#472

That is all I use it for. The «empty» loops technique detailed by me/@wolfgangschaltung enables you to have pre defined loop lengths that can be independent of each other.

I have refined some parts of this technique that streamlines the workflow even more. Will update the workflow as soon as I have time. Does anyone know if it’s possible to share Octatrack projects? If so I can share the template project I use as a base for this looping technique.

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#473

See my post at the top of the page…

My approach involved never pressing play on the Octatrack and instead I used it as a processing environment.

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#474

another option that people don’t seem to mention too much is that if you set length to ‘time’ in a flex machine you can get async loops not tied to the grid. One thing I used to do sometimes is have a pickup machine in TK1, then have a bunch of flex machines with different start points and loop lengths all playing from the pickup buffer. (when the pickup is recording or overdubbing the section the flexes are playing they will stop playing, can’t remember if they continue playing after, you might need to retrig them ?)

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#475

Anyone have any experience mapping a midi foot controller to the octatrack? Any recommendations or general use experience?
I picked up playing a saxophone and have been having great fun running it though vcv rack in real time for effects and granular stuff. Would love to trigger some live sampling too

#476

Yeah, I use a Disaster Area DMC-7D and programmed it to run the functions of the pick-up machines. Works great. I’m sure any of the others out there would work. I like the look of the Morningstar ones.

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#477

@kin.sventa I’ve been wondering if this is worth checking out as an Octatrack companion:

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#478

It was conceived for the OT originally :slight_smile:

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#479

Yes I would probably go Morningstar if I wasn’t already using a guitar pedalboard midi thing. They look pretty slick, and the MIDI implementation for OT controls is pretty straightforward.

#480

I can confirm the assertions in your post about the Morningstar are correct.

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#481

I do. A little bit at least. What do you need to know exactly?
The one thing I struggled most with was that of course once you change parts the state of the MIDI controller and the parameters on the OT don’t match anymore.
Best example is probably track volume. Let’s say you are on PART 1 and the volume of track 1 is 0 because you turned it down with a knob. That knob on the controller will also be at 0. Then you change to PART 2, and track 1 has volume 128. Now if you move the knob the volume will suddenly jump from 128 to 0, which sucks.

But I found a neat trick to sort that out, which is this:

  • If your MIDI controller does accept incoming CCs connect the output from the OT to the input of the controller.
  • Set CC settings in MIDI > CONTROL to INT/EXT
  • map a button on the MIDI controller to send a value of 0 on CC #61 / CH1, this will make the OT dump all the parameter states to the MIDI controller. If your controller has encoders then these will now match whatever the new PART is set to on the OT.
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#482

After taking a few weeks off I’ve come back to the Octatrack, and have made some nice discoveries (new to me anyway). Recently I’ve been really experimenting with granular textures using the retrig on a flex machine as well as chaining lots of neighbours to try and tame the sounds.

I’ve also set up some template projects: at the moment one as a basic sketchpad so I don’t end up with thousands of throwaway sketch projects, and one as a resampling project, so I can make new samples from old ones. I’m already finding them to be massively helpful to my workflow.

Does anyone else use project templates? If so, what have you got set up and what are your intentions for them? Any potential ideas for other useful templates?

Also, here is a quick demo of some granular textures:

20 Likes
#483

this is unbelievable. you’re doing the random lfo start position scrubbing through a sample with the two scenes on the fader set to lowest/highest then filling up most of the steps in the pattern, some conditional, fast bpm, and putting modulated rtime retrigs steps in there as well? am i missing something with this process? I do get cool results with this method but this video sounds gorgeous to me. incredible

i have a “template” scene that i start with every time i load up my octa. i have like 4 backups of the same template in case i accidentally save over or something. it has all my midi routings with midi channel on the midi side, then all my thru machines and flex tracks with the record settings, fx slots, all of my go-to scenes, empty audio pool, master track the way i like them so everything is ready to go. i dont even remember what type of global settings are saved at this point so i may be pretty lost if i had to start from scratch , but the templates are a big help when working with other gear, using the octa as a midi/audio hub. I do like the idea of starting fresh though. sometimes ill make a new setup that is just cascading resample flex tracks with parts grabbing from previous pattern flex’s and some sort of more complex routings. sometimes i think the template may be sort of limiting, since i only have 3-4 open tracks to play with in those projects. but it’s a nice start either way, especially for sketches

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#484

Thanks for the kind words! And yes, doing random LFO on the start position, but there’s only one trig per pattern, and the pattern is just running at standard speed. There’s also a random LFO on the RTIM parameter. The scene on the cross-fader is actually mapped to a filter that has 3 LFO’s making it randomise: 1 on cutoff modulation, one on LFO 1 speed modulation, and one on LFO 1 depth.

Having backup template projects is a good idea, I should probably do that. I also hadn’t thought of setting up a template depending on the gear that you are using with it. I often change what my setup is, but there are a few common setups that could definitely benefit from having templates. Thanks for sharing!

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#486

Has anyone tried to power a DPS-1 from eurorack? It says it takes 6v, but I’m not sure how particular it is. I try to carry as few power bricks as possible, so it would be sweet if I could take the 9v or 19v from my PowSkiff and bring that down somehow for the octatrack.

#488

Fwiw I’ve powered my mk2 from a USB charger (and tested with a battery pack) via a myvolts cable. It’s a smaller setup than the stock adapter.

2 Likes
#489

Awesome, I have one of those adapters, I’ll try that and get back - thanks :slight_smile:

#490

I need some help wrapping my head around some external unit routing. I want to use my Norns as an external unit.

Do I need to use 2 tracks on the octa like the attached Ricky Tinez video if I want to use norns on both signals coming into the AB inputs and already recorded samples/loops on the octa? Or is there a way to use scenes as a way to just use 1 track for this technique?

#491

wouldn’t you just create a thru or flex track and select “A B” as the input? that’s what i do

#492

Yeah, in the video he’s operating with mono signals, but through and flex tracks can be stereo too.

#493

Set scenes to balance between L/R (A/B)? But it would be the same FX. If you wanted seperate fx you would need two tracks…