Avoiding beginner's mistakes

[Barfunkel]

So, as I’ve said a few times, I’m getting an OT in 2 weeks (unless they announce OT mk2 tomorrow that is, or I face an unexpected monetary disaster).

So, the question is:

What are some beginner’s mistakes that are easy to make but hard to correct?

I’m especially interested in 2 things, the internal file structure (ie. I don’t want to make 20 tracks with it and only then notice I can’t easily play them live because I can’t make smooth transitions between them of something) and the correct/good volume levels. I know from owning an MnM and now an A4 that the default volume levels aren’t always the best.

Anything else I should know about? Any special tricks/shortcuts that aren’t in the manual? Any super awesome but not obvious features?

Thanks!

[RyanElektric]

Spend some time watching tutorials on recording external and resampling internal audio- it took me a while to figure it out (not for lack of trying).

The key is recorder trigs and arming the trig/track for recording and loading the recording to playback on another track- and knowing the proper setting in the record menu

PARTS=SEQUENCE changes that will sync up. Don’t think of them as anything more than that (keep your sample assignments where they are from part to part unless removing a sample and introducing another).

Become familiar with copying your first part to two other parts- one to alter and compose with, and one to leave alone (I copy to part 4 then save my project If/when I get to the 4th part)- I’ve accidentally destroyed part 1 beyond repair thinking I was working on part 2 or part 3 too many times to count.

Scenes will change your the way you think about making music. Put in the time. Try every parameter individually (+64 to -64) on scene A an B and see what it does then figure out sweet spots for your type of music by decreasing the difference between A and B.

Be mindful of how the OT saves scenes and get in the habit of putting the same types of FX/Timestretch/Whatver in the same slots so you aren’t fumbling around looking for the right scene.

[jamrod]

Excited that you’re getting the OT!

Top suggestion I’d make if you’re planning to play the tracks live: make each live set in a single project. Messing around to combine tracks later is time-consuming and fiddly. If you think of each bank as a song, you still have 16 patterns per song, and you can get range out of each one via scenes and parts (and tweaking on external gear, assuming you’re using the OT as a MIDI sequencer).

This hasn’t been natural for me (I like saving relatively small variations as their own pattern, which fills things up quickly), but it’s definitely what makes most sense with the OT workflow.

In terms of setting levels, I haven’t had any problems. I just record in at high but not peaking levels and it all seems to work from there. I noticed that the OT is quieter than most of the rest of my gear, but it’s easy enough to set levels right with a mixer.

Definitely read the manual, of course. Moreso than the other machines, the OT has quirky functions that took me a little longer to develop muscle memory for. (I had a flashback to this the other night when I was showing the OT to my friend who, despite being experienced with plenty of other gear, was totally lost.)

One additional tip: play around with sample chains. You can get really cool natural / chaotic sounding patterns going if you have some randomization via chains.

[chad]

Embrace the mistakes! Mess up, expect the unexpected, really take some time to learn the shortcut keys and combos. So many, and its fun once you start navigating the machine using them.

I’d say if you are syncing with other gear the one thing to pay attention to is default project MIDI assignments. By default Tracks 1-8 are assigned to MIDI channels 1-8 respectively.

Also as others said SampleChains! They are such a creative goldmine.

[chad]

the correct/good volume levels. I know from owning an MnM and now an A4 that the default volume levels aren’t always the best.

A4 and MnM are fine going into the OT no external amplification or volume boosting needed.

[SB-SIX]

Have a look at this thread: http://www.elektronauts.com/t/ways-to-loose-your-work/1608/10921/page:1#10921

About levels, I ran all synths thru my octa when I had no mixer. I often turned up the direct volume to 127 when I didn;t need to process the sounds. This flattened the sounds a little. Not noticed it at first but after I compared my mixes from before the OT I heard a difference. A setting of 100 sounded more natural. So my advice would be to never go above 100 with whatever volume you are using, then you should be safe. Happy Octatracking

[LordAlister]

Top suggestion I’d make if you’re planning to play the tracks live: make each live set in a single project. Messing around to combine tracks later is time-consuming and fiddly. If you think of each bank as a song, you still have 16 patterns per song, and you can get range out of each one can be taken places via scenes and parts (and tweaking on external gear, assuming you’re using the OT as a MIDI sequencer).

Biggest hiccup I’ve done was get in the habit of noodling with new samples or ideas in seperate projects. Then you have a mess of what was what and where and how the hell you got there in the first place.
Be consistent with your Track responsibilities. Ie: Track 1 is always thru. Same applies to Scene responsibility. Its easy to get into a flow with whatever head space you had at a given time, forgetting what cross action does what.

[nedavine]

Top suggestion I’d make if you’re planning to play the tracks live: make each live set in a single project. Messing around to combine tracks later is time-consuming and fiddly. If you think of each bank as a song, you still have 16 patterns per song, and you can get range out of each one can be taken places via scenes and parts (and tweaking on external gear, assuming you’re using the OT as a MIDI sequencer).

Biggest hiccup I’ve done was get in the habit of noodling with new samples or ideas in seperate projects. Then you have a mess of what was what and where and how the hell you got there in the first place.
Be consistent with your Track responsibilities. Ie: Track 1 is always thru. Same applies to Scene responsibility. Its easy to get into a flow with whatever head space you had at a given time, forgetting what cross action does what.

^^^ This.
And don’t change gear. Since I got my OT I’ve traded and bought a bunch of new gear and now all the songs I recorded and put up on youtube are kind of useless as the gear is either missing or now hooked up differently. It is a bit of a nightmare. I’m in the process of trying to fix the old tracks and recreate patches but it’s taking forever.
Recently I started using banks to make songs instead of separate projects. I think I should have done that from the start.
Also get a notepad, or use something like google keep to keep track of what project (or bank) does what. Once you get away form just one machine it gets more and more complicated to keep track of whats going on because there is no labelling of stuff in the OT.
I use google keep for this, I find it helps to keep track especially with outboard effects and keeping settings.