Hey
I’m selling of my Rytm soon, because I need to fund a ipad pro for my graphic work 
But in a couple of months I’m thinking about a octatrack mk1.
I’ve mostly been using the Rytm as a samples, other than the kick engines - so I’ve been thinking about if the octatrack is a better machine for me?
I like my distortion/overdrive, and it’s been hard for me to find examples of it in use, other than this one (at the bottom).
So how is the distortion/overdrive, and is it usable?
There’s a filter distorsion and Lofi fx with distortion.
In the video I think it’s filter’s one.
It is numerical but ok.
What kind of samples do you use ?
Check Digitakt, Machinedrum, Analog Heat, Analog Drive.
For high gain stereo distortion : 2 Analog Drive.
I make my own samples using eurorack, max/msp, random synths and old drum samples from ze interweb. Both one shots and longer samples.
If I should use external distortion I’d go for sherman filterbank - I def will get one someday.
There is quite a difference in the distortion …
The distortion of the AR is an analogue circuit, AFAIK the distortion of the OT is software. TBH I would not expect too much of analogue warmth using the distortion of the OT.
If you like randomness, maybe OT is the best with 48 Lfos…
Personally, I dont care if it is dsp or analogue - as long as it sounds good. I’ve heard a lot of overdrive/ distortion vst’s that sounds fantastic!
My post was not intended to open a debate about analogue vs digital.
If you search the manual of the OT, the distortion is in the FX section “Lo-Fi Collection”. The intention of this distortion is not to sound like an analogue circuit. I have the AR and the OT and can say that those distortions sound very different. I only wanted to say, if you come from AR don’t expect the same on OT.
There are two. The other distortion is on the filter settings page
Which one do you like the best?
I think the sound of the distortion sounds quite nice and “destructive” in the video, that i posted.
I think it’s filter’s distortion in the video, which I prefer.
The RYTM and OT’s distortions sound very different.
The RYTM has that lower end rumble kind of crushing that analog distortion has.
It sounds really good, but seems narrow in it’s range.
The OT’s filter distortion sounds more like a vst, but not necessarily a great one.
The Lo-Fi distortion, seems a little more bright on the highs to me, and a bit more “fuzzy”
I definitely think they are usable, but I personally dont go to them like I do on the RYTM.
I almost always add some distortion when using the RYTM, I dont do that with the OT as much.
The RYTM sounds really good pushing samples through it’s filters and drive, it just lacks a ton of functionality the OT has.
I would guess that coming from the RYTM, one would think the OT doesn’t sound as good.
I think the RYTM just has some special sauce the OT doesn’t.
However, the OT is a super crazy swiss army knife of sampling, with lots of fx and possibilities.
Using the OT’s distortion with filters, eq’s, and other stacked effects can get really amazing results.
Thanks for the long answer 
I can see what you mean with the RYTM, and to push everything with the overdrive and distortion - I do the exact same thing. But i think that I’ll love the resample feature of the OT. So you can stack distortion and effects on a sample, and the resample it and EQ afterwards.
INeither is like some kind of go-to favourite for me. I just try them randomly to see if I get lucky and pretty much never use them in isolation. If you have a sample with a bit of a noise floor to it then distortion plus heavy compression can be nice.
If I make the effort to overload a tape or small speaker and sample/resample that the results are always great. Internal OT distortion is hit and miss by comparison - or just harder work…
YES!
That is where OTs magic sauce is for me.
I use 1 Thru machine, and 3 neighbor tracks just on my drums. This gives me most of the effects in a series, which sounds amazing.
So far my favorite config is,
LoFi > Comb Filter > Flange > Delay (locked) > Filter > Delay (no lock) > DJ EQ > Dark Reverb
Resample