Hardware jam with the Elektron Octatrack MkII

A live, semi-improvised track, performed entirely on the Elektron Octatrack MkII. Still in the island cabin, I decided to load some old stems into the Octatrack and see what happened.

Before I got into this all-hardware approach, I stalled out for years making fragments of songs in DAWs; it was really only the immediacy and performability of hardware that got me finishing electronic music with any regularity. So I thought I'd find something not too dusty and transfer it from DAW to DAWless. These are the results.

All the loops are my own, and made primarily with Maschine. Sounds come from a variety of Maschine-compatible formats, including Arturia's V Collection and the Korg Gadget series, as well as the Maschine sample library (the 808, in particular). The main loop of the song adheres pretty closely to my original DAW sketch.

But it's really the Octatrack that takes this from a sketch to a finished song. First, I created an entire second section with the Octatrack, a "chorus" where the samples are chopped and pitched to a new progression. Second, and critically, I use the Octatrack's scenes to add variation to the samples, to progress through the song from a beginning to an ending, and of course to make things get wild and weird. Scenes are Octatrack magic.

Performed live and uploaded as is, with some limiting on the master (I used the Octatrack's master-level compression for most of the dynamics-shaping).

[MidlifeSynthesist]

THIS is how you use an Octatrack👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 absolutely awesome dude

[josephhecht]

This is really brilliant Jay and inspires me to learn my Octatrack more 🙂

[patrizio]

Totally identify with your journey into hardware. I started off learning music production in the box and it was great for a couple of years but then the inspiration dried up once the novelty of using VSTs wore off. Nothing like the feel and sound of well crafted hardware to me inspire to create.

[lorez]

I thought you were going to explain your process for taking a song from the DAW to the Octatrack...

[krakou]

I fucking love your music. It’s rare for me in the hardware YouTuber scene

[juliengiuliano]

sweet, as always. love the vibe, makes me think of plaid's double figure album. nice cabin too!

[shacharl]

So when I saw a post on the octatrack FB page I got excited, when I click the link and realized it was jay's I got ecstatic

[MemoryVague]

is the sound at 1:13 generated from scene locks or its own sample?

[TRUEiMPROrecords]

Has that simplicity that makes early Aphex Twin so endearing, just a lovely moment in time!

[lukeelmore]

Jay, I can't imagine I'd be alone in this, but I would absolutely love a studio tour video one of these days! The way you make all these synths sing is just so inspiring.

[funkdungus]

that transition at 1:45 is unbelievable

[TJ_]

Thanks for being creative and hitting us again and again and again!
Jay's jams from cabin totally rocks!

[shapemodulator]

Don`t be so violent to your only one fader ;)

[tendingtropic]

very inspiring! could you please explain how you approached this one on your patreon (or do something similar?)

[MikkelGrumBovin]

INTENSE AND RAW The perfect Sci-5 score, and Zimmer is a bum if he don't contact like yesterday! Thanx for another amazing piece of music, Jay 🌹

[roryjineffect]

I love your stuff, but some of those scene cuts were just a bit jarring in this one.

[howardanderson]

This really is Frickin' dam cool, man I love it. You got great everything's going on in this track.
Great sounds, composition, ideas, drum beats, chord progression, just everything. Nice Work

[shelovesdisco]

I absolutely love this; Not only for the level of the technical performance (I owe one of these little beasts myself so I can fully appreciate your skills), but also for the simple musical interest of this jam. !!

[OrangeDrinkMusic]

that was an incredible performance/composition! 🤯

[aoutivd]

Just got my HS8s paired with my HS8's. This track sounds good on them.