What are you trying to learn today?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#42

I figured out a trick which didn’t occur to me before today, using slices and setting LEN to full the duration of all slices is very handy for using with trig conditions.

Simple example:
Load in a 16 step beat sample, slice to 16, set LEN to 16 (or more) place trig on step 1, now lay out some other trigs with trig conditions, p-lock slice number, reverse em, pitch em, LFO em, filter em etc.
Your variations will only occur when trig condition is met, meaning the beat will play normal when no trig conditions are active, really cool for coming up with variations and getting a lot of mileage out of a 16 step pattern, obviously with longer samples, more steps, things can get quite complex and even more interesting.

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#43

what is the difference between length and hold time on the OT?

#44

LEN when set to slice will play for exact slice length, HOLD will play for exact step length.

BTW in the example above using a 16 slice sample to play in its entirety it is only necessary to set LEN to 16.

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#45

So can play two slices with LEN=2?

Theoretically, could I turn looping on and loop between the starting slice and the LEN value?

This is really very interesting indeed!

#46

If you want to play 2 slices one after another from a single trig, then yes, just set or P-Lock LEN to 2 (making sure LEN is set to SLICES, not TIME in SRC/Playback setup)

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#47

and just to clarify, how does LEN work when it is set to TIME?

#48

TIME is based on fractions of sequencer steps, IIRC a setting of 4 = 1 step.

Edit: Nope, if SLICE is on TIME means LEN controls the length of the slice. If SLICE is off TIME means LEN parameter will linearly control length of sample played.

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#49

Did you know there are two shades of green lights?

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#50

Positive:
Last few days I’ve been completely excited about using an OT track or two for first sampling another percussion or synth track into the track recorder buffer, playing it as a loop, and then make the track recorder continually record it’s own track. What are we calling this? Feedback looping? Self-overdubbing? …? Anyways it’s freeking amazing for developing techno loops, that morph over time by the small changes you can bring in with filters, effects, or simply the continual degradation of the sampling loop. Hope I’m not blowing up my speakers in the process.

Difficult:
I keep trying every now and then to work with longer samples. For example longer speeches. But I can’t seem to apply them very creatively yet. I keep ending up sticking too close to the original recording. Today I tried cutting one up into slices, and used an LFO on conditional trigs to trigger random slices. Still, not too interesting still. Maybe I’ll get there with more techniques, but perhaps this type of sound/approach just doesn’t really spark my creative itches.

Anyways, the feedback looping has got me covered for a while, just some one shot percs or synth notes and a flex track recorder or two and I’m off :grin:

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#52

@Kuro

I’ll begin: lately, I’ve been craving doing some old school jungle. So, today, I’m learning break processing with the OT, from sampling these dusty old breaks to cleaning and giving them some attitude. Then, mangling to oblivion! Lots of resampling and neighbour tracks involved.

Ooh this is on my list. Just found a ton of nice breaks online and I’m excited to get chopping. First things first… do you timestretch them? And if so, do you already import them to the OT knowing their original BPM, or do you figure that out the OT? Would love to know your process!

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#53

Could you expand on this? So, you record, lets say using the master track, then play that recorded loop in a buffer track…What do you do with it then? Do you mean the buffer is continually getting changed from using filters and effects and then at some point you stop the record buffer? Or are you effecting the loop afterward? I’m interested. Thank you.

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#54

Awesome, I was unsure exactly how to use the Len, just tried this and it makes perfect sense now!

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#55

What I really want to learn and make use of is the “Plays Free” mode sequenced by another sequencer o with midi-feedback from the OT. I just haven’t been able to get anything useful out of it that doesn’t just sound off.

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#56

Many thanks! Was able to get it working well I still need to get the independent tracks muted. I was able to layer FX like dark reverb and flanger to the modular from the OT and sequence it. Next up is to sample the modular and remix it into the OT as a new sample then chop it up. Really loving my new modular setup with the two Elektrons. Learning modular is an ocean in itself but tons of fun. I was able to record samples into my DAW and here is a test result

Nothing fancy was just working to figure out how to record modular into my DAW. I can create some cool sets with the new setup now.

