OCTATRACK // uses / tips / tricks //

[taylor12k]

i’m determined to start to try to grasp the octatrack but find if i check out youtube videos it all feels a bit scattered … coming from multiple content creators topics naturally overlap, start from different experience levels, cover things i don’t care about yet, etc…

has anyone here ever checked out the Elektron University videos? it costs $30 for access to all 100 videos… which, while not expensive, is a bit of a drag considering how free youtube is in general… but, the benefit of having what is essentially a “video manual” all from one source and going in order covering everything… maybe it would be helpful?

or should i just keep re-reading the manual and watching various other videos?

[dspk]

My feeling is that the manual is actually really good to work through (as I’m sure you will hear oft repeated, sorry!) … there’s a guide that people on the elektronauts swear by called Merlin’s guide, though I’ve never read it! I generally got frustrated by videos because none of them seemed to work with genres i was interested in, too many beats and breaks … BUT Max marco’s videos are amazing and open up a whole set of approaches that I think are unique to the OT, especially in terms of live resampling. Here’s one - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS0CXjfG4o he also has a set of more intro/beginner ones.

Personally the approach that I’ve enjoyed most (after a long time of working with the basics) is trying to emulate other interesting things I’ve seen. E.g I recently saw a morphagene demo and explored how the OT could do the same, it can’t but you end up with excellent learnings. (Currently I’m trying pulsar synthesis by running custom LFOs and tempo at maximum!)

Short answer - read manual, get your head around trigless trigs, parts and scenes…the rest will flow

(Also while I’m here, thank you for all the incredible music you’ve made and released over the years!)

[rryy]

I found Merlin’s guide super helpful for understanding the high level structure, as well as some specific techniques/approaches, even if they didn’t totally line up with my workflow.

[license]

+1 for both Max Marco’s videos, which I’m learning a lot from after years of Octatrack use, and Merlin’s Guide, which unlocked a lot for me early on.

[MaxMyriad]

I think part of the key of learning the octatrack is ignoring the aspects of it you won’t use. Trying to “learn” the octatrack seems similar to “learning” deep software programs - you don’t sit down and read about every function in photoshop if you just want to crop and resize photos. You’ll forget everything.

If i were starting over I’d keep a living document that you can update as you learn more which states the following two things:

• what specific role/s you want the OT to fulfill in your setup?
• how specifically do you think this could be implemented on the OT?

If you are new to it and don’t know the details for implementation, start broad with what you do know and then work progressively toward more detail e.g. “i want two tracks of drums” might later turn into “T1 and T2 in part 1 are both static machines with slicing on and no timestretch designed to playback 64 one shot sample chains” which could then be refined further with more detail. This will give you a framework that helps you decide what you need to learn next and at what level of detail. As you learn more you’ll encounter hiccups that may seem to thwart what you originally envisioned. Sometimes that’s true, but more often than not you’ll find workarounds and compromises that allow you to implement your original goal.

If there are elements you know you’ll use all the time (fx for instance), it’s ok to lopsidedly focus on getting comfortable with them, learning what they sound like and how to manipulate them with the sequencer or LFO’s.

[taylor12k]

thank you for the kind words @dspk … yes, i’m a lover of manuals and have gone through it page by page when i first bought it, but it’s a lot to try to digest… as @MaxMyriad said, which is great advice… it’s best to focus on smaller tasks and goals first and not try to understand the whole machine.

right now i’m trying to digest the pickup machines, frustrated that they can’t loop asynchronously, but i may be able to dump them real time into various lengths of flex machines? (ie: live sampling)… maybe? not sure… but that’s a current goal.

and thanks @rryy for the merlin’s guide link! got my morning reading…

[license]

@taylor12k

right now i’m trying to digest the pickup machines, frustrated that they can’t loop asynchronously, but i may be able to dump them real time into various lengths of flex machines?

Yes, I believe they share the flex record buffers so you should be able to manipulate their contents the same way. Also, you can use record trigs to get more precise with recording. For what it’s worth, I’ve had my OT for 8 years and I don’t think I’ve ever used the pickup machines. I only ever use record trigs to sample.

[CaneMan]

I hope this is the right thread for this. I’ve been debating whether to buy an Octatrack for well over a year. Now I have at least two use cases, and my finances just lined up. I was going to wait after Christmas. However, one of my favorite vendors is offering a couple of extras that I think I’d buy anyways. Is there is any reason not to jump right in and buy an Octatrack?

[ether]

There’s noise on the Elektronauts forum about a possible Octatrack successor or MK III, but it’s pure conjecture based on some recent Elektron Instragram posts that coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the first model. There’s a long history of rumours, so pure guesswork at this stage.

Sorry, that’s no help! I’m going to wait until JAN 2021, i.e. NAMM time to see what happens.

[adnauseam]

Sure. There are lots of reasons NOT to.

1. It’s complicated. I’ve had mine for years and still learn things I didn’t know. (other side of the coin: it’s “deep”
2. It sounds “ok” (other side of the coin: it colours sound in it’s own way)
3. The workflow is almost arbitrary (other side of the coin: you can do everything a few different ways)
4. The screen is tiny just like all the other electron boxes (other side of the coin: it’s compact and the control surface is large)

Just a few things off the top of my head. I’ve had one for years (a mkI) and I’ve had it packed away for a bit and I’m contemplating selling it. Although recently Surgeon talks about it in the Why We Bleep podcast and uses it in a way I haven’t tried yet.

