The «not clinically depressed guy» strikes again

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Sorry for my smmy-uwu type o title. I understand this is not my personal blogspot. Here in there I will leave some eastereggs just for the fun of it
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Here goes nothing, as stated in previous post:

“looking at buying the octatrack”

The device has made me thinking more thoroughly about the setup. As some of the communitty has spotted out there is some kinda problem with me, the way how I think about music, or feel about music.

And the way I have been thinking about music was: totally record everything as the flow of the mind is what I’ve been aiming for. Or: I go play one instrument, get stuck with musical capabilities and watch as mind goes wondering and finding skills. That I would like to implement but it’s always like – ohhhh, i wish there was a band, or the band, or a loop.

OR: please make a hit :pray: we got to hit the american-type middle class fam from the tv type livvinn.

With loops I am currently stuck in ableton. I prefer to go CurrentGrid:Off lately. Cause it seems I cannot ever stop recording to make the loop seemless, or go offbeat, or just want to have some backing track, structure, fractal or a texture.

And with Ableton I’ve been feeling squarey lately. Also, I understand the current meta is also squarey.

My post 2010-s–meta album, second track: (i guess most of you would use spoty)

And then I wonder whether the Octatrack is capable of making two tracks relate as 3/4 to 4/4, and then adding a third loop-structure go 11/8? Or something of that hustle?

And would it be possible to stand in the kitchen. Away from the studio-livingroom-bedroom appartmentroom with its monitor-room sound. With the octatrack on the table. Guitar plugged-in, and what if no ArtTube connected cause i don’t have one, just playing its -20dB 28LUFS*(and what if i am wrong with numbers?)*. Just jamming a little solo.

Then stopping jamming just making a coffee with the octatrack on the table playing the solo back to me (which also brings up the question: is there a bluetooth-plug speaker i could connect to octa?)

And then plugging a Senheiser G3 radio mic into octa, lavalier, and recording some foleyimpacts to make a beat with them. Like thump on the chest and then a bird in the window with a car passing by as a swoosh. Also I feel like I’ve been lacking in drum making in Ableton lately. Can I make a generic juke patterns or jersey club or what’s cutting edge? Or scratch that, are dnb-patterns easy on this thing? I feel like I’ve never reached any kinda peak production wise, cause have been stuck with my UwU-PC, working, playing dota, feeling sick or lonely or in love or relaxed, writing. It has made playing music for me pretty hard.

I want to be able to be a band for myself, and then extrapolate that experience to the band of people. Or communicate with at least this one girl, or this friend. And I really need practice.

So I’ve catched myself recording on my zoom h8 yesterday, in the kitchen with the iphone playing a beat. And then could not sing to it, felt stupid, cause I just wanted to sing to a beat, dissolve. And instead I was recording on my trusty lil zoom. Without even hitting rec, tried to turn it off and seen «Please! Stop Recording».

Which combined with me not yet making any commercial success with music (inserthyperBRUUUUUUUHhere) hit hard.

And then I felt sick of having this record-mindset and I feel that in part this is something the PC does production-wise. Feels stuck man.

And then I felt like THE OCTATRACK hits so many G-spots on the whishlist above—> :arrow_heading_up: that I felt like writing this post. I.e. i’ve seen takes that octa enables SteveReich-type production, which is — excuse me what? like, yeah yeah. that’s it.

Does it?

I guess there are no ADHD people reading lineary by this place in the text. Anyways, thanks for welcoming me to the forum. Hope you doing well, I guess I wanted to point out that it’s cool to understand music differently and I feel like elektronrelatedvideos and my research so far made me look at the process with a new angle.

Regards

A I B

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#2

Have you looked at the akai force?

You can fill it with your loops made in ableton and plug in your guitar, it has a tuner and lots of guitar focusssed effects. the same with plugging a mic in and effects available.

then you can can sample, loop them and mix with your ableton created loops using the clip launcher pads

I think with the octa id prefer some kind of processing of guitar or mic before going into the octa so your adding more gear

#3

i really feel like I need to get away from my beloved comp

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#4

i mean, PC-wise i would love to create some patches for puredata and run the organelle one day, which is i don’t know when, i don’t own an organelle.

and bout the pre processing – yeah, I guess I would need to buy something cool and within the budget. but I have a line6 pod very old. very heavy. mb this would do.

and if in ableton – after I recover from the PC-trauma – it’s push2 for sure! i very much hate the idea of needing to transfer and morph data. straight to the mixer-recorder-sampler-pclessdaw we go.

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#5

The OT is pretty unrestricted when it comes to weird time sigs and stuff -

Plus there is the “plays free” track mode which allows you to start a track’s pattern going untethered from the main sequencer, which can be fun for really loose grooves, ambient, or firing off one shot sequences.

I think the OT can probably do most of want you would want it to do, it seems equally suited to fairly straightforward beat-triggering techno as it is totally out there musique concrete or glitch stuff. Just keep in mind that you will likely be frustrated/dismayed/underwhelmed with your progress with it initially. It takes a fair bit of time, extensive practice, and repeated reading of the manual for the fog around it to clear.

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#6

I feel like you’d have fun with a multitrack recorder/mixer, and loop pedals on all of your instruments. Just play and have fun, and if something special happens, hit record.

#7

Buy Octatrack. Ask questions later. If you have to be a not clinically depressed guy, it is more fun with the OT already on your lap. Even turned off, you’ll be happy by just looking at it
Two separate threads? You’ve already decided.
:yum:

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#8

…u defenitly sound like a octatrack guy to me…give it a try…
for ur fieldrecording aproaches u might wanna consider some preamping before hitting the ot, though…

and hey, it’s totally ok and more and more a “pretty” common thing to keep stayin’ alive with a depression…even a clinical one…where’s the difference, end of all days, anyways…

singing, lot’s of walks out in the open and getting frequently lost in sonic tunnel visions are defenitly great anti depressives…

and so are all those lucky dips and happy accidents waiting for u within a ot…literally anything can become a groove, or a beat or a melody far beyond all 4/4 measurements…

3 Likes
#9

With what you’ve shared, it would seem like an instrument you would appreciate. However if you have no prior experience with elektron it may be better to start with the DT. Not that you couldn’t learn the OT, it’s just you will be wandering around learning it. It’s totally worth it though.

As long as you just connected the Bluetooth speaker directly via a 1/8” audio cable you could hook one up that way. So far as time signatures go, I know you can do different tempo’s per pattern, so I don’t think that will be a problem. As for the production, it in it self may not give you something as a specific type or vibe, however you can produce anything you could want or imagine on it.

I’ve had it for 2yrs and it took most of that for me to really get comfortable with it. As long as you can accept it’s just a vast instrument that takes time to get acquainted with, let alone have mastery over then it’s worth committing yourself to learning it. However if you want to just get your feet wet and learn the elektron style of workflow I’d suggest the Digitakt as a great introduction to prepare you for the OT. And yes, you would need to get a pre-amp for direct mic recording, and I would recommend it for general recording as well if you want the levels to be more easily controlled and to get a good level more easily. So you could have it in your kitchen as long as you have an outlet or an extension chord. I don’t know if anyone has hooked up a power supply to it, someone probably has, so you could maybe eventually go that route and be able to use it anywhere you’d like. Hope this helps.

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