I’ve been using the OT for about a month, getting to know it and love, but I have a few questions I can’t find an answer for:
Chords in step recording mode: If I’m playing a chords with 2 hands, how the hell do I hold down the trigger for the relevant step? Yesterday I used my nose, but it was quite a ridiculous situation…
Static long samples: I have a very long samples and I want to write patterns to it, I setup a one-shot trigger and go, but is there a way I can have a section of it looping while I work on a pattern? For example, the first 4 bars loop while I work on the intro, then the next four and so forth?
Templates: Is there a way to use templates? For example, setup the OT so all banks/patterns start with a flex recording machine?
When do you use flex and when static? I understand that flex are in Ram and static stream from the card, but I’m unsure when to use which, I was using flex only, but this led to running out of memory…
You might be able to work this out by setting up a slice grid and then changing the slice at the appropriate time. I’ve done something similar where I made variations on a loop, saved it as one sample, and sliced it into 1 bar long slices. Then each time the loop was triggered, I had it select a random slice.
When do you use flex and when static? I understand that flex are in Ram and static stream from the card, but I’m unsure when to use which, I was using flex only, but this led to running out of memory…
The main reason to use a flex machine is to modulate the STRT parameter with an LFO or the scene slider. A static machine can handle parameter locks for the STRT parameter just fine though.
Chords in step recording mode: If I’m playing a chords with 2 hands, how the hell do I hold down the trigger for the relevant step? Yesterday I used my nose, but it was quite a ridiculous situation…
There’s definitely a bit of a usability oversight here. I think the idea is that the max of 4 trigs is supposed to be possible to play with one hand. That might be true for certain chords, but definitely not for others. I’d play the 1st 3 notes in the cases where you can’t, and add NOT4 manually.
Static long samples: I have a very long samples and I want to write patterns to it, I setup a one-shot trigger and go, but is there a way I can have a section of it looping while I work on a pattern? For example, the first 4 bars loop while I work on the intro, then the next four and so forth?
Convert the one-shot back to a regular trig and you should have it loop. Adjust STRT to scrub to the relevant section.
Templates: Is there a way to use templates? For example, setup the OT so all banks/patterns start with a flex recording machine?
Templates are a DIY thing on the OT. I’ve cumulatively tweaked a custom project with all my edits, then go PROJECT -> SAVE TO NEW for each new one. Specifically, I use bank 1-12 as slots for compositions (with tweaked default recorder, machine, fx and MIDI settings), and 13-16 as collections of track presets that I can copy/paste into the regular songs at will. 4 banks x 4 parts x 8 tracks give you 128 track templates (112 if you use a MASTER track) for audio tracks and 128 for MIDI tracks. Before I had this system worked out, the OT felt a little hollow as an instrument. Others might disagree, but I hated not being able to just turn it on and go (because according to some permutation of Murphy’s Law, whatever I wanted to use was always in a different project).
When do you use flex and when static? I understand that flex are in Ram and static stream from the card, but I’m unsure when to use which, I was using flex only, but this led to running out of memory…
As a rule of thumb, for anything 30s or longer, I use STATICs. For everything else I use FLEXs (unless I’m out of flex slots). As mentioned, modulating STRT is one thing. The manual outlines the other differences (mainly sample editing), but not in a consolidated way.
Hey, could you elaborate on this a bit for me? I’m in a similar situation, but a few steps behind you: I have a template project and each time I sit down fresh I do “save to new” and get to work. But I hate having to name a track before it’s started, and the machine won’t let you edit project names. I would start work on the default itself, but the damn thing autosaves so next time I fire it up it’s no longer clean.
What’s your workflow? Is your template a kind of scratchpad where you have access to banks 1-12 of work in progress tracks, and then when one of them is ready to graduate you do “save to new” and continue? Tempo is project-wide, so how do you deal with different tempos for different banks? How do you deal with flex memory getting full?
Thanks for any light you can shine on this!
I have a template project and each time I sit down fresh I do “save to new” and get to work. But I hate having to name a track before it’s started, and the machine won’t let you edit project names.
Hmm. Projects are definitely (re)nameable. Banks, patterns and tracks are definitely not. Not sure exactly where you’re coming from there.
What’s your workflow? Is your template a kind of scratchpad where you have access to banks 1-12 of work in progress tracks, and then when one of them is ready to graduate you do “save to new” and continue?
I only ever open the template project to tweak it, and to SAVE TO NEW, which just replaces starting a vanilla project.
So the Banks 13-16 work as a general repository of custom goodness. I name the parts something esoteric like DRUMACHI and assign them to empty patterns 13-16 (for symmetry). The idea is that if you keep those banks unmolested across projects, you can hit BANK-15-15 and have your 8 favorite models of drum machines, sliced and ready - at all times. Besides instruments, I also keep sets of AUX/neighbor/master tracks, customized effects, MIDI CC sets for external gear - and a flex-only looper setup. Needless to say, all bank/patttern, recorder and other settings are optimized to make sampling and dropping trigs as easy as possible. If you do it like this, you only need to do the menu-diving stuff exactly once.
Tempo is project-wide, so how do you deal with different tempos for different banks?
In the regular work banks, I put the BPM as the part name (ONE). That way, one glance at the display is enough.
I’ve been vaguely planning on making a template but wasn’t really thinking about it deeply enough until I stumbled upon this post. I was just gonna fill flex and static slots and have 8 audio/midi Tracks + rec settings etc. Didn’t even occur to me to think about digging in to different banks as I haven’t really used more than 1 yet…
Psyched to now be thinking about 128+ preset tracks for synth/keys/sample patches + a bunch of drum machines and a few layouts/settings for quick looping jams, various midi setups, etc etc. Amazing.
Couple of things. When you say about symmetry what do you mean? And also the naming different bpm in different banks thing. I thought that you could only change tempo in arranger? How can a bank be a different bpm? Hoping it’s possible…
Thanks!
By symmetry I meant the convenience of having the template patterns/parts on the same trig keys as the banks. Putting your right hand four fingers on trig 13-16 you can just go BANK-tap-tap on the same four trigs. Small point. Just being lazy.
The part BPM naming is just a lean way to communicate to yourself the BPM of the current bank or part. You still have to hit tempo and twist it in by hand. Given the overall customizability of this machine, and its “hub” role Elektron seem to advertise, I think forcing global tempo is a super weird design choice. They should have defaulted an arranger sequence to each bank. Done.
Yes, the arranger allows for 8 sequences with different (and differing) tempo settings. I usually find myself doing a lot of work before getting into the arranger, so it’s handy to have right in front of you. I also don’t use the arranger for live performances, so then it really helps out.