damn this could not have come at a better time. I just packed away the OT because i wanted to "make music" vs fiddle around all day. but nvm.. its coming right back out haha
Man, yeah you gotta find your workflow that suits you. Then just keep to that and be efficient. For me it’s all about pre-producing and pre-mixing really good sounding slices. I’m mostly using the Static engine so that I won’t need to think about memory constraints. I just line up 16, 32, 64 slices on a grid in my daw, and export them, then use the create slice grid function in the Octatrack to make the procedure efficient.
@@truecuckoo Hi Master. Is there any viable way to record separate tracks from Octatrack into the daw? I wanna purchase Octa but im afraid I wont be able to finish tracks because of one track recording instead of bunch like DT with Overbridge.
Brilliant cuckoo! Can I ask...what made you choose a limiter over a compressor? My knowledge of compression and limiting is...limited...I tend to be heavy handed as I’m not sure what I am aiming at. Or too timid so my mixes sound soft and small. 🙏
With the stuff coming from the Octatrack, it’s pretty flat already, and the stuff I feel I need to compress is very precise, so I’m taking care of it with the dynamic EQ. In this case I would much rather just boost the volume, and the FabFilter Pro-L is simple to use, very transparent sounding, and amazing for that. I’d use a compressor on sources with more dynamics that require finer and more delicate handling. Like vocals, a flute etc. Also I’m gonna take all the shortcuts I can in this case. A compressor takes time to set up. The Pro-L limiter is a “quick fix maximiser”.
Would it not be easier to record the AUTO MIDI channel? That way you can edit everything in Logic until you are satisfied and after that record the audio. This way you can also record the audio from tracks in the Octatrack separately afterwards and thus create a better mix
Yeah, I edit jams down to get the nuggets. It's almost like idea compression. I hate to even say cheating but that's been the debate for decades. Idea compression and it sounds cool. Plus, you could take the stems back out and perform them. Then capture that in the OT? How many passes could you do? Your music is extremely unlike mine. But it's inspiring. What I mean is: I was reading about Rick Ruben and how he avoids pads and strings. And I realized this is when I stop liking my layering. So yeah. I gotta stop doing that. I once did a very intentional mix using sections, discipline. It came out very differently. So constraints and fresh rules are neat. OT is just so tough (but fair). I was working in a project called "Progression" just to practice how to do a 30 min set with like 5 "songs" in it. Building and moving between the banks. It's been over a year of practice and I finally have it down(ish). I put the other machines in (A4/Rytm) and have a set going. But dude. It's all very complicated. And I haven't even touched the ARR. It takes a long time to set up macros, scenes and fun things to play with when doing a progression. And then to have a convention or notes to know what's coming up next?! Still figuring that out. Convention/consistency seems to be where I'm going but it took me 3 banks (discrete ideas) and days to discover this. Anyway, what I mean to say is, I find watching workflow helpful and like camaraderie. "Ok, we use similar tricks. I'm just not that far off the mark. I can keep going." :)
I agree 100%. I made a term almost the same: I call it distillation or idea curation. I guess bands do pretty much the same thing by practicing, experimenting, having happy accidents ect. They then choose the best bits, then practice those parts to death, until they are second nature.
It made me smile just to see an upload from you! It’s great that you will be adding to the RU-vid library. Sounds great. Thanks for sharing your process.
if i buy the octatrack mk2 and i have a pc , can i start playing or do i need studio monitors or headphones ? or can i play via my desktop screen and boxes?
You just need the octatrack, some good headphones and a way to get samples but depending on your music and production experience, you really don't want to start in with an octatrack. I'd start with a digitakt or a syntakt and some good headphones... Then once you've mastered either of those, then get an octatrack. These ppl on youtube make it look easy, it's not! Lol... I have a lot of music and production background and I've had a syntakt for a little under a year, I got an octa and I almost returned it, lol.. But I'm sticking it out and dedicating myself to learning it. If I didn't have experience with my syntakt I would have been way more lost. The digitakt or syntakt will get you familiar with the "elektron workflow" and then if you feel like you want to you can move on to the octatrack. The octa looks really cool, and it is, but jumping straight into octa, no don't do it, lol... Just my 2 cents.
Vicoustic. They’re a bit expensive, but I got a pretty good price when I bought a whole lot of them. I’ve heard of cheaper no name brands which are probably just as good, but I was getting impatient, and they were available in store :)
That suggestion feature of proQ is quite cool. Of course it's just a tool and one should always use their ears. But when you've gotten so used to a track while producing, it can be dificult to notice what you should maybe change. I always thought that the feature where you can pull down the peaks was cool as well :)
Haahaa, I always do the same manual gain correction on my mixdowns.. I thought I'm the only fool doing this.. One tip for the imager: try to avoid going minus with the phase (on the left +1_0_-1 vertical meter). It can cause mono compatibility issues and phase cancelling (around 12:46 the clap pushes it to negative). This can be easily treated with an automated stereo width on a particular band. Love the flow of all ur vids btw!
As I use my sp404 a lot to make quick beats that I would like to make em not hurt your ears this video hits right at the spot. I was experimenting with a "mixdown" mixing as well with variable results. Thanks for the tips.
You can come very close on the Digitakt, and there are other advantages on the Digi. But the Octatrack can stream huge samples with many slices straight from the card, and has more tricks and tweaks.
I've been debating just doing my digitakt and digitone songs like this. I'm having a hard time capturing the magic, even with overbridge. Do you think the stereo bounce is a fine way to work with elektron gear?
Great inside into your workflow, while you are in de middle of it. Deadlines, music, mixing, shooting clips and still, you always sound so calm. Are you related to the Buddha and meditating or is there special canna-opiod-xanax-mixture in there somewhere?
I would guess he's just running two cables from the main outputs of the Octatrack to the inputs of his audio interface. Edit: In another comment, he's saying: "I recorded the Octatrack through the Arturia Audiofuse. It’s a great 4 input compact audio interface with very clear gain and converters. I can recommend it."
There’s no multitrack recording option on the Octatrack. It has stereo out, and cue out. You can use a combination of Main out and Cue our to get 4 tracks. Sometimes I’m recording in many passes, but since I’m having a heavy focus on improvised hands-on performance it’s impossible to recreate the same performance on every take. A faster workflow is the need in this case.
Is it only available in the YT royalty free music library? I checked his Apple Music page and I don't see any albums from 2019. I'd love to hear this one though.
It’s a royalty free album, and that makes it incompatible with streaming services because of all the automatic copyright algorithms. You can buy it for free on my web page, or pay if you wish. Or you can order the vinyl version on my merch store.
@@truecuckoo Oh I see, thank you, I wasn't aware that the two would clash or be mutually exclusive in some way. Thanks for the response! Much love from Connecticut haha
Thanks mate. If it wasn’t for the automatic copyright systems on RU-vid and streaming services it’d be fine to upload it on streaming services as well. But due to the magnitude of how intertwined it all is, it’s impossible to make exceptions to make one particular album not be tracked.
