Your Modular Synthesizer's Best Friend: The Elektron Octatrack 

This is exactly how I use my Octatrack and modular - but I guess no surprise since the EZBot Octatrack videos helped me get there :)

Love the way you do justice to the Octatrak. Thanks to you my OT is the cockpit in my setup. Nice 👍

Thanks for breaking things down so clearly. Looking forward to trying some of these moves out.

Love it 😍 great work Matt this is a good refresher for me

I’ve always wanted an Octatrack, I have the Analog Keys since it was released and still love it! Great video as usual 🤘😼🤘

Great explanation! New lenses looking great 👍

Super cool! I am struggling a bit to get fluid transitions on the modular. This is a really interesting option! Thanks for the great explanation of how you achieve this w the OT!

So dope! Great combo

Awesome demo!

Nicely done. You instruct very clearly and it's inspiring as a new OT user. Thank you! Pretty chill how you recorded the pattern and let it play then slid back onto the prerecorded sample in the OT. I have to watch that part again as that's what i want to do using my OB-6. Your have simple but powerful and well thought out/produced videos. Jam on!

Insightful video, thanks!

> don't know the Patchwerks channel, yet (subscribed, btw) > See this Octatrack > "It's got to be EZBOT's OT!" > Matthew shows up 😁 Your way of using the OT is such an inspiration for me, i really love the idea of having this record loop which you can use to switch stuff in the background. Also, the effects... 🤯 Btw, this video just made me understand how to use random locks properly - just tried it once or twice, but didn't set the playback trigs. Guess I'll be playing a bit, this afternoon. 👍

EZBOT FTW! thank you for sharing all this knowledge!

This is how I use my ipad and eurorack live. I need to find a good midi controller to make everything a bit more playable, but I love the whole method of looping/sampling the modular so I can free up the patch and change the whole setup whilst the loop is running and I can still apply effects, slice, etc to give some variation to the loop. I am using an Expert Sleepers ES9, so I have 8 inputs from the modular (so I can independently loop different synth voices and drums), inside AUM running a bunch of different effects and loopers. Best setup technique ever in my opinion. I literally spent many years playing live with my modular and feeling it got super boring after around 20 mins of playing around the same patch I was enslaved to.

very good, very clarifying. I guess it makes a case for having 2 separate sequencers in operation...I wonder how you'd set the OT up to perform both duties...sequence external synths AND do the clock mixing and transition stuff. Nice thing about having that external sequencing is that you can change your pattern without messing with or having to complicate the OT project...I think...?

I can’t even imagine how fun your cf card is lol

Great video.

very cool!

Nice!

excellent

This great nice one 🎶

Nice Ezbot!

Great video! I use the nerdseq and OT combo as well and it's great to see your techniques. Can I ask how you get the scene to do the beat-repeat type sound? Is the scene automating delay control? Thanks!

Still trying to figure out how to set this up. This is pretty much the main thing I want to use the Octa for but there are SO MANY settings. I see he’s using a Flex machine on 7 but it says SRC>Flex in the lower bar so I’m missing something. Any clues? Yes, I know this a year old and various artists have been using this technique for a decade - I don’t care. Just want to use the octa with my modular.

note: seamlessness only works if you don't have long tails of lfos, envelopes and reverb/delay on the recorded sample, that would of course produce an audible cut in whatever sonic movement is still unresolved

I'm revisiting a few EZBOT vids since getting on the Patreon party. I have a couple of questions. How does the Octatrack input like the PM output? (voltage/impedance mismatch?) Any reason you used the PM output, and not the PM external effects loop? On mine I got a 4MS Listen IO to fix levels both in and out. My Analog Rytm mk2 goes direct to AB, and my PM effects loop goes to CD and Main via the Listen IO. I run the main PM output to my ES-9, and I keep VCV Rack running to route the audio to my amp. I do virtually nothing in VCV, but I COULD do plenty with it or a DAW if I wanted to. This affords me a lot of options (too many probably). *_ I'm open to any and all alternative ideas to optimize/improve this setup. **_* Oh, and for clock I run Pam's into Nerdseq, and out to Midi (OT, AR), with resets sprinkled around as needed. It's a bit of a hassle to have to start everything from the Nerseq if you are mostly noodling the OT. But it's muscle memory for me at this point to use Pam's for clock ALWAYS. It does get interesting mixing Pam's multiply/divide rates to accommodate various device requirements. Acid Rain Maestro isn't 24ppqn for example (it has to be x8 not x24 in Pam). And I'm fumbling around in the dark a lot (newb wise) so it can be trial and error. I feel like a small miracle happened to get this far ;-)

I just got the octatrack, because of this live switching between audio input and recoding. Plan to use it with my synths. Now all I need is a modular rack 😋

Very nice! I have a question though. How do you monitor what the modular synth is playing while you're turning knobs etc, while the OT is playing the recorded loop? Do you simply use headphones plugged to the modular synth, or is there another way to monitor the sound going from the synth into the OT (but not being sent to the speakers). You channel is honestly the only one I've watched that makes using the OT look like fun. Thank you for your very accessible videos!

I think I heard you say "zero crossing"? So when you record these loops there is not the problem of clicks at the beginning of the loop? Is there a way to use a foot switch to start recording?

Octatrack is complex but an amazing machine. Sample modular, chop up modular samples and profit.

I've also seen the thru track record trigger being place at the last step and microtimed to the very last position (Ricky Tinez I think). Is there an advantage to do that vs placing it on the first step?

How are you listening to the modular while the recording is playing? I’ve set up something similar but can’t figure out how to have the scene change between cue and master

what is the MIDI cable from your Octatrack connecting to here? I dont see a uMidi or anything ...

I’ve noticed that I can record my modular into a thru machine, but the AED doesn’t come up. The only way I can get to the sample is through fn+rec3, but not actually play the sample with the thru track. How’d you do that?

how does it handle 10V p-p signals? What about 0-8V unipolar signals?

how do you do those fill on the drums? do you simply press the up arrow or do you have to set something up?

You make that look too easy!

Do you have a template of this on your Patreon?

Nice vid. My impression of the Octatrack is still high effort/price, low reward for a DAW studio setup, but amazing for performance purposes. Feedback, anyone?

actually there are 2 best friends and they are almost equally expensive: the allen&heath qu-16 and the octatrack. no question about it.

How do you set everything up to achieve this? Could you please go into those details

Could you replicate this functionality with an MPC Live 2?

Looks like the setup is still smoking after that recent freq boutique

For transitions within you modular get yourself a CV recorder/looper.

👀

first!

Everybody has been doing this since 2010.