Is the Octatrack actually too hard to understand?

Elektron's Octatrack is infamously difficult to understand, and I am not well known for my patience. Let's see how this goes.

I post all of the music I make, including WAV stems; sample packs; Dirtywave M8 song bundles; collections of video textures; early access to videos; and a whole pile of other stuff on Patreon. I know I know, I hate doing this as well, but if you like what I do and want to get more of it, while also helping me offset some of my ludicrous gear purchases, this is the best place to do it:

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[busterbuster]

The carefully selwcted glasses and the smarm just exemplifies everything that's wrong with the world.

[purrsoundsystem]

The octatrack is like riding a bike, once you find out what dog you want, allways drink the tea warm. And that is the beauty of it.

[useca]

For me it was just really important to do something with it every single day. In order not to get frustrated, you really need to know how to quickly solve surprising problems, no audio, etc.

It's good to know the parts pretty early on if you want to start playing live with it. In Digitakt each pattern has its own 'samples' and in Octatrack each bank has four parts, each of which can have its own samples and scenes. A good method that seems to work for me is to assign a part to each of the four patterns -> PTN 1-4 (part 1), PTN 5-8 (part 2) etc. (This way you can have for example four songs per bank that each have four patterns).

The Midi sequencer is also good. And if you connect a keyboard to the Octatrack, it also routes aftertouch, mod wheel etc to the out port, which the Digitakt doesn't do.

[kevinopaqueary]

I’ve had this thing for about 8 years and I still have many layers to unfold and discover BUT it’s easy enough to get the basics down and make some cool shit right away.

[OrangeDrinkMusic]

It's like a dictionary: super intimidating if you try to read it all the way through, but very manageable and helpful if you only look up the words you need!

[funkingitup]

I made a song on a Polyend Tracker within a couple hours without ever looking at a tutorial or manual. Actually after months of use, I still have never needed a manual. That really blew me away how intuitive it was. It really is a virtue. As amazing as the capability of the Octatrack is, it certainly lacks that virtue.

[alan]

I've watched 5 videos on this thing and still don't what it is.

[SnoopLazersnake]

The key to the Octatrack, which you touched on in your video, is actually knowing what you want it to do within your setup. It can do so much that it can be overwhelming at first but if you can find that special spot in your workflow, it’s an incredibly powerful device. For me, it worked best as a “sampling mixer” running stuff into it, grabbing stuff into the live buffers and warping it alongside the original tracks. I’d say it’d be great fun to run your two M8s into it, have them all synced via midi, and use the OT to glitch stuff alongside.

[samueljosephkim-]

I think you described what's behind this question very well. I think you have to give yourself permission to say, "I use it this way" and maybe not EVERY way possible.. and be at peace with it. It can do a million things, but don't feel like you need to do all of them. It's also possible that as you evolve as an artist, you may lean into different parts than you did in previous seasons. That's what's interesting about this gear... it can fade in and out of your life and continue to change its relationship with you. I'm just getting started with it and using it mainly for live FX processing of my other gear but I could see myself getting in to the MIDI side of it more. It's also obviously very compelling just as a self contained piece of gear.

[gridus]

Its my favourite bit of kit by far, just so well designed, tricky, but once you get it, its brilliant. Like riding a bike.

[almightyEsquilax]

Welcome to the shame basket. I'll make some room...

[TristanBaldi]

Pro tip: when you go in the "change" menu of the project menu and highlight a project you can hit FUNC + BANK and it'll allow you to rename or delete the project.
You can not rename a project that is currently loaded tho so you'll have to load a different project first to do so.

[andrij.demianczuk]

So for parts… the best way to describe it is if you want to change a parameter that you see on screen (machine types, samples, LFOs, effects etc) you can assign it to one of four parts for each pattern. Stuff like trigs, locks, scenes etc. are NOT affected. This makes parts really fun for sample flipping or if for example you want to change out a one shot sample (like a kick or something). Another way I’ll use it is to break up patterns in a bank for more variety. E.g I’ll have patterns 1-4 set to part 1, patterns 5-8 set to part 2 etc. as a way to radically change the components in my tracks :)

[RaphaeltDrechsler]

I bought an Octatrack Masterclass ~20h video tutorial for another 100 bucks so I don't have to sell it again.
It was worth every damn penny!
looking forward what you will do with it :D

[TotallyFictional]

I’m really looking forward to your journey with the Octotrack, it’s something I’ve always wanted but can’t afford. Bring it on!

[dreikycaprice]

You nailed it calling out the oblique file management "system." It wears one down and wastes time.

[GurtTarctor]

Live recording into the buffers is where it's at. You can record into multiple track buffers at once even while the OT is playing and have the sounds and textures change. It's an improvisational musique concrète dream. I strongly recommend adding a MIDI controller or two, the Faderfox UC4 is superb as a little levels mixer for the OT.

[viennabonaparte]

Some people love their octatrack. Not a crazy difficult machine to learn as some say but I felt it made me work a very specific way. I love machines that are fairly immediate and get ideas down quickly, octatrack just didn't feel like that to me. Some people are crazy good with theirs and I love watching their workflow and live sets. I just couldn't find my own workflow with the octatrack. Looking forward to see how you go on with yours.

[FuZZbaLLbee]

Doing the live loop recording takes a while to set up, and you will forget how to do it.

Now I just use a template or just use the EZBOT template 😀

[TristanBaldi]

I have to say for me the problem with the OT is its comb filter. Whenever I have a comb filter at my disposal I play so much with it that I kind of destroy everything with it!