Go to exact same point of a stem to slice

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hey all, new guy here.

I just took the leap from my Digitakt to an Octatrack MK1.
I exported my finished productions in three full track-length stems per song. So it looks like this:

  1. Kick
  2. Drums/percussion
  3. “the rest” (synths, effects, voc etc.)

Now I want to start shopping things up in slice mode, but I’m having a difficult time to go to the exact same time position in all 3 stems (I want the slices of each stem to correspond time wise). The numbers below the audio waveform when I scroll around seems to look different from stem to stem. Tried to re-read the manual but without any success. I could of course do the slicing in Ableton, but if I can avoid that and stay within the OT universe, I would prefer that.

Very happy for any help. <3

All the best
Thanks
/Elias

#2

Welcome to Elektronauts, and the wonderful world of Audio Editor !

Numbers are sample units. 44 100 per second.

How many bars are your stems ?
Were they recorded quantized ?
(with a rec trig or QREC)

I’d use TRIM page, select START point, then END point to make a selection corresponding to a SLICE GRID (8, 12, 16, 24, 32 etc…). You can calculate END point very precisely, knowing the exact tempo, and the number of bar. (I can give you a formula later :coffee:).

Then apply a SLICE GRID. You can add or delete slices after.

Slice end value is a length in sample units. They should be identical if you want equal length slices.

This is normal if the recording start wasn’t the same for all stems.

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#3

Thank you so much for such a hasty reply! :raised_hands:

Ok, trimming the track to fit perfectly to a SLICE GRID makes a lot of sense. Potentially I could do only this part in Ableton I guess, rather than just exporting the whole thing with silent space at the end and all that.

I will defo try this later today! Thanks!!

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#4

No, you can do it with AED.
Select TRIM start/end
Apply SLICE GRID
done

You can save these settings.

If you’re sure of start/end, no problem.
I case of doubt, I’d calculate it.

2 Likes
#5

Oh I meant to make it a bit easier I could do it in ableton.

Not sure about how to calculate it, any advice? I’ve basically just exported the Stems in the original track length, which doesn’t add up to an even number of bars.

Thanks a lot for helping out a new guy!

#7

1 beat duration :
1/BPMx60

In sample units :
1/BPMx60x44100

1 bar = 4 beats

Exemple with 8 bars at 120 BPM :

1/120x60x44100 x 4 x 8 = 705 600 samples

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#8

Thanks a lot. Really needed this! <3

I tried around myself before you answered and started to get some good results. I trimmed the track length to 128 bars, then used 64 slices and got good results as my tracks is a 4 on the floor, change every 8 bar kind of beat. Now I’m deleting certain slices to be able to play longer parts (bridges, “build-ups” etc) using a 1st trig condition…Slowly figuring this out

Thank you! :raised_hands:

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#9

In Slice mode, with LEN=SLICE, you can select the number of slices played with LEN. That way you can play longer parts of your stems…

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#10

Genius! Solves so many problems! Such a rich machine but easy to get lost :sweat_smile:

Thanks again!

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#11

…always make sure ur stem bounces have defined start / end points in overall relation of original bpm…and in ot’s aed, last menu page, u see all files atributes…there u can dial in the original bpm again, in cases ot counted differently…

if u match original bpm there, always quick checking first after import, u’r always good to go for any further slicing…

also bouncing various stems from same arrangement like u do, is always best to end up with bounces of all with same length…even if one or the other might contain blank parts…
it’s no big deal for ur card ressources to stream, but a big deal for ur brain to overview on the way to prepare ur ot live set up…

and a warm welcome…

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#12

Hey, thanks for your answer!

I exported the stems in the exact same length. However the stem lengths were not adding up to perfect bars and beats, because i included the audio tail of the FX in the end. For next time I’ll make sure to export them from Ableton measuring full bars instead of irregular length.
When I imported it the BPM was completely off, but it worked to fix it manually.

I trimmed the tracks to the exact same length and in full bars (with help from @sezare56 answer above), and when I applied a 64 slice grid, it worked really well and the individual stems synced up perfectly.

