The Octatrack's Song Mode is Dope! Elektron Arranger Explained
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- In this video I share with you my take on the Octatrack's arranger mode including tips and ideas, along with a full tutorial on how to use it.
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Intro 00:00
Arranger Edit : 00:50
Adding rows: 01:18
Selecting Patterns: 01:29
Selecting Repetitions: 02:20
Selecting Offset and Length: 02:40
Arranger Scenes: 04:36
Midi Transpose 05:36
Deleting Rows: 08:41
BPM Per Row: 08:59
Pattern Mutes: 09:48
Adding Remarks: 11:58
Copy and Paste Rows: 12:49
Loop command: 13:26
Jump command: 16:03
Halt command: 17:57
Naming, changing, chaining, and clearing: 19:21
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#octatrack #elektron #tutorial
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One very important add on, regarding arranger on both Octatrack and Analog Rytm
- if you want to use arranger mode (not simple chain mode, but proper arranger), and you are using: either different tracks settings per track (length) or you are clocking track to another cue, do not set MASTER value as infinity - set it as a longest track in your arrangement pattern. The reason for this is that patterns will never play one after another.
BTW this literally turns Octa into a DAW. Us old people had to do this on our drum machines, now, this is way easier than chaining patterns on old Yamaha box. The fact that each row can have its own mutes, scenes, and especially important - offsets- which is amazing for crazy time signatures - is yet another world under the hood of Octatrack. Now, if you, like me, use multiple Elekton boxes at once - Octatrack, Analog Rytm and Mono Machine, you dont need to arrange everything on each single machine - you can trigger particular pattern on AR from Octatrack MIDI. EZ, I would be happy to collab on a video like that, give me a ping if you want.
Excellent tip!
@Blenpt Narsh Yes, you most certainly can. You can even go so far to customize patterns on rytm and then just add finishing touches in octatrack chain.
@Blenpt Narsh You can, sure thing. So, you can figure out specific command for muting your kick track on Rytm via midi from Octatrack and thus, creating a pattern with that command, adding it to the arranger chain. Let me give an example. You want to have pattern 1 playing only Rytm's hihats and one track on Analog 4. Then , you want pattern 2 to include kick from Analog Rytm and 2nd track (say bass) from Analog Rytm. And then, you want pattern 3 to play Octatrak tracks 2 and 3 , all Rytm Tracks and all 4 A4 tracks - what you want to do is connect everything like so that Octatrack is MIDI master. Find which controls will mute channels on Rytm and A4 and map them to OT. Then, in pattern 1, program the mute in midi section. In pattern 2, unmute the kick track via midi control. Pattern 3, unmute all OT tracks, and all midi tracks. I mean it is a rigid example, but that is how it works not with one, but with 14 synths nd effect boxes in my studio. you can also add scenes to arranger - which is extra cool - and do most of this and tie it to your fader. Let me know if you need any extra help.
@Blenpt Narsh hmm no, you dont need MIDI commands to chain patterns - thats what your arranger mode does. You need MIDI in the first place because you want to send different commands to your external synths, right? You want pattern 1 to mute Rytms track 1, and then patern 2 to unmute it - well, you want to map your OT to control your Rytm - and A4 - so set AR to midi track 2 and set A$ to midi track 3 (global settings, you can go into details later). Make sure midi data goes through all machines properly. fast - map track mute to one of the controls on OT - and in pattern one in the arranger, just add that info in the midi track 2. then, in the pattern 2, delete that info, and you will haave Ar mute kick in the first pattern and play it in the second. I might make a video to showcase this, you are not the first person asking about this.
@Blenpt Narsh Well there is a way to trigger other chains, meaning, pattern 1 on OT can trigger chains of pattern 1 and 2 on AR. However, you will always need some kind of MIDI communication, at least the clock, to sync it all. There is a commmand that basically can tell Ar "play patterns 2,3 and 5", which you can link in your arranger of the ot project. I think once you would get the devices or at least open manuals, things would be clearer. Also, do not just buy all 3 at once - go for OT and see if it fits you, its a specific machine. AR is a given for anyone who wants a high end drum machine, I have AR, Tempest, Tanzbar, Jomox and Machinedrum (plus bunch of modules and low end groove boxes). A4 - maybe you want to check stuff like Vermona perfourmer - it would be a breeze sequencing it from OT. In reality, i dont think you need 3x elektron sequencer. Let me make a video when i get to it, i will pin it here.
This is so valued! This is so big as a songwriter having a groovbox that really works well to sketch out complex song forms is what I want, but for it to have an excellent feel/vibe. I have always felt confused about wether these boxes could do this and they can wow!!! Definitely considering buying one now! Thanks!
