Started with flex machines and just randomly hit trigs here and there and locked some parameters on them.

After playing with it for awhile, I wanted some drum samples in (didn’t know at the time that presets folder included them already, I started a new blank project?/set? (sorry if my terminology isn’t yet top notch) with its own empty audiopool). Downloaded Tarekith’s sample chains and uploaded them to Octatrack. Something went wrong (or I didn’t have patience to wait) and samples didn’t seem to go into the card. I stopped the transfer and apparently broke something as after that I couldn’t get anything in anymore. Backupped the card to my laptop and formatted it and moved everything back in place. Everything was ok again and I finally got the Tarekith samples in.

More playing… Tested the neighbour machine and created 4 fx chain. Also could get the flex machine to use recording buffer of another track and do some live sampling (somehow). Managed also to load sample into one of the recording buffers and couldn’t delete it. Internet offered some help and told me to clear the sample from the slot. This helped and recording buffer came back. Dunno if this was some bug or feature.

Also tried to real time sample some sound from iPad Korg gadget with just audio connection, no midi sync.

At the end of the day I did have some NIN style beat and single cycle bass going with crossfader delays.

Learned today

  • Backup the card (important)
  • flex machine (basic use)
  • neighbour machine
  • crossfader
  • trigs (below very basic use)
  • fx (basic)
  • recording buffers (somehow)
  • sample editing / slices (scratch the surface)

Now it’s the second day and I got to read the manual some more. Couldn’t figure out how to copy/paste patterns/scenes, maybe I learn it today.

Crazy magic machine this is.

2

Ok, just found out that you cannot copy paste patterns when playing, huh.

Elsewhere tried to sample my beat going on tracks 1-3 by first changing track 8 to master and then recording T8 on recording buffer 4 (recording 4 setup, SRC3 T8).

[FUNCTION]+[PROJECT] - control - audio - track 8 - master [x]

First I succeeded in it, but then did something and couldn’t get it going anymore. Got recording trig on T4 and the tape rolled (then deleted recording trig - to avoid sampling silence) and muted T1-T3 and added trig to T4 (flex machine playing recording4), but got no sound.

Learned

  • Copy paste patterns
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http://www.elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=608&Itemid=30
It gets better! (Maybe after 2 weeks)
There are no scratches on the display just a protection film on it.
Get the button combos guide from downloads… turn on quick record… read some more… have fun

4

Hi Kain,

Welcome to the forum! I´m Multiman (AKA Inspektor Gadjet).

The path you choose is the right one, read the manual several times before using the device, then use it as a “Reference Manual” in PDF to ask specific doubts.

Checking and following tutorials it´s deffinietely the less painfull way to achieve complex stuff on the OT, it helps to see how others use it, and you will end up making a propper “mental map” of what the OT can do for you…

Here goes some quick copying command tips.

To Copy/Paste in the OT there are different buttons combinations, but allways they are quite obvious to discover.

To copy a pattern “Function + Rec”. (Grid recording mode Off)

To copy a track “Function + Rec”, (Grid recording mode On)

Same goes with parts, while being in the edit Part menu “Function+Copy”.

To copy a Scene, You press Select A or B, then choose a Scene and while Holding down the “Select A or B” button press “Rec” (copy). You will copy whatever Scene Slot is currently selected.

Hope it helps!!
Have fun!

5

Yes you can copy paste patterns whilst playing.
Src 3 is main outs recording source
Set recording length (steps) before placing trig. You can edit out the silence in the editor
Read about trig types in the recorder

6

Hi everybody and thanks for warm welcome and PDF tip.

My settings are like this:

Playback
T1-T3 bass, kick, snare
T4 R4 recording (playback trig on 1)

Recording
4 setup 1
inab -
incd -
rlen 16
trig one
src3 main (found out that you don’t have to use T8 as master for this)
loop off

4 setup 2
fin 0
fout 0
ab 0
qrec off
qpl off
cd 0

T4 recoding trig on 1 (setup on recording setup screen and red rec button active - tape rolls and there is triangles on top and bottom of “tape”) - then I delete the recording trig (just the bottom triangle is visible).

Now if I mute T1-T3, can’t hear anything anymore and if I T4 [FUNCTION] + [EDIT] - edit this recording (recording 4) - it’s empty.

