#394

Yeah, it took me about 6 years to dip into Parts, but it definitely takes its potential to the next level. But it also definitely takes some tinkering and a different way of thinking. It can be tedious, but getting into it is worth it.

#395

Just found this pdf a few days ago and thought it is worth to share:

http://www.elektron-users.com/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=611&Itemid=30

The part about parts helped me to understand parts :rofl::rofl:

1 Like
#396

Ah sure, I understand, but Iā€™m glad you think this one might be useful :slight_smile:

Well, I donā€™t know reallyā€¦ Adding conditions/priority is a possibility but I think ā€œpure randomā€ would be more fun. At least for testing. Maybe, just a ā€œmaximum sample-durationā€ parameter on top of that if possible ? Just in case some long files are also present in the folder, we donā€™t want to create a file that would be to big for the Octatrack.

#397

This was the biggest hurdle to working smoothly with the OT for me. I came to the OT sort of backwards after using a Digitakt and Digitone first, so I was used to being able to change sounds and settings per pattern. However, once you get used to it though, it becomes second nature to realize that machines & samples can be changed via parts (instead of patterns). However, with p-locks for samples, you can develop a workflow that doesnā€™t require diving into parts, if you desire. After some time, I kind of like the fact that OT is different.

2 Likes
#398

@reijo ā€¦ ahh, looks great, thanks! will def check that out todayā€¦ and, yeah @cold_fashioned i was coming from dTone and Rytm and thatā€™s what confused meā€¦ though now, even without parts, i sort of like having each project only be, for the most part, a single patternā€¦ at least i can organize by date (named)ā€¦ hopefully learning and using Parts wonā€™t add another level of confusionā€¦ but, i will be looking into it!

1 Like
#399

You donā€™t have to limit to a single pattern. Even with the same sounds in your machines, you can do all kinds of things with different patterns. Then again, now that I think of it, I often only have no more than a few patterns per project. Thatā€™s mostly due to my projects being very basic, I think. Thatā€™s the beauty of OT, it can be as simple or as complex as you can imagine.

#400

oh, of courseā€¦ itā€™s just, the way i see myself working with the OT is mostly to create singular (evolving) loops that make their way into pro toolsā€¦ and with the p locks and asynchronous track lengths a ā€œsingleā€ pattern is really much more than it sounds!

2 Likes
#401

Just uploaded a 0.3.1 update to Github that adds your requested feature.
To use it just add the --ot_random true argument and it should create a single chain (wav + ot) by randomly selecting 64 samples from the folder specified in the --folder. Iā€™ve also made it so it wonā€™t pick the same sample more than once.
For now itā€™ll be purely random but I think it should be quite cool nevertheless.

Let me know if that works for ya

2 Likes
#402

Wow ! Very cool, thank you very much. I need to convert some folders of samples to mono and I will test it asap :wink:

#403

please do more videos!

1 Like
#404

Some of the discussion that @mattlowery brought up has been on my mind as Iā€™ve considered integrating a proper sampler into my workflow. Iā€™ve been curious about the OT for so many years, but I donā€™t know if I have the patience (or time) to devote to learning to use it. Over the last year Iā€™ve been trying to move away from the linearity of composing in segments of time.

This is probably common practice for most of you, but different for me (coming from dance music to making less rigidly structured music lately). I write melodic ideas on the OP-Z and bring the midi into Live where Iā€™ll make a whole bunch of sounds and loops from the midi. I then move to a phase of running the samples I made through different sound design treatments (sometimes in the DAW in a new project, but also Norns/iPad stuff), then take this new pool of modified sounds and arrange them (in the DAW) into sections that I can create transitions between.

Iā€™ve been considering a sampler (either OT or Blackbox) so that I can sort of perform the parts back into the DAW to arrange them. The OT gives me the benefit of being able to move some of the sound design stuff out of the computer, which I like, but I think that if my primary use winds up being that Iā€™m just triggering sounds back into the DAW, then the OT will be overkill. If I was confident that Iā€™d use the full sound design potential of the OT it is a no-brainer. I just donā€™t want to spend a month not making music memorizing shortcuts.

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#405

This was very well done

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#406

Iā€™ll be doing regular walk-through stuff on my Patreon, but honestly, it is an enormous amount of work and Iā€™m not sure how regularly Iā€™ll do it on my YouTube account. But thanks so much!

1 Like
#407

Iā€™ve been following this mad manā€™s project over on the Elektronauts forum and it looks like he finally finished this fever dream of a box:

5 Likes
#408

Donā€™t worry about the learning curve. I skimmed the manual, watched YouTube videos & read merlins guide a week before I got it and it took less than a week to really learn it well. Itā€™s not as tough as people say, especially if you are comfortable with things like Norns. The shortcuts, at least on the mkii are extremely intuitive and once it becomes muscle memory, it feels so good and smooth to work with. Loading samples, performance things (quick muting/scenes/switching tracks), slicing, creating complex patterns, resampling and saving samples all happens instantaneously and is much more rewarding than working in a daw.

Which brings me to the main point, that it will not be a redundant workflow. You can substitute the step where you take midi into the daw and rework samples with the octatrack by running the opz straight into the octatrack to begin with and sequencing it with the octatracks midi tracks along with your whole production workflow. Obviously reworking samples will be fully integrated, which is really nice when the octatrack is your main hub/brain because it makes sampling and resampling/bouncing anything second nature. Which makes it really easy to create complex layered sequences and tracks and integrating pieces of sampled live audio into your final set. While you are working on making a live pattern or performing, if you want to bounce something from a synth that the ot is sequencing with midi and playing itā€™s audio back with effects, so that you can print it to a buffer and then further mangle it, you can free up the synth for a new sequence and have that playing live on a thru track while the sampled version is playing along.

