I’m fairly new to the Octatrack, but I’ve quickly fallen in love with it. It’s now the centerpiece of my signal chain and workflow.
After diving into it for 90 days, I have a few questions that would make it a dream machine for me:
Continuous Recording Buffer: How can I set up a continuous recording buffer on the Octatrack, similar to the Teenage Engineering OB-4? I want to continuously record incoming audio and scrub through it in real-time. Any tips on setup, playback, and scrubbing?
Slow Down Live Audio: If the above is possible, can I also slow down the live audio to extend sections (e.g., while playing a record, I add a big tail at the end of a track before the next track kicks in—whereas on the album it would otherwise enter the new track a little too quickly)?
Live Recording: Has anyone used the Octatrack as their main device for live recording practice sessions or improvised musical ideas? Should I forget about it because using a DAW simply better here? I’d love to hear your experiences and tips.
I’ve used similar setups to your first question a few times. You can set a recording trig for a buffer at the start of a pattern, and once it’s begun you can replay and mangle the audio as soon as you hit step two, with the obvious caveat that you can only play back what’s been recorded. For example I’d have a 303 pattern going into a buffer, and I’d let it record for one bar of tweaking and then have a second bar that “remixed” the previous bar. Or I might have a one-shot recording trig that I could activate any time there was an interesting sound. And of course you can point other tracks at the buffer and have your live audio torn apart in all kinds of interesting ways.
You should be able to set up a fairly long buffer if you allocate the RAM and set the pattern length/speed accordingly - it might unavoidably limit what else you can do. You should also be able to slow down the sound - again, the main restriction will be having sufficient audio in the buffer before you begin, though slowing it down will certainly present fewer problems than speeding it up…
Yep, I’m sending you some example of a “live” use of the Ot a little hybrid.
This is not my Track Number 1 lol but I think it may interest you in the possibilities it demonstrates.
I use the OT a lot in combination as described below with a live instrument and I manipulate the OT as an additional instrument. Sometimes without a tempo defined at the beginning
Combining two types of “workflow”, a free part of the sequencer in transition with a transparent handling sequencer.
I free some of my recordings independent of the sequencer at the beginning and end of the title of the first example, then I launch the sequencer (we hear of course nothing) and a synchronization is done with rhythm then vice versa I go back to another texture by stopping the sequencer without interruption, and I continue to manipulate the OT.
It allows you to have very organic things, it requires to know the little things of the OT obviously and it’s not easy, by listening again I don’t really know how I did it by the way.
Because they are always semi improv of a maximum hour of preparation.
Hoping to be relevant with these not the most brilliant examples but I find that they correspond to this vision.
It’s a little long but I just insist on these parts - free then sequence - in a transparent way.
Like a tape recorder that is synchronized and then desynchronised
The first example, we can clearly hear the grain of the OT at the start of elsewhere…
You can playback with FLEX directly and pitch down with PITCH and RATE, if you record INAB or INCD. It behaves differently with SRC3.
As long as the play head is before recording head you can pitch up/down and reverse.
If the recording if finished, you can do whatever you want. So you can make short recordings and use 2 recorders in order to pitch up/reverse quickly after 1 step minimum, continously.
It is indeed one of the ways I used in the sound example but obviously with a slower tempo it’s simpler and with “free” samples etc…
To be honest I had to watch all your videos and threads and that of Ezbot and my mind opened on the device, I have already told you but your contribution on this forum is monumental. Thx
basic continous recording buffer example
press T1 and then FUNC+REC1 to enter REC SETUP
place record trig on TRIG1
press and hold a trig to assign INP for that trig
set RLEN to 16, exit REC SETUP
press FUNC+PLAYBACK, set to FLEX
right arrow over, assign R1 RECORDING1 to FLEX playback
place playback trig on TRIG1
press play, signal at INP will be recorded via rec trig and played back via playback trig continously as the sequencer plays same as a thru machine but with the ability to…
slow down live audio example
from playback menu, turn down PITCH and or RATE parameters, same as you would with any sample playing from FLEX or STATIC buffer. reversing buffer via RATE will not work as the octatrack does great at traveling to the past but it unfortunately can’t predict the future… but you can try things like putting a REC TRIG on all 16 steps with RLEN set to 1, putting 16 playback trigs and experimenting with RATE settings with this smaller buffer timescale, LFOs to RATE/PITCH, recording the output of T1 into R2 and further experimenting with REC TRIG placement/RLEN settings and all that flexible ram buffer manipulation has to offer etc
I’ve been playing around with this. A DAW really is better. It’s obviously only suitable for shorter loops but something like an rc-505 mk II is probably better for that. Placing one shot record trigs and then removing them when you’re done isn’t the smoothest workflow. Or you can leave the trigs and arm or unarm them as necessary but that’s asking for accidentally erasing stuff you wanted to keep.
I personally find it a little confusing to keep track of what’s on which track since there are no names and the two column vertical layout of the track buttons somehow doesn’t mesh with my brain as well as a standard horizontal layout of channels, so I’ve accidentally recorded over something before because I had the wrong track selected. And then of course the lack of undo.
And then to save you have to go track by track and save and assign it to a flex, oops, memory is full, have to assign it to a static slot, etc. Not the smoothest process for just being in the flow and recording your ideas imo.
I think the only reason to use the OT as a recorder like that is if you want to immediately start remixing and messing with things using locks and scenes. Otherwise, just as a straight recorder, might as well use something more straightforward.
