Writing an article about why the Octatrack is still so rad after a decade

…while sequencing 8 machines with 3 LFO each

I also like these:

  • the 2 stereo inputs
  • the 2 stereo outs so that I can have 2 different FX buses
  • the scenes + crossfader
  • OS is still updated 10 years after
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I hear it’s a buggy, awful to use sampler with crap converters, outdated fx and a useless manual. All of this probably adds up to some special mojo.

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never heard this one before! it’s only useless if you don’t read manuals.

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I’ve seen it mentioned many times. Personally I love it, it has everything in it and very often a question about how OT works can be answered just by pointing to a page in the manual.

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I do think it’s kind of hard to follow, or rather to get sense of how the sampler actually works from just reading it. But it’s all there, every bit of functionality is explained in it and I got a spiral bound version with my mk. I, so no complaints from me.

Here are the best of mine that I could find:

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It’s an instrument with infinite possibilities but very strict limits. Some things (eg normalizing a long sample, manually adjusting slice points etc) take a bit of time but generally speaking it’s very fast to work with and encourages experimentation while also giving you the safety of a saved part or neutral scene to return to. There’s more but these are my initial thoughts.

Best one:

Worse one:

:man_shrugging:

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The OT is equally versatile and idiosyncratic. With it’s rich feature set it’s unrivaled, but the lack of guarding rails in some areas makes it a somewhat high maintenance companion. However, judging by the number of studio videos I’ve seen it unexpectedly pop up in, 10 years in, it still seems to be the prime choice of many artists, which I attribute to the lack of any real competition for this jack of all trades.

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Thanks everyone so far! This is exactly what I’m looking for.

There was once a huge discussion on the sound quality of the OT, and in the end, the biggest critic of the OT picked the OT as their favourite sounding of two demo clips. :wink:

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I’ve been reading those threads again this week. I’m planning to resample and live-loop my Digitakt to see if there’s much of a difference. If there is, I don’t really care too much anyway.

I spend so much time hitting stuff next to a mic, then adding bit-reducers and distortion, that it seems a bit pointless to moan about DACs or whatever :slight_smile:

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Because, because, becauuuuuuse, Octatrack owners will be happy!

SCNR :wink:

It’s unique in my (limited) experience, an unrivalled meeting of powerful control and happy accidents. Whenever the question “how do I….?” is asked, OT provides an answer. No other bit of gear I’ve had does that.

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There’s def a plus side to having a massive user base and ten years of forum posts figuring out what it can do and how. The deep fans are very devout and prob spent more time answering queries than I spend making music at all. I keep getting irritated with my MPC, because of its relative newness and user base there’s a lack of info about relatively basic things online. The answer is usually half way through a 30 minute video somewhere. People say buy gear for what it is but really when you buy something new these days you know more is coming and you never know what. Largely because things are released unfinished. When a box is ten years old it’s safe to say don’t expect much more and even then they still add bonuses to it

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A few things I’m thinking…
(After only a few years of owning)
It is a very beautiful thing to own
It’s a very beautiful thing to spend your time thinking about
I love having more LFOs than I need
I’ll never get close to using its potential
This forum
The patience of this forums users/guides/druids
Then the slider/scenes/parts etc
I aspire to use it more as a live looper
It lends itself to playing live and also being creative.

Hope that helps. Looking forward to the article

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That’s a great observation.

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I’m writing the article now, and man it’s hard to fit all this great stuff into 750 words. Still, that’s the job! And of course I keep getting distracted by the Octatrack while I’m trying to write…

This article is gonna be a soft porn fluff for 1/2 this forum

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I should quote you on that :slight_smile: