#621

Also the fact that some people mistake their confusion for complexity. Octatrack can be many things but DAW it is not :slight_smile:
Nothing good comes out of trying to work with it like with a daw.

4 Likes
#622

Hey guys, just wanted to share a ā€œnewā€ way of using the octatrack I tried after watching the really cool ambient video @maf did with a portastudio and effects pedals.

It made me want to get one but I tried to emulate the way it works instead on the Octatrack controlled with a Launch Control XL. So it consists of 4 tracks, each with Lo-Fi and a DJ EQ. Each bank is a ā€œcassetteā€ with 4 tracks of long stems made on my computer, usually those are irregular loops, with lots of variation. Each ā€œcassetteā€ lasts for around 6 minutes so I have time to play around with levels and effects. I also have a send to a Space Echo which is awesome for transitions, send a track to it, push feed back while turning the volume down, change pattern while delay is still echoing and bring volume up while bringing feedback down.

On the Launch Control for each track I have one fader for volume, one for cue level, 3 knobs for EQ and 3 others for overdrive, SRR and BRR. And since I start and end every cassette with the same parameters (faders down, knobs at a neutral point) changing part or pattern isnā€™t really a problem if all my volumes are down in the OT too.

Here is a set I recorded to try this setup:

16 Likes
#623

This is so good. Inspirational!

2 Likes
#624

To me one of the joys of the flexibility of OT is learning stuff over time and learning how I can best fit it to my workflow. A lot of thing can be done through multiple ways on the OT, and you canā€™t really know which way is the best for your workflow without trying and practicing different ways. For example, Iā€™ve had OT for about three years in total (on two occasions) and only lately Iā€™ve been learning to use pickup machines properly for jamming purposes. What comes out of the speakers isnā€™t necessarily different compared to how I did thing before, but this way itā€™s just more efficient and manageable to me. I couldnā€™t have learned my current way of playing if I had tried to just soak in everything at once through the manual, I needed to learn other principles first and thought that there has to be an easier way.

2 Likes
#625

Really interesting! Thatā€™s actually quite a good ideaā€¦ hmmā€¦ ideas forming.
Also really enjoyed the track above! Well done!

1 Like
#626

Hell Yeah! That sounds great. You pushed it to the extreme from a sample length standpoint. I have been doing similar things for a while, but with shorter drones. Ill set up a drone with some timbral movement on a different piece of equipment (in the track below the drone is from the Hydra synth) and record a 16 bar loop.

I then assign that sample to 7 tracks (8 being master for compression and EQ) and then pick sub sections of the drone to loop on those tracks. Since timbre is different across the drone, but the underlying sample is the same, you can get some really rich stuff out of overlapping them. I then do some pitch trigs, and generally mess with pattern length.

Control wise, similar to your setup I have a 16n Faderbank controlling volume of each track, and then some specific effects params.

9 Likes
#627

Iā€™m just going to say it again while I listen to this in the background. Its really fucking good. Its like a lost Pole album.

1 Like
#628

Beautiful, thatā€™s such a great idea, Iā€™ll have to experiment with this concept too!

And thank you so much, it gives me motivation to work more on this :slight_smile:

1 Like
#629

An improv bit I recorded today using the pickup machines like I mentioned earlier. Track 1-4 are for samples (kick always on 1), 5 and 6 are pickup machines assigned to different sides on the crossfader, 7 is thru machine from my modular and 8 is master for filter and compressor. Iā€™m clocking 0-CTRL with midi track 5, and midi tracks 1-4 are all on channel 1 which sequences the synth voice consisting of DPO, Three Sisters, Maths for envelope and Optomix as VCA. I like to use multiple midi tracks for one voice so I can just switch their notes and sometimes length rather than using trig locks for different notes on one track. Field Kit FX provides delay and spring reverb which gets mixed in on the modular, so I only bring one mono signal from there to the OT.

5 Likes
#630

that is inspiring, thanks for sharing. the space echo send idea reminds me of this transition/breakdown workflow that miles kvndra shared on youtube. iā€™ve been having a lot of fun with the digitone bringing up the delay feedback well past 100 cranking the reverb send from delay and then filtering it out with the delay filter and bringing down the feedback at the same time. similar idea there i think. itā€™s really fun to use elektron delay as a sort of spontaneous performance looper

i also think the rewarding part in the Octatrackā€™s complexity is that if you have an idea, you can always find a way to bend the octatrack to create an entirely new workflow to do whatever you want with it

6 Likes
#631

True facts. On the flip side I have had my OT for a little over 3 years, and I have yet to use a pickup machine. I should do that

1 Like
#632

I havenā€™t used them either. What can they do that rec trigs canā€™t?