Learned

  • You can sample main outputs, no need to use T8 as master for this.
7

Selected recording 4 in the flex slot list?
Put a playback trig on tr4?
Turned on quick record in preferences?

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T4 Playback setup
flex R4>recording
loop auto
slic off
len off
rate ptch
tstr auto
tsns 64

Playback trig on T4 1

Quick record was turned off, turned it on > no audio still. First time I succeeded with this, it was off (at least haven’t changed it intentionally before).

Problem is that there isn’t anything on the R4 recording (based on edit sample).

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Ok, finally found it what was the problem.

Octatrack manual - page 131

When in RECORDING SETUP 1 menu, recorder trig’s [TRIG] shows the sampling sources. Activated sources are indicated by inverted graphics. De-/Activate recording source by pressing [TRIG]+[AB]/[CD]/[MIDI].

I wasn’t sampling the SRC3 source at all even SRC3 was selected MAIN (it was deactivated).

Learned

  • Track recorder sampling
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Good morning again, read manual all the way to the end last night. This thing just grows and grows even it’s basically nothing at first. Just the potential is huge and it’s up to the user how much they get out of it.

Sampled some guitars yesterday and got good groove going with random slices. Of course didn’t save the sample before shutting down the machine and it was gone.

Learned

  • You have to save the recorded samples to keep them even everything else does get saved into the cache.
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Hey Kain, good that you are doing progress…
The octatrack is an incredible tool, and you realise that when you keep finding stuff in the manual after severall years and full reads… Totally up to the user to go deep or stay in the surface…

Once you go trhtough the manual, it´s best to have it as a tool to ask questions, search single words to find what you are looking for.

Recorder buffers are dependeing on assigned RAM, memmory that gets erased when you turn the unit off, that is how most samplers work.

Page 48:

Capture.PNG761×307 54.2 KB


Hope it helps

12

Yes, of course it’s so, now it is painfully clear to me also. Didn’t lose anything important tho.

I am coming from “real” instrument/rock band world (played in various punk/metal/rock/pop bands live for last 26 years) and never used sampler before (if you don’t count Ableton Live or software samplers for last 4-5 years). So please bare with me and thank you for helping.

13

Hi Kain,

If you haven’t already, check out Merlin’s thoughts on the OT; a nice supplement to the manual, especially regarding the project structure and organization.

http://elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=611&Itemid=30

14

Good to read another newbies experience with this deep dark machine. Put a down payment on 1 today with an online retailer. Looking at late October for my trial by Octatrack!

15

Thanks again. Yes, I have seen Merlin’s document, but have to read it again now with the machine.

Did read the user manual again yesterday evening and checked out the chromatic mode and trigless trigs things.

Also sampled today some random bits from spotify and edited samples to create new sounds and riffs. It’s still like standing before huge mountain and just imaging how everything looks awesome on top of it.

Learned

  • Chromatic mode
  • Trigless trigs
  • Sampling from input AB / editing samples (with saving them to cf-card)
16

Finally got something on tape yesterday.

Recorded live from Octatrack to Sony PCM M-10. Edited a bit on Ableton Live.

Learned:

  • Live sampling and p-locking guitar
  • LFO’ing delay parameters to get that “granular” type of sound
17

Nice - great early morning listening music. Has sort of a Labradford vibe to it. I can hear the LFO’ing of the delay params - good use of it.

18

Listening to Labradford (Prazision) now. 2 mins in and yes there is some connection. Thanks for tip, never heard of it before. Doesn’t sound like 1993.

My goal is to create a complete album with the same feeling I get from certain abstract/minimal paintings.

6 mins in and huh this sounds awesome. Just got lost in it.

19

Listening to Labradford (Prazision) now. 2 mins in and yes there is some connection. Thanks for tip, never heard of it before. Doesn’t sound like 1993.

My goal is to create a complete album with the same feeling I get from certain abstract/minimal paintings.

6 mins in and huh this sounds awesome. Just got lost in it.[/quote]
The main connection (for me) is actually the guitar+synth sound combo. A guitar adds a really nice counter to the synthesizer and the 2 together can create very dreamy, droney textures.
You certainly capture that abstract painting feeling. Looking forward to more of what you do.

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Thanks man, even tho my process is currently 100 % selfish reasons with no expectations of any “audience”, it’s always heartwarming to hear somebody making the effort and trying to understand it.