Think I just need to get better at learning how the OT AED should be operated the best way, and to export things correctly from Ableton.

Thanks!!

2 Likes
#13

…ur on a the right way…next time u just include all tails within the bounce range right away, all same length, even with blank content here and there… and all stems that contain somewhat rhymical content will match in ot’s bpm guessing also right away…those who failed first guess, u know now what to do…enjoy ur live experiences…and don’t forget to add some nice flex machine magic later, once ur static safe havens run smooth…

next step in overall live setting up with the ot…don’t squeeze it…think of it’s banks and it’s 16 patterns each as individual songs…a song per bank… is another big backbone for next level overview…

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#14

Thanks! Yeah slowly starting to figure it out.
When you say “add some flex machine magic”, do you mean more direct effects and shorter loops/one-shots? :slight_smile:

#15

Flex machines are better for live control of slices, or random start points with trigs, external midi, the crossfader or lfos…
Static machines are more clicky in that concern, when slices or start points aren’t plocked.

Flex can play and mangle recording buffers directly.

Flex allows destructive audio editing, with much more functions.

#16

Excellent!
But flex machines should of course be shorter samples, not full length songs etc, right?

I’m hoping to find a balance between playing longer track parts with shorter loops…

Thanks!

#17

RAM is 85.5MB, corresponding to 8m28s stereo*. So loading or recording 1 or 2 full songs is possible, depending on RAM available (not used by Flex slots, including recording buffers 1-8, and it also depends on RESERVE LENGTH settings).

I record songs in OT most of the time.

*(twice for mono samples in Flex slots, but OT records only in stereo)

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#18

…yup…as sezare said…

u got these 128 static slots…all what’s in there will adress ur cv card directly to stream ur content in realtime access…and that’s where u drop ur stems…and universal sample chains that contain larger samples…

while ur 128 flex slots will adress ur actual ram and ur recording buffers…that’s limited but super hi speed space…therefor, all u drop in there are sample chains with all sorts of short samples…and if u wanna live loop, keep in mind, ur flex slots also hold ur recording buffers…so both share that fixed amount of ram u got…

and whatever u do, think in sample chains right from the start…and just to clarify again…a sample chain is nothing but a bounce of any audio, prepared in ur daw and then loaded to ur folderstructure in the audiopool that exists on ur card…

so prep ur track arrangements in in full length, never worry about space, since u all gonna run them with static machines u load from ur static slots…all fine, if u run a decent cf card, it will handle that…also u can prepare any sorts of longer audio snippets for universal use…

and also prepare sample chains, that have heaps of short one shot sounds of all kinds, for ur flex machines…one sample chain, that contains a whole perc or drum set gives u the option to create full fledged basic rhythms within one track…or, as another example, have all ur favourite kiks printed out to one such chain…and dedicate one same track on the ot always to one dedicated sonic mission…options are endless…always as u prefer it…

so, once u know, it’s good thing to prepare a universal starting blank project, where some of ur most universal or most loved drum, bass, perc, or what not sounds are prepared in chains already and already preloaded to ur project…so u never have to start from truu scratch again, if u don’t want it…

and when u think in sample chains, no need for futher help software…just know u can adress up to 64 different slices individually in each chain…so 120 bpm on ur daw and loop a section of 2 or 4 or 8 or 16 or 32 or 64 bars and drop samples, depending on how long they are, on all equals of that inner grid range u looped, bounce that, and u created another sample chain the ot can slice perfecly within two klaks in it’s audio editor…

so, end of the day…u recreate ur arrangements from ur daw in longer stems and then there are always some flex machines left, u can fool along of them in all kinds of ways u like…

best of both worlds comw together…ur songs in all kinds of realtime recreation options, or dead simple, exactly as u created them in first place on ur daw…plus tons of realtime flex magic, could also be some more static magic, though, all come together in one performance…puh…repetition makes the hit…not the first and not the last time i told all this, i’m afraid…enjoy ur sonic safari…

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#19

Thanks man :slight_smile:

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