Octatrack Tips & Tricks (OT Tips)

Ya, and you’re dealing with someone who is probably the worlds worst typist, and poor at descriptions.

I do appreciate the help tho :+1:t6:

Maybe I’ll do a vid of what I’m doing. I’d like to get this figured out some day. I prefer knowing what I’m doing vs always shooting blind.

Because this is so easy (ha!) to do - the set slices and trigger them part - I reckon it’s something hinky with the LFO.
Does it work how you would expect with other non-custom LFO shapes?

Try Hold instead - your audio sounds like you are changing slices midway through trigs. This won’t happen with Hold.

1 Like

Yes, HOLD might help.

Why do you want to use an LFO to do this and not just parameter locking the slice?

1 Like

Yes, plocking, and additional lfo maybe. HOLD doesn’t work. It is not synced to the sequencer (like FREE). I use SYNC TRIG.

@phaelam
Lfo settings for 16 slices :
START
SAW
X4
SYNC TRIG
SPEED 32
DEPTH 16 (16 correspond to 8 slices)

Playback settings : Slice mode, Start = 9 (number of slices /2 +1)

Caveats : there are some unexpected variations, I think Start mode is more accurate.

Another possibility: midi loopback, Slice control, arp.

2 Likes

Ya I’ve done all that. Loopback was going to be my last resort, cuz I can just CC out to say…my ER-301 and get better results. And I loopback a little different, thru my microlite, and I can have better control using midipipe to filter and direct the midi, and I can still send midi from OT to other devices this way. No need to plug it into itself. I’m just trying to get rid of gear. And I wanted to try to just do this in the OT. But it’s too finicky.

I don’t want to use p-locks, cuz I was gonna fuck around by changing LFO shapes.

My suspicion is it’s the same issue with euro, when you have the and the CC arriving at the same time. It’s not stable. So you put a couple ms of delay on the trigger, so the start CC can be chosen first. If the OT had LFO phase shift it could werk maybe. I was thinking putting a tick on the trig microtiming might werk, having the trig JUST come after the LFO change , but I think the LFO follows that trig right?

I’ve already tried every permutation, even the exact settings you suggested. And it just won’t werk well enough.

OT might be the gear that’s bound for sale vs some other shit. I just can’t afford to keep it all :frowning:

I’m sure you’ve probably checked for scenes unexpectedly modulating the LFO or something? Have you tried with a new project, or disconnecting midi in to see if other things are causing confusion?

Can you show a photo of the other LFO settings page? Depth etc

Ya I’ve started each attempt with a new project JUST to be certain I have no hidden stuff going on.

Ok. So you know the cross fader can be assigned to slice?

Cross fader over rides all P locks and LFO behaviour. That might be a solution. Cross fader wiggling is just another custom LFO.

3 Likes

Riiiiight. I’ll give that go :+1:t6:

Not sure I’ll get what I’m after, but sounds fun none the less

Then practice :wink:

Always…all the time. :+1:t6:

[posts lost due to “maintenance” [repost]]

so I go it to werk…FINALLY.

  • HAD TO: change the sample to be on beat at the bar, not tempo. seemed to werk better
  • HAD TO “loop back”, but did it by MIDI out to MOTU from MIDI track 1, back to OT thru MIDIPIPE to Audio track 1 controlling Start Point. this allowed me to set one trig on MIDI track 1. i wish there was a way to advance the LFO using trigs tho
  • REALIZED that cuz of what probably afflicts pattern start in Elektrons has the same affect on LFO start. I had to start the LFO to trig step two first, and I put step one at the last step of the LFO
  • ALSO REALIZED that I was setting the last step [2nd to last] of the sequence to 127 getting s double trigger of step one of the sample. when IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN 120 :man_facepalming:t6: that was confusing the fuck outta me. user error :slight_smile:

so this is what I got. it loops twice, then I move the start point of the LFO by moving its start trigger on the MIDI track.

variation

IMG_3025

feature request [for all boxes]

  • LFO phase offset
  • LFO advance with trigger [or] sample and hold

OT gets to stay out of the box :slight_smile: :+1:t6:

Recordings naming with same prefix tip :

  • Save and rename first recording, ASSIGN TO SELF
  • Save again and ASSIGN TO FLEX/STATIC

Using corresponding recorder, the prefix is kept for next recordings. It is safer to assign again to Static/Flex, so that you can save and assign to self to change prefix, or clear rec buffer…

6 Likes

I didn’t know this one. I always do “save sample copy” and then do the assignment manually… I always wished I could keep a prefix of the previous sample though, so this is great.

Assigning to self is mandatory for this to work, right?

It’s funny, I’m so accustomed to “save sample copy” and naming manually, that most of my samples are named with a single letter and a number. I have one project that has samples “t1” to “t75” – I don’t even know what the “t” was all about, but it made sense that day.

Yes, otherwise it uses auto date name.

Maybe stands for “Too lazy to erase and rewrite comprehensive names with a few buttons each time for many recordings” ?

2 Likes

That’s exactly what it stands for

3 Likes

The OT has proven to be a worthy investment even as a hobby musician.

I have made a pretty round robin template for live remixing and FX scenes on part 1 with most tracks silenced, and have part 2 for audio through with FX and sample slots on other tracks. I spent a good amount of time today with the OT and things are finally starting to click after a few months of periodic use.

Using the “Edit this recording” method of sampling on thru track is perfect when recording incoming audio and not wanting a flex track.

Keeping the volumes up is important for remixing and resampling. That is something I seem to forget, but once I got everything adjusted, I couldn’t even tell the incoming audio apart from the loop in the OT until i changed the pitch.

I have found that the OT slicing is easier and more enjoyable than the new MPC series to me. The 0 point snap with the func is beautiful and adding a new slice is such a breeze. I chopped up a few different things today and finally I am understanding why some say it’s relaxing.

It’s really smooth with midi, and controls gear quite well. I have been panning my syntakt channels hard left for synths and hard right for drums, and putting them on seperate flex tracks. ST + OT is very fun.

I have bought the OT for more ambient things. But here I am, turning samples into mush and crushing breaks with the compressor instead. Is anyone using theirs for soundscapes? How do you get your OT to calm down?

10 Likes

I knew about this but didn’t realize an application for it. Very nice. Thanks.

1 Like

It’s a clean way to sample and save. I hope it comes to use for you someday.

the other day I ended up recording a few stems that way and it is really streamlined for bouncing to static tracks for song creation and performance.