[license]

Some more reasons:

1. If you expect it to work like other samplers with polyphony and layering, you’re in for a bad time
2. Connectivity is strictly old school DIN MIDI; USB is only for use as a very expensive CF drive
3. There are only 2 stereo outputs
4. There are only 2 stereo inputs
5. Recording can be awkward
6. It has an inherent glitchiness to its sound which is usually subtle but difficult to avoid
7. Whatever your workflow is, you will probably have to learn some tricks
8. You will likely be tempted to go down rabbit holes that often lead to disappointment
9. You may also be tempted to go bananas and make unmusical sounds, especially at first
10. The reverbs are not great
11. Once you get used to it, other similar gear can feel oddly limiting

EDIT: See also!

why you SHOULDN'T buy an Octatrack

[mattleaf]

This sounds interesting re: pickup machines. What is it you’re trying to achieve, exactly?

[Martebar]

Main one is that it is not a “DAW in a box” as some people present it. Since tracks can only have two effects max, you can’t create and mix in one session, and since the recorders are very limited (they have a time limit) it’s difficult to render stems to mix them in a different session. It’s a performance mixer/sampler with some limitations that should make it clear it’s just an instrument, not a whole studio.

Also, a few things that I don’t like:

• Effects are pre mute button, so if you have a nice reverb and would like to mute a track but let the tail ring, you can’t.

• A simple looper effect instead of workarounds with flex and pickup machines that make you change parts or even dedicate whole tracks would help a lot. There already is the freeze delay, why not extend the freeze length to more than half a bar?

• There is no visual feedback on some effects that would benefit from it, no GR meter on the compressor, no drive meter on the saturation

• It’s impossible to have parameters keep their values when changing parts. It’s logical that this is part of the design, but this means you can’t use a midi controller to replicate a mixing desk for example, and change parts because your parameters and volumes then jump around in an unusable way. I wanted to use my OT as a dub mixer live, with one bank per song and a MIDI controller, but it’s impossible. Either you don’t use a controller and take advantage of the patterns/parts/bank/cross-fader paradigm, or you use a controller, stay in the same pattern and change your parts manually. So you technically can’t replicate an Ableton Live type setup with a Launch Control for mixing and scenes for structure.

The OT (and Elektron machines in general) is definitely a bundle of design choices that you can agree with or not, but have to be aware of and embrace to take full advantage of it. But that’s the way with any hardware option and even DAWs. Once you make peace with its quirks, it is a beautiful machine and the idea that I can perform a whole fully formed live set with only it (once you figure out your setup and export the necessary samples from your tracks) is still mind blowing.

[encephalitislethargi]

I am very interested in seeing/hearing how you end up using this in your workflow

I’m trying to remember how I learned it. I obviously missed some things like plays free triggering, but after skimming the manual, reading Merlins guide, some threads on elektronauts for beginners, watching the loopop octatrack walkthrough, cuckoo octatrack video, all of max marcos videos, and some other scattered ones; I was surprised at how easy it was to use when I finally got it. There are many methods to achieve one goal, which is really cool. And that means that there are probably techniques you haven’t realized yet that accomplish what you’re envisioning in a more streamlined workflow. So like most people end up saying when giving Octa advice, it’s not really complicated, you just have to have a straightforward idea of what you want it to do and learn how to force it to do that

The tips for async looping in here are really useful but I think it’s more helpful to use record trigs and flex tracks. I never use pickup machines either, but yes you can grab the pickup buffer by assigning the same buffer to another flex machine.

Merlins guide covers the abstract structure of the whole machine well but dataline’s live resampling with parts video from his bandcamp is pretty helpful as well

[xidnpnlss]

The OT is still the most forward thinking sampler on the market. The machine you buy now will be very capable for years to come.

Having said that…I have a personal rule never to buy so close to NAMM. That coupled with the recent posts on social media…if it were me I’d wait.

But again I can’t stress enough that it is still an amazing unit, nothing will change that and instead of waiting you could be making now.

[CaneMan]

Oh that video. What a wonderful reality check. It helps cool my excitement while deepening my commitment.

[encephalitislethargi]

i am going to be furious if they put out an octatrack mk3. i will also be incredibly excited

i wouldn’t let any of those cons put you off of the octatrack. it’s still the best option until elektron makes the next iteration.not necessarily a groovebox, but the sound design possibilities are unrivaled i was just thinking that if they had their own version of orac or nord modular, or max4live. or even somehow integrated a mini version of max in the box, it would be the most powerful device on earth. dream gear

also that “reasons to not buy an octartack” video is by a guy who has done the coolest shit imaginable with the octatrack and most other elektron boxes. he’s just doing a devil’s advocate thing there. but yeah, realistically its not perfect i suppose

https://www.instagram.com/p/CINmPqZDDbM/

[CaneMan]

You’re right. I was thinking that it’s too close to NAMM. While I’m not very optimistic that OT will ever see an update (Did I hear rumors of quirky and difficult to upgrade code made by people who no longer work at the company?), NAMM is such a great GAS limiter. Besides, I just started taking lessons to learn how a viola is not a violin.

Thanks all for your help. I’ll join you soon. Post NAMM soon.

[hermbot]

The OT has something of an apocryphal history and status. Someone can likely correct me, but from what I can piece together: the main mastermind behind its programming passed away and another one of the main contributors now works at a different company. (ASM?) This has left them with a deeply personal codebase that they can tinker with but not overhaul in any significant way. *

Elektron has proven that they have some great skill with the current Digitone / Takt lineup, and I have to imagine that if there is a succesor it will be some kind of high-end box that is done in the image and codebase of those two rather than an Octatrack upgrade.

People on the boards are speculating everything: it’s a 10-year anniversary model, it’s being retired, it’s being upgraded to a MKIII, it’s being upgraded but only with a black faceplate to make the DT/DN, etc.

I would definitely wait, but I was seeing all the same questions and speculations before I bought mine a year ago. I’ve had it a year and still like it.

*Since moving into management roles, this is why I always stress how some individuals have a high “bus factor”. That is, how screwed would we be if this individual was hit by a bus tomorrow?