Octatrack Mk2 Tutorial: External MIDI Crash Course
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- This topic could be considered practically half of what the Octatrack can do, so I want to get the ball rolling on it. In this video you'll get a quick-start guide on getting audio out of your MIDI instrument, as well as sequencing and controlling a device from the Octatrack directly.
Next time I get frustrated with my MIDI chaos my new mantra will be "I am not the manual, I am not the manual". Then RTFM lol. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the vid. I am a newbie to the Octatrack and had difficulties making the 2nd option working for input via an audio track using a THRU machine (right at the beginning of your tutorial). In case someone runs into the same issue: the solution is the trigger the sequencer (press Play) of the Octatrack once. You can stop it then, the machine will continue to receive audio input.
Totally, basically the thru machine still utilizes the sequencer to trigger the input. This means you can also adjust the ADSR to get some pretty wild effects just gating the signal with the sequencer!
Oh my gosh, you saved me such a headache when I was trying to connect my Octatrack with my Minilogue XD, and now I've got my whole chain of devices connected to the Octatrack.
So glad this video helped you set everything up!
Thank you for this video!
Yes, this actually dispelled my concerns about midi mode not working with the cross fader. The six midi cc params satisfy all my needs.
Richard Terrell totally. I still kinda miss crossfader functionality but it makes sense why they don’t have it, given the potential CPU strain. LFOs can definitely make things real interesting real fast!
Just got an octatrak yesterday and this video helped me out a lot. Thanks!
Congrats on the new octatrack, hope you’re able to find your way through this amazing instrument!
thanks! landing on your tutorials once again, now that I actually HAVE one of these. This was very helpful.
This is great stuff. Thanks a lot for taking the time to put these together. Ordered an Mki off reverb and it should be here next week. The videos are very helpful to getting me more familiar with what it can do. When I had the digitone it was a great sequencer, but didn’t like FM. This is what I should have had from the beginning. Considering a RYTM too.
Amazing, glad they've been helpful to you! Yeah I've definitely looked over their product catalog for some potential additions. Came away with an Analog Heat which I've yet to unlock the full potential. But for now the Octatrack continues to be an unpredictable and exciting ride :)
great tutorial mate. Love your way of explaining things with a good touch of humour. Keeps it interesting and not as dry as some other tutorials! Cheers
Hey thanks so much for enjoying it and leaving a compliment!
Another awesome video. So concise and informative. Keep them coming, please! I'd love to see more of how you use the OT with other gear in producing a simple song.
I actually made a song this morning doing that! I'll definitely make a walkthrough of that track, thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks for another down to earth and fairly simple tutorial, I just read the midi section in the Octatrack mk2 manual and it's dense and deep, to say the least. So you're vid has been really super helpful
Thanks Mucho
Appreciate the comment! The MIDI section is one of the most daunting to me still, so I've tried to whittle things down to the most practical components first :) thanks for watching!
The Midi section is full bells and whistles and very powerful, so it's slow as you go when it comes to learning..
On your OB-6, under Globals | Midi Clock, set it to In. It won't be able to send clock anymore, and there's another "in" value that doesn't actually take clock start or something. I just confirmed with my OT and OB that Clock In sets the rate of the OB to what the OT was.
Great vid BTW!
Absolute gold thankyou, this is exactly what i needed to see/hear. Youve blown my mind with the midi potential, its actually deeper than i thought. One thing i dont understand is program changes, i can get my head around it. i see it on all my devices, but brain cant work out how to implement it. Coud be a good tutorial. But yeh I really enjoyed this one, my heads racing with ideas I cant quite formulate
Audio Cc in unchecked helped me a lot I was triggering playback with a B note thank you
Very useful video even for just a quick overview. I didn't know that you could still play notes into the sequencer and use the Learn MIDI function with the MIDI CC# and Note receive off in the settings. That makes things a lot easier to set up. Thanks.
Thanks for watching, glad you could learn something! Yeah the Control page still confuses me quite a bit, but I believe both those boxes in particular are only referring to CC/note info coming into the Octatrack to control certain functions directly, as opposed to traditional keyboard information. (I know. Still confuses me just to say that)
Thank you very much for this video (and all other Octatrack videos) - it just showed everything I needed.
