The Elektron Octatrack is a social beast. It gets along with almost any gear. By taking into account the Octa’s midi skills, the dance can be a wild and beautiful one.
In this tutorial I’ll walk you through how I’ve utilized two patches on the Nord Modular (patches linked in the video notes) and how I get them to play nicely with the Octatrack. Using both midi tracks and thru channels. Sequencing parameter locks using both midi CC and effect variations.
Your videos are really interesting and entertaining. Keep it up! The Nord modular looks so great, I never had one. But it seems it’s too dated now since it no longer runs on modern os… Reaktor 6 might be an alternative, although without hardware of course.
I’m eyeing Reaktor 6. I used to own a license of 5. I’ve dabbled in Max/MSP. Max for Live and Oscillot looks great. But the Nord Modular editor is spectacular. Really user friendly. And the fact that it’s stand alone once it’s in the synth… That’s just brilliant.
I’m thinking that I might as well keep a bootcamp partition with an old installation of Windows. Or even a dedicated Windows laptop. The hardware requirements are really humble.
And the first gen Nord Modulars are really worth their money if you get a used one.
I’m eyeing Reaktor 6. I used to own a license of 5. I’ve dabbled in Max/MSP. Max for Live and Oscillot looks great. But the Nord Modular editor is spectacular. Really user friendly. And the fact that it’s stand alone once it’s in the synth… That’s just brilliant.
I’m thinking that I might as well keep a bootcamp partition with an old installation of Windows. Or even a dedicated Windows laptop. The hardware requirements are really humble.
And the first gen Nord Modulars are really worth their money if you get a used one.[/quote]
Yeah you can still find a lot of them on ebay for good prices…
Oscillot also looks great. Reaktor and Max on their own are to complicated for me, I tried to start several times but always get to the point where I can’t follow anymore and had to spend to much time to learn it. But Reaktor Blocks looks really great and simple to patch, but still great potential.
In the end, octatrack beats them all
runs fine on my Mavericks Mac using wine - arguably better than when it was native on power pcs a long time ago as the windows version is better supported -nothing compares to the Nord modular when you factor in price and size and flexibility - micro is most under-rated gear in existence IMHO - G1 range regarded as the best sounding - very capable of a wide variety of synthesis and processing techniques
micro is most under-rated gear in existence IMHO [/quote]
Ah ok. You run it with wine. I should check the demo… What’s so great about the micro? Ok the price :)… Isn’t it really stripped down?
I realize, I don’t get that thing with homebrew and wine
wine is free/open-source - I’m not one for third party ‘fixes’ - but to have the Nord editor run 1920x1080 instantly in the place you’re already working is a no-brainer and it was extremely easy to install - hasn’t skipped a heartbeat since, and it feels like a native app 100%.
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I have the G1k and micro - the G1k gives you more for sure but the focus you get from working on 1 part with fewer voices forces you to be even more creative with patch design - the things the micro can do whilst taking up zero desk space defies explanation and it just feels so damn right (only downside I see is the numerical display)- it’s mighty, but if keys and stuff are your bag, perhaps the other options/synths would be better
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plus the original g1 range can serve up two channels of cv, good for about 3>4 volts each way
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re OP subject, the g1s have audio in too, but they can also act as envelope followers/vocoder etc unlike the OT - very powerful for not much more than a volca (on a good day)
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a good way to test it out is to explore the g2 editor which runs a single voice on your pc
all the goodies are linked on the fb page you joined recently - the wine ‘patch’ was only developed recently by some Polish gent (it fixes the midi)- i retired the ancient XP laptop and OS9 iBook immediately - it works well, but may be simplest if you have a common or garden midi box like the m-audio 2x2 etc !!
wine is free/open-source - I’m not one for third party ‘fixes’ - but to have the Nord editor run 1920x1080 instantly in the place you’re already working is a no-brainer and it was extremely easy to install - hasn’t skipped a heartbeat since, and it feels like a native app 100%.
.
I have the G1k and micro - the G1k gives you more for sure but the focus you get from working on 1 part with fewer voices forces you to be even more creative with patch design - the things the micro can do whilst taking up zero desk space defies explanation and it just feels so damn right (only downside I see is the numerical display)- it’s mighty, but if keys and stuff are your bag, perhaps the other options/synths would be better
.
plus the original g1 range can serve up two channels of cv, good for about 3>4 volts each way
.
re OP subject, the g1s have audio in too, but they can also act as envelope followers/vocoder etc unlike the OT - very powerful for not much more than a volca (on a good day)
.
a good way to test it out is to explore the g2 editor which runs a single voice on your pc[/quote]
Thanks for the explanations! I’ll think about getting a micro, if the editor still works that great on mac.