Using Octatrack like a tape recorder to make sample chains

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

With a tape, I can record a snippet, stop, record another after it, and so on. Is there any trick to get the Octatrack to do something similar?

My goal: I want to create a bunch of, say, kick samples from a Moog Grandmother, and then combine them into a sample chain so I can quickly play different slices. I would record one sample at a time, tweaking the Grandmother patch and recording another.

The only way I can think of is to record each hit to one of seven separate record buffers, then resampling those to the eighth.

Any other ideas that donā€™t use up all the record buffers? I find this approach a bit risky, too, as the samples would only exist in a buffer until the end, and I would probably end up hitting the wrong button and recording over them.

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#2

Iā€™m always thinking along those lines! Not just to make chains but compositionally

So many machines, apps, daws could do with treating completion of playback of an audio file as a trigger for something else to happen

Anyway Iā€™ll puzzle over it againā€¦

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#3

Do you know Octachainer? Means going outside the OT but itā€™s really good and free. Thereā€™s a thread or two on here about it

Plus it makes files where every hit follows after the duration of the previous. All pre sliced with an accompanying .ot file. With percussion the complete file Is nice to play back - like a jazzy parallel drumming solo with all those arbitrary lengths. Sometimes more fruitful than the intended slice usage

#4

I know Octachainer, but if I fire up the computer Iā€™ll just record the drum hits into Ableton, and go from there. Which I donā€™t mind doing, but itā€™s more fun with the Octatrack.

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#5

You can record all your samples into the octa one at a time (saving the recording buffers), and then sequence all your drum hits one after the other (like tape), and then resample that whole thing into one recording buffer, slice it up.

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#6

There are probably many ways to do this, but this is what I would try:

On an available track, set it to flex. On this track, set up recording to record from the inputs where the synth is, and set up a one-shot recording trig.

Make your first synth patch, and record it. In the audio editor save a copy of that sample (I would just let it name automatically).

Make your second synth patch and repeat recording and save the second sample.

Repeat recording and saving for the third synth patch, and so on.

Then on an available track, just sample-lock each of your new samples over the sequencer.

On your flex track above, change the recording source from the synth input to the track where you played all the samples. Save that file too. Now you have a chain of samples.

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#7

IMHO thatā€™s the fastest way after you have set it up once.

  1. Configure the first 7 recorders and thru machines on the audio tracks
  2. Configure the recorder of track 8 and a flex machine on the audio track to play rec buffer 1-7 however you want/need (for example: you can also play some pitched versions of the rec buffers)
  3. save the content of rec buffer 8

Then just practice a few times recording to the 7 recorders and producing the final sample chain (probably with the same input just to get your muscle memory up and running).

Indeed some of my utility patterns look exactly this way ā€¦ and itā€™s very fast when you donā€™t save all the in between audio snippets (what you still can do if you want).

I use multiple utility patterns, because the final result differs. Some patterns use just a single rec buffer, but produce pitched up and down versions over multiple octaves. Itā€™s always a good idea to have such ā€œstandard utilitiesā€ laying around (just a pattern/bank switch away) which you can fire up quickly without breaking ā€œthe flowā€.

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#8

Iā€™ll probably do this, but instead of Thru machines Iā€™ll just hit the REC1 button. I have one-tap record on, and hold-to-record.

Press and hold REC1, then tap the key on the synth.

#9

You can copy and paste in the audio editor tooā€¦

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#10

The main way I make them is sequence whatever it is with the OT and perform the tweaks live for 16 or 24 hits recording back into the OT with the record start and stop quantised. Then the slices can be made instantly with the create slice grid option.

If I sample iPad thereā€™s some latency between the triggering and sampling. which means the slices tend to catch the beginning of the next sound - but this next can be fixed in the OT editor using ā€˜rotate position to startā€™

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#11

I did not know this existed!

#12

Can also be used to get around the ā€˜only on boundariesā€™ issue if you try to cut a section from within a sample (make selection you want to cut out, rotate to start then cut it. Find original start point of sample and rotate to start again)

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