Thanks for watching!
Great vid man and extremely helpful! I was happy to see you were running an OB-6 because I'm gonna be doing this with my Prophet.
Sweet! Yeah it's been a great pairing :) Particularly if you use one voice per track, you can create a lot of interesting polyrhythms just by adding LFOs and muting different combinations
DSI stuff wants to send NRPN messages overs CCs for higher resolution. You should be able to toggle that to CCs in your global settings.
Jacob Siener ooh, super good to know. Thanks for the tip!
Great stuff - your tutorials on the OT are quality. Thanks.
Better than manual. Subscribed!
qualia universe thanks for watching!
Hey man. Thanks for doing all these tutorial! Octatrack is very limited in MK2 edition tutorials. I know the old device is almost the same, but I’m glad that people are keeping up to date with the new. Out of any instrument i’ve had, this is been probably the hardest. I did notice that OP-Z (oplab module) has problems and I was wondering if this is a problem with others?
For sure, glad you enjoy these tutorials!
In terms of MIDI control I’ve fount the Teenage Engineering stuff to be much less cooperative, since they never have direct MIDI in/out. I end up using them anyway since they sound so great, but they do require their own additional attention and can’t simply be chained together.
Oh, my kingdom for midi support in scenes!
They said it's technically impossible due to limited MIDI throughput, too many MIDI events fired out might clog receiving devices.
@@AMar4enko But you can use the LFOs on MIDI parameters, right?
@@somnambulantable true, but those changes are predictable thus can be optimized, while cf movements are not.
@@AMar4enko That's fair.. And I've heard that rationale before, but technical challenges aside, it doesn't change the fact that I just wish it was possible on the OT! :) Even if there was a more limited number of parameters controllable via MIDI.
@@somnambulantable agree
Got to try this with the Prophet X
realy cool, one of the best tutorials, thx
Thanks for watching!
Great for people with hybrid setups like myself.
Great informative vid, thanks!
Yes and you know I can have it stop and start with another midi controller but I have not figured out how to cue it up to record. Because of you just press record it just stays solid red., and as soon as you press play and record it starts no matter the transport settings. I think you are correct...I don’t think it can be used that way which is really too bad because I would really like to capture some melodies without guesstimating.
thanks very helpful all the best
Do you know how I slave my Mpc to the octatrack so when I hit the transport it starts the playback of my Mpc I can get it to sync to my sp404 mk2 but the Mpc I don’t know what needs to be turned on as midi out had a sync but on the midi in it has not got sync it has other parameters which i don’t know what it has to be set at kind regard.
Hi! There should be a setting in your Octatrack MIDI preferences that turns on Transport receive and send with external devices. Under PROJECT > MIDI > SYNC, activate transport send and clock send. You may also need to enable transport receive on your MPC, but I’m unfamiliar with the settings on that device.
can you write cc values into steps of the sequenced pattern? Or are they only functional in a live way?
how can samples on the Octatrack be played/triggered from an external midi keyboard?
thanks this helped me so much!
no problem, glad to help!
Hi, how I can clear the Arp setup? If I don’t like what I have done - how can I clear the arp setup?
I believe if you turn the notes off and then on they reset back to their original positions
Very nice tutorial Kenny, well done. Just one question, last part of the video, you did a "motion record" using record mode and moving those CC's knobs? Will try it later when i get home. Thanks.
Yep, basically you hold "record" and hit "play," and it basically saves all of your motions as P-locks - anything you do pretty much becomes automated in the pattern
@@KennyZhao nice! I've used those P-Locks on other stuff, but just learned to use it with CCs messages here. Will try to record some modulations on my Mopho. Thanks again.
I would like to use MIDI Thru to send a MIDI signal from a keyboard to Resolume Arena 6 through a sound interface. I hope you can explain me is my first experience with MIDI and the OT.
This is awesome, BUT, using these settings just seem to trigger either the built in sequencer or arp on an SH-01a? How the hell can I just use this little keyboard to sequence into the OT?
very nice video! i try to use midi learn with minilogue but doesn't works or with volca bass and all series. but still do nothing, maybe i do something wrong but i do it like you show on this video :)
On the screen under the tempo, rec/ play section where the white box says midi chan active... how do I set that?
