Using the OctaTrack as an arranger for my tracks

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Gents, ladies,

I’ve used all the DAWs out there. I like many of them. Ableton, Logic and so forth. They’re good for many things. One thing they’re not good at, for me at least, is to creatively build a track from pieces of a musical puzzle. I work with slices, patterns, loops and sequences, and eventually, they all become something that I want to put together into a song. For me, DAWs are great for final mixing, adjustments, effects and other things when you basically know what you want and just want to wrap it into a pro sound package. For composing, structure and so on, it’s limiting - not in features, but in terms of inspiring ideas - it’s like drawing a blueprint of a furniture you could just build instead.

So I wonder if the Octatrack is something for me. I own an A4, a MonoMachine and an Analog Keys. And some other stuff. A Tempest, a Tetra, a Microbrute and so on. I’ve bought into the Elektron way of work. I made my first track on a Yamaha SY55. Interfaces and workflow are not an issue for me. I just want a tool that can do what I want.

This is what I want - and I would like the experienced and skilled users in this forum to let me know if this can be done on the Octatrack.

I want a piece of hardware, a tool, where I can put in all my slices, patterns, loops and nuggets from my hardware. A place where I can collect all my pieces. I want this hardware to be able to make interesting things with these pieces, and also let me put them together into a complete track. I want this hardware to be where my song falls into place, where all my loose ends meet up in an interesting final structure where I also not just paste them together, but also make more magic with them.

Is the Octatrack what I’m looking for? There’s certainly nothing else out there that I can find that can do this. The MPC range comes close, but the newer versions require computers and the whole point for me is that computers don’t work for me to build music. Abletone comes close and sometimes, I’m ready to surrender. But no. DAWs are excellent for mastering and polishing, but not for creating. They’re great when you know what you got. They’re not so great at helping you find out what you want.

So. Can the Octatrack help me?

Please help me.

All the best to you all,
Andreas Roman

#2

The Octatrack was custom made for those needs :wink: and many more…the limited number outs make it tricky getting all your tracks back on the DAW - is the only thing

#3

I make music on both Logic/Maschine and Octatrack. (I haven’t done a lot of combining them, though sometimes I’ll start a track on OT and complete in Logic).

Yes, you can definitely achieve what you’re describing on the Octatrack. You can have a ton of sounds and patterns on it, play with them in an intuitive way, come up with weird sample-mangling results you wouldn’t elsewhere, and eventually arrange full tracks on the OT.

It’s also good, if quirky, at sequencing synths. There’s a lot you can do with the OT MIDI sequencer, but it’s also still a step sequencer at its core…it takes a lot more work to get something like naturalistic keyboard playing out of the OT, something that would be easy to achieve on an MPC.

If you’re working with a lot of audio tracks on the OT and want to record full songs to your computer, it’s a bit of a pain. You either record it all at once and sacrifice the ability to change the mix later, or record it track by track, which takes a long time and is easier to screw up. Also, if you’re doing a lot of crossfader action that affects multiple tracks, the latter option gets even more annoying.

Personally, the core of what I love about the OT is its sampler side. I don’t really like sequencing external synths with it as much. (It should be said that there are plenty of people who get great results using it as a sequencer!) I’d rather sample my playing a synth and then mess with that inside the OT.

Basically, I think the OT is more inspirational, and working with its limits is fruitful. But it’s definitely easier for me to assemble tracks in a DAW.

Additionally, I’ve found the OT a bit fiddly live. It has great features for live playing, but it’s difficult to combine separate projects into a single project for live use unless you start out with that intention from the beginning. Hopefully that will change in the future.

This has probably sounded negative…I really do love the OT and recommend it! I just want to lay out some of the issues I’ve run into while trying to make music with it.

#4

It is true that Logic is not the DAW for the purpose you describe, and I will assume you have a MAC so wont mention Sonar x3 and the Matrix view, but Ableton was specifically designed to do just that… it is in fact far better at arranging than it is in real DAW duties. I have always said that if you wish to play live, then Live is the answer, otherwise Logic, Cubase, Sonar are better at being a true DAW.

Maschine can do what you want, but its sequencer is pretty castrated., an MV8800 can do what you want as can lots of older MPC… I used to have an MV and still today think its a viable unit due to the outstanding sequencer, tank build, external video/mouse, solid sampling and mono VA synth. By todays standard, operational speed is slow of course. but it does the goods.
Other pattern based units to consider would be say the MC808… which has a great sequencer, juno sound engine, samples decently, and a decent flow… I have one of these and it may end up being a good companion partner to an Octatrack… the ability to launch RPS (realtime phrase sequences) means that you can have banks of macro midi commands to (say) play OT samples direct instead of mashing the buttons on the OT…

The OT of course does a better job of sample effects and manipulation than anything else, and in real time, so if the immediacy is everything to you then that’s the answer… it does have a tiny screen, and menu diving is necessary, and to build up a song in arrangement mode seems not trivial vs other pattern based units…but like any unit, it takes long time on task to do things speedily and efficiently.

I will give proprs to the OT sequencer, which while limited in some ways, 4 notes per track in particular, with the PL ability it adds a level of flexibility that can be used to great effect with ext. synths.

So I would say this… its not guaranteed that the OT will fix your arrangement woes, it may, but OTOH I really doubt that you will regret its purchase…:slight_smile:

#5

Thanks guys. Very useful, it feels like I might get myself one of these babies then. Might even trade my Analog Keys for it, not that I don’t love the AKeys - I do - but the OT seems very unique and really would fill an empty void in my setup now, whereas the Keys is great and awesome but it is more of the same, although the same is a very good thing in this case.

Also, I’m not made of money. Yeah, that’s the strongest reason for the trade, actually.

Anyway, thanks all.

//Andreas