Great video! You explain things very well. I love using my octatrack and its great to hear other ways to incorporate it into my setup. Its such a powerful tool, so its hard to remember all the ways to use it. I'm in LA and I'll check out your show for sure!
Hey, thanks for watching, so glad to hear you're in the area! Honestly these videos have been super inspiring to me, just to get my mind thinking about different potential applications and configurations. I'm glad I can share that journey with fellow tinkerers.
First, I would love to hear your music. The snippets are cool sounding! Second, your explanations are really good and show so many possibilities of that crazy machine. Third, this tutorial may be the final straw to convince me the Octatrack isn’t for me! Just too much stuff that would distract my tiny brain from the actual music! Right now, I’m using a Digitakt, EHX 95000 looper, 0Coast and my bass. The Octatrack seemed like a great way to streamline my live setup, but man what a convoluted box that is! Good luck at the Satellite! Played there many times over the years and it’s a terrific venue
Haha fair enough. It sounds like you've got a setup that works for you, which is ultimately all that matters. And to be honest, I'm still figuring out what works best for me. That's a very time-consuming process, and ultimately the goal is to make it so I don't have to think about it at all. But until then I'll keep making videos :) Oh and here's a link to my music (spoti.fi/2KNTZXz) Thanks again for watching!
Kenny Zhao- update! While on tour recently, I somewhat impulsively purchased an OTMK2 at Perfect Circuit...off to a slow start, but having a good time learning the machine. Thanks again for the awesome videos!
dang that's amazing! Yeah try not to feel too overwhelmed - it took me several months before I felt comfortable enough to know where everything was *in general*. Only lately have I been comfortable enough to perform with it, or use it in studio sessions. Feel free to message me questions if there's anything you come across that I haven't covered - always looking for new ideas for videos :)
Thanks for watching! Perhaps you can hear the enthusiasm in my voice :) I've been trying to crack this particular scenario for sometime. And as usual, I needed some external pressure (a live gig) to get things started.
I'm having real trouble getting stems to play in time with one another... Any help would be greatly appreciated! My guess is that they all need to be the same tempo which is annoying.
@@KeithDuncanSound For sure! Yes, be sure the tempo of each stem is set correctly within the Octatrack’s audio editor page (should be 2nd to last tab in the audio editor). The octatrack will snap each file’s tempo to the master tempo of the sequencer. Alternatively, you can turn off timestretch on every track, and as long as they start synced up they should stay that way. But this can risk causing them to fall out of sync with the sequencer. Sometimes I do this to prevent my tracks from changing speed when I switch tempos - typically when I design the sequencer to be out of sync with the stems.
although im still a OT noob i may suggest that instead of using s-locks per pattern(song) .. you could use Banks, so each bank has an independent setup of machines and stems, etc. - i’ve already tried this and worked flawlessly :) what do you think? i guess the downside of this will be that you’d have to recreate scenes etc and possible not be able to smoothly go from one song to the other - however it might be cool to have scenes/effects setup as per song basis. - just thinking out loud :)
Yeah that's a good idea! At the moment it's a little difficult for me to justify having a whole bank set aside for each of my tracks, since they take up only 1-3 patterns each. But I think further down the line it could be helpful to have more room to explore each track and split it into more involved patterns. Like you say, you kind of have to balance that with the inconvenience of copying over scenes as well as parts, which are unique to each bank. As well as the additional step of hitting bank 1, pattern 1, as opposed to just switching patterns. One useful application of this however, would be that you could focus on performance, and if you had specialized default scenes for each song you wouldn't have to hunt for the right one, you could just use the crossfader and it would be pre-programmed to do cool stuff with each song. I definitely like the sound of that!
Thanks for the reply - glad you found some potential to it! for me having a whole song S-Locked, while the original-assigned-sampled is actually another song altogether, makes me nervous haha
yeah you know what, that also is a great point. I had to do so much troubleshooting and double checking of audio placement to make sure everything was operating exactly right for these tracks. Definitely something I may consider in the future!
Ooh I just thought of this - it also helps with if you're loading up presets on an outboard synth via MIDI, because normally you only get 4 parts per bank, AKA 4 program assignments. Which is pretty dismal. But then if you expand that to banks...yep that's a great solution!
