#43

Octatrack is pretty immediate. I recently got it and was also afraid of it’s “learning curve”. But now I’m like “it can’t be that simple, right?”.
The main things that need learning are button combos.
But the real difficulty is deciding what to do with it, and it’s unrelated to octatrack itself, it’s a personal thing.
I guess if you want to compose whole tracks on it it might get pretty complex, but Ableton can too :slight_smile:

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#44

Take a look at the 1010 music blackbox:

Should be perfect for what you want. You can stream directly from SD card, so the memory is virtually unlimited. It’s very simple to learn and use too. It has 3 stereo outs, plus an input where you can sample on the go, or even record to card. I love mine. And it’s tiny. It also receives regular updates.

Make sure you understand the limitations though: 16 stems at once in clip mode (a bit like Ableton Live in a box), the sequencer is fairly simple, polyphony is limited, as is max sample count.

If you do too much at once you run up against the processor ceiling, but once you know where it lies, there is no problem in using it effectively without getting glitches. Playing stems only is not a problem, except when you change presets (sample banks). At least currently - it might change with an update.

#45

An iPad is portable, can be gotten cheaply used and offers an insane amount of great ways to mangle something.

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#46

While true iPad also sends one on a journey of finding the right app. And it also is not much different from a computer in terms of interfacing.

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#47

I do have it, I tried SAMPLR but I don’t like the fact that you cannot record multitrack in real time. The app is awesome but useless for the way I play

#48

@kveye I ultimately agree with that. However the OP is looking for an “inexpensive” mangler which is portable and the iPad does fit that particular bill.

@WhiteNoise Samplr is amazing, no doubt, but it is not the last word on sampling or sample playback. In your particular situation, you could set up some channels in AUM to play back samples from its internal file player, put some mangling fx on each channel and multitrack record them. The AUM file player is actually a pretty solid offering.

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#49

I think it depends on how big your chunks of time are. We have an infant, and I think there’s no way I could dedicate time to actually learn something new. I understand that things get easier later, so if you have bigger blocks of time (1-2 hours), you could definitely learn the Octatrack. It is great fun to use on the couch. The key is to start simple and recognize that you don’t have to use all, or even understand, all of the features to get great utility out of the device.

Something to consider with the Octatrack is that some of the effects have a particular sound that may or may not work with your music. I think there are plenty of examples of this on YouTube.

If you bought a Digitakt, I think you’d instantly understand everything, but you run against sampling length limitations & only mono samples, which wouldn’t work great for mangling stems.

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#50

I do have AUM but never tried it as s looper, I will definitely do that

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#51

has anyone here used the pioneer toraiz sp-16?

i hadn’t looked at it seriously (aesthetics, simple sequencer, etc.) but upon closer inspection i’m seeing that it’s pretty well optimized for fast and easy interaction… sound quality seems excellent and the inclusion of an analog filter/drive circuit is super nice for resampling.

seems like prices are dropping and a lot of the early OS bugs have been ironed out.

any experiences?

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#52

I’ve wondered about it too.

Also I’ve been curious about the MPC One / Live mk.1

#53

from what i’ve gathered, the mpc is much more versatile but SP’s simplicity means less menu/touchscreen time.
biggest drawback to the SP (at least for me) is that all tracks share the same pattern length. for async stuff one could just skip the sequencer, i suppose.

#54

Oh, that is a bummer!

That is one thing that I like about the octatrack. all kinds of async pattern possibilities and all that.

#55

i don’t have one, but a friend of mine uses it exclusively live and loves it. super flexible and immediate, good for jamming.

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#56

@WhiteNoise
Maybe take a look at the Elektron Model:Samples… it certainly has more time limitations than the sp404 but it is infinitely more fun and capable from a performance perspective, IMO.
Based on your desired features, I’d say it’s a choice between those two.
Sp takes the win if you don’t care about the m:s sequencer, which is incredibly fun and deep.

Pretty much every other hardware sampler/sample player I have any knowledge about has been mentioned already, but I’ll toss out the odd ducks that I personally enjoy anyway.

Mpc 500. The only Mpc I’ve ever felt comfortable leaving the studio with. Maybe worth considering though there’s no live effects or performance features outside of playing your pads really well and have some creative pre planned thing happening in your songs/samples.

Akai mpx - again, no effects or performance anything. Just a sample player.

Korg microsampler - sample time per bank is limited, but I love mine to death. Not suggesting this one at all but it is a sampler so it’s getting mention.

Polyend tracker - literally modeled after a computer workflow so probably not desirable for you either, also the same price as Mpc One, though the performance tools it has are top notch and it’s being updated almost daily.

#57

You can have long samples on Microgranny. It’s monophonic and you get 6 per “preset” but flipping between presets is pretty quick, moreso if you keep your samples trimmed to the parts you need.

I run two microgrannies chained together with a little connector doohicky to save a midi cable. This setup is kind of crazy powerful between preset flipping and flopping back and forth between the two.

And nothing mangles quite like Microgranny, such a fantastic noise. Also you can run samples at a higher sample rate if you load them. People favor the crushed sound on Microgranny but it has a pleasant (though def not “pristine”) higher resolution sound as well. This is handy if you like to switch up sample rates within a piece for additional texture.

You could get 7 microgrannies for the price of an octatrack. Obvs different sound world you’d be making though hahah.

(Now I’m strongly resisting the urge to empty my bank account an order five more microgrannies.)

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#59

This is what I wanted to hear. I am planning to get a microgranny and an eventide space to run it through 4 xmas :slight_smile:

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#60

Depending on your creative practice, the monophonic nature of it might feel like a limitation–only one sound at a time will come out of the Microgranny. In my setup, with two, that allows for one to run percussion and another to run longer chord/melody/texture/field recordings etc. So there can be an overlap of sound. Or flop back and forth between them (a few percussives and a few “melodics” on each microgranny). You’d mentioned you run stems so if you want them to start/end and overlap each other, you might find it a better fit with two MGs. Twice as $ though haha.

Also, MG takes a filter beautifully too. If you have any spare guitar pedal wah or something that will do. Or euro or whatever really.

#61

I have a live 2 and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Ive had it for a couple of months now and im quite enjoying it.

#62

I love my mpc 1000 but I’ve realized I haven’t touched it in years. I’ve come to realize that sample chopping and preparation and song making, for me anyway, are two separate tasks.

With that said, does anyone have any recommendations for portable “on the couch” sample preparation? I’ve tried to look for iOS apps but can’t find ones that sample directly from the music library. Any other extremely portable (always with you) devices?

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#63

I’d be interested to see what other people say regarding this. The OP-1 is an expensive but effective solution. I wish I jived with it more, because the portability factor is second to none. Right now I have a battery pack for my Octatrack which is fine for working in my non-normal location, but I wouldn’t call the setup “extremely portable”. Not like the OP-1 anyway.

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