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#57

I got around to trying this and NICE, this is a very powerful technique that works with the crossfader with lots of locked parameters. Thanks for sharing and clarifying.

How is your recorder buffer set to achieve this effect?

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#58

Yeah definitely! There’s probably also other ways to achieve this, I’ve seen @sezare56 share some stuff about it too I think. The way I’ve done it:

STEP 1:
OT Track 4:
32-step sequence, trig on step 17 (32steps)
Recorder trig on step 1 (Not a oneshot rec-trig)
Setting for recording set to 32 steps, little fade-in and fade-out, set to record track 4 internally.
AED menu: I think +12DB

Now it should already continually record and play itself. Only there’s nothing to hear yet.

STEP 2:
On OT Track 5 I sequence for example an 8-step techno loop with one or a few oneshots. Then I go the recorder menu of track 4, and change the source to record to T5 for a loop or two manually, and then I switch that source back to T4.

  • If you do that switch in a break between notes it works fine. I’m not sure if there would be problems when recording a loop with continuos sound. I’m sure there will be other solutions then, with oneshot recorder trigs or something.
  • you can even record T5 by T4 (or any other of course) whilst T5’s track level is down. Internal sampling still works then I found.
  • shit wíll get out of hand if you don’t watch out very well, watch out for your ears and speakers, seriously. For example, if you set the AMP on +1 on the looping track, I think a minute later the track will really start to peak my Mixers master channel into orange/red.
  • Also, connected to that, I think low frequencies can accumulate and feedback out of control. Not sure about the details yet, but I’ve been low cutting about 35-40 on the OT track filter standard to not let this happen.
  • Before you start mangling, set up the looping track so that no amp or effect is causing the loop to change over the time of a few minutes. Then you know how to “lock” the loop without feedbacking out of control.
  • I think if you set the AED of the looping track, set to recorder buffer 4, to +12DB I think the loop should be staying the same volume.
  • Fun times! Flick the delay once quickly, and the loop will keep it. Use filter highcut and lowcut, or resonance, to change the loop. Sometimes the loop will get a bit louder or softer, use amp to steer it back. Fade it out by just setting it to AMP -1 and start working on a new sequence on another Track to record next.

Clear?

(Edit: I’ve no idea why part of my text has become large / highlighted)

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Getting Experimental with OT
Octatrack for digital loop destruction (Challenge?)
#59

Thank you for such a detailed explanation. I’m going to try this tmrw… I’m not sure exactly what is going on tho. Because the play trig is on the 2nd bar and the rec trig is in the firststep, and it’s recording itself you get a feedback loop huh… sort of a controllable feedback using the filter and amp to hold it back from the brink? Think I’m just going to have to try it. Nice, thank you. I hadn’t heard of this technique. I make technoish stuff too
Edid- Okay, I just did it…too curious oh my wtf? Wow. Very cool!! But I’m a little confused on what the heck it’s doing. Whatever it is it’s interesting. :upside_down_face:

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#60

You got it to work?? It’s great right??

Well basically you have a track that’s recording and playing itself. As long as you feed it some sound before the feedback loop, then it just plays and plays itself, but incl all the changes that happen continuously instead of repeating a fixed loop. I think it comes from the time of tape delays / tape loops.

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#61

Wow…Not completely sure where this would go in my workflow (need to find the right material to put into it), but damn feedback loop glitch…Hard for me to jump back to record setup in time to stop the feedback at the right time. Also learned something (also not sure where I would use this) when not in rec mode in recording setup mode when I press the trig buttons, it plays the sample at different random parts. Coolio. Wowz

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#62

What Am I trying to learn today?
Why does the TR-8S sometimes drop/add a note when switching patterns?

Pattern change controlled by octatrack using midi ch16 to send program change.

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