Pros & Cons of Loops/Chains vs One Shots?

I havent had my OT very long and up until the last few days had been mostly sequencing one shots. Lately I’ve been working with loops and it almost seems like the OT was designed with loops/chains in mind vs one shots. It’s a way better experience in my opinion. For the OT vets, what do you find you usually gravitate towards, loops or hits? And why?

Both

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I make loops with one shots, then I slice them so they become one shots again. :loopy:
Rince and repeat…

Yeah, btw I don’t know why there are so many trigs! 1 per track should suffice for loops. :pl:

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LOL! you’ve got me. Next release is the Elektron UNO… one button. one track. one vision.

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Cheaper, smaller, the DIGIPLAY !

David Guetta conception.
Press play and the party begins !

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2 voices is kind of overkill. To be honest, I think when I was sequencing one shots it was just a different mindset. Now that i’ve wrapped my head around resampling loops, its like an entirely different world of fun. Plocks on RATE and other params make a lot more sense and do whats expected. I can definitely see why some people have both a DT and OT.

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:content: For stereo!
Yeah, with OT you can make crazy things.
Plock 8 tracks with one shots or sliced loops, mangled with lfos and crossfader, record the 8 loops individually with the 8 recorders to make new loops, endless!
It easy to make your sample chains with it.

I also did sample chains with DT, based on the 33s recording. Full time recording at the right tempo + microtiming = sample chain without editing. 120 slices, 30 being easier to plock.
I think I’ll do 30 slices sample chains only.

Last time I made a 64 notes sample chain with Rhodes notes.
Result, 1 bar pattern controlled by 6 midi tracks random arps :

Ok it’s sad but I won’t get bored during new french lockdown! Still a lot to experiment.

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This is mono tracks? Seems very poly… I’ve got a lot of work to do. I have to say, I am not that impressed with the OT effects but its all I’ve got so i’m not complaining. It is just a completely different mindset. Today I have been focusing on just quickly resampling loops and messing around with the pickup machines. My step sequencer and plock skills are up to par but I have been focusing on sampling primarily while I learn this machine. Initially the idea of having sample chains for entire kits did not make any sense to me - how would you separate the sounds etc? What I am learning now is that sample selection is almost more important than the operation of the machine itself. I am very fond of the samples from mars drum kits that come with the machine as well as Legowelts (FREE) sample packs. Proper samples really make this machine shine.

I hope you dont mind that I sampled your clip :slight_smile: I am curious, was that a VST or the actual thing? Sounds great.

For one shots, I use chains that I play in slice mode. I have a huge collection of different chains I’ve made in Octachain. Some are different chord one shots, some drums, some diffent sub sounds…then if I want to play one slice in the chain, I turn the slice knob to that slice and play that slice chromatically. As for loops, that’s up to you. There are so many different ways of manipulating samples, and that comes with practice and experimentation. I don’t require excessive modulation, so I usually use static for my chains and I save flex for recording or samples I will heavily modulate.

In the end I use it for everything. EVERYTHING! At this point, I’ve got live sampling down, and most everything goes through the OT…Most gets sampled in. I find the EQing in the OT perfect for making sounds work together (by separating them). And to organise everything in the end, I just love the Arranger. It’s just fun.
Anyways keep at it. Check some other threads for more in depth info on how people use it and remember-Practice

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I wouldnt mind using OctaEdit as it seems really useful but when you go to the page to purchase it there is a huge disclaimer to wait for v2 which causes me to hold off on purchasing, but its hard to tell if v2 is something that is almost ready or will take some time.

I am struggling a bit with live sampling but i’ll get it down at one point. Just being able to resample easily has been a HUGE gamechanger. At first I didn’t like that you had to use multiple tracks, but now I am starting to come around. When I had a MD/MnM - the changes were very immediate. You could sit down at a blank slate and just rock. The OT is a bit different. A properly programmed patch is very fun to perform but it seems like there is definitely a preparation phase and a performing phase vs the immediate gratification thats found on the older machines.

Oops, I meant Octachain. I’ll edit. Oops

There is a process that you are going through, where you kinda go from a blank slate to your workflow with all your samples and a OT state of mind…where you just open a blank program and can pretty much set up pretty quickly.
I have a MnM and love the immediacy. But, I have also saved a lot of kits in it, so I can now just jump around and find the sounds I want. It took significantly longer to get to that point with the OT, but yeah, now I just load it up with samples, or thru machines…Just the same as the MnM. It’s really, really about practice and learning/experiment.

This is a common thought when using the OT at first. I think of the OT effects as modular in a way. If you don’t like them, chain more, record knob movements, lfo…If you have the time to learn, you will understand. And if thats not good enough, use stdio mode as an effects loop.

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6 mono audio tracks, controlled by 6 midi tracks with different notes ranges, randomed, hence a fake poly. Just avoiding to play the same note at the same time.

It a real Rhodes recorded, 5 semitones spaced notes , I pkocked 64 steps in consequence with ajusted pitch to make a 64 chromatic slices file with OT. :content:
I used 30 bpm and 1/8 scale as notes are long, the file is pretty big (43MB), and unfortunately it’s clicky with Statics (not with Flex).

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Something I think (as a novice) when it comes to approaching the OT is realizing its quite a few different “things” in one untamed beast with completely different work flows. . Previously it wasnt much more than a sample player with fx for me - As of today, and reading what you guys are doing - its turning into a great sound design tool as well! I will have to sit down and really mess around with resampling and fx chains for turning some everyday samples into something unique. I havent even touched the arranger or parts section yet! :smiley:

See, I know you guys are preaching that the OT can do any and everything when it comes to sampling, but I am definitely noticing a lot more pros than cons when it comes to working with loops/slices vs individual hits. 8 tracks can be seen as limiting when you’ve got an essential 808 kit loaded (kicks/snares/toms/hats) - but as mixed loops, 8 tracks is quite a bit to work with!

I think this is a thing you need to get over. Take that 808 kit, and 7 more 8hit kits, drop them into Octachain. Now put that chain on one track, go to slice mode and bang out a rythm. If you need more voices, load that chain into another track. Then when you have a rythm, record that into a recorder, load that…Slice, add effects…I don’t know. So much to do. If you are using the 8 tracks as individual sounds…well there’s a place for that, but with sound locking and slice mode, I just never do that.

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Yep. You’re absolutely right! Oof. I was so cocky thinking the OT would be easy to learn and everyone just didnt get it :slight_smile: This thing is a beast that will humble you! LOL

It’s all subjective, of course. But one con of chains could be the time and mental overhead needed to create the chains. It can get a little overwhelming if for example, you want to create a chain library using hundreds of different kits. Or if you are trying to select 128 of your best kicks out of 10,000 kicks. This is why I tend to not worry about it too much and just make one chain at a time and use that for a while. The usefulness of chains cannot be denied.

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odds are there’s really only 5 good kicks in that 10,000 though. I think a lot of people get caught up in what they can do rather than what they should do ya know?

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I also feel like making chains of loops is kind of pointless, since the timestretch on the OT is meh. What’s the point of making loop chains to give yourself flexibility, when you just end up limiting yourself to a small tempo range where things sound good? (Being able to work at any tempo is crucial for me, personally) If anyone has a differing opinion on this, I’d love to hear how you make loop chains work for you.