Kenny Zhao So what you are saying is that each part will send some specific Program change via Midi to an ext synth?! sounds fantastic! i’ve done all these “tricks” in ableton for my live setup, but havent thought through how the same principles will apply to OT. - well not yet :)
Thank you for such a great video! Quick question, what about when jumping around patterns when you have trigs with 1st t.c.… If you wanted to say jump from pattern 4 (that had a 1st trig with loop on) to pattern 1 which had no trigs on that track.. how do you stop it from infinitely looping?
Good question! You can manually stop the playback of triggers on a track by hitting FUNC+YES, or if you go into pattern settings (FUNC+PTN), you can any of the tracks to start silent. These settings are specific to each pattern, and you can adjust their default settings in the system preferences I believe.
@@KennyZhao thanks so much Kenny! I’ve been using start silent + trigless trig to bring down the vol in the app section only problem I face is if I do want to jam live with other loops it always muted (bring vol all the way down ) the track on the first trig .. so I am now creating the last pattern (16) on each of my banks to be full of just loops (with no trigless / trig mutes for bringing vol down on 1st trig ) for launching for live remixing if wanted
@@Djam0 yeah that's a popular workaround. I've found that the more I stick with a single track setup, the more personal solutions I can find that work best for the situation I'm in :)
I have 1st conditional trigs for each track on both pattern 1 and 2, but when swapping to pattern two they do not triggered because like you say, they've already been disarmed. In the video it's confusing as to what you did to avoid this, can you explain a bit further?
If you have your trigs set up as 1st conditional trigs, they should reset automatically when you switch patterns. One-shot trigs are the ones that have to be manually reset after they've been triggered
@@KennyZhao Like with the shortcut where you hold it and press right correct? And 1st, the one without the bar at the top? I have mine configured that way. Is it possible that they're set up as both one-shots and 1st conditional trigs? How do I change them away from being one-shots?
Hey Kenny, thanks for your great videos!! Especially playing stems to create flexible backing tracks is just what I need. Did you use the balanced output of the mic preamp with a xlr-trs cable into the OT?
I actually got a preamp that has both 1/4" and XLR options for both input and output, which lets me go XLR to the preamp and TRS to the Octatrack. Glad you enjoyed this video, I find that playing with stems has so much potential to it that isn't necessarily talked about in the Octatrack - letting a single track play while you switch patterns, for example.
Do you pre-edit your slices with octachainer? Or do you try and slice perfectly in the octatrack when creating your parts and loops out of the STEM tracks?
As far as static machines are concerned, I create the slices internally by navigating to the closest zero crossing (typically on the rhythm stem) and then slicing the exact spot on the corresponding other tracks. It can get messy sometimes, but I think it helps me stay aware of what's going on. Most inaccuracies in timing end up being pretty negligible.
@@KennyZhao Thanks for the tip. I've been using the octachainer program posted to the elektronauts board and it works really well. It saves a ton of time and disk space, letting you put in the exact samples you want. It then uses the audio files you give it to create a premade .OT file and audio file for the octatrack to read. Once you load the file to a track it is pre-sliced based on the start and endpoint of all of the audiofiles the octachainer chains together. If you havent played around with it, I think you'd enjoy it.
Kenny, vid of your entire setup........setting it up? I see a PUSH there? I am wondering if OCTATRACK is end game for your productions or first? Do you record loops and playback live with OT? Links or a way to email you would be awesome I am about to make choice and interested in few questions. THANKS
RUSTiK Inc hey! Yeah I have a number of things, but for production I still use Ableton as my main hub. The Octatrack functions more as an instrument in that setup. My goal this year is to incorporate it more, but I do enjoy using it as a send...basically I can send any track to the Octatrack for sampling and processing, then record what I like back into Ableton. I can’t really replace how convenient it is to arrange with a mouse :)
I live in LA ! would you teach OT lessons ?? I'm trying to figure out the thru tracks for live vocals with FX and for some reason the the FX aren't registering. I see the nobs triggering reverb and delay etc. but hear no difference. Far as I can tell, everything else is set up right. The trig is set etc. Also love the videos though and I know this isnt a forum lol. So thank you for the help regardless.
