Maybe a strange topic in this forum, but I’m just curious - the Octatrack seems to divide musicians like no other piece of gear. Some love it, embrace it, make it heart of the studio or sometime their only piece, loaded with all the samples in the world.
Others just don’t like it at all.
For those of you who owned an Octatrack and got to terms with it, then eventually sold it anyway - why did you?
Didn’t sell mine but did swap it for an A4, which seems more logical. I do miss it occasionally because nothing does what it can do, but then I remember all the pain, the anger, the loss and I resist getting another.
I may fall for it again one day but I keep hoping another company will have a crack at a similar thing but in a more intuitive, musical, simple way. Most of what I did with the Octatrack I now do on a Roland RC-505, which has hours of internal memory and no card, plus you can tweak each pattern happily, content in the knowledge that unless you specifically save it will be as you want it next time. The RC-505’s looper works pretty well when externally synced, could never understand why the Octatrack was so limited in that important (to me) respect.
…i did’nt…i’ll buy another one soon…
Reasons I sold mine.
[ul]
[li]Over complex sampling setup & sample saving[/li]
[li]Only 8 monophonic tracks[/li]
[li]not velocity sensitive[/li]
[li]no layering of samples or key ranges[/li]
[li]No extra outputs for mixer routing[/li]
[li]CF cards kept corrupting and losing weeks of work (maybe not its fault but still this happened twice to me.)[/li]
[li]Too much menu diving[/li]
[li]Only 4 bar sequencing per pattern[/li]
[/ul]
In the end I sold mine and went over to a second hand MPC 1000 and am far happier with how it operates. The only thing I miss is the quality of the octas reverb but its not a big issue as I have some lexicon rack gear.
I bought an OT used last year and only kept it for a couple of weeks before reselling it. I like to, as I call it, invite “guest gear” into my humble abode to fiddle with and get a glimpse of the possibilities.
While I did enjoy the step sequencer, its p-locks, the fader and its scenes, the whole administrative overhead just really bummed me out. There you are with a machine that sports so many knobs and buttons - and yet the menu diving is unparalleled.
I might add that I wasn’t looking to replace my DAW with the OT anyway.
didn´t sell mine, would like another one…
I really liked that machine the first days, but after one week or so
I was pretty sure I´ll send it back. the reason was that my brain hurt,
I lost nearlly all the cool stuff i´ve programmed that first week and still
had no glue how to do the easiest things on it (sampling for example)
but I had 30 days time to send it back and watched every tutorial i could find
and read the manual again and again (and again) that was a time where
a kind of love/hate relationship began. I can understand everyone who
got rid of that machine again. In my case I just forgot to send it back within
30 days. I regreted that a lot first, especially when i read that countless negative
hate comments about the OT, because it can´t do this and that …
but time after time i concentrated much more on all the cool stuff
it can do and i love it ever since.
btw. the reason i bought the OT was that i needed a MIDI step seuencer,
I got much more than i expected.
I was prepared for pain when I bought it, but even so, I was on the fence for awhile before I decided to keep it. I developed a deep psychological rejection, where I fooled not only those around me but myself that I loved the machine and what it could be. But secretly I hated it for making me feel stupid and untalented, though I couldn’t even admit it to myself. Being raised on workstations, YamahaSY55, YamahaSY85, YamahaW5, Korg Triton, KorgM3, and so on, I was used to a different workflow. But I’d developed a taste for stuff that couldn’t be found in workstations, so I just had to take the leap.
I remember what the trigger was for me, where I started to realise that maybe I could make this work after all. Sampling through recorder trigs - I hooked up my Tempest to it and sampled sequences and stuff I’d done on that instrument, then started just messing with them. For some reason, it just worked and felt so easy, although the night before it had seemed impossible.
Now, we’re best friends and I consider it my backpack studio. I build my tracks wherever on whatever, then record them into the Octatrack and make something out of them that couldn’t be done on any other instrument.
Calling it a sampler is actually its biggest problem, I think, and it creates expectations that it takes awhile to calibrate. The Octatrack samples, it’s great at it, if you need a sampler it will do the job and then some, even if you use it for nothing else. But that doesn’t make it a sampler more than a DAW or a tape recorder, which also record audio.
So yes. For me , it’s my recording studio, which I can also bring to live gigs. Very convenient.
word.
i had one for a couple of months, and while i did love the sequencer (coming from using the mnm for years), i felt it painful to organize/configure samples to use with it.
another difficult issue was needing to sequence on two different pieces of gear (MNM and OT). song mode worked well between the two though.
i didn’t do any recording with it, just filled it with samples. i’m sure recording with it is easier than it was when i had it (jan 2012).
i have since replaced it with a sp606 which doesn’t even get close to doing the things the OT could do, but it’s a lot more straightforward which is the kind of workflow i was looking for.
less is more with me though :-p
Maybe wrong thread to post but I just got mine. As in just days ago. I am enthralled with its capabilities. I have no real knowledge or experience with any daw’s so I have nothing to base my learning curve off of. I know I’m in for a ride so hopefully I can persevere and soon be knowing this piece like second nature.
the OT is pretty unique.
it´s not an 8 track recording machine !
it´s not a classic sampler (recording a dog bark and have fun…)
it´s not a modern classic sampler (grand piano, drum kits, etc…forget it)
it´s not a real dj mixer
it´s not a music production center (akai wise)
it´s not a drum computer
it´s not a real synth
it´s not a replacement for a daw
it´s not a … blablabla
the OT is definitly the black sheep in the elektron family
it can do many different things but nothing right
but in combination with other gear it´s like a swiss army knife for me,
that´s why i love it (most of the time)
coming from modular synths and step sequencers helped a lot to appreciate
that box.
it´s easy to simulate a lot of boutique (guitar) fx boxes with it (which are very expensive sometimes)
and in the meantime i feel pretty comfortable with it as a stand alone device too !
if I had to choose a instrument for a desert island i´d go with … a guitar !
