Octatrack flex machine, no playback

Hi yall

I’m trying to use flex machine to capture some loops instead of using the thru machine. I’ve set up a flex machine, and it’s pointing towards record buffer 1. I then set up the inputs for recording, in this case, input D. I put down a record trigger in recording mode. Then put down a sample trig in grid recording mode. Should work fine, but there’s no sound coming out. If I switch to thru machine using the same input, it comes throught just fine. Any ideas?

Have you tried using microtiming to move the playback trig a tiny bit so it gets triggered a little bit later than the record trig?

2 Likes

I’d disable timestrech first. Microtiming is necessary with internal SRC3 recording, higher pitch fx, or with timestresh.

1 Like

Are you using track 1 for recording?

3 Likes

No, I’m using track 7. Does it have to be track 1?

Edit: Dammit, I’m stupid as shit. Recording buffer 7 eyh?

The track recorders are numbered 1-8 just like the tracks and each one records to the buffer with the same # as the track…

To use recorder 7 just switch the flex to recorder buffer 7. To record to recorder buffer 1 you’d use track 1…

4 Likes

Thank you for clearing that up, and to everyone else for their suggestions. When I sat down with the OT suddenly a light bulb went off, the buffers and the tracks are connected. Guess I’ll be having a lot of those moments with this little devil :smiley:

3 Likes

Yeah, the recorders are like 3rd OT section… 8 Audio tracks, 8 MIDI tracks, 8 Track Recorders…

You don’t even need to have a flex machine loaded to use them, they will record at any time you just play the recordings with flex. Also the buffer can be loaded to any track or multiple tracks, then each can be sliced/warped/sequenced/effected in different ways… You can even sample lock them per step on flex tracks that are playing different samples…

3 Likes

That is… Really cool :slight_smile:

2 Likes

and then re-recorded whilst playing :eyes:

1 Like

The sample buffer has me confused a bit. since you have to assign a buffer to its corresponding track in order to hear it. Then why is there an option to select a buffer other than the track your on ? Does this only apply to flex machines ?

The recorder is hardwired to it’s buffer (track recorder X -> buffer X). The selection is for playback.

4 Likes

Flexibility! You can record with several track recorders and play them in a specific order on 1 track, or record with a track recorder and play its recording on several tracks.

With Pickups, recorders are hard linked to the tracks, you don’t have to select.

3 Likes

(Playback) as in…
static machine? Sorry still wrapping my head around this funky box

You can’t play recordings directly in Static, because they are reading from card; you have to save recordings first.

3 Likes

Playback as in “a machine which plays back audio”. Of course if the source is a memory buffer you need a flex machine for playback.

audio source is card -> static machine
audio source is RAM (either recorder buffer or sample preloaded in RAM) -> flex machine

4 Likes

Ahh, this is not true…

For example let’s use recorder track 3.

Recorder track 3 lives on track 3 and records to recorder buffer3. You use the recorder to record, it can record no matter what machine is selected for track3. To play it you use a flex machine. The flex machine can be on any track as long as you load recorder buffer3 to it. You can easily load it to track 5 for example, in that case recordings are being made on recorder track3 and they are played on flex track5. You might just want to record to listen to later, in that case the buffer doesn’t have to be loaded anywhere.

The next thing is that you can load recorder buffer 3 to multiple tracks. Now you can do different things with them for example track1 plays the recording normal, track two plays the recording in reverse, track 3 has it all sliced up and fx added, etc…

If you were to use track 6 to make the recordings, replace every recorder buffer3 in the example with buffer6…

4 Likes

I love doing this. I’ve touched on it in my Linear Music videos, but one thing I want to experiment more with is taking a constant source, like an electromagnetic pickup placed on a device that causes some interference, recording it into a buffer, and playing it back on a few tracks, but shaped/filtered into different sounds like kick, snare, hihat, even melodies… and then physically moving the pickup around to different sources in order to alter the timbre of the entire track.

3 Likes

Thanks, guess I just have to play around with it more.

1 Like

Yeah, just keep at it… It’s confusing at first but once it clicks it’s easy from then on… Maybe read this thread again if you haven’t…

2 Likes