Octatrack DJ

No Interest Loan Scheme is the title in Australia (nationwide) although the base group is an international charitable private venture focusing on providing micro-loans for business means on a low income

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interesting … i found that if i change the type of timestretching and explored the parameters, the disappointment turned to gladness as it seemed quite usable.

but yes for complex sound material loops, Ableton’s ā€œComplex Proā€ timestretching option is, I must say, pretty impressive.

i use ableton to prepare content, sometimes at differing bpm ranges, also Ableton is great to retime loops using repitch-to-tempo, one option the Octatrack does not have… then export something that sounds great, and use it live on the Octatrack.

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yes, repitch to tempo on the OT would be so, so good!

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The Merlin Guide to Octatrack and Beyond

http://www.elektron-users.com/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=611&Itemid=30

would have been so very useful to read and be aware of, when at first entering the OT biosphere … I’m only reading it now lol.

Flex machines are your friends … they are the ones using the high performance realtime 80mb of memory.

Merlin consolidates all the myriad possibilities into one unified approach. Essentially.

It’s like the Merlin manual to understand the OT manual.

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I know bro, I know.

However, the main coder of the Octatrack went to Teenage Engineering and designed the OP-1 afaik.

Sooooo … with the OS of the OT being the flowing, glowing, manifestly magnificently optimised thing of beauty that it is, there isn’t anyone else currently willing to take it on. Just to understand the code would take months, to grok and grasp all the structure. And a proper programmer must, if they are to be innovative and efficient, hold the entire codebase structure in their consciousness as they program.

If the re-pitch to time feature were to be implemented, although it may seem like the most simple thing, the OT is not designed around that as a basis for its own understanding of the audio audio files that it works with.

And so obviously i thought long and hard about whether to choose the Akai Live over the Elektron Octatrack. As the Live does give the user a re-pitch to tempo. Not complaining, just saying :slight_smile:

And for ten wild and crazy days, made the call to go for the Akai lol.

But no, the OT wins all the same.
I shall replace my previously splashed Octatrack with a new mkII.

Yes there is Rate on the OT, and in fact, after getting over the irritation of not having re-pitch to tempo, i start to think … well, what is it in particular i love about re-pitching loops to tempo? The sound.

Love that deep resonant slightly false-yet-organic sonorous formant re-contextualisation of a detuned loop effected in pitch by tempo.

So, yeah … it’s more the sound than anything. So, accessing parts of a loop and p-locking them as one-shots, different start and atk settings, different Rate and length settings etc … instead of triggering the loop as usual, just try sequencing a groove of segmented re-pitched re-Rated trigs with p-locks.

Anyway OT for the win all the same i reckon.

The OT’s syncronisation with the Machinedrum as master clock is absolutely amazing, and that is the secret sauce to finding original flavours of groove, whilst maintaining magnetic funky danceability :slight_smile:

And that is possibly more than could be said for other hardware sampler looping instruments … sometimes they need to be Master clock in order to function optimally. Not so for the Octatrack, and imho that is a quiet miracle.

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For quality timestretching, the cheapest way into the excellent Elastique algos might be BeatMaker 3 for iPad, on sale now for $19.99.

Too late! lols I rented both of them already aha But I learned the rytm really fast, I haven’t tried the features like over bridge or using it as a sound card but me and the rytm are like best friends now and the octatrack seems to like me too because I really haven’t had any problems! I really thought it would be harder because I suck with computer software and I honestly don’t like touch screens for anything musical because I have clumsy small hands with nails that work much much better with knobs and lots of buttons.

I appreciate all the people with iPad suggestions but for me it’s not even close and I just can’t get into it at all. I’ve had iPad and iPhone apps and stuff for a long time, but it’s just not the same as a dedicated machine for me. I made so many things last night versus what I’ve done in almost a year of playing around with iPad and other stuff. I have no hate on the iPad obviously but I’m just so happy I rented both these units! Jumping all in is good for me and my way I think.

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Thanks for the suggestions but I love these dedicated new music friends. I’ve been playing with iPad stuff for a while and for reasons stated above, it’s just not working out for me as well as the elektron stuff : )

lol very cool

yes the Rytm would be easier than the Machinedrum in some ways, simpler and more focused … and the Octatrack is very much seeming to provide what you are looking for, so the motivation is there …

keen to hear your initial mixes

Aha thank you! I have them hooked up to each other so that the rytm can sample into the octatrack. I’m still filling the octatrack with samples so I won’t have anything to show on that for a bit. But this weekend is perfect because it’s extremely humid and rainy, so I’m staying in and getting familiar with my two new friends : ) I was going to post a picture my roommate took of me using it but I didn’t want you guys to think I was being sexual or slutty because I’m in my swim suit on my tummy playing around but it’s just humid! lol But here’s one I took of the set up on my bed currently with my kitty jumping into the picture for some attention : )

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I’ve been reading this ! and watching lots of youtube videos : )

The kitty is pretty damn cute.

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Believe it or not we have a whole thread full of furry feline Elektron users… :grinning:

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Too funny! lol

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Just one thing that irks me - The rytm is on the wrong side! The rytm looks much better as the left side unit IMO :nyan:

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But if you’re lefty?You need that fader at your left…

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Aha the wrong side? that’s funny lols The rytm’s blinking lights on my left side were bugging me for some reason, and I liked having the octatracks big screen to my left instead to look at my recordings. But I might change it up, don’t want to offend anyone : ) lols

No go right ahead. I wouldn’t think that at all :bikini: :aw: :sunglasses: :ecstatic:

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There’s only one name for that cat
Octapussy :smile_cat:

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I hate my cat around my gear. My nemisis

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