I Sold my first Octatrack about three months after I got it. Didn’t care for the workflow, found sampling confusing. Decided to have another go, got a second this February. After three months, sold it. Out of pure chance, I ended up getting it back.
Decided to really commit to it this time and it’s been really rewarding. The science lab challenge really helped me figure out some things I’ve been meaning to learn and now I absolutely love it. Everything I used to struggle with come easy now. (mostly saving and sampling in real time) Just learned how to use the arranger, I can actually do entire songs now!
I’ve not sold mine but some times wish I could.
The Octa is easily the most frustrating Elektron product :
confusing workflow when you are new
changed product direction (?) - It seems they changed their mind on things between the time the product was designed and the final OS. Some what seen in the way the labels on the machine are somewhat off from their actual usage
average sampler. A slight step up from a phrase sampler but missing so much. I like the OP1 more for creative sampling.
no kits.
basic sampling is still way to convoluted.
Why keep? Simple, the sequencer and micro-timing. And the fact despite all the frustration, once mastered you’ll never find anything to replace it. Love/hate sorta thing.
Came close to selling mine twice.
First time around came within a month or two of purchasing it. I actually started a thread round these parts to persuade me to stick with it and glad I did. It was probably the midi sequencing that saved the day at that point.
Probably the best part of a year later I started to have doubts again. I had sold most of my other hardware and only had the OT and A4. Spotted an AR at a slightly cheaper price and using all three together has been a dream for me.
It occasionally crosses my mind that I could sell it up and make a nice profit on what I paid for mine 2nd hand - after all, I can do a lot of what I do with it in Live - but fairly regularly I’ll happen across something that sounds just too cool or come across someone else’s tips/videos that just makes me think wow - this machine is special (that recent granular thread turned out to be a great example of how I want to use my OT).
I know I would pretty much instantly regret selling my OT. I only paid £500 for it in as new condition and for that amount Im quite happy to keep hold and have it at hand when Im in an “away from the computer & experimental” kind of mood.
I don’t necessarily feel it has a bad workflow. It has a different workflow. And if you aren’t prepared to give in to it then it is difficult to use. I don’t blame those who give up though - after all, when 99% of all other machines follow the same principles then why learn something new. But then why learn certain languages or customs - because you often become better as a whole for doing so!
I also get tr909’s “no direction” comment too. It definitely is another reason why the OT is difficult to get to grips with. But it is also part of why the machine is so amazing. It’s a blank canvas and I’d rather have that to play around with than some set processes that would ultimately, for me at least, stifle creativity.
Anyway, with OB set to take my AK/AR outputs into Live directly I’m getting pretty excited about using the OT as a sort of sends FX & on the fly sampler. Yes I can obviously do this already but I think OB might just be the bridge that makes my hybrid set up come to life and the OT is going to play a huge part in that I’m sure.
Almost sold mine three times now.
First time it was because I was beginning to feel that I’d wasted so much money buying all this stuff, and was having panic attacks just thinking about all my stuff, let alone learning a new piece of gear. So it really wasn’t the OT’s fault.
Second time was more to do with workflow issues i.e. I don’t find it intuitive like the other gear I’ve owned in the past. It was saved when I discovered the joy of using it as a MIDI sequencer.
Third time I didn’t really want to sell but needed the $$. Luckily I was able to sort out my finances in time.
I’ve got it packed away for the time being now that I’ve happily gone back to computer sequencing. If I still haven’t found a way to gel with it by the end of the year then off it goes.
Do the Science Lab challenge. That really helped me learn to use the Octatrack like an Octatrack and stop trying to use it like Ableton Live or an MPC 1000 
Prior to that I always looked at it as an accessory (providing FX and looping to other instruments) but the Science Lab really helped me see it more as an instrument. (like a synth, but with audio as an ‘oscillator’.)
Do the Science Lab challenge. That really helped me learn to use the Octatrack like an Octatrack and stop trying to use it like Ableton Live or an MPC 1000
Prior to that I always looked at it as an accessory (providing FX and looping to other instruments) but the Science Lab really helped me see it more as an instrument. (like a synth, but with audio as an ‘oscillator’.)[/quote]
Might have to have a crack at it then. Funny thing is, when i start thinking of features id like to have in a replacement i end up coming full circle back to the OT
I tried to love the octatrack…but I sold it to get an AR!
It just that it is a very different workflow and not a “real” drum machine.
It depends your personality and production style I guess.