#633

Overdubbing. But in a fiddly way, hence not many people use it.
Also recordings longer than 64 steps.

1 Like
#634

Exactly! You can really learn this machine in many ways, either you have an idea and learn what you need to fit it in the framework of the OT, or you learn about stuff it can do in the manual or youtube and get ideas from it. Itā€™s really very deep and as complex as you want it to be. got mine 5 years ago and while I havenā€™t made a conscious effort to learn everything it can do (pickup machines and arranger mode are still unknown to me) Iā€™ve learned a lot just by picking ideas here and there and trying them out, but I know I still have so much to learn, which is exciting!

But itā€™s always very rewarding to analyse existing systems and try to emulate them with the Octatrack. Iā€™m seriously eyeing the Tape & Microsound System from Make Noise right now, but Iā€™m sure thereā€™s a way to get something very similar with the OT. Or at least an OTish version of it with random LFOs sent to sample start, p-locking the filter and delay, and using thru machines to get more complex sound transformation.

Iā€™m also very interested in making a DJ set work with it, but this implies lots of warping in Ableton, and this is not the most fun thing to do.

3 Likes
#635

i think it would be really easy and super nice to do a dj set with it. iā€™ve never tried but my performance style is to use it as a complex mixer with all of my gear running through it so i can grab pieces to mangle and do performance mutes and fading, then of course scenes. but i rarely use static machines so i donā€™t really know what the difference is there as far as mangling stuff in real time compared to flex machines.

I was seriously considering the tape & microsound system recently too. i always come back to the idea that what i think i am going to be able to do with cool new gear is already possible and probably even more conveniently implemented in my elektron gear. i had the nebulae and i loved how musical it was. the way it could glitch loops and re-arrange them seemingly automatically but also do pretty gritty granular textured things. but i almost never used it practically. every time i would start using it, i would just be having fun making weirdo sounds. so i ended up using the octatrack for the same thing instead. and that ended up being the same scenario with my whole modular setup. i realized i could do the same type of things i was attempting as far as generative sequencing, organic patterns, logical operations, deconstructing audio clips live, and sculpting my own analog sounds with modulation and effects with my octatrack and my other 3 elektron boxes.

one thing i think people overlook is the usefulness of the effects. they may be lower quality (maybe) than what people are used to now. but i tend to disagree with that. the reverb is more musical on something like the digitakt and tone. and the chorus is very musical on the digitone. but they are both more practical for creative sound design on the octatrack and more fully featured. the modulation effects especially. if you really start tinkering with them in unique ways, especially in combination with the sequencer and lfo modulation, they can be extremely powerful for shaping not only samples, but external synth signals as well. i think it blows away something like the zoom cdr70 or most of those multi-fx units in terms of real audio manipulation. it takes some getting used to how they work and where the sweet spots are, but i really do see the effects as a very beneficial utility rather than a half decent afterthought, which seems to be the consensus a lot of the time

2 Likes
#636

I use arranger all the time, since the OT is my primary hardware sequencer.

I am very much realizing I tend to fall into ruts with so much of my gear. I think its one of the great things about monthly challenges like jamuary. It pushes you do to weird shit and explore these boxes in ways you may not normally do when sitting down with them.

Before last years Jamuary I was hard core considering selling the OT for a deluge (or something similar) but spending so much time with it really made me realize I had only scratched the surface of what it could do.

2 Likes
#637

This is something I really struggle with on my Elektron boxes. Any tips or advice for a (relative) newbie?

#638

I cant speak for @encephalitislethargi but for organic patterns, judicious use of pattern length and divisions. This plus various trigger probabilities, while also chaining sets of patterns each with different trigger changes, can open up a lot of space.

I havenā€™t messed with the new tempo per pattern stuff but this would also be another place to explore.

#639

This is nothing groundbreaking and surely a familiar technique for many, but with this video Iā€™m breaking silence in my Youtube channel and actually talking despite all the self-consciousness about my accent. Itā€™s about the simple way I like to sequence my modular with the OT by utilizing several midi tracks for one sequence line, plus using LFOs to spice things up a bit.

12 Likes
#640

Funny how weā€™re our own worst critic. I think you did a great job and your accent is great! Keep it up man.

1 Like