Elektron Octatrack

  On 2/18/2011 at 7:32 AM, Wall Bird said:

Also, what is beat meshing?

some farts n clicks he got paid $50k for

I'll be amazed if Ae don't have one of these yet...

  On 2/18/2011 at 9:19 AM, futureimage said:

I'll be amazed if Ae don't have one of these yet...

it's tuesday and tomorrow's wednesday.

  On 2/18/2011 at 5:07 AM, Awepittance said:

http://vimeo.com/19996367

The flash and light leak at the end made the video for me.

The thing about listening to RD demo the octarack is that he probably already loaded it with crazy sounding samples, so how are we to know just how much the machine is doing cool stuff vs awesome premade samples.

oh man that jeff mills just made me cum all over myself

  On 2/18/2011 at 8:55 PM, Kcinsu said:

The thing about listening to RD demo the octarack is that he probably already loaded it with crazy sounding samples, so how are we to know just how much the machine is doing cool stuff vs awesome premade samples.

haha thats exactly what i said on his facebook post of this video

  On 2/19/2011 at 10:09 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 2/18/2011 at 8:55 PM, Kcinsu said:

The thing about listening to RD demo the octarack is that he probably already loaded it with crazy sounding samples, so how are we to know just how much the machine is doing cool stuff vs awesome premade samples.

 

haha thats exactly what i said on his facebook post of this video

Although I agree, I wonder just how many people on this forum still have the original machinedrum sounds in their uw still.

so is this thing any good or what??? i'm curious.

who got one? what's neat about it? why should i give a shit about it over my mpc, or perhaps that dsi/linn thing upcoming this year?

  On 3/29/2011 at 9:31 AM, hahathhat said:

so is this thing any good or what??? i'm curious.

 

who got one? what's neat about it? why should i give a shit about it over my mpc, or perhaps that dsi/linn thing upcoming this year?

I wouldn't touch it for another year yet, the OS still has a little way to go imho (v0.99) or more that fact they want more feedback from users cos they had no idea what to make the thing do in the first place!

this is the most interesting thing I've seen however it still hasn't wowed me yet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9xCjt01N2A

saying that the manual's online now so when I get a mo

  On 3/29/2011 at 10:37 PM, soundwave said:

they had no idea what to make the thing do in the first place!

about what i feared. thanks

sorry to warm up this thread, but since it seems to be the "official" octatrack thread here...

so, i'm about this close to buying an octatrack:

==>| |<==

, the main reason being i'm a little tired of programming away ultracool & ultraprecise dsp's in max/msp, when a lot of the things i spend hours to do i could do in minutes with a piece of hardware...

while i'm quite sure that the octatrack's sound engine is quite capable of doing most of what i want it to & a lot more, i'd like to hear a little hands-on-expertise from the users, i.e. opinions about the interface! does it inspire you? is a lot of menu digging necessary and if - could you avoid that with an external midi controller, etc. etc.

btw. i've hardly ever seemed to be so unable to get any real information/insight about a piece of equipment as in the case of the octatrack! after watching dozens of youtube videos & searching different music tech forums i found the elektron.se product page to be the most un-confusing, least blurry, most valuable info out there. i kid you not!

although a lot of units seem to have been sold, a lot of people seem to own one (& use them quite happily) - nobody is telling or showing anything... or is it just me?

anyway, thanks for the advice, & cheerio!

Tried http://www.elektron-users.com?

  On 12/29/2011 at 4:36 PM, psn said:

Tried http://www.elektron-users.com?

you're right of course! however, besides my being more familiar with WATMM^tm's search function, i always assumed most of the people over there were already completely hooked... plus i expect extremely knowledgable & critically balanced replies from the expertly twiddling ones!!

i don't own one, but i've been following it's development & updates closely since before it was released.

i was planning to get one but i haven't seen anything about it that has really impressed me even after 1 year.

it seems to be quite a bit overhyped but that's par for the course with elektron gear i suppose.

judging by the youtube vids, most people seem to use it to make boring house music.

while max/msp is a bit low-level to be making music as you describe, have you considered the middle ground? something like Reaktor or Audiomulch?

i personally use an MPC1000 with JJOS and for the more advanced sound design stuff i pair it with Reaktor. way more powerful than an Octatrack.

Ive got one, and while I like it, I cant seem to find its purpose.

It cant really be used as an on the fly alternative to DJing for me, as I find two turntables a lot more straightforward, and easy to manipulate. Its best usage for me at the moment is to make preprogrammed beat tape style mixes, with a lot of editing of pre-existing tracks. The effects and sequencer are good, however the Machinedrum and Monomachine are from my experience easier to use as the UI isnt as clogged.

