4 months into owning my OT. Finally tried using the arranger earlier this week. Not as tough as I feared! This tutorial comes at a great time, as I’m prepping my first live set on the OT. Still haven’t decided on how I’m going to go about it. Might do a simple stream of entire tunes exported from Logic, to free myself up to do scenes, effects and play bass, but this video opens up a couple other options. Thanks!
Sweet! Yeah I did a set where I was triggering the patterns myself, but wanted to try one with a little bit less silence in between songs. Also since I'm singing, I want to start by focusing on that, until I'm more comfortable with using the Octatrack live. In this case I also have loop points set up that act as infinite vamp sections, so I have some space to chat with the audience before proceeding.
To make scene transitions more “granular” slice your stems, fill your patterns with trigs and align the slices. Now you have constant retrograde that still gives you the smooth pattern, but you can derail at any point, and in many different ways
Linoremix thanks for watching, and for the support! Currently I don’t go over the basics because honestly I have trouble knowing where I would begin. But perhaps I will try one day to tackle that subject! In the meantime, here’s a pretty in-depth tutorial of Cuckoo demonstrating the basics on Octatrack: ua-cam.com/video/NrhPOGzn7LI/v-deo.html
Thank you for these great videos. I’m pretty new to octatrack. I have to learn many things . Btw I was at the loop festival too. Hopefully I can come by one of your show.:)
hey kenny Thanks for your very instructive videos. I also wanted to ask if you will make videos in the future for midi functions? Many thanks and best regards from berlin
Hey there! Yeah I do plan to get to MIDI, though admittedly I've avoided the topic thus far because I wasn't particularly excited about that part of the Octatrack. But I recently just picked up an OB6 and have been dabbling with it, so I think you'll be seeing some MIDI-focused videos soon :) Thanks for watching!
@@bruceybrucey She actually doesn't use one, but her live set involves a number of MIDI triggering techniques for stem performance that inspired this use of Arrangements in the Octatrack :)
Hey there, yes basically normalizing just brings up the loudest part of your waveform, and set that to like 0db. it'll make things louder, but for me personally it gives me a standard by which I can keep everything at the same level. This also means you'll want to set your audio gain to much lower, like -10...but I find it makes a more standard level to work from. I believe the Octatrack doesn't change your audio files unless you save over it, so if you want to revert I believe you just remove the file that contains the editor information.
That's actually exactly what I've done since making this video! I tell it to play a sample at rate 0, so it cuts off the previous sound. For MIDI triggering it works the same way, just start your pattern with a one-shot trig at 0 velocity. I appreciate this design choice more and more, since it allows you to do some things with blending that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do :)
@@KennyZhao I’m a new octatrack user. Can you elaborate on what you mean by ‘the things you can do with blending”? Thanks forever for your work as a musician & this work on yt sharing the knowledge.
@H Rose When you use the Arranger to program scene changes, those changes only take effect once the sequencer encounters a trig, and it might even be track-by-track (though I haven't done this in a while so I might be wrong). If you use a lot of one-shot trigs this can be frustrating, because you may need your patterns to stay blank. But another way of looking at it is that the Octatrack has a staggered way of introducing scenes. So if you think outside the box a little bit, you can design a bunch of scene changes via the Arranger and then try placing trigs at different points (or probability conditions), to use the delayed scene shift in a more creative way.
This guy right here: www.amazon.com/Samson-Technologies-SALTS50-LTS50-Laptop/dp/B00OZES766/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=samson+laptop+stand&qid=1554218932&s=gateway&sr=8-3 Bit pricey, but I've been using my first one for about two years now and got a second one, they don't show any signs of giving out :)
Thanks for watching! Typically I pair it with an OP1 as you see here, and then maybe a Bass Station for some MIDI sequencing. Oh and a mic, which I run through a preamp to get some level boost
9:25 hitting the resonant frequency of that camera! Nice tutorial, thanks!
DAMN BRO, you got some HEAVY ASS fingers.
4 months into owning my OT. Finally tried using the arranger earlier this week. Not as tough as I feared!
This tutorial comes at a great time, as I’m prepping my first live set on the OT. Still haven’t decided on how I’m going to go about it. Might do a simple stream of entire tunes exported from Logic, to free myself up to do scenes, effects and play bass, but this video opens up a couple other options. Thanks!
Sweet! Yeah I did a set where I was triggering the patterns myself, but wanted to try one with a little bit less silence in between songs. Also since I'm singing, I want to start by focusing on that, until I'm more comfortable with using the Octatrack live. In this case I also have loop points set up that act as infinite vamp sections, so I have some space to chat with the audience before proceeding.
