Wait for new Octatrack or plunge?

Hmmm. An OT with pads for drumming. Just scrap the Rhythm.

I could be wrong but I feel like you’ve already decided to buy one.

In March I decided I was 99% sure I was getting one. In May I got one. Surprise! By the end of April it went up $100 in the US.
My grey OTMKII was built in the first week of October 2020 in Sweden.

Edit: went up beginning of April.

Thanks everyone. I have decided to take the plunge and get an OctatrackMkII. I just watched Gaz Williams cover the new stuff in OS 1.4 from Dec. 2020, and there is indeed a lot of new stuff Elektron gave to the OT, despite its age. I had been considering going with the RYTM, but I think the OT is going to be more interesting for me. And, yes, that. is probably my main goal for new instruments, finding something interesting for sound design, manipulation and playback. I am sure the AR has that going for it as well, as do all the Elektron boxes, which is why I am drawn to them. I don’t mind the complexity or the learning curve of the OT. In fact, that is part of the allure for me. I learned my Kronos pretty much inside and out with 9 synth engines, KARMA, etc., then moved on to other stuff, and then last year, cracked open old videos, songs, and played around with it and delighted in its vastness, like going back entering an old worldscape I’d only used for basic sound generation and keybed. Much of it came back to me, and I learned a bunch of new stuff. I can see enjoying the possibilities of the Kronos for many years, after having purchased it 7 years ago. I can see the same thing with the OT, even if they never update it again. I like the fact that it doesn’t play all that nicely with the computer, so I don’t need to worry too much about whether it later becomes obsolete when used with ever changing computer OSes.

I absolutely don’t need an OT, especially with my Mac Pro and the new capabilities in Logic 10.5 and my MPC. But I think I will find the OT giving me years of really interesting stuff to play with. I think I will also keep the MPC and eventually see if I can find some kind of useful and interesting workflow with and without the OT.

So, many of you, and the YT and other videos (Flavius Beck, etc.) have convinced me I am going to have years of fun with my new OT. Thanks again for your responses.

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I don’t think @Dataline and @Ess left Elektron because there was super great new hardware in the pipeline….

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Rings very true.

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I got gifted an OT recently for a milestone bday.
Had been wanting it but was reluctant because I’ve got rytm, dn and dt and thought I’d miss the modern features like OB and audio over usb etc.
If I’m honest I really do miss OB… an OB OT would be one of the greatest things on earth.
But even without it, it forces you to scale back and think about how u wanna make music differently. You don’t NEED OB, it would just improve things alot!
Having used it a month now I think the box is intuitive and relatively straightforward (especially if you’ve used elektrons before)
There are some quirks but I think its worth the price tag and will be a classic (already is to many) like MPC, EMU etc

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i was worried about it being a fairly old device and arriving on it late when i bought mine ( roughly 2-3 weeks ago ) but i love it…

Its a big investment and its natural to worry about a mk3 coming out but, I don’t think one will and i think once the current stock is sold they will be hard to come by. I also thought if a mk3 was to come out and be better its probably gonna cost double and that would rule me out buying it anyway :joy:

Also, i find the Octatrack really intuitive and easy to use so far, my only gripe is threshold recording.
Oh and remembering to make sure im on the right track before i fiddle with knobs :joy::joy::joy:

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What is a “milestone bday”?

crocodile_dundee.gif

It’s for washin’ yer backside

A significant year… usually turning 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, etc.

Lucky you! I usually buy my own milestone birthday present… :rofl:

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Congratulations … IMO this seems to be a very good decision … get the OT and keep the MPC …

I have the OT since years and I never thought it was outdated. I often find new use cases here in the forum and on YT and this thing is so many different things in one box.

Certain machines are timeless.

I didn’t really understand this until I bought a DX7.
There’s a ton of FM Synths that can do more, are easier to program and don’t weigh as much as Saturn, but none of them are a DX7.

I feel the same about my (recently purchased) Octatrack. Of course things will be made that supercede the Octatrack in terms of features and such, but none of them will be an Octatrack.

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Ouf, you’re not helping me consider if I ever actually need an Octatrack; I probably never needed a DX7, but I’m certainly glad I have one now. Even if it cost a shedload of cash to transport across a continent and an ocean.

At least Octatracks take up less space.

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Truth.

Some people however are not interested in timeless. They want the newest latest. Which they will then trade in for the next newest latest. Totally bizarre mindset if you ask me.

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Smashed it.

It’s so unique, that once it’s gone I’m sure peeps will start going mad for them. For me, the music that I write on the OT sounds like nothing I can get from my other machines.
It has its quirks but I’ve never expected Elektron to do any more updates, although they have which is awesome. The Mk2 should have plenty of life with regards to parts being available - as much as any other current device. Feature-wise it does not seem dated to me at all.

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If it fits your workflow and you actually want to make stuff with it then it’s the right thing to use.

I don’t see these devices as computers where you need the fastest and latest.

After all, people still seem pretty obsessed with vintage music hardware :slight_smile:

After ordering a new Octatrack yesterday, and then watching a video by Red Means Recording, supposedly “demystifying the Octatrack,” I started to have second thoughts this morning–wondering if I have the chops for this kind of complexity. I mentioned to my girlfriend that I was considering cancelling the order. She said, “you’ve been researching and talking about this thing for a long time. YOu thought about buying it before you bought “the new machine” (Analog Four). I know you. If you cancel it, you will be regretting it for the next two months and then you will get one anyway. Why put yourself through that. Besides, what if they stop making it, and then you can’t get one, you will regret it even more. Just get it and then don’t get anything else for at least a year while you learn how to use your new machines together.” Now, that’s some sound advice!

I had originally thought to get either the Rytm or the OT after getting the A4, since the Elektron boxes seem so well designed to work together, and because I wanted to use the knowledge I was gaining using the A4 and put it to good use with another Elektron box (I started out on the Model:Samples, and really liked the workflow with it). After watching some more in depth videos on the OT, I can see how some of the menu conventions are going to be the same, and some of the sequencer behavior, but I can also see that, with the OT, there will be a completely different way of doing things than I have ever done before (either on my Mac or any of my other hardware). So, I will admit to being a little gun-shy of becoming frustrated with it, and then letting it collect dust. Everything I’ve heard, and seen though, tells me that plugging through a lot of new learning, with some frustrations along the way, will be worth it. I have already found this to be the case with the Model:Samples (little weirdnesses) and A4 (separate saving of Kits, Projects, Patterns, Sounds), but I am beginning to see how much more versatile and sensible this is, now that I am beginning to get the hang of it. This seems to be a common theme with Elektron devices, which is why I am devoting so much time (and money) to a new ecosystem.

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Just go for it you only live once :slight_smile:

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Back in the early 90s, when it started to look all but certain that Apple was in its final days (Michael Dell famously suggested Apple sell off its assets to reduce as much harm to shareholders as possible before it died–whoops), I went out and bought the most expensive Mac I could afford at the time, to future proof myself as much as possible from having to switch to Windows, and with it, switch all of my other software as well. So, I guess what you and others are saying makes a lot of sense, in terms of hedging your bets by getting what you want now. I rarely sell any of my musical hardware, even more than a couple of decades of use. I just saw somewhere on there that someone had just put together a sample pack for the Roland JV-1080, just a few weeks after I’d taken it off a bookshelf (where it sat for more than 10 years) and added it back into my setup. I now have the DIN Midi/USB Midi/Analog connectivity to accommodate several older devices and am using them again, with great satisfaction (and considering cracking the manual at some. point again).

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