Wrong thinking or strange behavior of the OT?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

  1. I connect my minilogue to input “A”. Select a the “THRU”-machine on the track and select “A” as input. I press the track button and play, so I always hear the signal from the input, not just when a trig is set. Now I want to have a PingPong-Delay on the minilogue, go to FX2, choose the delay, set PingPong to ON and … I get a mono-delay. Why?

  2. I set the input of the THRU machine to “A B” and then mono delay becomes the expected and correct PingPong delay! HOWEVER, I have of course the original signal of the minilogue only on the left side, since this is only in A and input B is empty. Understandable…

  3. Now I do a workaround go first in mono from my minilogue in my Zoom MS-70 (all effects disabled) and then stereo from the pedal into the inputs A and B on the Octa. If I play the Minilogue, both input LEDs will light up correctly. Now I hear the mono-signal of the Minilogue on both channels, but I only have a mono delay on both sides. Also understandable, because still “A B” (2x mono) is set for the inputs…

  4. I set the input to “A-B” (stereo), but nothing changes!? Still only a mono delay instead of the PingPong :frowning:

EDIT: I just tried some internal sounds - as soon as the sample is centered in panning, you only hear a mono delay. If you put the panning to the left or right you get the PingPong-Delay. I do not understand right now - PingPong-Delay has to play independent of the panning of the sound just alternately left/right repetitions of the original signal or am I thinking now completely wrong? : Self hammer:

#2

Ping pong delay will reverse the stereo field every time it echoes, so if your sound source is centre panned, there will be no change. The solution is to pan your source either left or right, much as you’d done when using A B setting with nothing plugged in to A.

It’s a weird one and doesn’t work like other pingpong delays I’ve used.

3 Likes
#3

thats not how it should work - listen to this. sound comes centered and than the pingpong left/right:

One more reason to sell it :frowning:

#4

Wrong thinking. It’s even more dynamic with an lfo on Bal than AR / A4 delay. Not a reason to sell OT for sure.

1 Like
#5

maybe for you. others dont want to modulate every sound with panning to get the effect working.

#6

Haha, it’s such a minor thing to sell the OT for, but hey it’s your life.

I actually don’t mind it that way, as it’s easy to control where the first echo will come from. The Digitone’s pingpong delay always starts on the same channel, so if you have multiple tracks feeding into it, the channels end up unbalanced. I hate unbalanced channels!

1 Like
#7

I see your point, an option for pan width would be better. It annoyed me at first too.
I still prefer OT delay results, rather than A4’s.

#8

Yeah, to be honest, sometimes it is annoying. It should have three modes: opposite, left first, right first. And with an “intensity” parameter for the L/R modes.

One advantage to the way it is though, is that it’s full stereo; it can sound very trippy when you use it on a sound that has stereo chorus/unison applied to it.

2 Likes
#9

dont make fun of me - its not the delay alone :wink: there are a lot of other things which dont fit in my workflow.

#10

Fair enough. It’s a tough one. Luckily I bonded with it almost instantly, which seems to be rare. How long have you had it for?

1 Like
#11

Your workflow should fit OT instead ! :smile:
Always workarounds, but OT is not the best to make things simple.

#12

its not about simple things - its about basic things :wink:

I have to think about all this - at the moment its more frustration than fun with octa. have him for 1 and a 1/2 month. sequenzer is great, stereo-samples are great, to have a big part of my sample-library on cf-card is cool, etc. but I dont use live-sampling with pickup-machines or track-recorder. I thought the octa was a little more like a classic sampler but most basic-sampler-features are only available with annoying and time stealing workarounds. only two octaves sample-range, sample-pitch only works with trigs, you cant use reverb and delay at the same time on a track, no crossfade-loops in sample-editing for samples from cf-card (only with resampling via pickup-machines possible) and and and… dont get me wrong - I still like the octa but its maybe not for my way of producing in studio. and I am not a live-gig/dj-guy. so I should have care more about the how they call it: “performance sampler” :wink:

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#13

OT was made after Machine Drum RAM machines, so the approach is really particular.
I bought again an MPC (500 this time), cheap companion, but I don’t use it !

#14

This is exactly the issue. If you were looking for a classic sampler to do those things, you would be better served with an old Akai or E-mu sampler. Then you can do the keymapping, multi-sampling, multi-octave classic sampling things.

The Octatrack was never made to do those things well. It was made to sample/process/mangle audio in realtime. If you think of the Octatrack more like an instrument that you learn and play, or as a device to create crazy, different audio results from whatever you throw into it, then that is a better view of it.

Yes, you can kind of do some traditional sampler stuff with it, but it’s harder and takes more time (as you noticed) compared to the traditional samplers. A lot of Octatrack owners still have an MPC/Akai Sxxx/E-mu/Roland sampler in addition to the OT to fulfill those duties.

4 Likes
#15

I know - got my E64 from EMU pimped with SCSI2SD-Adapter and Silent-Mod. But still slow with loading over SCSI-Bus and a big heavy Device plus CD-Rom, etc. - also got Virus C, JV2080, Volca FM Bass Keys, Maschine MK2, etc.