I've been able to set T1, but T5 I want to have a different channel. I can't get them to be selected, active or anything.
Great stuff dude! I have a question- trying to play chromatic mode on my OT and using the 0-Coast as the external midi.
Problem I have is when I record a bass sound on track1 and then change the knobs on the 0_coast to play a melody in track 2 - the bass sound from track 1 changes according to the new knob changes.
I’m doing record + play in chromatic mode to record on each track.
Any advise? Thanks!
Hi Kenny Thanks for the video! Will this work with a synth with only a midi in i.e volca? I have switched both settings to midi channel 10 and i am stuck.
I have a volca kick, and have noticed some weird things about how they set up MIDI. If you use their single MIDI in, I think you lose all onboard control of the volca. If you use their sync it only sets the tempo. At least that's how I remember it. Long story short...volcas are tricky to sync with Octatracks! Sorry I don't have a better answer for you
@@KennyZhao No worries, thankyou for your reply ! :)
Excellent tutorial. Thank you!
Hey Kenny, great video again :)) wondering how you deal with the issue of Program Change when sending PC’s to other gear .. Currently using parts in MIDI portion of OT to send PC’s to my DT, and it always happens 1 full pattern length cycle late. Wondering if you have this issue or any workarounds?
I don't do a ton of program change stuff to be honest, you may be better suited to ask someone like EZBot about this question!
@@KennyZhao thank you!
Can you play the keyboard on top of the arp of the octatrack?
Tnx
Jango Alchemist yep unless you have a monosynth!
5:30 "channel 7, which is my favorite" - proceeds to play program 6 without issue :P
Hah I thought that as well, but I think he did set it to 7 but then moved the knob slightly to SELECT 6 but not initiate it, which would require pressing the encoder in. You can tell because the writing is dark above it. If he were to move it back to 7 it wouldnt be.
Oh yeah haha, my one slight gripe about these encoders is that they are so sensitive you have to be really careful selecting stuff.
Do I follow the same methods to assign controller knobs in native instruments things?
hmm I'd give it a shot. Never tried to route it directly to software, but if you're working in Ableton I believe you should be able to create some sort of MIDI CC knob for internal functions with Max. Here's a link to a Max device that can do what you're looking for - ControlChange8.
monolake.de/technology/m4l.html
Once you map your NI control to one of these knobs you should be able to control it with Octatrack!
A big uh-huh moment for me was figuring out that program changes settings are tied to Parts. It's a bit limiting compared to Digitakt, etc.
Yeah it's taken some finagling just to get used to. How is it set up on the Digitakt?
@@KennyZhao It's per pattern on the DT which, so far, seems to be easier to conceive. ..although I can see changing parts while pattern continues in some 4D chess ensemble.
@@Soundwrecker Yeah the Octatrack really excels in the 4D chess areas :) unfortunately it's only about 30% of the time that I'm in the mood for 4D chess. Sometimes you just want to play checkers...
Hey kenny! Thanks for another great video. What I'm tryin to understand is.. can the OT receive midi data from an external midi keyboard in LIVE REC mode? Such that you can use the keyboard instead of the OT's chromatic mode? Much appreciated. Seems like this would be straightforward.
Yes I’m quite certain it can, though I’ve personally rarely set it up that way. I believe the default arrangement is a little awkward, where the MIDI will control whatever track you have selected and at the sampling setting you’ve chosen (slice/start/chromatic/etc, which you have to manually select on startup). I also tend to avoid MIDI chains, opting instead for a single device for MIDI in and MIDI out. So as a result I haven’t explored that avenue much. But it can be done!
thanks
When you’re recording your chord/melodies onto the MIDI track, will it play back exactly the same as how you played it live in terms of timing and velocity? I know each trig can hold a max of 4 notes. Does that mean only 4 notes can be played at one time during a phrase?
Yep, so when you play a chord on the keyboard while holding the trig it will remember the four notes you have held down, including velocity/length information. This actually becomes a bit of a nuisance sometimes because when you're trying to play chords you're not necessarily playing them at the velocity you want, so I find it helps to dial those in manually later.
Four notes can only be played *per track*, but you can combine as many tracks to control the same synth, as your synth can handle! This also means you can be using different arps simultaneously, on the same channel!