I've been asked about lessons before, sure! Shoot me an email - zhaokennyzhao@gmail.com As far as vocal effects...hm the only thing I can imagine is that the input isn't loud enough to hear the FX. I've had issues in the past with vocal signal being too weak, try using a compressor as the first FX block and boosting it.
how can you handle tracks that phase out of sync? that is what i am worried about. when i let run a bass stem and a melodic stem and they start to phase out maybe cause of not corretly cut the file. how can you nudge it back or forward to correct?
You can do separate track lengths and set the master length to infenite by turning it all the way left. Then set pattern change from auto to 4 bars or whatever you prefer. You can do that in the pattern settings or in the persenalize menu. 🙂
Al Yeska yep! P-locking track parameters to scenes is a great way to progress through a track. You just have to set it up in a way that’s easy for you to remember, and it can get a bit complicated when using multiple parts, each of whom has its own set of scenes.
Hi! the best way for you to connect those devices would be to acquire some kind of USB MIDI host, which will take USB signals and convert them to MIDI. The OP1 can only send MIDI signal via USB, so a USB MIDI host will take those signals and convert them for you.
HI, found your tutorial reaaally helpful so thanks so much! I did run into a problem, maybe you . can help out :) i can't seem to get the bpm of the stems right. I import for examples 3 stems from the same track at 110, and the octa thinks they are at 89. I went into the clips attribute and corrected the bpm but it doesn't seem to change anything. I'm pretty much stuck here. Might be something very simple but... i can't figure it out! ...anyway, thanks so much for your insights. Help would be very much appreciated!
Florentin Tudor thanks for watching! If your track isn’t changing at all after adjusting the BPM, then you likely have your time stretch set to “off” - you’ll want to change that to either “normal” or “beat”
@@KennyZhao hey, thanks a lot. i figured it out... i had my sample bit rate at 48 24 so that's why it sounded weird. That's fixed :) i have a different problem now.... i assigned track 1 and 2 to pattern 1 and 2, that seems to be great! With pattern 3, i'm having issues mapping the tracks for some reason. I save them in the same way as i did for pattern 1 and 2 but when i play back it diverts to the default track, for example track 2 (from pattern 3) plays back the bass line from track 1... then i realised that if i play back pattern 2 for example but also press 2 while it's playing back, it plays back the bass of track 1 on top... does it have to do with my file management on the octa drive maybe? they are not super organised like your tracks as i only have 8 stems so far. I'm adding them as i go along. sorry for the long message :) and thanks a lot again!
@@TheSharivari I'm a bit confused, I think you might be using "track" and "pattern" a bit differently than I'm used to. Tracks in the Octatrack refer to 1 of the 8 spots on which you can place machines, but you also appear to be using them to refer to actual audio tracks as well. In any case, file management shouldn't be the issue, the Octatrack can refer to any tracks within your memory card without issue, regardless of how the files are organized.
Kenny Zhao Hi Kenny, yes, i bet it sound confusion, it was for me too... I got around it tho. Everything is now set good besides a pattern pre roll ... I seem to have a preroll of 1 bar set for some of the tracks in my project. U know how to get rid of it? sorry for asking banal questions, it’s my first courageous thing I’m trying to do w the octa for the live we have this Saturaday. Everything else is good just this preroll is in the way, as my tracks start the other way around. thanks so much!
I found the reason. It’s not a preroll... made track 7 for example start from button 7 on the sequencer. so when I press play, it goes from 1 to 7 on the sequencer and the it starts my track. I need to make all my tracks start from 1 again. Hope this made sense. If u know an easy way pls let me know! much appreciated!
Thank you so much for taking the time to make these tutorials! There are some VERY helpful tips here.
Awesome for experienced users. One point, go out of record mode and function+yes arms all one shot trigs.
I have been looking for such tutorials for months! Thanks!
Marek Pleskac glad I could help!
Great video! You explain things very well. I love using my octatrack and its great to hear other ways to incorporate it into my setup. Its such a powerful tool, so its hard to remember all the ways to use it. I'm in LA and I'll check out your show for sure!
Hey, thanks for watching, so glad to hear you're in the area! Honestly these videos have been super inspiring to me, just to get my mind thinking about different potential applications and configurations. I'm glad I can share that journey with fellow tinkerers.