Just the vid I needed to get me into ARR Mode Mood.
Well explained and nice to have the zoomed in screens. More Octa vids please 🙏
Never ever stop making these videos!
Great! I hadn’t used the arranger in years so needed a refresher. Also thanks for going straight to the point.
Lmaooooo its the personality bro! Hilarious quality tutorial with a bit of humor!
Haha, thanks!
U just blew my mind yo! making Dj style mixes! w/ Arranger chain :)
Love your Octatrack tutorials, thanks!
Nice one Matthew - Love your stuff
Thanks for these tutorials - very much needed
Thx for the info! I never saw a real use for this until now, but now see that if you want to make longer than 64 step melodies, you can just loop a few patterns.
This was an amazing video. I’ve never once considered using the arranger. My only gigs were before owning an OT and were done with DT, DN and A4… but the DN was always my brain because it had BPM per pattern at the time, but no arranger. I just got used to having to switch patterns thinking there was no use for this. Wow… I was very wrong. Very much looking forward to getting into this. Thank you for the very straightforward tutorial.
Matt this epic so good to find out something new 🙌. Going to need to rewatch this a few times to get the hang of it. Great reference video.
Thanks Troy!
Damn! My OT is in the mail so just binging some videos and it's actually upsetting how much better the arranger mode is than the ST/DT/DN song mode is 🤯 Start offset, midi transpose, remarks, jump, etc! Pretty cool, I know it's old but thanks for the great demonstration 👌
absolute great tutorial. thank you so much !!!
Great tips! I like how you do the classic Tim and Erica Great Job fade in fade out shots of your face spots in the video.Indeed once I unlocked the arranger and so forth it made it a game changer for me with the Octatrack.
Easily the best video on this subject
Thank you!
Hi, This is dope as usual. Your video's made me buy the OT again. And now it is a blast. Thnx for that. Would be nice to have a video about the Parts aswell and how to use them. Love your channel man! Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!
Owning multiple Octatracks in life is such a classic OT side effect. I’m on my second one. It’s very much a love hate relationship. Mostly love.
Great video! Arranger is superb, especially the mutes.
Waiting for your Take 5 demo 😉
Take 5 vids might be fun 🤩
The bit at 18:39 is also useful for the Analog Four mkII, and I wish I'd know that before I ended up with a bunch of projects which are all related, but I know now! Thx!
Great video! Thanks for doing it!
Great walkthrough! The arranger of the OT seems to be everything I hoped for it to be. Thinking about sacrificing my Pyramid after realizing I enjoy making songs a lot more with the Analog Rytm song mode than with the Pyramid seq mode. Currently use the Rytm and Pyramid together which works fine but two Elektron sequencers next to each other would be like a dream. Hard decision though, due to the polyphonic limitations of the OT.
thanks ezbot love your videos i am getting the hang of the octatrack glad you had a shave though the mustacho was not good fella 😊but your a clever man RESPECT
Loved it! Arranger is a whole other level of complexity, but it has a lot to offer. Like so much in the octatrack, there are the stated functions of the elements and there is the off-label uses people find for them. I look forward to seeing how people put your overview to use :)
Good to hear from you! Thanks Robert, the arranger is pretty rad
Your videos are excellent
Thank you for this!
The editing is epic.
Thank you!
EZBOT you're a great teacher - I luv my OT! Been playing with an MPC lately, it's just not in the same league.
Thank you!
thanks matt!
You are welcome!
Thank you
that T I P scared the absolute shit out of me
Hahaha, that is the best response I've gotten yet
this is gold!
Wow this is a very powerful device. I wish the A4 had an arrangement mode. But the song mode is fine
Might have to dig out the A4 great thanks cycles tutorial was also brilliant .
Hey good call! Thank you
Dude your edits kills me is it intentionally that good?
Haha, glad someone appreciated that
Besides educating, you also make people laugh 🤤👌👌
Thank you!
Another cool feature with this is you can hop back and forth from Pattern mode into Arranger mode and back without stopping playback.
That's huge!
please don't forget that this arranger mode was first present in the great Machinedrum ;)
I find the song mode in Analog Rythm less nice, because the pattern lengths can not be influenced....
I’m a bit disappointed: Song 2 was desperately calling for a Blur reference. 🙃
Great Octatrack distilled knowledge. As usual. Thanks Matt! 🙏
Haha, damn you are so right! Missed opportunity
Hi Mathew! Thanks for going deep on this arranger mode, it blast and I think is the ultimate tool to really have a nice live perfomance having the song changes and twiking and focusing on the sounds. My question here is, how does this affect with PARTS and BANKS? Like for SONG 2 Can I change banks on the OT to have different sounds and then have another song arrangment, or can I just move parts? that would give I think only like 4 parts so 4 songs? I can chain with arrangements?
