#76

It helps for the first slice, but it doesn’t help with the rest.
This is what I’m talking about.

https://soundcloud.com/qype-dikir/octa-click/s-FL3tR

Recorded a 32 step loop with the modular using a flex machine and had another flex machine pointed at that buffer already sliced with linear trigs. No modulations and I just crossfade between the two.

From what I’ve read around it seems to be unavoidable (for live use at least), just curious if anyone is using a workaround that’s not lowpass filtering it until it’s workable.

#77

If the material is very homgeneus (is that spelled right?) you get small “ducking” effects when using fades/envelopes. Since the OT is monophonic it can’t crossfade

but @qype are you slicing with or without zero cross detection? I found not using zero cross detection to work better for such cases. theoretically if all slices’ start- and endpoints are on the exact same sample you won’t get clicks. Of course you’ll get clicks when randomizing, but you can remove them with a bit of an envelope (which can be controlled via scene)

but I should mention that I like to make the OT click so maybe I’m the wrong person to give advice here :slight_smile:

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#78

I mostly don’t use zero crossing, but tried it just now on the sample from the example above and didn’t notice a big difference to be honest.

It seems to me that theoretically the click shouldn’t be there for the reason you mention, but the consensus over at elektronauts is that there’s no easy way to avoid it in live use I believe. Just wanted to see how everyone else was dealing with it.

Clicking when randomizing is not a problem, I use it as part of the sound, but clicking when using continuous slices makes me “waste” a track or low pass the clicks (which doesn’t work well on a lot of material). Oh well, can’t have it all, right? :slight_smile:

#79

I also struggle with these points, but was able to overcome the auto BPM feature by preloading the recording buffers of the Pickup machines with empty audio files of pre-defined lengths. Avoids unwanted tempo changes for me.

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#80

What I do is set up the recording buffer at a defined length (eg. 64) instead of MAX, so it does not change the BPMs. but more often than not 64 steps aren’t enough, so I’ll try your trick! How exactly are doing it?

@qype regarding clicks, I need to test that again. had done some tests with sine waves in the past… but that was a long time ago

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#81

I know, if one can work with a maximum of 64 steps, then all is fine. But I want longer buffers like two and a half minutes. So…

(1) decide for a tempo,
(2) decide for the loop lengths you want,
(3) calculate the number of steps that equal the loop lengths you want,
(4) do empty recordings inside the OT at the tempo you want and abort these recordings after the calculated number of steps,
(5) store and name these recordings accordingly to CF card
(6) load the recordings you want into the recording buffers of the pickup machines

Step 6 is the tricky one: Normally you can double tap a track button to see the according sample slot list, and the 8 recording buffers on top of the sample slot list (in case it is a Flex machine track). But double tapping the track button of a pickup machine track only gives you the menu to chose a different machine for this track.

So you have to double tap a track with a Flex machine on it to get to the sample slot list with the recording buffers. Now use the cursor up/down to select the recording buffer with the number of the pickup machine track you want. Then press “yes” twice, which will open the audio file selector, select the empty audio file you named & saved in step (5) and enjoy.

UPDATE
I just noticed that I forgot to mention the final steps, which are crucial:
(7) Press Play on the OT Sequencer.
(8) Press Play on each of the Pickup machines in which you loaded the empty recording.

Without these final two steps it does not work!
Sorry that I forgot this.

1 Like
#82

New Mk 1 for $800 shipped: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/858268-REG/Elektron_OCTATRACK_DPS_1_Octatrack_Dynamic_Performance_Sampler.html

1 Like
#83

Now I hate Elektron. Mine cost me almost €1300 (about $1400) just a few months ago.
But there’s one good thing about it: if one day I need to sell it I’ll only get a small fraction of what I originally paid, which means that I’ll be more motivated to just keep it and really learn all its ins and outs.

6 Likes
#84

Also, i feel like chances of a software update are a bit higher now :+1: So maybe it got more usefull too.

#85

Even lower: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/elektron-octatrack-dps1-sampler
Use HEADLINER for 15% off. About $764 shipped in most states.

