Advice on OT Live Preparations

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi Folks -

I’ll try to keep this fairly brief. I just got an Octatrack, and am planning on prepping a live set. I have exported some “doodles” from Ableton Live in loops organized by BPM. I have about 4 different tempos ranging from 110-128, with sets of loops from anywhere from 3-5 “sketches” that I plan to import into the OT. My sample folder looks something like this:

110BPM:

----Song 1
----------Loop 1, Loop 2, Loop 3, etc…
----Song 2
----------Loop 1, Loop 2, Loop 3, etc…
----Song 3
----------Loop 1, Loop 2, Loop 3, etc…
115BPM:
----Song 1
----------Loop 1, Loop 2, Loop 3, etc…
----Song 2
----------Loop 1, Loop 2, Loop 3, etc…

Once in OT, I will turn these into completed tunes which, along with my other gear, I will perform live. There is also a folder of sample chains which I use to create drum beats (and I will also use a Tempest or SparkLE - I haven’t decided yet.)

My questions are primarily with respect to organizing these items. My initial thought is to have one bank per “song”, which will consist of a bunch of loops in a given tempo that I will play back using patterns, parts, and scenes that move me through the performance. But I’m concerned that 4 scenes won’t be enough to get me through an entire tempo group.

So another thought was to use different projects per tempo, and use multiple banks since stopping to load projects between “songs” of different tempo probably wouldn’t be that disruptive.

TL;DR: I have 4 tempo groups, each with about 3-4 sets of loops. Should I use a project per tempo group, or bank per tempo group?

#2

do you mean parts ? each part has 16 scenes so that’s 64 scenes per bank. using multi bar sample chains, sliced in the OT, can theoretically give you 64 slices (selectable by scene…slices 1 -16 = part 1, 17 -32 + part 2 etc) x 32 bars of audio that, using a tempo mulitplier of 1/8 will loop fine with the 4 bar patterns of the OT…

there’s more info in this thread that might be of interest:

[url=“http://www.elektronauts.com/t/octatrack-workflow-questions/2745/22239/page:1#22239”]http://www.elektronauts.com/t/octatrack-workflow-questions/2745/22239/page:1#22239

#3

I can do that for some things, but not everything. Some of the loops will be further sliced and mangled, therefore using chains for different sections would be impossible.

I am trying to decide if I want to use a project per group of songs in a given tempo, or a bank (or two).

I’m not just playing back stuff I’ve done in Ableton Live, I’m using these samples as a basis for final creations done in the OT.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I can see using the chaining technque for loops that I don’t intend to transform too much. Other loops will be recreated on my Tempest or Ableton Live (whichever I decide to use in conjunction with the OT)

#4

yeah i guessed that might be the case but like you say a combination of the two help out

obviously using a project per song is going to give you more options and if you don’t mind waiting for the project to load then it could be the way to go for you.

personally i try to stick with one bank per song in my preparations mainly because the sort of live set i envisage for myself is a seamless mix at the same or similar tempo

good luck with it !

#5

I have to sit at the dealer while my car gets some service today. I think I’m gonna toss all my loops in Ableton and figure out which ones fit together, and then decide how to organize it in the OT.

A bank per song (or group of similar songs with < 4 parts) would be ideal because at least initially I don’t see myself playing for more than 30-45 minutes so program changes probably aren’t necessary. I’m just thinking long term because from what I understand, reorganizing content is not easy.

#6

one bank per song should be more than enough for variations and building an interesting structure, especially if the octatrack is coupled with another elaborate piece of gear. if you build one project per track, i feel youll eventually be regretful of needing to load a project per track. i find each track i play in. a live context takes 5-10 minutes to fully develop, thats about 8 songs for an hour’s worth of music. i tend to only use 3-8 patterns per track as well and more focus on live variations and arrangement.