New Octa user here. Figuring out a lot already, but would love to hear your thoughts and experiences about the following two options I’m wondering about. It’s still a bit foggy to me so please excuse if I’m unclear.
I want to use the OT as a mixer in conjunction to my DT and DN. DN as midi master for Pattern tempo. And I am looking into good ways for transitioning between songs on different Patterns/Banks.
When I’m setting up the OT for this, it seems to me I should choose between two options (or at least these two to me are apparent now):
Set Program Changes Receive to ON on the Octa. So the OT following DN’s and DT’s Pattern Changes. In this case I can sample a loop from T8 during the last pattern of a song, and have that playing together with the new song in the first pattern of the next song (as a mix of the two songs to transition between them).
Or you could nót sync program changes on the OT, and do that manually. In that case you could switch to a new track on the DN & DT, while I play a (just live recorded) sampled loop of the previous song on the OT. And then use a Scene to mix the new track intro from the DN&DT into the loop by Cueing them and X-fading them in. Correct?
What are your experiences and preferences with these or other methods? Any insights to consider?
I plan to use the OT not júst as a mixer, also use samples on some of its tracks to make my songs. In the case of scenario #2 only the OT’s Samples would come in the new songs mix after the first transition - aka after switching on the OT manually from the previous song’s transitional loop to the new Pattern/Bank (catching up with the DN & DT)
Sorry for the long rambling. I’m trying to get it clear but haven’t got my whole head wrapped around it yet.
Any tips / advice / insights? What are your preferred methods to mix transitions on OT + other gear?
For me, option 2 is the better choice. Allows more freedom. With program changes you cannot change your mind in the moment. Ideally if you had some method of splitting the parts of a track across the two machines you could then keep the rhythm runnings on one while you bring in new melodies, hooks, etc. on the other. You then reverse this for the next transition.
In the end it will also depend upon on how you use the live sampling transitions. Those will probably dictate what works best for you.
I’m fairly new to it all, so I’m open to all options and learn a nice workflow from the get go:)
I just set up a first project of songs to mix via scenario #1, but I am already wondering indeed if it’s not nicer to just get accustomed to scenario #2 to have more freedom and flexibility. I imagine for example that I could choose easily in the moment to first only bring in the Digitone, or just some tracks from the Digitakt for example…
How I plan to use/do transitions: I don’t know yet :)) I guess it would be nice to choose in the moment what elements to loop, and which elements to bring in.
Do you use it like this? Easy to get accustomed to manually program change OT instead of having that done automatically on all devises together?
Another advocate for option 2. Way more freedom, feels more live, way less problems, the crowd doesnt know if you are live sampling or not so what does it matter? Shit, 90% of them think you are a dj…
Personally I have a drum machine doing drums, synths do synths, and sampler does samples, they all have their own patterns, and I can mix and match as I please. Its super simple but amazingly effective. But more recently for gigs I just take octatrack and Lyra… just for shits and giggles, its amazing…
Thanks for chiming in! I was dreading setting everything up new again but ended up playing around with this option and worked fairly quickly in the end. Already liking the bigger range of choice in mixing and matching a lot, great to have heard your experiences!
And I was also already successfully looping/sampling things live with this method. Sampling from T8 master track as standard method, and using filters on the loop to focus in on lower end drums/bass or just higher frequency snares/hats during the transitions. It’s really nice to then be able to listen to the Digitone and Digitakt in the Cue to choose in the moment which of their tracks you wanna mute/unmute and then mix in.