So, I’m a few months into owning the OT and I almost adore it. I’ve got/had M:S, M:C, ST, DN and DT so I’ve got a decent handle on a lot of it but I’ve got an embarassing blind spot.
I’ve watched some videos and read the manual and merlin’s guide but this specific thing is just bouncing off my brain at present.
Basically, I can’t quite get my head around the way the audio pool/sample lists for each type of machine work -
I’m currently in the noob trap of changing a sample assigned to a machine in one place and it changing in other places too.
Should I look at BANKs as being individual ‘tracks’ on an album (PROJECT?) each with it’s own set of machines.
The manual speak for some reason totally bounces off me so maybe try explaining it in nonmanual terms as if I was incredibly stupid?
Thanks/sorry.
NB: If possible, can we ignore PARTS right now because I sort of get those but it’s not quite what I’m looking for right now as I think the main issue is a more fundamental misunderstanding on my behalf.
Actually, the fact that you are ignoring Parts is the reason this isn’t making sense to you. Each track has a machine and (for Static and Flex) a sample assigned at the Part level. Different patterns sharing the same Part will all have the sample playing on a track changed when you change that sample on any of the patterns. You can play back a different sample on the same Part by parameter-locking the sample slot on a trig on one of the patterns.
I see a PART as a KIT. A collection of instruments assigned to tracks. You assign a PART to a PATTERN. Since you have 4 PARTS per BANK use them wisely. I use a PART per 4 PATTERNS. A PART in my setup usually reflects a part of my song.
If a BANK would allow for 16 PARTS (instead of 4) they’d probably had called them KITS, as on the A4 and AR
Understanding parts will definitely help you as far as what happens when you change a sample in a machine that effects other patterns. You get four parts per bank, and each pattern in the bank will remember the last machine you used for it. So if you’ve got a pattern going on A01 using Part 1, but you want to use different samples on A02 you can set A02 to Part 2. You can copy Part 1 to Part 2 so that your setup is the same, and then change out whatever samples you want.
It seems to me that some default Part gets copied to the Parts of each new Bank I start on. I think it’s Bank 1 Part 1 gets copied to Bank N Part 1 when I start working on Patterns in Bank N. Then Bank N Part 2/3/4 become copies of Bank N Part 1 when I first switch to them. This gives the impression of “something persisting”, until I start changing and saving Parts.
I actually hate this behaviour and would much prefer that Bank N Part 1 always start as if the entire Project were new.
I think why I’ve been getting so confused is that I’ve just been treating the whole thing as a sort of learning tool rather than trying to actively compose a meaningful thing.
The way I’ve made sense of it in my head today is that I need to just approach it as one bank = one song and if I want to start making another pattern with a different set of sounds then I need to go to a new bank to do it. I’m sort of used to the digi workflow where I can just fart any old pattern and set of sounds anywhere and then deal with it later.
Parts are still a thing that I need to learn more about using but I’m pretty basic really so one set of 8 (non p-locked) samples/chains/whatever per song will do me for now.
I came from the Digitakt workflow as well, and the parts things was weird to get used to but is ultimately quite powerful. If you’re planning to use the Octatrack as a juiced up Digitakt here’s a suggested layout:
Have patterns A01 to A04 set on Part 1. A05 to A08 set to Part 2, A09 to A12 set to Part 3, and A13 to A16 set to Part 4. Each of these pattern ranges will share the machine and sample settings, and you can essentially treat each of those ranges as separate song.
For bonus points, once you fill all of those patterns and parts with data you can experiment by changing parts in those individual patterns. This will not effect the pattern data but will change up all the samples. If you don’t like it you can always go back to the original parts. Once you wrap your head around this functionality you can do some pretty crazy stuff.
I do miss the immediacy of the Digitakt though, that’s one advantage it definitely has over the Octatrack.
You have four different track layouts at your disposal per bank. It’s that simple. DN/DT have 16 per bank, it’s baked in, no need to think about them. You don’t even notice, but they are there. Every pattern has its own “kit” (or part). 128 in total. AR/A4 also have got 128 kits, actual kits, that you have to save. But they are freely assignable to patterns. OT has 4 of them per bank. That’s it.
