Is Octatrack a waste of money if buying just for midi sequencing?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
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Is it just a waste of money buying an OT just for the midi sequencing side of things,
not really interested in the sampling part of it.

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You could also use the 4 inputs mixer to process your midi instruments with the internal fx & scenes. The fx can also be sequenced.

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Peobably , it’s quite limited

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Yeh kind of. Maybe squarp pyramid or hapax?

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Thanks for replies, that’s just what i thought as well. Have saved my dosh, will go looking
at other midi sequencers.

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How about a squid?

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You could look at a Digitakt (used) or Digitone (used) if you want Elektron style sequencing. You miss some of the Octatrack features but in other ways it might be more convenient. And they are like $300.

But otherwise I’d strongly recommend the Hapax first followed by Oxi One.

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yes

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I don’t really see the point of an OT for Midi sesuencing only at the price point. If the fader would act on the Midi tracks yes but alas…

There are plenty of midi sequencers out there more up to date for that task. If you really want Elektron workflow, i’d go for a DT or DN although you don’t mention how many tracks you wanna pilot.

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For sequencing midi note data, I kinda hate it but the midi lfos/CC stuff I kinda love it. And I haven’t tried it yet but on the horizon is converting the crossfader cc48 to modwheel for crossfader manipulation of the DN…

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1300 is a lot for just 8 midi tracks. plus there are still 15 year old bugs with midi if you’re trying to use it samurai mode

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But with Octatrack, you can do Tuplets with the Arp thingy :wink:

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OT arp is worth a lot by itself hell yeah, plocking arp settings per step. honestly with trigless trigs OT might be worth 1300 just for midi. i guess in some dimension where M8 still didn’t exist lol. I seen somewhere recently that Oxi 1 can’t even do triplets.

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Yeah, Hapax can do tuplets, but Oxi still doesn’t …

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Ive owned an octatrack for ten years now.
I know it almost inside out and back to front. I use it for all sorts of things.

Purely as a midi sequencer, these days? Yeah you can probably spend less and get more elsewhere.

But there is still nothing that does what the OT does.

If youre not interested in the sampling or audio side of things, and just want a midi sequencer, theres lots of options.

Im happy with my OT, see no need to change.

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Give a good read to the user manual and you will see if it can cover much more than sampling and sequencing :wink:

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I feel like the sequencing is more intuitive on the digi models with the scale locks.

And then u have a fully featured synth or drum machine or both

I never liked the OT for midi sequencing personally

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Love my octa, but sequencing on hapax is a lot more fun, and you can send an LFO to arp rate or lock arps to steps too. I do grid synth like sequencing with the hapax, i.e. send notes from the arp with an output fx to a different track. You can also modulate the output, or step lock the output fx so at critical arp moments the sound is played from a different synth. Its just next level. Also plays back midi files, and has a great chord helper. And its a fast device. Fun too learn.

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I think so if you want to buy a new MKII. Midi tracks complement audio tracks really well, but I wouldn’t keep OT only for that.
OT MKI can do exactly the same.

Lots of good midi sequencers mentioned.

Compared to newer Elektrons, OT midi tracks can be much better for generative music. The 3 lfos can modulate midi parameters like notes, length, velocity, arp settings (speed, gate, mode), transpose…and lfos can use defined values with lfo designer. A scale can be defined for output notes, even with a random lfo on notes.

Note length values aren’t practical, no probability per track, 1 step deeper menu diving for trig conditions, notes can’t overlap (each new step cut previous notes).

Live playing Quantize isn’t applied to closest step but following step if too late.

Program Change send per midi track requires a part change. Not practical. You can’t send Program Change per step as Digis midi tracks.

No midi overdub, like on any Elektron.

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Oh i didn’t know that!! I use to sesuence Midi on the OT so all the sequencing and muting happens on the same machine but this is a big PITA when controlling the Microcosm for instance. I have to try controlling it with the DN, at least for Program changes.

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