#455

“if it ain’t broke!”

I agree with much of what others have said here - the OT was so far ahead of its time, and I’m amazed / impressed that it’s still used to perform to this day. Nothing has really topped it in terms of performative samplers and it’s like 11 years old now.

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#456

i agree with this, i love the octatrack and it is what actually opened my up to the reality of internally routing things together, but i ultimately ended up getting a small modular setup so i could do things like multiple random clocks/trigs, more random organic sequencing and weird signal chains. it would be neat to add something like (what i imagine) the Zoia has. where you can apparently run any envelope generator to any other “module” or whatever. just freely routing for further experimentation and more freely flowing time signatures. you can ping filters and things like that in the octatrack, though. so i still see it as a great all-in-one experimental sound design tool as well as a master brain/sequencer

now that i think of it, if it had dc coupled ins and outs, with assignable destinations in a similar way that external midi can be mapped to parameters (including parameters on the midi track side) for cv control, that would probably solve this problem. instead of figuring out a way to internally route more signals, just allow us to run things like lfos/triggers/gates/envelopes out to cv, like you can with the circuit mono station or just any midi to cv converter with a “mod” output and then route them back in to whichever destination we choose for that particular port. like a semi-modular i guess. the rytm/a4 mkii have cv outs already, don’t they?

#457

They do and I am convinced the OTs successor will offer plenty way to integrate modular.

At the time of the silver boxes and OT, modular was not what it is today wrt innovation and popularity. They still can say they offer the best box units (Norns is really the only unit that could be considered competition to the OT). But in terms of innovation, compared to modular, Elektron should be looking over their shoulders.

But no one behind those boxes are there anymore. And…yeah…they brought in investment capital. So maybe they’re not that company anymore. Which is not a dig, just observation. Fingers crossed im wrong.

The Zoia is exactly what I was thinking about when I posted. These things can happen digitally. But the OT interface is still way more engaging.

Actually the sequencers on the A4/AR are pretty incredible: direct jump polymeric conditioned plocks. Now if they somehow enabled an internal LFO to program change…oh man.

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#458

Just leaving this here for anyone interested

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#459

This feels like something that could be done by running OT midi out to CV to a matrix mixer / other CV tools and back into the OT. I know that sounds a little intensive, but if you’re that invested in the idea of this functionality, it is almost certainly doable, and imo anything that would be game-changing for your process is worth the additional time and effort to bring together, provided it excites you to do it.

Most modular-inclusive workflows I’ve seen that feel ‘successful’ in terms of rendering something resembling the kind of music that moves through the wider world involve this kind of hybridization (either sampling the modular, controlling it externally, or using it for control signals impacting sounds sourced elsewhere). Of course, I am still resistant to that leap, myself.

A good way to test this idea for cheap would be to run midi out from OT to your computer and back in to OT, using some CV-esque tools and plugins (Ableton and VCV, which is free, can both do this).

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#460

I’m pretty chuffed with this laptop / projector / DJ stand I got from Amazon. It’s definitely gig-sturdy and the perfect size for an OT. Easily adjusts from sitting to standing height:

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#461

Nice! This $3 ikea ipad stand works for me with the OT.

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#462

Hey. I’ve got the PNW w/ the PEXP-1 on the way. I kind of assumed that the PEXP-1 works for sending MIDI out (to an OT for example). And if I want to go the other direction (Pam’s to OT) I’d need the ALM mmMIDI?

Haven’t plugged these two worlds together yet, but it seems like Gamechanger territory.

I haven’t dabbled yet, but I’m wondering if it gets annoying always having to send tempo only one way? That Erica Synth module mentioned earlier has me intrigued. Seems luxurious having the option to go either way with the flick of a switch…

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#463

So just to clarify: The Pexp-1 will do just as you said and send a steady clock from Pam’s to OT. The mmMIDI will do the opposite and send any combination of midi clock, v/oct, velocity, and/or gates from the OT to your eurorack. I’m not familiar with the Erica Synth module, but I guess it would be interesting to switch between two clocks.

Back to your question, does it get annoying to always send tempo one way? Not for me personally because I use the OT for beat-based production and its arranger to change tempos. It’s nice to have Pam’s and the rest of my eurorack sync nicely to the OT as the master clock.

Could you still create variation to the clock? Absolutely. In your case, you can send clock from Pam’s to OT and modulate Pam’s tempo via its CV inputs to create fluctuating tempos. That could create really interesting (although possibly difficult to control) results, especially if you have different track lengths and rhythms on OT. Then, the mmMIDI could again be used to send CV from OT.

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#464

Here’s a quick jungle/glitch/idm jam I put together on the octatrack using a lot of conditional/random trigs to make some generative breaks. Heavily inspired by a Ned Rush tutorial on conditional break chopping, but I instead went for an approach that didn’t use resampling so that I didn’t have to work with a 1 bar buffer (easier for beat switching). I also made a pad sound using faux-granular techniques, something also in a Ned Rush tutorial.
(Monomachine brought in for glitchy synth duties).

And here are the inspirations:

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#465

A+ and very inspiring. Love the octa.

#466

Anyone using anything between their modular and octatrack inputs? I seem to have recently damaged one of my mixer channels with direct modular input and am now a bit paranoid. Suggestions?

#467

I have a Make Noise xoh that has been a very useful addition to my system. I use those line outs to go the OT.

#468

I run mine from my ALT OUT on my Mackie mixer.

But I’ve read many times that if you turn the gain on the input amps down it shouldn’t be a problem. Was it clipping?

#469

Very curious what mixer this happened to. I haven’t heard of this happening before, and haven’t had issue with the few Mackies and Soundcrafts I’ve sent modular levels into.

#470

I’m not really 100% sure because I wasn’t aware of it when it happened. Only later on did I notice that one of my channels is now has very low volume as if perhaps something in the input is blown. It was the channel I normally use for modular input so I’ve become a bit paranoid. Maybe I’m wrong as I’ve also been plugging modular directly into my mixer for many years with no problems.

#471

does anyone here use the octatrack for musique concrete/field recording material/lowercase/minimal ambient?

there has been talk in this thread about asynchronous looping but i still have trouble forcing my octatrack to work outside the bounds of rigid 16step patterns. i would like to hear how people use the octatrack to make more organic, free flowing compositions or even use it as a live processing tool for these types of sounds. also interested in how people use it for sound design as an all-in-one audio processing environment, if anyone uses it that way. i find ableton to be much easier for this sort of thing but would like to work outside of the computer. i’m not sure if this is very practical though.

i’ve tried studying this video of jelinek live but i can’t figure out how he’s using it. plus he has the er301 and some other pretty complex tools there:

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#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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