The way it clicked on me was to think of parts as presets, and therefore a bank is a collection of 4 presets and 16 patterns, each pattern can use one of the 4 presets. Then an arrangement can sequence any patterns inside the 16 banks, with each pattern using one of the presets (parts) within that bank.
While the concept is actually quite simple, it is amazing to me how impactful the choice of language is. I would think that in a musical context, a “part” would be something that has a chronology, like a chapter, a verse or chorus, the second half of a breakdown, a volume, and not something to represent “state”. It’s like if I never seen a TV remote control before and I come across one for the first time, but instead of being called a remote control, it is called a “TV calculator”, and if I know what a calculator is, I would be confused. Bad analogy, I know.
All Banks, Parts ( I was kidding about that ), and patterns use the same lists.
This is why when you set a sample on a machine ( doesn’t matter which type since they reference the same lists ) in say, Track 2, Pattern A02, and then change the sample in the List for Track 2, Pattern G04, then go back to A02 and the sample is the same as G04 is because you changed it in the list.
Slot 1 in the Flex OR Static list is the same no matter which machine, pattern, bank, or part is engaged. These things just reference the lists.
Is there a way to check if a slot in a FLEX or STATIC list is assigned to a part or not? I’ve made the error a couple of times of replace a sample in an occupied slot, thus changing several parts. The best way to avoid this is to always assign any new sample to an unoccupied slot.
No. Samples are not allocated to Parts.
Samples are allocated to machines.
The sample list is global per project.
The sample allocation to a machine, is saved in a part.
Eg.
Bank 1, part 1, pattern 1. Track 1 (static machine) plays static sample slot 1 (4 bar loop sample).
Bank 1, part 4, pattern 14. Track 1,(static machine) plays static sample slot 4 (a different 4 bar loop)
When you look at the display, on the left hand side it tells you which bank, pattern and part you are in.
If your track is a sample playing track ie: a flex or static machine, it tells you which sample is allocated to that machine.
The status of what ever you see on that little screen of octajoy, is saved, per part.
This is worth repeating; machines (flex, static) are not assigned samples. They are assigned a slot. Whatever sample happens to be in that slot is what the machine will play. If you change the sample in the slot, every machine that was assigned that slot will now play the new sample.
Not that I know of ( that doesn’t mean there isn’t though, just that I don’t know it )
I move forward with the knowledge that By Default, samples in slots 1-8 default to tracks 1-8 on a new, default project ( Static Machines ), while Flex Machines default to the 1st 8 After record buffers 1-8.
This. Samples vs Sample Slots caused me so much confusion.
I’ll have another go at describing a simple exercise to illustrate this, if the OP is a ‘learn by doing’ person (this is how I got my head around it)…
Create new project. You will now be looking at Pattern 1, which will be associated with Part 1 Bank A by default. At this stage we can ignore Banks.
Make Flex machine on Track 1. Double tap Track 1 to open the Slot list- and load a sample to slot 1 and assign that to Track 1. This part of the process caused me alot of confusion, because it ‘looks’ like you are assigning a sample to Track 1, but you’re not really. The workflow just makes it seem that way. You are really doing two separate things: loading a sample to sample slot 1, and then assigning sample slot 1 to Track 1 in Part 1. You could just as easily load the sample to slot 37, and assign that to Track 1, Part 1.
Save Part 1.
Go to pattern 2. Make pattern 2 associated with Part 2. You should now see there is no sample slot associated in Track 1.
Still on Pattern 2 (which is now associated with Part 2), make Track 1 a Flex machine, open the slot list and scroll down the sample slot list past the first slots displayed, until you can select sample slot 9, and load a different sample to that. So you have now loaded a second sample, this time into slot 9, and associated Track 1 Part 2 to that slot.
Save Part 2.
Put a couple of trigs on Pattern 1 and Pattern 2 and press play.
Now when you switch between Pattern 1 and Pattern 2, the sample you hear should also change, because when the pattern changes you are also switching Parts.