I’m recording external. Sorry I should have specified. I’ll have guitar/vocals to loop. Coming into a Thru machine.
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Lol okay. I just read a few reports in the forums of people not trusting it’s stability and using flex instead
Groovy, that’s what I use too!
I use a Thru track + a Flex track because in my live set I like to creatively mix the Thru and Sliced Flex loop together. Using a MIDI knob box for quick EQ changes as well.
Assuming your audio is coming into the OT on AB inputs, into your Thru track… try this:
and to keep things on topic, the guide I made for myself for Pickup machine setup:
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He answered the question to my satisfaction, so nothing more to see here, officer.
Added comments in italics
I really appreciate this! I can’t wait until morning to try it out. Great idea to make guides like this for the Octatrack!
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Please let me know if/how it works out for you.
This is the second draft, and I want to make it as refined, straightforward and easy to understand so that people can use it to get going quickly.
So if anything doesn’t quite make sense, let me know so that I can improve upon it.
It’s no longer just for me, it is intended for others now, and since I made it out of frustration with other guides and videos not quite getting me there, it needs to be usable.
Cheers!
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You can overdub with flex. The trick is to simultaneously record whatever is playing in the flex, and whatever is coming through the thru track, back onto the flex track. I like to use Cue for this, since you can pick and choose what you overdub.
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Surely you can’t record a buffer onto itself?
You can.
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Also possible with rec/flex if you play the recording directly.
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I was getting clicks even with no audio input at all regardless of fade settings. As far as I can tell there’s a bug that throws in a few dozen samples of DC at the loop point sometimes, and once it happens once it happens every time I record a loop of anything (or nothing) until I power cycle. I like the idea of pickup machines a lot but in practice they were too clicky so I just use rec ord trigs and flex machines instead.
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I’ll try that next time. Thanks.
Re: Clicks w/ Pickup machines - had a friend report a clicking problem with Pickup machines even with the recommended settings the manual. So I get that the click issue exists for some people.
That said, I never got the clicking problem myself. Most of the pickup machine looping I’ve done has been with viola - a bowed instrument, usually with slow attack envelope already. I sure would have noticed if the pickup machine introduced clicks into looping viola audio.
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Thanks for sharing your set-up. I made one change to it for my use. Instead of having a record trig I just use the REC3 button to start loop recording. The only undesirable effect is that if I have recorded a loop and I want to record over it I have to wait for the old loop to go around once more before it deletes.
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Hey just wanted to ask. What is the advantage of using a trig to record on a flex loop instead of using the Rec3 button?
With trig on record it’s a hold and press. With using no trig and just the Rec3 it’s only one button press. Just wondering if I’m missing something obvious? Thanks
Well, first understand that on OT MK1 there is no Rec3 button 
On OT MK1 it is still a “hold+” 2 button combo, because the MIDI button functions as Rec3. And it’s good to make a guide that applies to both OT MK1 and OT MK2 users.
Otherwise, there are a few advantages, but for me personally, being able to set the one shot recorder trig on any of the 16 steps, and not have to worry about adjusting record quantize settings. I can still have it record at the next bar, but start recording on trigs other than 1.
Which is helpful depending on the phrasing of what I have feeding in to be recorded.
Also with one shot recorder trigs you are triggering sampling only once, if that’s what you want. You just leave the trig in place and arm it when you want to record back into the buffer. Kind of “set and forget”.
Perhaps other people can chime in on their preference for recorder trigs.
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Ah. I overlooked that! Yes I’m on a MKII. I can see the advantages of placing the rev trigs in different steps. Maybe you could even change loop length this way…
At lower bpm, the master pickup machine doubles the bpm. I don’t remember what the range is, but if you are at 70 bpm (not unusual for me), and you record your first (master)loop, the OT jumps to 140bpm.
I tried solving this with an empty dummy pickup machine, and I don’t remember what was the problem, but it didn’t work out well. And you loose 1 precious track.
This frustrated me enough to never again look or even think about pickup machines
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they are a little bit fiddly to setup and handle, but once you have it right, you’ll love it!