First, I would love to hear your music. The snippets are cool sounding!
Second, your explanations are really good and show so many possibilities of that crazy machine.
Third, this tutorial may be the final straw to convince me the Octatrack isn’t for me! Just too much stuff that would distract my tiny brain from the actual music! Right now, I’m using a Digitakt, EHX 95000 looper, 0Coast and my bass. The Octatrack seemed like a great way to streamline my live setup, but man what a convoluted box that is!
Good luck at the Satellite! Played there many times over the years and it’s a terrific venue
Haha fair enough. It sounds like you've got a setup that works for you, which is ultimately all that matters. And to be honest, I'm still figuring out what works best for me. That's a very time-consuming process, and ultimately the goal is to make it so I don't have to think about it at all. But until then I'll keep making videos :)
Oh and here's a link to my music (spoti.fi/2KNTZXz) Thanks again for watching!
Kenny Zhao- update! While on tour recently, I somewhat impulsively purchased an OTMK2 at Perfect Circuit...off to a slow start, but having a good time learning the machine. Thanks again for the awesome videos!
dang that's amazing! Yeah try not to feel too overwhelmed - it took me several months before I felt comfortable enough to know where everything was *in general*. Only lately have I been comfortable enough to perform with it, or use it in studio sessions. Feel free to message me questions if there's anything you come across that I haven't covered - always looking for new ideas for videos :)
Kenny Zhao - oh man...I might make you sorry you said that! Right now, I have a lot more questions than answers :)
Another amazing tutorial. Thank you for this.
Thanks for watching! Perhaps you can hear the enthusiasm in my voice :) I've been trying to crack this particular scenario for sometime. And as usual, I needed some external pressure (a live gig) to get things started.
Really informative as per usual. I hope you upload your live performance.
Thanks so much! I'll see what I can do - if I can get the quality to be good enough I'll try to upload at least part of it :)
I'm having real trouble getting stems to play in time with one another... Any help would be greatly appreciated! My guess is that they all need to be the same tempo which is annoying.
@@KeithDuncanSound For sure! Yes, be sure the tempo of each stem is set correctly within the Octatrack’s audio editor page (should be 2nd to last tab in the audio editor). The octatrack will snap each file’s tempo to the master tempo of the sequencer. Alternatively, you can turn off timestretch on every track, and as long as they start synced up they should stay that way. But this can risk causing them to fall out of sync with the sequencer. Sometimes I do this to prevent my tracks from changing speed when I switch tempos - typically when I design the sequencer to be out of sync with the stems.
although im still a OT noob i may suggest that instead of using s-locks per pattern(song) .. you could use Banks, so each bank has an independent setup of machines and stems, etc. - i’ve already tried this and worked flawlessly :) what do you think?
i guess the downside of this will be that you’d have to recreate scenes etc and possible not be able to smoothly go from one song to the other - however it might be cool to have scenes/effects setup as per song basis. - just thinking out loud :)
Yeah that's a good idea! At the moment it's a little difficult for me to justify having a whole bank set aside for each of my tracks, since they take up only 1-3 patterns each. But I think further down the line it could be helpful to have more room to explore each track and split it into more involved patterns. Like you say, you kind of have to balance that with the inconvenience of copying over scenes as well as parts, which are unique to each bank. As well as the additional step of hitting bank 1, pattern 1, as opposed to just switching patterns.
One useful application of this however, would be that you could focus on performance, and if you had specialized default scenes for each song you wouldn't have to hunt for the right one, you could just use the crossfader and it would be pre-programmed to do cool stuff with each song. I definitely like the sound of that!
Thanks for the reply - glad you found some potential to it! for me having a whole song S-Locked, while the original-assigned-sampled is actually another song altogether, makes me nervous haha
yeah you know what, that also is a great point. I had to do so much troubleshooting and double checking of audio placement to make sure everything was operating exactly right for these tracks. Definitely something I may consider in the future!
Ooh I just thought of this - it also helps with if you're loading up presets on an outboard synth via MIDI, because normally you only get 4 parts per bank, AKA 4 program assignments. Which is pretty dismal. But then if you expand that to banks...yep that's a great solution!