I’m STILL learning the octatrack… I’ve owned it for years: great vid though thanks
I wish we had condition rows where we could treat the next row down in a similar way to trig conditions (first, not first, 10%, etc).
That would open up so much cool stuff for us...
thanks a lot I never paid attention to the arranger ... the mute function combined with the offset allows for so much automated muting it's greaaaaaat !
I thought arranger mutes were confusing at first, they don't mute the audio, just the trigs. So if a sample that loops is already trigged, muting the track in the arranger will not stop it
Graaaaacias😭
@EZBOT what an amazing tutorial, video, art curation. So helpful to lighten the learning curve. I have tho to most irrelevant question, how do u do this ''33'' vocal sound haha I need to know
Haha text to speech 🎤
Great video! I have a question: how many arrangements can you save and how many arrangements (songs) can you chain? I mean is it only possible to chain 2 arrangements or can you chain a whole live set?
behind the curve here.... please make a video where you explain patterns fully.!
Hey @EZBOT, here's a reason to play a pattern 64 times. For example, I have a track I divided into slices, and each slice lasts a different number of bars. Each one of these slices are triggered by a 1st conditioned trig, each one in a different pattern. So with the arranger I can reproduce the exact track when I set the arranger's rep value to its number of bars, 64 for example.
So each slice (pattern) is like a cue point, DJ style again!
Haha, I am so glad someone responded to that. Very nice idea 💡
@@EZBOT_ thanks, it only has a "but", if you deactivate the arranger and let the pattern loop (setting the loop point in the AED) everything goes nice but when you activate it again you'll have to wait the 64 bars to continue.
Gonna need to think on this one for a while. I don't quite get it.
So it's basically the same as classic song mode on other Elektron boxes but with a few extra row functions.
Plus the ability to use scenes. This is probably the easiest part for folks migrating from Machinedrums or Analog4s.
Though I have noticed there is kind of a cutlural thing of Elektron users not to ever use song mode.
They all either 'perform' on their boxes DJ style, or they are running Ableton Live or something similar to MIDI them.
I've been doing song mode stuff on them for years.
I came from using an old KPR77 and a X0X box. So the Elektron mode of song editing was a luxury in comparison!
Great video as always.Thank you
I have a question about this tutorial:
In the arrangement screen of the Octatrack when I select different rows with the arrows and hit YES the program change of the pattern of the Syntakt will follow with a delay (not synched). Is that a bug? Or am I missing something?
Please help
I think you just sold it to me 😊
Wow, watching this video just inspired me to turn on my daunting octatrack haha so much great info in this 22 minute video. i actually ended up giving up on my octatrack after endlessly trying to get the octatrack's arranger mode to mute/unmute tracks on the digitakt via overbridge. Is there a way to do this? @ezbot Is there a way to mute/unmute tracks on the digitakt while using the octatrack's arranger mode?
Yes you can using the MIDI tracks!
So I'm a total noob to this sort of stuff and I have been researching how to actually make electronic music without a DAW. This answered a lot of questions! I essentially just want an arranger, not a sequencer per se but a lot of these have both functions. A lot of these tutorials for sequencers and arrangers never really highlight what arranging looks like when you play other instruments like say a korg prologue. Can these essentially just record connected devices like you do when tracking in a DAW? And then after recording sample play with the track as highlighted in video?
It absolutely can :)
Thanks for this amazing t̷̳̃i̵̢̡̝͖̋̊̏̿̾͠p̶͓̏̃̍
i can appreciate the "arranger mode" and all... but i think i dont really love the OT as much as i thought i would before i got it. I feel the Rytm was really what i was looking for.
I made sure that i fully explored all possibilities with the OT before i came to this conclusion and there are definitely things about the OT that i like... but i feel with the other Elektron box i have i can effectively get most of this done with say the DT alone :P
Now selling the OT is probably not something im going to do anytime soon.... but i might sell my OP-1 to hgelp fund maybe the purchase of a second hand Rytm :D
What about recording automation over the arrangement? Can this be done? Not just pattern to pattern but over the whole song
Great video thanks. Just trying to wrap my head around this but it seems like the real power of the arranger is to create arrangements which’s you can then embellish performatively as much (or as little) as you want? VS just making an arrangement and pressing play and doing nothing, and/or improvising a track and it’s structure from scratch without the arranger.
I see the application for live performance but also think it’s a potentially great way to compose tracks too, where your can dial in an arrangement but the final track still a performance without the need to totally improvise. I feel myself stuck between those two poles writing - either I try to totally improvise and it’s too unstructured, or I chop things up in an DAW and it becomes too structured.
