it sounds like this joke might have gone over my head, what was the punchline of this joke?
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this will show how little I know about the octatrack crossfader but could you have digitakt audio routed to play on side A and flip to octatrack audio on side B and then while playing something on side B change back to an octatrack side A audio program for a dj set type of feel? Or are side A and side B internal only concepts? I think the mixing 2 tracks with the crossfader is a super tempting concept even if only appreciating the octatrack for it’s most surface level feature set…
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I hope VC does an in depth video on the dt update!
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I used to think it was kind of octatrack or digitakt, but now I can kinda see the merit of having both if you can afford such a thing as both of any 2 similar devices. I couldn’t give up the immediacy of digitakt, but I could sure enjoy the complexity of OT’s features.
Yeah, it’s why I’ve been slightly tempted to look into getting a Model: Cycles or similar so I’d have something relatively simple and quite immediate with closer to one knob per function, and run it into the OT for more complex compositional tasks.
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From a hiphop perspective, octatrack slicing awesome, really like making a grid (64 slice grid over the 2 or 4 bars I want to chop) and then tweaking start and stop points, parts are useful too, parts basically hold your various machine settings, I usually make a basic beat then copy the part for another set of patterns to make a hook,bridge or b section, a simple example is that part a will have short chops then for part b I extend the release times to let the sample sing a little more
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A nice thing you could do with the OT + DT combo is bounce samples back and forth; you could play out a clean sample from the DT, record it into the OT then apply whatever FX to it then re-record back into the DT to be played in a simpler/more immediate way if you prefer the workflow.
It’s a real shame that the Model: Samples doesn’t have audio in for sampling, because it would be a nice combo with the OT using this technique I think.
I can see that being a business decision on the part of the company. there’s nothing kid like about model samples, only the lack of direct sampling. if it were sold by TE it would have direct audio and audio over usb and cost a thousand bucks.
Probably yeah. I do think it hurts the sales of the Samples though, it’s currently 26th in sales rank on Thomann for drum machines, whereas the Cycles is sitting at number 12. A basic mono input and even a short recording time would have gone a long way to make it more desirable I think.
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the thing I like most about Elektron is the things they do that other devs wouldn’t do, like the chance knob on the model series, later also added to the digitakt, and the bit reduction feature they just added even though the digitakt already had the bitcrusher feature… this is the sign of a great dev…
wes /softer said in his video that the digitakt still has room for more development, I think there are more good things ahead for version one of the digitakt and i wouldn’t be suprised if they added some more precise functionality over the sample slicing
The incremental values on the digitakt. This is probably what I missed the most on OT.
This gets really apparent if you do single cycle waveforms, it’s honestly a lot better on DT.
Another one I miss is parameter locking PC on midi tracks.
It will take a long time till you get “playful” with OT. What I mean by playful is that when you know the device to the extent that you can playfully explore it in a flow state. This is the next step after learning a device and also this is the most fun state as well.
It took me about a year with DT and has taken me 3-4 years with OT.
I’ve been enjoying Jon Wayne’s content lately , he uses OT for hip hop and does a really good job at it.
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well! thanks for the question. I m really glad that this thread turned out allright.
I guess we’ll see, I created a new thread shortly after a while creating this one. As I explored my withins for a few days and wanted to share.
My music is currently in this state. And in parts I am not really satisfied with my musicmanship and want to improve, I understand that I need practice playing. I guess I am already settled on the OT.
I listened through your discography and from you’re style of music I would say that Octatrack is probably a better fit…
Octatrack rewards creativity a lot more than Digitakt imo, but differently than Digitakt rewards creativity.
But since you use vocals and long form stereo material I would say Octatrack is probably better suited for you.
For me it didn’t take that long to learn the functions of the Octatrack, but it took a long time to be playful and creative with it… but once you get there, it’s a lot of fun…
I really enjoyed your music btw all three EP’s/Singles
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Hi, @MichaalHell, thanks for the info and for listening.
I am really glad with how this community accepts newcomers. Looking forward to getting my octa and start digging! Currently thinking with where I need to go with vocals and preocta chain in general.
I have a line6 pod MissingNo without proper power, Zoidy Fuzz, and zoom, also wondering if I can route to PC, which I guess should be totally doable !
Depends what you wanna use them for. If you wanna MAKE beats, play with the individual sounds fluidly, or easily create mayhem, Digitakt. If you want to MIX samples and loops (especially stereo ones), use a variety of effects, launch individual tracks in time, and run a MIDI setup, Octatrack. Both do most of what the other does (especially now with Digitakt 1.50), just not as well. So you don’t exactly lose out by getting either. But if you require what a certain one does well, get that one. If you don’t know, decide based on form factor and if the UX looks enjoyable.
I second this, the Digitakt is real convenient but I have been using the Octatrack for MIDI stuff because I just got a Virus TI and I know that if I get back into playing live dance music (took a backseat) that those two are going to be the rig. I see Octatrack as somewhat like a DAW in that it’s kind of utilitarian, except it still can do quick Elektron stuff it’s just not the focus.
There are a few simple things that the DT does better. For example, when it comes to changing a sample’s pitch, the OT can only go up and down one octave, and honestly sometimes it doesn’t sound great when pitched more than 2-3 semitones – it can sound interesting, but I don’t find it very suitable for playing something chromatically (even with the time stretch disabled). Another thing sometimes I miss on the OT is having an amp envelope with a decay stage – OT’s amp envelope is very useful and precise, but only has attack, hold, and release stages. I also like Control All, and the OT doesn’t have that – scenes almost make up for it though.
This is far from an exhaustive list of differences. It’s just a couple things that sometimes make me pull the DT off the shelf.
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Hey, thanks everyone for all of the feedback. I’m not planning on making any kind of decision one way or the other for a little while at least. I’m thinking maybe with all these new features something might click after I’ve had a bit longer with them.
For example, I’ve been enjoying chopping samples on my Sampletrak, sequencing them from my Digitakt’s MIDI tracks and then capturing loops with the fixed length recording. And since those loops were sequenced to a grid they’re easier to play around with using grid slicing. That’s pretty fun.
Also, since those slices can be triggered with MIDI notes it’s a whole lot easier to use that trig preview glitch with the MIDI tracks to get little scenes going. I would not be at all surprised if that trick got a lot more popular.
But I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about switching things up for a little while now. I think that coming up with all these little work arounds and tricks can be fun. But I think it might be more fun to have an Octatrack since it just does the thing.
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