Kenny Zhao So what you are saying is that each part will send some specific Program change via Midi to an ext synth?! sounds fantastic! i’ve done all these “tricks” in ableton for my live setup, but havent thought through how the same principles will apply to OT. - well not yet :)
Thank you for such a great video! Quick question, what about when jumping around patterns when you have trigs with 1st t.c.… If you wanted to say jump from pattern 4 (that had a 1st trig with loop on) to pattern 1 which had no trigs on that track.. how do you stop it from infinitely looping?
Good question! You can manually stop the playback of triggers on a track by hitting FUNC+YES, or if you go into pattern settings (FUNC+PTN), you can any of the tracks to start silent. These settings are specific to each pattern, and you can adjust their default settings in the system preferences I believe.
@@KennyZhao thanks so much Kenny! I’ve been using start silent + trigless trig to bring down the vol in the app section only problem I face is if I do want to jam live with other loops it always muted (bring vol all the way down ) the track on the first trig .. so I am now creating the last pattern (16) on each of my banks to be full of just loops (with no trigless / trig mutes for bringing vol down on 1st trig ) for launching for live remixing if wanted
@@Djam0 yeah that's a popular workaround. I've found that the more I stick with a single track setup, the more personal solutions I can find that work best for the situation I'm in :)
@@KennyZhao well said, thank you for the great videos and awesome insight brother :))
I have 1st conditional trigs for each track on both pattern 1 and 2, but when swapping to pattern two they do not triggered because like you say, they've already been disarmed. In the video it's confusing as to what you did to avoid this, can you explain a bit further?
If you have your trigs set up as 1st conditional trigs, they should reset automatically when you switch patterns. One-shot trigs are the ones that have to be manually reset after they've been triggered
@@KennyZhao Like with the shortcut where you hold it and press right correct? And 1st, the one without the bar at the top? I have mine configured that way. Is it possible that they're set up as both one-shots and 1st conditional trigs? How do I change them away from being one-shots?
@@InfatuationPSA Yes this is possible. Just clear the trig and try it again, if the trig is yellow it's an indication that it's a one-shot trig.
@@KennyZhao Thank you very much for your patience and help! I'll mess with it again tonight :)
Hey Kenny, thanks for your great videos!! Especially playing stems to create flexible backing tracks is just what I need.
Did you use the balanced output of the mic preamp with a xlr-trs cable into the OT?
I actually got a preamp that has both 1/4" and XLR options for both input and output, which lets me go XLR to the preamp and TRS to the Octatrack.
Glad you enjoyed this video, I find that playing with stems has so much potential to it that isn't necessarily talked about in the Octatrack - letting a single track play while you switch patterns, for example.
Do you pre-edit your slices with octachainer? Or do you try and slice perfectly in the octatrack when creating your parts and loops out of the STEM tracks?
As far as static machines are concerned, I create the slices internally by navigating to the closest zero crossing (typically on the rhythm stem) and then slicing the exact spot on the corresponding other tracks. It can get messy sometimes, but I think it helps me stay aware of what's going on. Most inaccuracies in timing end up being pretty negligible.
@@KennyZhao Thanks for the tip. I've been using the octachainer program posted to the elektronauts board and it works really well. It saves a ton of time and disk space, letting you put in the exact samples you want. It then uses the audio files you give it to create a premade .OT file and audio file for the octatrack to read. Once you load the file to a track it is pre-sliced based on the start and endpoint of all of the audiofiles the octachainer chains together. If you havent played around with it, I think you'd enjoy it.
Kenny, vid of your entire setup........setting it up? I see a PUSH there? I am wondering if OCTATRACK is end game for your productions or first? Do you record loops and playback live with OT? Links or a way to email you would be awesome I am about to make choice and interested in few questions. THANKS
RUSTiK Inc hey! Yeah I have a number of things, but for production I still use Ableton as my main hub. The Octatrack functions more as an instrument in that setup. My goal this year is to incorporate it more, but I do enjoy using it as a send...basically I can send any track to the Octatrack for sampling and processing, then record what I like back into Ableton. I can’t really replace how convenient it is to arrange with a mouse :)
@@KennyZhao Good deal! Great vid series I think it is well done! Appreciate your response.
