I have an OT and I want a second instrument that will strictly act as a repository for drum sounds. I don’t need the power of a Digitakt because all the sequencing would come from the OT. I was looking at the cheap and cheerful Alesis SR16 or something like a Volca Sample2. But then I thought of keeping it in-brand and going with a Model Samples.
Does anybody have experience sequencing the M:S from other gear? Is anything gained or lost? I just want to free up some of my OT tracks when I’m just programming drums for live sets.
Hi!
I use a Digitone as Drum Module sequenced from Octatrack.
Benefit: Stereo…
Benefit2: it’s a synth, multitimbral…
Want to exchange my digitakt to a second digitone in the future.
I guess Samples works well too.
Look into the midi implementation if your cc values what you want are all there for it.
Got the OT as a main brain and some other stuff (including the M:S) connected to it. Right now I use one dedicated OT-track for kick purposes (so I can use the slider to cut only specifically the kick) and the M:S’s 6 tracks for percussion and hi-hat duties. Can’t complain at all, love the “hold=controll all” function of the M:S to send everything into delay/reverb for transitions and recalling the saved temp pattern to go back to normal. Wouldn’t know of a downside to it, maybe the tedious gain-staging at first, but that comes with every additional piece of gear I assume. Hope that helps! Let me know if you need some other insights.
I already have a digitone. I want drum sounds along the lines of those classic sounds of the early 90s. And the M:S is stereo out so i assume you mean the samples are treated as mono (but can still be panned in the stereo field, right?).
yeah. always a blast to have wild variations in loudness in my OT projects. /s
This helps and that’s a great idea to just use the OT for a kick (which i can also put to Cue for my IEMs) and then use the fader to bring in the rest of the stuff. And if the M:S dies or something, i can go “Kick Only” for the minimalist beats
Are you sequencing on the M:S and then using program changes, or programming from the OT?
Yeah, I use the M:S and change patterns when needed. I’ve not needed more than one or two patterns per song, as I tend to mute tracks, introduce everything slowly and tweak all the parameters to keep it interesting.
That being said, I just thought of a little downside: there are workarounds for this, but the M:S is really tedious with drum loops (or time stretching in general), that’s why I mostly use it with one-shots. I’ll link a great tutorial for using/time stretching loops in the M:S, just so you know, what you’re up against
…if u jsut want to use m:s as a sample player, not using it’s knoblayout and internal sequencer, there are better solutions for just outsourcing drumsounds to be sequenced via ot’s midi power…
but if u really use m:s as intented and harvest also it’s internal sequence power while use ur ot as the audiohub and midi sync clock, the combo becomes another powerful beast…
but since u got sampling already covered and m:s only plays samples, u might wanna consider drum synthesis…and therefor a m:c is the way more musical and versatile solution to outsource additional drums and whatnot in a ot combo…
With the OT doing all the heavy lifting with loops, I definitely would use the M:S as a One Shot bank for the songs that don’t get written with loops in mind. I appreciate your thoughts.
I don’t think you’ll have any issues sequencing it from the OT, but personally I’d probably just clock it to the OT and use its internal sequencer, because it’s faster to p-lock on the MS than to set up all the CCs and stuff. I do something similar with the Digitakt clocked to the OT.
Yeah, in my case I use the DT for drums and do all the programming on the DT itself. I end up recording loops from the DT onto the OT to layer with other stuff and play with different loop lengths for polymetric fun. It’s great to offload to the DT and not consume OT tracks.
I think the MS would be a great choice too. I don’t usually use all 8 DT tracks
…to trigger out plain one shot samples on external midi receive only in hardware…?
any old, long outsourced racksampler for example…for the price tag of a m:s, even a used one, u can easily get an oldschool but once topnotch 90ies racksampler from akai or emu, use it’s single out options and end up more than happy…
