two weeks ago i bought an octatrack mk2 and i have already learned a lot to use it! . but I want to know what you use it for in your studio or your liveset
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I’m curious to know what tasks it performs in people’s setups as well
Mine is at the very end of the chain right before my interface. Even my mixer is sent into it, so I use it sort of as a 4-track/ableton style multitrack recorder/looper with effects and mixing. It would be nice to have something with more inputs and definitely more free tracks but it works
It’s my favorite tools for synthesizing and mangling samples into percussive sounds, but since I have a few drum machines, I’m not using it for that as much anymore
I use digis for midi sequencing because of better quantization, but the Octa is still the master clock
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This is an awesome thread for Octatrack live setups:
Personally, I tend to change up my setup often and use it for different things. It’s always easy to fit it in as a mixer + effects box. I like it as a drum machine as well, though I usually end up resampling a beat, slicing it up, re-sequencing it, etc.
I’ve used it in jam sessions a few times where I run someone else’s instrument into the OT to live sample whatever they’re playing, makes it easy to be collaborative when you’re stealing sounds from your jam partner.
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i only ever use it as a drum machine via loops and one shots
Whatever the mood strikes me to. Nowadays to mix live and recorded audio for short jams. Plugged in Deluge for inputs A&B. I have this catchy & simple beat i made that i kept reusing. Surely will shuffle things up again. Not enough time though.
I’ve used it in loads of different ways. Currently I have DR2 and Tempest going into AB/CD on T3 /7. T4 & 8 are flex for each drum machine to grab bits. The other tracks are Samples I load in and out. I was preparing a set with banks as tracks but find I enjoy starting with them empty getting something going on the drum machines and adding stuff from there.
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I used mine as an FX box for Ableton. Sample something, screw with it, re-record results back to Ableton.
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Mk1 user.
Master clock, master sequencer for all my analogue gear, sampler, fx processor. I use it to make albums, and play live sets.
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At home as a groovebox, to make songs on it.
Live as a loop playback machine with live resampling and mangling
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I own two MK1s. One is in my studio. I use it for all sorts of stuff. Often for beat programming, as a midi sequencer for other gear and for recording live played riffs from other instruments. Then later on in the song-writing process, when the track is mostly in the DAW, I tend to mess around with and mangle parts of the track to see if I end up with something I can use add some interest and variation here and there.
The other one is part of our live setup. I use that to play back stems, for live looping and sometimes I play it more actively “as an instrument” where I trigger samples, mess around with them with scenes, etc.
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Send midi out to other gear, like Elektron boxes and Eurorack. Then taking audio back in for effects and sampling.
…in the studio…not so much these days…but usually as a great midi sequencer/audio hub/multi fx rack with heaps of lfo and slider action…
on stage all the time as a halfplaybackbitch and an audio hub for one or two external devices and an analog heat hardwired to it’s cue outs…
in both cases it’s set to it’s studio mode…u always want the cue outs as independant additional outputs…
and u want always some of ur favourite audio snippets ready to go and to be picked from ur folder structure u settet up in ur one and only “audio” - “pool” that lives in ur one and only “set” u have created…which is always backupped/mirrored on ur desktop also, so that u can always exchange/flip/update ur various content which u always think in “sample chains” to do so…
aaaaaand u’ll find heaps of ways to handle / use and abuse ur new device all over the place HERE…just search for ot and add those terms i “highighted”…enjoy the ride…
and whereever u got it from, that cv card it comes with, including some nice content is NOT the card u really want to see in daily use…get urself two (for future redundance options and to avoid nervous breakdowns in live situations, which will hardly ever occur only if u once have taken care of that) proper/expensive/solid/fast cv cards right now, if u have not done so already, format it fresh from the bottom and start all ur experience from there…
not to mention the classic…whenever u get to “parts” u can think of “kits”…
and to everybody here, mentioning it as a drummachine “only”…ooooooo guys, there is soooo much more still waiting for u…get back to ur desks and try at least some single cycle waveform looping right away…which sound?..does’nt matter…
and always keep in mind…ot’s comb filter alone, still sounds like nothing else out there to find…
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I have the outputs and also ABCD ins connected to patchbay so can route anything in.
Use it as a sample player, sampler, mixer, MIDI sequencer for hardware and software - its a swiss army knife
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I’ve had OT since October, I’ve still used it very, very little, let’s say I would like to use it for live to send my sequences. Or to make remixes of my tracks or others
Mine is primarily a drum machine, but I usually restrict that to 3 or 4 tracks and use the rest for vocals and synthesizing dissonant, atonal sounds. I don’t use the midi side at all besides clock because my only other box is a DN and it’s just way easier to have that sequence itself.
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so I rearranged some stuff. Suddenly I needed a 4 track mixer and recorder with fx, a midi sequencer and an arranger for external stuff.
Glad I had an OT sitting in my cupboard
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i write entire songs into mine and then just use Ableton as a tape machine and i put each track in one by one. I also use mine live as a “band in a box”, so to speak. I have long stems set to one shots and then i play guitar or keys over it, or i “play” the OT by triggering patterns on the fly. but i’m a pop music guy and my songs are 3-5 minutes with defined parts and not more open-ended jams.
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To tell my friend who can’t shut up about what he can do with his digitakt now, that I can already do those things…
in S T E R E O
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and you can move your slice points.
Never really use the midi sequencing or pick up machines, use the track recorders, flex machines and thru machines mostly, also rarely ever use T8 as master.
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