octatrack users halp!

[Guest Milkweg]

Trying to do some loop sampling using pickup machines on my octatrack. The problem being is that the samples material dictates the master BPM, any way around this?

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[ambermonk]

I'm not personally familiar with Octatrack, but I know another WATMM member who is quite familiar with it. PM me if you'd like me to refer you to him.

[sweepstakes]

Haven't messed with the pickup machines at all. For this task, I'd set the BPM manually (probably with the aid of tap tempo) and use a flex machine playing the contents of its track recorder's own buffer. For me, this is a happy medium between control and ease of use.

 

Another nice thing about this method (this may be true of the pickup machines but again I just haven't used them) is that you can set the track recorder trig to a one-shot so you can have it to record to the buffer only when you click Yes to arm it. Also you can set the length of the buffer in the track recorder menu.

And if you want to get silly, you can set multiple record trigs, which can all sample from different sources. I haven't done much with this but it could be interesting, for example, to have the recording occur on a separate track running at 1/8 speed so that what gets sampled varies, but coarsely.

 

If something up there sounds interesting, but doesn't make sense, please let me know and I'll try to clarify. The OT is a deep machine and you have to simmer it in your brain for a while before it makes sense, as you may realize already.

Have you joined elektron-users or elektronauts yet? If not, I recommend doing so. The community there is very helpful.

[Guest Milkweg]

Thanks heaps. Ended up using flex machines sampling themselves as well as recording from the input. Excellent advice.

 

I find that the OT wildly miscalculates BPM the majority of the time. This coupled with sampled material actually setting the BPM while using pickup machines makes it pretty hard to use effectively.

 

Thanks for the response.

[sweepstakes]

Thanks heaps. Ended up using flex machines sampling themselves as well as recording from the input. Excellent advice.

 

I find that the OT wildly miscalculates BPM the majority of the time. This coupled with sampled material actually setting the BPM while using pickup machines makes it pretty hard to use effectively.

 

Thanks for the response.

My pleasure - that live resampling is good fun, isn't it?

 

It does miscalculate BPM pretty badly. My theory is that it isn't all that sensitive to the peaks and valleys of the input amplitude, and rather examines length and tries to come up with a practical amount based on that. Try multiplying or dividing by 2 - either the tempo or the number of bars.

 

I find this number of bars measurement pretty useful although I thnk it only works for 4/4. It's nice for precise loop editing .