Anyone got the Octatrack?

[AK]

Been looking at this thing but never noticed before that you can have one shot sounds happening, previously I was under the impression you are really better off using pre-made loops or something.

Anyway, I did a search but only found it mentioned in other threads, didn't see a thread title about the octatrack exclusively. If I chuck together components of a track, say a bassline, some chords, synths etc and have a pile of different parts to throw in the octatrack, what kind of things could I be inspired by and where could I take things from there?

I'd be syncing it up with my Machinedrum and probably doing a pile of resampling too but I'm wondering how useful it would be as an arrangement tool to get away from linear sequencing ITB? I'd probably first map out some basic track part ITB, get grooves going with whatever but then I'm kinda get excited by the idea of just seeing what I can come up with as a kind of 'remix' of my parts. Is this the kind of thing where the octatrack might excell? I'm really only looking at the specs right now, I don't know enough about it to see what I could get out of it. I've seen one going pretty cheap.

[tsankip]

What made you think of that?

Here's a nice vid from Ohrwert....



I wish I bought the Octatrack instead of MD. I was kind of in between, but now I realise that I should have bought the Octatrack. Thinking about shifting my UW MK2 and replacing it with either an OT, MPC or a Jomox drummachine.

[djd_oz]

I bought one a couple of weeks ago .. still learning this beast. I also have both the MD and MnM. The OT by itself is a bit limitting with 8 tracks. However, if you pair it up with either a drum machine or a synth then it will blow your mind.

[AK]

I wish I bought the Octatrack instead of MD. I was kind of in between, but now I realise that I should have bought the Octatrack. Thinking about shifting my UW MK2 and replacing it with either an OT, MPC or a Jomox drummachine.

Why don't you keep the md and build on that? I also looked at the Jomox stuff but apart from the analog kicks and snares, I'm not really into the robust and raw sound, I have a superb sample cd when it comes to one shot raw drum hits - http://www.drivenmachinedrums.com/ really don't need anything else for analog type kicks and stuff and like the contrast between those and the digital and FM side of percussion/fx I get from the md. If I'm lacking anything really apparent, it's my bass end of my sounds. Apart from software, my only analog synth is the Novation Super Bass Station rack unit - which is pretty decent but doesn't really give me a gut wrenching/satisfying low end.

Anyway, apart from bass stuff, I have been looking at either the octatrack or the monomachine. I had posted previously about the monomachine but kinda went off it for a while and now I'm considering it again, well either that or the octatrack. I wouldn't get both. My only concerns with both of these machines are these:

1. Octatrack - Is it just a sampler with little tricks like beat repeat in live? I just hear all these stutter edits and other things that I could just be doing on clips in live. I would like to know how well I could use it as a live/arrangement tool with cool efx too.

2. Monomachine - What are the bass sounds like? I haven't heard sounds that jump out at me on most of the youtube demos, I'm wondering whether soft synths might sound better? The big attraction is the sequencing power - coupling it with the md gives me lots of jamming possibilities but I don't want to feel like my music sounds completely digital.

I can get a lot of grooves going with various sounds ITB which I'm really content with, I'm currently bouncing these parts out into folders on an external drive and have literally tons of musical material that I could potentially write dozens of tracks with in a matter of days, trouble is, I detest sequencing ITB. I just can't do it and I know I want to jam and record live. The parts that I would be jamming with have been given attention, I get geeky like that but I get bored arranging them on a screen.

With the above info, anyone know what would most likely be beneficial for me? I'm thinking octatrack but then I'm wondering what I could do with the mnm too.

Damn it, I just don't know. The bass thing is a different thread, I have plans for that area.

[tsankip]

Most likely I'll keep it and compliment it with a sampler and some synths. What is the score with the 8 tracks btw? What does that mean? I never understood that bit on the Octatracks description. Doesn't sound like good news.

[oblioblioblio]

i liked the sounds here:

http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49277

[AK]

Most likely I'll keep it and compliment it with a sampler and some synths. What is the score with the 8 tracks btw? What does that mean? I never understood that bit on the Octatracks description. Doesn't sound like good news.

I don't know ho much use it would be if you wanted to just trigger one shot sounds on each track, I don't think that is the main aim of the octatrack. If that were my thing I'd probably look at the mcp or yamaha rs7000 etc. Having said that, I'm trying to get info on the recent update which has something to do with 'triggers', as far as I can gather so far, it means you can do the above although the concept is a bit unclear to me at the minute.

What I do know is this: The octatracks patterns can each be up to 64 steps and each of the patterns could, if you wished, have different step lengths and different time signatures too. That obviously means it is easily capable of doing polyrhythmic and polymetering stuff. I'm also intrigued by the PPQ ( pulses per quarter note ) this is essentially micro editing on a scale of 1/384th, which gives such a fine resolution that the concept of humanisation, ie: nudging notes slightly forward/backward of a quantized grid is easily accomplished. That sounds really appealing to me. Where I was scratching my head though, is if it doesn't shine at using one shot samples, why would they incorporate such a feature to be used on loops? All that would mean would be that the entire loops remains exactly the same within itself just that it's been moved from its start time slightly. I don't get that at all. Maybe I just don't understand it yet though.

The 8 track thing is what I'm unclear on too then I guess. Does that mean I can only have 8 individual sounds at any one time, or with this trigger thing, can I have a selection of say, one shot drum hits on one of the tracks assigned to be triggered by different midi notes? That would surely make sense and would give a lot of possibilities. 8 tracks would easily be enough then. Maybe djd-oz could chip in again and shed some light on that.

Don't forget the 8 midi tracks too though,

The MIDI Sequencer

Apart from the eight internal tracks the Octatrack offers eight dedicated MIDI tracks. Every MIDI track features an arpeggiator, three assignable LFOs and two pages of CC parameters. Micro Timing and individual track length and time signature settings further enhance the MIDI experience. The dedicated MIDI tracks make the Octatrack well-suited for controlling other instruments during a live performance.

It seems really versatile esp. for a live performance, I just need clarification on some of its features so I can juggle how I could work with it should I deceide to buy.

[AK]

i liked the sounds here:

http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49277

Thats pretty cool, although I can't actually tell what's doing what even by the description. There's bound to be a huge amount of uses it could be applied to all of which might become more apparent to me if I can understand its features a bit more.