As a straight up sampler its not as enjoyable to use as my old MPC2000xl. Its sample manipulating capabilities are better and samples are easier to chop, but sampling isnt as straightforward to do, plus the gain staging, while allowing plenty of room for boosting etc, has been near ridiculous at times, although the newest update did compensate for that. Other than that the only limitation is the track count, which while it is enough if used creatively, can sometimes feel a little bit too constricting.

I still think after all this time it hasnt found its place because doesnt fit very well into existing boundaries, it seems a waste to just use it as a drum machine, and the memory and beatmatching doesnt work well enough for high quality DJ sets, as HQ files are massive once youve got a nights worth of tracks, and the beatmatching can be a bit iffy unless you pre edit your tracks to a set length and specify the number of bars etc afterwards, which is a bit tedious to do, plus EQing two tracks to mix them is a lot easier with a mixer.

As a processor for a live set (using the inputs to capture and edit etc) it works very well, especially if synced through MIDI, however it isnt worth it for that function alone in my opinion, as there are much cheaper alternatives.

I'm thinking the Octatrack is still waiting for its Jimi Hendrix to come along and free its potential.

  On 12/30/2011 at 9:08 AM, digit said:

while max/msp is a bit low-level to be making music as you describe, have you considered the middle ground? something like Reaktor or Audiomulch?

nah, the level isn't the problem, i quite like it that way since it let's me do things exactly how i want them, plus i use max a lot for dsp'ing existing samples i made with all kinds of software/gear, so i'm okay with that... i don't wanna stop using max (on the contrary - thinking of buying max 6 + gen!!!), but i'm looking for a more hands-on approach, you know:

being able to TOUCH something without having to specifically program my midi controller & UI in max.

do things FAST!

  On 12/30/2011 at 9:08 AM, digit said:

i was planning to get one but i haven't seen anything about it that has really impressed me even after 1 year.

it seems to be quite a bit overhyped (...)

judging by the youtube vids, most people seem to use it to make boring house music.

and that's the strange thing, because judging from the specs alone you'd think you should be able to make teh ultra-cool dsps wit it, rite? to me the descriptions sound like a semi-modular (more modular with every OS update, it would seem) sampling environment with the benefits of tactility (that a real word??) & a dedicated audio engine that will never stutter (unless you want it to, of course) or crash!

but like you i don't see anyone really using that potential - hence my question about the interface, because i don't think the dsp part of it is the problem??!

aarghh - i still don't know - it seems so tempting still

I'm still not sure what the point of the Octatrack actually is and I haven't seen anything substantial that a Kaoss pad couldn't do.

The mono and machinedrum are the brainchild of the late great Daniel Hansson and are amongst the most revolutionary bits of hardware made in the past decade of which most haven't even scratched the surface however the Octatrack seems to be something made to fill the boutique market Elektron have created without much idea to the actual virtue of the machine other than a gimmick for rich students to mess around on and show off with imho.

you just have to hear the type of music from the half arsed demos to see the market this thing is aimed at

i think the problem with the octatrack is that when they designed it they made it too locked to the existing elektron paradigm: the xox / 16 step / parameter lock / rigid linear thing.

you can tell that they realized the octatrack needed to be a bit more expressive and freely playable than their other stuff - that's why they gave it those soft round buttons. but they didn't deviate enough from their paradigm imo and that is what crippled it. it should have had a more radically different interface & os.

you'll notice in a lot of the live jamming demos, as mentioned earlier in this thread, that peoples hands seem to be moving a mile a minute twiddling knobs and pressing a million keys with not much obvious effect on the sound being produced. i think this is a result of something basic in how elektron has laid out their os & hardware. lots of ways to tweak things to perfection but if you want to step back & make more macro changes in a live performance it's quite difficult.

don't want to rip on elektron too much as i think the machinedrum is an amazing piece of kit that they got right, but the octatrack seems to be a not entirely succesful experiment.

rst: maybe you should just get one and try it out. if you don't like it you can turn around and sell it quickly for almost a full return on your investment. elektrons stuff seems to retain it's value pretty well on ebay.

if they'd expanded on the Monomachines Bbox kit but polyphonic and with your own samples I would pimp my sister tomorrow

remarkably boring

  On 12/31/2011 at 1:38 AM, digit said:

rst: maybe you should just get one and try it out. if you don't like it you can turn around and sell it quickly for almost a full return on your investment. elektrons stuff seems to retain it's value pretty well on ebay.

have thought in the meantime about getting a livid ohm controller instead & really pimp my max patches with that... then again i'd really like something that MAKES MUSIC, where i don't have to turn to a computer screen every 5 seconds and can load samples etc. without moving a mouse... maybe think about an mpc1000??? but that's OT & perhaps i'll start another thread for further advice...

however, the octatrack, as seductive as it seems, isn't much of a candidate anymore. soundwave is probably right: the evidence is all there in the videos... ahhh, what a shame, the basic idea & features could have made it quite something!!!