Kenny Zhao - solid plan :)
To make scene transitions more “granular” slice your stems, fill your patterns with trigs and align the slices. Now you have constant retrograde that still gives you the smooth pattern, but you can derail at any point, and in many different ways
Ooh that is a great idea. I'll definitely have to give that a try when I'm back from the holidays, thanks for the tip!
not mine, I've seen it done ;)
Brilliant thank you
@@typeer you're welcome! BTW "retrograde" was supposed to be "retrigger" 😋
this is a great tip!
Linoremix thanks for watching, and for the support! Currently I don’t go over the basics because honestly I have trouble knowing where I would begin. But perhaps I will try one day to tackle that subject! In the meantime, here’s a pretty in-depth tutorial of Cuckoo demonstrating the basics on Octatrack: ua-cam.com/video/NrhPOGzn7LI/v-deo.html
Very useful tips, thank you!
Mikhail Proniushkin thank you for watching!
Thank you for these great videos.
I’m pretty new to octatrack.
I have to learn many things .
Btw I was at the loop festival too.
Hopefully I can come by one of your show.:)
Hiko Tanizawa I had so much at Loop this year - I will do my best to go next year if I can :) look forward to seeing you around! Do you live in LA?
My problem is I’m using one shot long samples in my patterns and I cannot possibly set the length of a pattern to be long enough.
hey kenny
Thanks for your very instructive videos.
I also wanted to ask if you will make videos in the future for midi functions?
Many thanks and best regards from berlin
Hey there! Yeah I do plan to get to MIDI, though admittedly I've avoided the topic thus far because I wasn't particularly excited about that part of the Octatrack. But I recently just picked up an OB6 and have been dabbling with it, so I think you'll be seeing some MIDI-focused videos soon :) Thanks for watching!
thats sound great.looking forward to see and hear from you.
thx
Oh wait, you said Kelley talk inspired you? Which Kakela, the British singer?
Kelela! American singer/producer, you should check her out!
@@KennyZhao my bad, she’s American/Ethiopian. I LOVE her work, and so happy to hear she uses an Octatrack. I’ll look for her live.
@@bruceybrucey She actually doesn't use one, but her live set involves a number of MIDI triggering techniques for stem performance that inspired this use of Arrangements in the Octatrack :)
Awesome videos! What festival was that you mentioned? Kalayla? Thanks
It was the Ableton Loop conference, Kelela was a speaker. She sings R&B/soul but works with a lot of more electronic-minded producers.
Is there a way to trigger a FILL using the arranger ? That would be awesome !
I went into my samples and Normalized them and they became really loud. Should I bother Normalizing...and can they be un-Normalized? Thanks.
Hey there, yes basically normalizing just brings up the loudest part of your waveform, and set that to like 0db. it'll make things louder, but for me personally it gives me a standard by which I can keep everything at the same level. This also means you'll want to set your audio gain to much lower, like -10...but I find it makes a more standard level to work from. I believe the Octatrack doesn't change your audio files unless you save over it, so if you want to revert I believe you just remove the file that contains the editor information.
Awesome vids, sometimes hard to see the screen tho ✌️thx for sharing
About the scene change problem: What's about inserting a kind of dummy trig which just doesn't sound (may with volume 0 or a silent sample)?
That's actually exactly what I've done since making this video! I tell it to play a sample at rate 0, so it cuts off the previous sound. For MIDI triggering it works the same way, just start your pattern with a one-shot trig at 0 velocity.
I appreciate this design choice more and more, since it allows you to do some things with blending that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do :)
@@KennyZhao I’m a new octatrack user. Can you elaborate on what you mean by ‘the things you can do with blending”? Thanks forever for your work as a musician & this work on yt sharing the knowledge.
@H Rose When you use the Arranger to program scene changes, those changes only take effect once the sequencer encounters a trig, and it might even be track-by-track (though I haven't done this in a while so I might be wrong). If you use a lot of one-shot trigs this can be frustrating, because you may need your patterns to stay blank.
But another way of looking at it is that the Octatrack has a staggered way of introducing scenes. So if you think outside the box a little bit, you can design a bunch of scene changes via the Arranger and then try placing trigs at different points (or probability conditions), to use the delayed scene shift in a more creative way.
what kind of stand are you using for your octatrack? could you please send me the link to buy it?
This guy right here: www.amazon.com/Samson-Technologies-SALTS50-LTS50-Laptop/dp/B00OZES766/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=samson+laptop+stand&qid=1554218932&s=gateway&sr=8-3
Bit pricey, but I've been using my first one for about two years now and got a second one, they don't show any signs of giving out :)
Great video, what other instruments do you use with the Octatrack ?
Thanks for watching! Typically I pair it with an OP1 as you see here, and then maybe a Bass Station for some MIDI sequencing. Oh and a mic, which I run through a preamp to get some level boost
Kenny Zhao can a mic work without the preamp? Maybe boost some gain on the OT?
@@DarioMiticocchio Yes, although I personally found there to be a lot of noise boosted alongside when doing everything internal.
i literally almost hate my OP-1......... i want to sell it badly