I live in LA ! would you teach OT lessons ?? I'm trying to figure out the thru tracks for live vocals with FX and for some reason the the FX aren't registering. I see the nobs triggering reverb and delay etc. but hear no difference. Far as I can tell, everything else is set up right. The trig is set etc.
Also love the videos though and I know this isnt a forum lol. So thank you for the help regardless.
I've been asked about lessons before, sure! Shoot me an email - zhaokennyzhao@gmail.com
As far as vocal effects...hm the only thing I can imagine is that the input isn't loud enough to hear the FX. I've had issues in the past with vocal signal being too weak, try using a compressor as the first FX block and boosting it.
Just emailed !! 🌸
how can you handle tracks that phase out of sync?
that is what i am worried about. when i let run a bass stem and a melodic stem and they start to phase out maybe cause of not corretly cut the file. how can you nudge it back or forward to correct?
You can do separate track lengths and set the master length to infenite by turning it all the way left. Then set pattern change from auto to 4 bars or whatever you prefer. You can do that in the pattern settings or in the persenalize menu. 🙂
Love your vids by the way
👍👍
Can the parameter lock on tracks be saved to multiple scenes for recall?
Al Yeska yep! P-locking track parameters to scenes is a great way to progress through a track. You just have to set it up in a way that’s easy for you to remember, and it can get a bit complicated when using multiple parts, each of whom has its own set of scenes.
Can someone please tell me what is the best way to send midi from Octatrack to Op1 ? cheers
Hi! the best way for you to connect those devices would be to acquire some kind of USB MIDI host, which will take USB signals and convert them to MIDI. The OP1 can only send MIDI signal via USB, so a USB MIDI host will take those signals and convert them for you.
@@KennyZhao even a set up without a computer?
HI, found your tutorial reaaally helpful so thanks so much! I did run into a problem, maybe you . can help out :) i can't seem to get the bpm of the stems right. I import for examples 3 stems from the same track at 110, and the octa thinks they are at 89. I went into the clips attribute and corrected the bpm but it doesn't seem to change anything. I'm pretty much stuck here. Might be something very simple but... i can't figure it out! ...anyway, thanks so much for your insights. Help would be very much appreciated!
Florentin Tudor thanks for watching! If your track isn’t changing at all after adjusting the BPM, then you likely have your time stretch set to “off” - you’ll want to change that to either “normal” or “beat”
@@KennyZhao hey, thanks a lot. i figured it out... i had my sample bit rate at 48 24 so that's why it sounded weird. That's fixed :) i have a different problem now.... i assigned track 1 and 2 to pattern 1 and 2, that seems to be great! With pattern 3, i'm having issues mapping the tracks for some reason. I save them in the same way as i did for pattern 1 and 2 but when i play back it diverts to the default track, for example track 2 (from pattern 3) plays back the bass line from track 1... then i realised that if i play back pattern 2 for example but also press 2 while it's playing back, it plays back the bass of track 1 on top... does it have to do with my file management on the octa drive maybe? they are not super organised like your tracks as i only have 8 stems so far. I'm adding them as i go along. sorry for the long message :) and thanks a lot again!
@@TheSharivari I'm a bit confused, I think you might be using "track" and "pattern" a bit differently than I'm used to. Tracks in the Octatrack refer to 1 of the 8 spots on which you can place machines, but you also appear to be using them to refer to actual audio tracks as well. In any case, file management shouldn't be the issue, the Octatrack can refer to any tracks within your memory card without issue, regardless of how the files are organized.
Kenny Zhao Hi Kenny, yes, i bet it sound confusion, it was for me too... I got around it tho. Everything is now set good besides a pattern pre roll ... I seem to have a preroll of 1 bar set for some of the tracks in my project. U know how to get rid of it? sorry for asking banal questions, it’s my first courageous thing I’m trying to do w the octa for the live we have this Saturaday. Everything else is good just this preroll is in the way, as my tracks start the other way around. thanks so much!
I found the reason. It’s not a preroll... made track 7 for example start from button 7 on the sequencer. so when I press play, it goes from 1 to 7 on the sequencer and the it starts my track. I need to make all my tracks start from 1 again. Hope this made sense. If u know an easy way pls let me know! much appreciated!
You jump around a lot pushing buttons which messes with my head.