After watching a heap of Octatrack videos and reading parts of manuals and other reference, I finally got an Octatrack MkII yesterday.
Looking to use it for live looping, a drum machine and end of chain audio manipulation.
What are some good reference point for this sort of use to begin with?
Cuckoo and thavius beck’s tutorials on YouTube.
And like I’ve been recommended here just throwing samples in there.
Watched a bunch of videos but learned the most from just recording samples in and going from there. So much u can do with the cross fader scenes.
I’ve only used it for a couple weeks now but having messed with almost every sampler out there the pickup machines(looper) and the cross fader are what really separate the OT from other samplers.
The effects are decent but if ur into pedals or even processsing in ur computer you can use the cue outs and that opens another world.
It’s just really deep man. And the best way I’ve found to go about in these early stages is to just press play and record.
Ur gonna run into roadblocks but just check here or the manual.
Figure out how you want to work with it, too. A lot of us don’t use all of its features on every track. I’m one of those that almost never uses parts, for example, I just don’t find that I need them. You don’t have to know every possible function to be able to use the OT effectively. Figure out scenes sooner, rather than later. That is time well spent.
Thanks team.
One thing I am definitely going to be working on is the use of the Arranger (major reason I got this over other options) so I can program complete tracks for a Godflesh style band and still play bass.
Is there a way of registering the product also? having trouble finding anything to do with this.
One the actual Elektron page, create an account and register your box.
Even though you have plans for how you want to use the OT, as others have said, just throw a few samples on it and start mucking around. Try to do this for a little while, it will help you realize your plan.
Thank you
I’m keen to establish some kind of structure for scenes so knownfrom track to track roughly what scenes are going to do. Right now I am just changing paprameters as I go but wonder if anyone has a process like scenes 1-4 do one set of modulations etc. otherwise the possibilities are bewildering:
I definitely have a method, or at least one I have been using for a while now.
I run the AR and A4 into the inputs.
Trk 1-4 is a Thru machine and 3 Neighbors for the AR
1 FX bitcrush/comb fllter
2 FX flange/delay (unlocked)
3 FX filter/delay (locked)
4 FX DJeq/dark reverb
Trk 5-6 is for the A4 (sometimes only Trk5)
1 FX bitcrush/comb fllter
2 FX filter/delay (locked or unlocked pending the track, sometimes a dark reverb)
Trk 7 is for weird resampling stuff, or playing samples.
FX are usually a filter and a locked delay
Trk 8 is master
FX DJeq/Compressor
I like using just Scene B in this set up, Scene A is almost always muted.
Scene 1 is always blank
Scene 2-4 are all locked delays at different times for the A4, with minor tweaks to other things making the fade out sit in the mix.
Scene 5-9 are usually lot’s of comb filtering, flange kind of stuff, Scene 9 is usually some fade out type of vibe
Scene 10-13 are various fade to grey type of effects. Scene 12 usually turns down the volume of the AR and a sample loop plays a break.
Scene 14-16 are all locked delays for the AR
From that initial set up, when I start a new project I will change things up
Scene 5-9 might be a bunch of wacky LFO stuff.
Scene 10-12 might rely heavily on dealing with sampling, or playing samples.
I also dial in a lot of subtleties and things to tweak the scenes to fit the mix, or just get really wacky with it.
Lately I have been working on a new Scene paradigm based on the Merlin’s Guide progressing through scenes using A and B
For now I would say you could probably put “Parts” on the back burner, just stay on Part 1 for now.
Make a project dedicated to experimenting with Pick Up machines.
They are fun, but not for everybody, AND there’s other ways to do similar things.
Make a project dedicating to live looping on flex machines using recording triggers.
Here’s a great easy to understand tutorial on recorder trigs.
Using flex machines, and multiple tracks for live looping is extensive with the OT.
Try to keep things simple at first.
After a while it will all start to make sense.
The first month you’ll be doing good just to get some muscle memory working.
Start here:
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Don’t expect to learn everything at once.
Just a quick tip that I wish I had known at first. Maybe I missed, but- when you are in record mode on any track, if you press func/bank, this will take you to the trig edit screen. Here you can add record and sample trigs…and see which are which. Actually the func/bank combo is a great help in a lot of time on the OT.
Very helpful. Cheers
Another very basic thing is the flex machine record buffers. They are separate from the sample buffers. There are 8 of them, above the sample slots. You load one into a track, then record onto it. Then you can add a sample trig to play what you have recorded. Once you would like to save that sample, save it to the next open flex sample slot not “itself”… This was a hurdle I had to get over. Just quick things that would’ve helped me when I first started.
I would also recommand to look at the pro tip videos and download the corresponding project files. Here´s the link to the first one about the LFO designer…
Octatrack Pro Tip #1 - LFO Designer