You have a day one w Octatrack recommendations video?
Great question! I'd say my best video in that regard is probably the first one I made...that said you probably need some basic understanding of where things are to begin with. For that I'd recommend Merlin's Guide if you haven't checked it out yet (www.elektronauts.com/t/a-polished-version-of-merlins-ot-guide-here/42860)
Most of my videos are specific to certain functions or applications, so once you have certain tasks you want to accomplish, they'll hopefully be a bit more helpful!
I’m desperately trying to figure out how to select record and play on octatrack without it starting so I can record a pattern from my NDLR into Octatrack. So it works fine as a slave and fine with midi thru and records fine. But I want to cue up the midi record so when I press play on my NDLR it will start recording, not before or after but on time....like any slaved device should. Why when slaved does Octatrack still start when you press play. It should sit there until you press play on the master device.
I honestly haven't done a ton of MIDI transport triggering on the Octatrack. Perhaps I got flustered with the settings :/ but there is a setting in the preferences that lets you adjust if the Octatrack follows transport commands.
Did you ever sort your OB6?
Question!
I was following perfectly up to the point where you were able to map chords into the OCTA by directly playing from OPsix.. how is that done?
I held the trig and played a chord but the octa didn't recognize..
Any help would be much appreciated! 🎃
ok so first the instrument controlled by Octatrack is DSI OB6, not Korg OP-Six (for the sake of clarity for those who read and may search for midi implementation chart). If I understood you correctly, you are asking how you can record midi chord played on external keyboard to the specific step? For that, you need to be in live-rec mode, and you can check if you are by holding a step without assigned midi parameters and playing your external midi/synth whatever it is - if it changes the midi data on that step, all is good. if not, you need to enter live rec mode.
@@earlsfield hey thanks for a quick reply! I did try live record (blinking light on) to input some chords but it didn't register.. maybe something to do with my midi set up? I can place trigs and have it activate my synth, but I can't play my synth and record on to a midi track..
@Kuronoichig01 did you ever figure out what the problem was? I am also have issues playing the chords/notes directly
@@conswaygo6723 I'm away from my octatrack atm but I recall having to need another midi cable. Out from oct into opsix and out of opsix into octa.
Does octrack receive midis notes
Yes! You can use it to play slices or notes out of the samples. But it's kind of annoying to set up, since you still have have the desired track and play style selected on the machine, which take some extra steps and can't really be saved.
Kenny Zhao can you save projects with midi files in it ?
@@austinimbastari2760 unfortunately no, the Octatrack does not generate any midi files. That would be awesome though, I'd never even thought about that.
That said, you can certainly connect an Octatrack to an existing audio interface via midi, and forward those midi signals into Ableton. That should allow you to record them the way you'd record any input from a keyboard.
Thanks for this video. I want to buy and Octatracks but I want to know: In midi tracks, can we do triplets? Can we Shift a note from the trig keys (like in the Digitakt...) ??
Doing triplets in MIDI is tricky. In order to get those rhythms you basically have to adjust your sequence to 12-step or whatever equivalent time signature you're working with. That can be a bit awkward to get used to but it works fine once you adapt.
I'm not sure what the DIgitakt can do (I don't have one), but you can shift your entire sequence (per track) over a step by hitting FUNC + [right arrow]
Forgot to mention you can also create triplets with the MIDI arp, but that obviously has some limitations (no direct control over note sequencing).
got a question for you, i have a Prophet Rev2 that i use with the Octatrack and for some reason i can't get Midi learn to work. Ive done everything in your video but still no luck. what do you think is the issue?
Hey Stephen. I'm definitely not an expert, but from what I've noticed the Octatrack seems to have trouble MIDI learning functions that don't have a 1-to-1 function. For example, my Bass Station has trouble mapping its envelope, I think because there's a switch that toggles between filter and amplitude envelope.
An additional thing to remember is if your knobs are set to a system in which they don't change their value until you turn the knob past its default value, you need to move the knob past that value in order for it to register with the MIDI learn.
hey thanks for the response. so i havent been able to get anything to work with MIDI learn. and with the knob thing ive tried it both ways and still nothing.
what i really want to figure out is how to be able to send midi notes from my prophet to the octatrack so it would be easier to make sequences like in your video.
🌞🌩