Has anyone written a track with the arranger?
i have always purposely ignored the arranger.. it has now just solved a problem that i had been considering.. midi transpose! The next thing is pattern bpm, is there a ramp up mode for tempo??
Well made vid. I just wish it was easier to move work between projects.
No doubt, you can copy banks but you have to realign all your samples
If I create multiple arrangements and each on is a "song," and I chain them together, will the first arrangement stop and then load up the next arrangement without automatically playing the next arrangement. I basically want to treat arrangement like a song and want to control when a song starts or stops without having to menu dive to change to the next song on my setlist.
When I try to record my patterns from the arranger mode, the recording restarts with every switch of the pattern, meaning I'm basically recording the latest pattern only. What setup am I missing ?
Best
I just wish Song Arranger had Parts as an option, so you could switch parts per pattern. i get this is easy enough to physically do, but to remember what pattern should switch to what part isnt something i see my memory remembering
Is this a feature on the OT1 also?
It sure is!
Do I have this on my analogue 4 mk ii I am getting to go find out now
You sure do!
@@EZBOT_ cool I have only had it for a couple of weeks really loving the elektron flow
Do you think digitakt will ever get a song mode?
It’s certainly possible
How do you record your song when youve fully arranged it since it doesnt have multitrack recording into a daw… its so frustrating
One track at a time :/
@@EZBOT_ Thanks for your reply. Do you record one track at a time with or without your performance (for example moving the slider etc)? what im asking is how to perform a single track into a daw when the rest is muted.
@@fluidvisions2787 honestly I usually just record the whole stereo mix and just matter that audio
So usefull ! I was still making projects over others... *facepalm*
and my desire for an OT grows 😔
I hope you get one soon Nkozi!
Same…
Its like coding in BASIC 🙂
Bands have bridges 😂
I couldn't care less about over priced elektron stuff i know what it does.
But great delivery and presentation.
Jesus christ this editing.
This is one of my favorite Octatrack videos. It was so incredibly helpful. However, whoever is editing this is 'overplaying'. It's distracting. For real, every time you make a dumb Tim & Eric edit I lose my concentration. There's no need for it man. You're brilliant! If you ever need an editor, hit me up, because this editing is garbage and defeats the purpose of an instructional video.
Lol thanks? You say that like you paid for it or something
@@EZBOT_ no man, very grateful for your free content. i'm just pointing something out that really stops me, personally, from watching as an audience member and potential customer. i appreciate that style of editing, i really do, and there are funny moments here and there but remember the purpose of the video. i value content over style.
@@steveflato I hear you but most of my videos are exactly that way, like 99% of them, this was kind of a one off and it was fun even though it can be polarizing. If you watch any of the tutorials I have made before it or after it especially recently it's very simple and clean editing.
I bought a few months I studied a few months I figured it out, but then I bought akai liv2, guys this elektron just sounds bad, and there is nothing in it unique or that can not do akai, I fell for the tales of mystery octatrack but it's all nonsense, to write quality music is akai, alas!
The Akai has a better sound in terms of sample rate/bit rate but the machine itself is uninspiring to me
@@EZBOT_ I've been using an akai mpc1000 for over 10 years, because it is have a nice fat sound, and the elektron sounds like crap, between the two. Sorry!!!
But it makes me sad that I bought an octatrack. And here are the words of my sadness)))
Keep it up making music, no matter how we make music, just don't make a copy of a copy copy copy of a trending track, just MAKE MUSIC VIBES!
Your instruments and my they have to sounds good, that's all I'm saying!
I heard on youtube someone praising how great the Elektron sounds, and I believed it! And it is not! Holy cow!))
@@EZBOT_ and then elektron makes you and others buy [analog heat] beacause they know that sound is bad in simple comparison!!! they just need it, because have bad sound! Boom fatality!!! Logicaly complete)
Looks like Elektron dont want to make better versions of their products, they make you buy unnecessary stuff instead. and Akai make it realy better each time! Look at the specs!
PS.They do not pay me for that i swear!
@@EZBOT_ [uninspiring] ??? Userfriendly interface and all kind of sound features that we have in 2024))
Mnaah! I dont think so, you just like that nobody understand that device, and you do, making lessons for them and ets, selling presets beacause they just cant make it by themsefes. Yeash?))
Too many wacky cuts imo
I love the content, but kind of hate the video effects on some words like "cool" / "important". Please stop that so I can enjoy the content again.
Not gonna do that but thanks for the input :)
@@EZBOT_ haha
its not complex, just buy a brain bro
Thank you