4 Likes
#86

Seconded! Ugh. Well, it’s here to stay anyway. Watch it become a classic and the values skyrocket.

1 Like
#87

Oh yes, that is highly likely.
Oh and btw. nobody mentioned that the filters on the MK1 sound sound a lot warmer, :smiley:

6 Likes
#88

Still love my Octatrack :slight_smile: Trying to figure out if it’s too much to integrate with the MAX+modular setup, but it’s so great even if I just use it as an effects hub and possible quadrophonic mixer. Endless tinkering…

1 Like
#89

Agreed. And the dark reverb is pretty underrated IMO. It’s staying around for sure.

1 Like
#90

The fx are actually all pretty usable, and some I do really like. I wish the delay had some more stereo options, but I have teh CUE out for that anyway.

#91

Unfortunately I forgot to mention 2 crucial steps in my tip “how to prevent the OT from changing tempo on longer pickup recordings” from July 7. I edited the original post accordingly. Sorry for the confusion.

1 Like
#92

It’s also not 100% clear how you replace the track recording buffer with the saved sample. Though I guess you can do an “assign to self” when saving.
But I wonder, isn’t it easier to just set the desired length in the recorder settings?

#93

Of course it is easier to set the desired length in the recorder settings, but this is limited to 64 Steps. If you select “max” to allow arbitrary recording length, the pickup machines might or might not change the tempo of the OT’s sequencer, depending on when you end the pickup recording.

EDIT: Beside the obvious timing glitch that comes with a tempo change, my main problem with such an uncontrollable tempo change is that pickup machines always timestretch on tempo changes. In spite of Flex & Static machines, you can’t disable timestretching on pickup machines. Now, timestretching sounds sounds like a good thing at first, but here’s the caveat in case of the Octatrack: the moment a pickup machine is timestretched (or has its pitch changed), you can no longer overdub on this pickup machine – and at least for me, being able to do overdubs in a single pickup track is crucial.

So I need to prevent tempo changes, which I can now do with the aforementioned steps,
and I also must make sure to disable any pitch changes in a pickup machine before attempting an overdub on it.

As I wrote in my original post, you can’t directly assign a sample to a pickup machine, so I proposed this workaround:
• double-tap a Flex or Static track to open the sample slot list,
• at the top of the sample slot list (= above slot 1) you see the eight recording buffers of the eight tracks,
• use the cursor up/down to select the recording buffer of the track with the pickup machine,
• press “yes” twice to open the audio file selector,
• select the empty audio file you want to assign to the pickup machine.

I hope this make sense.

With “assign to self” you mean AUDIO EDITOR > FILE > SAVE AND ASSIGN SAMPLE, right? I have not tried that yet, does it work for you?

#94

thanks a lot for the added explanation, I’ll need to try that because I didn’t know that you could assign a sample replacing the recording buffer.

Yes. I usually work with flex machines and do everything there. You can even overdub and they work better for me than loopers, since you can slice and all that. So what I usually do is that I record a temp loop then do the “assign to self” and prepare all the stuff I need to prepare (like slicing). This also let’s me have quite long loops since I can just disable timestretching (which I always disable everywhere anyway) and set the length to max and then manually exit recording on the first pass. So if there’s an overlap it just won’t get played (as long as the loop is retriggered by the sequencer)

#95

I am not quite sure I understand your method. Would you mind elaborating a bit more? I tried to use Flex machines instead of Pickups, and while I was able to overdub with them I failed to achieve lengths longer than 64 steps, as the sample needs to be re-triggered by the sequencer every 64 steps. When I tried to overdub a longer (>64 steps) sample by looping it & using a one-shot trigger, the sample simply didn’t loop when it reached its end during overdubbing.

EDIT: What I do when I want slicing on pickups is that I use one track for the pickup machine, and another track for the Flex machine. But this Flex machine track is assigned to the recording buffer of the pickup machine track (which in turn is loaded with an empty file of pre-defined length). Took me a while to figure that out, but it does the trick for me.