Using Samples with different length

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I have made a bunch of samples in ableton live. Everything from drum loops, pads, melodies, exf and so on. The length of the samples vary from only a few seconds to over a minute long.

Next step is arranging the samples on the OT. I know its pretty basic stuff
but i havent been able to play with the OT until now. The problem is that
the long samples are being retriggered before they end. Is there any general approach when using samples with different length? Thanks

#2

I’m thinking for those long samples you could use the Plays Free function? There’s an Elektron video on YouTube that shows how to do this.

#3

Thats a good idea. I havent used this function before.
Will try it out. Thanks.

So for longer samples or playback tracks you will recomend using the track trigs and plays free function?

#4

Or use one shot trigs (see page 80 in the manual).

#5

Or use per track scale and make the offending tracks play slower.

#6

I have tried this option. But at the moment im trying to understand how the one shot trigs work. So far im not getting it. I can get the sequencer to trig the one shot trigs when starting the sequencer, but how do i trig them manually?

#7

Press Yes. If you are in grid rec mode it will arm the one shots of that track, otherwise of all tracks. No disarms in a similar way.

#8

The one shot trigs make it possible to really control when you want to activate the trig of a sample (or recording, btw).

But if you want something as simple as a loop, you may use different scale per track as JSZ said.
This way it is trigged continuously.

#9

Here’s a great way to use one shots: https://youtu.be/sW-oCZa6-g0

Not really related to this topic but I thought I’d share now that I remember it.

#10

Im still trying to get my head around this.

Question 1:

Are one shot trigs suppose to be triggered manually when hitting the buttons or automatically being trigged by the sequencer.?

Question 2:

When i have a long 1 minute pad sample on track 1 i can trigger this sample by pushing the sequencer button 9 ( I T1 ). Is this the same as a one shot trig?

Question 3:

Can i assign 16 different samples on the same track and trig them with one shot trigs?

#11

  1. One shot trigs are trigged by the sequencer, if they are armed. If they are disarmed, they are ignored.

  2. Not really but the outcome may be the same. In this case the machine is trigged once in concordance with the track’s quantization setting.

  3. Theoretically you could have a one shot trig on every step of the track set to play a different sample , so that’s 64. I don’t know if there are many useful applications for this approach.

#12

The longest sample length you can play with ‘normal’ OT trigger is 512 steps: in 64 steps per pattern mode with 1/8 tempo multiplier. It’s a good idea to keep this in mind while creating samples on PC. If sample is longer than 512 steps there are several options:

  1. use one shot trigs (you have to arm them manually);
  2. slice your long sample and use slices in 2+ different patterns.