It probably sounds obvious, and Iā€™m not articulating this well but itā€™s an almost entirely different workflow. It makes everything immediate and congruent. It makes you use methods you never would have inside a daw. I do everything with my octatrack and a few synths, norns, drum machine, pedals all connected to midi from octatrack, norns and launchpad midi controller going in and through itā€™s midi, all of the hardware routing audio back in, all clocked to the Octa. Mixed and compressed, performed, recorded, with scenes mangling either the entire master track or individual ones. Then record that into one ableton track, use a compressor plugin and maximizer and export. If you want to do more high quality sampling or use a vst synth or cool fx plugins, You can run the audio out from your daw through your interface to an Octa input and record that to a sample slot. That way you can arrange everything in one massive Swiss army box.

At first the fact that it can do everything may seem gimmicky or overkill, but thatā€™s what makes it great, it can do everything because thatā€™s how you use it. And when your set revolves around the octatrack, everything can be done in an instant and it gels in a way I find very hard to do in something as open as a daw. Itā€™s almost like a modular system in that everything works together, you use envelopes and amps and filters and triggers and clocks to manipulate patterns, but its easier to tie everything together in the end. Even if you donā€™t use that exact workflow and ableton is still your main tool, Iā€™m sure you will find the octatrack adds a lot to your production process.

I feel like Iā€™m all over the place here. And I wish I could explain why I love working with the octatrack so much but Iā€™ve never heard a great description of it either. Nothing you find online will make you understand why itā€™s the perfect tool for sound design and composition. Very tactile, hands on, intuitive, smooth, can be linear or wide open, can force limitations or exploration, and will give you a workaround for nearly any scenario or method of sound sculpting and arranging that you can imagine. And the ability to use your head to reverse engineer some kind of neat way to achieve those goals with the vast toolkit of utilities available to you is much more satisfying and enjoyable than slapping a plugin on a track or drawing out automation on a piano roll. It feels good to create things in that way, almost like the freedom of working with tape or an acoustic instrument

Max Marcoā€™s YouTube videos show the sound design possibilities and cool workflow tricks, yvla trax and jay hoskingā€™s YouTube videos show the kind of crazy compositions you can achieve with just the ot. Those guys were the main reason I finally pulled the trigger on it. And I was very skeptical. But I know that I would not be able to do what I do now without it, or with something like an mpc. And I used to make music with ableton only.

10 Likes
#409

Cuckooā€™s couple of tutorials on the Octatrack are also fantastic. I wish I had them when I was first starting.

I feel like it came up somewhere above, but the Octatrack is only as complex as you want it to be. I think a lot of new users forget that and feel like they have to do everything that itā€™s capable of right away. Iā€™ve still never used the arranger and barely ever sequence a pattern and have maybe only performed with a couple patterns once and Iā€™ve owned the thing for 8 years maybe? Given that Elektron seems to be most famous for the sequencing, itā€™s nice to know Iā€™m still incredibly satisfied.

I think itā€™s one of the most important instrument designs in a good long while. Itā€™s incredibly modular, so it requires some thought as to how you want to set it up and use it, but you can switch that over quickly too. I think just being patient and dipping in to get comfortable gradually would be what Iā€™d emphasize. People who write it off usually expect too much too soon, or just never really discover how much more it can be than a box for techno.

3 Likes
#410

Always interesting to hear what other people do with the OT. Those features are my bread and butter, what are your normal use cases?

#411

Iā€™d say I have a few general uses:

  1. Effects/mixing hub. Sometimes I will process long samples. Other times itā€™s messing with external signals. Usually the hub/mixer approach is coupled withā€¦
  2. Simulated tape reel where I manually capture live loops and mangle. Sometimes this is coupled withā€¦
  3. Clocking the modular and being the rhythmic brain. This usually means one track is used with an MPC click sample as the clock. That allows for a lot more interesting timing potential than just using MIDI.
  4. Single-cycle waveform improvised zaniness. This usually involves a lot of modulation upon modulation and me playing the tracks in the moment. Often, even with this setup I reserve a couple tracks for live simulated tape reel zones.

This is the fun of having 8 tracks after all, so you can play with various permutations of whatever your approach is.

Over the last couple years I got really into using the OT alone with use case number 4. I have an EP of just that released on Fluf and have another release that has yet to find a home, which I should probably take to mean, it isnā€™t up to snuff! :slight_smile: Thatā€™s a concept I have come to call ā€˜flockingā€™ and I continue to periodically revisit this approach because itā€™s super expressive and fun. I also love the idea of touring and playing ā€˜onlyā€™ the OT. Thereā€™s something very pleasant about that.

8 Likes
#412

Your response was really inspiring to read. Thank you for getting all that down.

I actually picked up a Digitakt today (found a good deal on a used one), and while Iā€™ve got a lot to explore and will definitely have some great ways to use it, I can sort of already see how itā€™s not going to do some of what I would like it to. Hopefully thatā€™s a creatively stimulating challenge. We shall see.

Thanks for the confidence boost with the learning curve. Itā€™s good to remind myself that thereā€™s all kinds of stuff I use now that felt pretty daunting to begin with. Reaktor and ppooll were scary at first too. If I see a used mk1 pop up for a good price (everything seems to have gone up in price lately), I will probably grab it.

1 Like
#413

thatā€™s awesome, very nice to hear. i never used the digitakt but im sure its cool. definitely differences though, im sure youā€™re aware. man, ppooll. almost forgot about that :call_me_hand:t2: