Octatrack Arranger Tutorial - how to structure a song
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2016
- The Arranger is a way to structure, and play back your songs on the Octatrack. Quite handy!
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Octatrack: Elektron.se - เพลง
Arranger info starts at 19:00
"Unless you know how to operate it it might seem very complex but it's just stuff that is waiting to be learned, so when you learn the functionalities it's just stuff that you know, so then it's not difficult anymore"
man. I need this quote framed somewhere
These tutorials are extremely instructif. Not only we get lo learn a great deal on all the usable techniques (thanks Cuckoo!), but it also shows how much fun it is to really just 'play' with it, in an almost childish way.
To me, this means a lot, because here is where the octatrack creates a league of it's own. It let's creativity run freely, and the absence of a large touchscreen alone brings us back to concentrating on what we actually hear. But this doesn't make it a 'slow' machine of any kind, no, it's actually lightning quick once you get the hang of it.
Thanks for these videos Cuckoo!
I would be utterly lost on my Octa without your tutorials Cuckoo... a thousand Thank You's for making these videos!!!!!!!!
Just read the Arranger section of the Octatrack MK2 in the manual and then watched your tutorial.
So helpful....Thank you
You make the best Octatrack videos by far. I've mastered a lot of functions of this machine but I find an entire video answering many questions I've had for a while. Thanks a million!
+eggfooyuong that's great, mate! Thanks :)
The arranger seems very powerful especially when you want to perform a song live or record it and have the freedom to concentrate on the gestural and subtle things. This like all of your videos has been super helpful and entertaining, thank you for making these Cuckoo!
Cuckoo keep it up with the Octa Tutorials! Really digged deep into the world of Octa learning videos and yours are just the most informative, yet calming ones. Thanks for that!
Thanks mate!
Just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos. They have been such a big help in understanding the Octatrack. Hat's off to you, my friend.
+Raest I'm glad to hear that, my friend! Keep it up! Once it's in your fingers, you don't need to think so much anymore :)
Excellent tutorial. For the beginners, one thing important to remember: Cuckoo is playing each patterns on part 1. He changes the parameters by doing lock params in the A02, A03 etc... if you do not do that, the sounds changes will be active for all patterns. That's a common beginner mistake :). Thanks Cuckoo.
what do u mean by lock parameters in a02 A03? one of the troubles i have had with the octatrack is that you only get 4 parts per bank and I generally use 1 part per " song" in my set, is there another way to do this?
Hi. I wish the octatrack had 16 parts per bank, but that's not the case. I mean, if you want to create 16 songs in a bank, you will have to deal with only 4 parts. But if you use parameters lock, then you can localy change the sample you use for a specific step in a specific pattern, and p-lock also the parameters for this sample. It will work. But that's dangereous: if you forget to hold the function button (to p-lock), then you will alterate the part for all songs using that part.... i don't know if i'm clear ?
I guess I realized you can set the parameter for an individual trig/step by holding the trig down and turning the knob, I was hoping that when you said "lock params" that there was some feature where you don't have to manually set each step, which would have been amazing :(. I've messed up so many songs by forgetting that I was already using the part... masterpieces :P
+fyoonkay you are right. A good improvment would be 16 parts per banks
Is your comment the more useful i’ve read on YT ? Oh god yes
Thanks for your tutorials with Octatrack Cuckoo. Somehow you are the only guy doing this who takes the time and goes enough in depth to explain this complicated beast! Thank you!
You're welcome, mr absurd :) Roligt namn, ha ha. Yeah, I noticed too that there's a lack of Octatrack tutorial youtube presence. I think there should be more!
Thanks Dr Cuckoo for your zenissimos tutorials. You bring us peace and knowledge ; )
This has given me a lot of ideas for my next live set. Thanks!
The Arranger reminds me of Roland's MC-505 "song" function on the sequencer. Def getting the MKII. Excellent work, Cuckoo!
Brilliant as ever Mr C!
Thanks, thanks, thanks, THANKS! I've learned this super-complicated machine in a short while thank to you
very informative! thank you for taking the time to create this video :)
thanks so much for your Octatrack tutorials!! you helped me reinvent my music with the Octatrack.
+bram achternaam that's great to hear!! Keep it up!
Just got an OT mk2. Ready to binge on your OT tutorial vids!
Thank you soooo much, great video as always !
awesome tutorial. thank *YOU*
Thanks Cuckoo! Súper Great videooo!
I realize this video has been out for years but... I came across your channel about a month ago and I really dig your energy and how positive you are. I’ve been trying to decide between a new Octatrack or Digitakt or an Akai MPC Live or MPC X and you’re teaching me so much about Elektron gear! Much appreciation to you and you stellar “vibe”! Much love brother!
Oh I almost forgot - after watching a couple of your videos about the System 8 I picked one up. Such a great synth :)
🙏🏼
great tutorials! cheers, man.
Watching your work with the OT reminds me how much wacky stuff you can do with it. And should. 🎛👌
thank you Cuckoo the first decent one about the arranger!
+ALIENNA Cheers, good to hear! And nice to see a familiar face around!
:-D
very cool! extremely helpful!
Big thanx man 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 really helpful for me
Arranger is amazing! Note: REM (remark) arranger rows are a great tool to keep track of where you are in your song. VERSE. BUILDUP. JAM etc. I also if I have a long section with a row that has, let's say 8 repeats,I split it two rows with 6 and 2 repeats or even 2 and 2 and 2 repeats so it's easier to know the changes (easy to get lost in the excitement when playing live). I also use a lot of the option to select how many steps you are going to play from the pattern in a row. Easy to create a 4 bar pattern with a break in the end and then only loop the first two bars on one row and then play the full pattern on the second row. Or even create a lot of random stuff from one pattern with different rows of varying (and even uneven) numbers of steps. To bad this doesn't sync to Analog Rytm. Loops are also great. I just wish that this had a Next button for breaking out of the loop like in Akai MPC song mode.
Doesn't sync with Rytm?.. Can You elaborate?
Just started watching, love all your tutes but I wanted to say the color grading in this vid is great :3
Wow, thanks mate! I do put a lot of work in the grading, but it's frankly quite difficult. I feel like I'm getting better and better though :)
It reminded me of my old favorite film stock vericolor
One word ‘Excellent’
Nice tutorial :)
Long live the OT & cuckoo!! 🙏
Love you man i am very adhd but still somehow i can follow you. Great thinking btw
thank u so much
its the best approach to play live esp songs with a diff tempo.
+Mykhaylo Slobodyan Sorry I couldn't reply directly for some reason.
Hi, sorry if it was a bit messy to follow. I think the part of the Arranger was ok though. The files are called .ot, and I guess they're in some kind of proprietary format. When I open them in a text editor there are just strange cryptic signs. I guess a seasoned programmer could reverse engineer the meaning of the files.
THANKS!!!
Great demo, even the overdrive sounds good, heh
thank you cuckoo for this one. how do you recommend to record a song arrangement? by rewire the outputs to the inputs or by creating a master recording on all internal?
notifikation squad
Thanks!! ( : Agree with Alienna
Hi Cuckoo, even though this video is specific about the arranger I think you briefly show other stuff thats interesting about the way to handle sliced up samples and how they might affect the sequence by RATE and PTCH changes when only triggered on the 1... I just realise you can go into SLICES mode and play different start points on a sample that hasn't been sliced up!. In other words you can have multiple trigger points for a long sample without slicing it just by going into slice mode, which might be a good way to play back your songs and still be able to manipulate pitch and duration without fucking up the sequence. Just a useful tip that lead me to the next question: can you set a pitch and change the length of the sample without modifying the pitch? could you set a play back rate and keep it even after pitch changes? with track stretch on (in Auto, Norm or Beat) can you tell the OT to play back the sample at half or twice the inferred tempo? thanks in advance if you are able to get back to me and thank you for your really valuable educational material! best, Nico
12:56 haha yeah I sampled my PO Arcade too :D
Cool!
Is this the famous OT Songmode?
rad
Hey there cuckoo, awesome videos (I can't wait to get my octa, it's in the mail). The arranger mode is great for what I have in mind but I would like a bit more flexibility when I'm playing it live, namely I'm wondering if you can make somehow have a row repeat forever until you send it a midi signal to move to the next one? Do you know if that's possible? Thanks a lot!
You can have a row or series of rows loop infinitely, until you manually move the playback point to a different row. This is a normal technique on Elektron sequencers, to set up a whole bunch of patterns & sequences of patterns that you can switch between when playing live. However, I don't think you can move or cue the playback row position via midi. Looping sections can get quite complex because you can have loops nested within loops.
For me, this video wasn't easy to follow (unlike, say, part #1), but I guess that the information presented will be of quite some use to new Octatrack ...users. Kinda shows what that arranger can do, and - which is more important for me as a potential buyer of Elektrons - what it can NOT do (e.g. change the track for you, editing several trigs at once, 8 songs limit etc).
BTW which file extension and format are those slice files that accompany .wav's on CF? Are they some kind of text, or binary? Asking, because I wonder if they can be auto-generated by some 3rd party software.
Any chance we'll get too see some Cuckoo tuques? ; )
The quirky beast of nerd stuff
That is a very cool hat dude, Who did the embroidery for you ? :)
+RellyAlexander thanks. I designed the logo. a local shop called Lokk Shop did the embroidery.
cuckoo marry me! those videos are really instructional, lot of thanks :)
+almohadillaseisefes ❤️👍🏼
Would be so cool if Cuckoo full-on shaved his beard, head & brows. Would be wicked and we could watch it grow back in over a series of videos. Can we maybe get this going on as some Paytreon goal?
Can I use a midi keyboard to record midi into this - build up my tracks and then have this machine play back all my midi in real time controlling my synths? I'm basically looking for a hardware midi sequencer that lets me build up and compose songs
Yes, there are 8 midi tracks that can be sequenced. You can record live into them, or step by step, with a midi keyboard. But bear in mind there is a maximum of 4 notes (i.e. 4 notes as a chord) per step that can be recorded.
Hey cuckoo, thank you for your amazing channel! By far my favorite. I'm in a conundrum because I am debating whether or not I should get the Octatrack or a laptop with Ableton. Is the OT in your view enough to create whole songs, would you be happy with just the OT or do you think the laptop is just essential? I ask you because I live in Puerto Rico and there is just no way I can demo an OT.
+ALPHAMUSICA hi there! Thank you so much for your kind words! I think for creating a whole song, Ableton live or Logic Pro or something like that, is much more powerful as a whole. But as a live interactive performance instrument sampler, I think the OT is MUCH more fun. For making regular songs though I'm much more comfortable using a computer as the main timeline and editor. But jamming with a computer I find pretty boring. You CAN create songs with the Octatrack for sure, but it's easier to process the audio in a computer first. At least I think so.
i can answer for you at 10'40 : if you want to apply a short HOLD for every trig , you need to copy the PART and change to a new one, and just set the HOLD setting one time without parmater lock.
+DEKALBOY yeah, parts can be useful. But it's a bummer you can't manipulate several trigs at once, like you can with the Analog series. I've got a habit of doing it all the time ;)
wait, so You imply that Monomachine/Machinedrum do not have that either?...
Mulig jeg for tjukk i hue til å kunne lære å beherske denne maskinen.
+Jan Martin Ulvåg au... Har du sett på mine andre Octatrack-tutorials? Denne er ikkje den beste å begynne med akkurat. Den er litt styrete å håndtere.. Men når ein får oversikt so er det ganske so logisk.
cuckoomusic Ja. Har du prøve en Yamaha rs 7000 noen gang? Ligger en til 3500 på finn akkuurat nå.
cuckoo hello,
I have a small question about triggering scenes from sequencer.
Is it possible to record or automate scene moving in sequencer ?
Thanks a lot !
+ingula akhvlediani no I'm afraid not. The movement has to be live.
Thanks a lot ! Bought octal since 4 days and learned a lot from yours videos after reading the MANUAL.
Will donate !
+ingula akhvlediani thanks mate! I appreciate it!
cuckoo did I just create overkill by getting this and an mpc1000 the same week? can I make some great hip hop and experimental downtenpo stuff on just the OT?
+Roly Gutiérrez yeah you can make all kinds of stuff on just the OT. But you have to like it. The OT has got 8 tracks of simultaneous samples, vs 16 pads/ 64 tracks/ 32 voices on the Akai?? (reading the specs here)? The approach is very different on both of them. I have no background with Akai, but I have to say that I really dig the deep Elektron sequencer, parameters, slicing and stuff. It's nerdy. But extensively fun. For just clip launching I guess the Mpc might be better suited. But for anything beyond clip launching, the OT should be taken a serious look at. I do all of my gigs with just the Octatrack nowadays.
thanks cuckoo. I appreciate it. while I do like clip launching I like a machine that can push my boundaries as a producer with neat little tricks, especially when I'm in a rut. I always wanted to get the Octatrack, especially using the sp404 a lot. I know the MPC won't give me that added little flair. what I'll do is just focus solely on the Octatrack for a few months and see if the MPC factors into my production. if not. it'll be a nice trophy as I make music on the OT. cuckoo thanks again for your replies and awesome and informative videos. if you ever get a chance and feel wild enough to experiment, you should do a hip-hop or lofi track in one of your tutorials. I'd love to see the mind of Cuckoo in that realm. cheers!
nkdvkng did u gel with the combination?
man I've been on a crazy roller coaster. sold them both. got a digitakt. been missing the OT since. using FL studio and Ableton, and about to trade for an otmk1 to reunite with it finally. One mistake I regret making was that lol
nkdvkng you have been busy 😉
is each part of the arrangement using the same 8 samples? Tell me it's possible to not be limited by 8 samples for an entire song
the samples can be changed with sound locks. you can use 16 different samples on one track on one row of trigs if you want
I have sliced a bunch of samples and then later I load them to find that the slices haven't been saved with the file, like I hoped. Here you load a new project and your sample loads in pre-sliced, wonder what I'm doing wrong.. :)
+Alita Dumouriez on the "file" page when you're in edit mode, there's the option to manually save the files. If you don't save them, the slices won't be saved outside of the project, I think.. Also when you load it in the next project, be sure to turn on slices for that track.
I thought I did, but I must have been doing something wrong since it clearly is possible. I will have another look. Thank you :)
14:34 we will just pretend it was a cool effect. Fits the sound in my opinion.
Kinda interesting to see what pain it was before trig preview came out
Yeah trig preview ftw!!
Dung da da dun da dunk dunk
Perfect video. this is the first Octatrack vid that made me think I might be able to handle using one. Just one question: how does it work if you're structuring an entire setlist? is it quick to load different "songs", or is it like an old MPC with lots of button pushing and a long wait to load samples? For simplicity's sake, let's say it's a six song setlist with about the same amount of complexity as your demo track here.
+justin johnson hey there. I'm glad to hear you found it helpful! If you can put all the songs into one project, and make one arrangement per song, there's not many buttons involved to select the next arrangement, and no loading time at all. 8 songs/ arrangements is the maximum per project.
If you however need to divide the set into several projects, there's some loading time when you're loading up a new project. 5-10 seconds perhaps. And some more buttons, but not overwhelmingly so.
thanks for the reply. between this video and your acoustic Octatrack jam with the piano, I've having serious Wandering Gear Eye
Your video's want to make me smoke a doobie, and then I do, and then I get confused about my octatrack and start doing something else
shit
I like to use parts, but it seems like there is no way to save them in the arranger :(
+approssimoXdifetto yes, sadly Parts is a manual operation only. But part selections can however be saved per Pattern. It's not as dynamic as the arranger, but it's something.
How I wish the Digitakt had this arranger 😔
yeh.. but its workflow zero :/
thx a lot! but not a tutorial for octa starters...
I'm still a little confused on the octa and octo sounds can somebody please brake it down for me please ? Somebody tried to explain it too me the other day but I wasnt getting it any experts ?
now that I've spent some time with the octatrack I can learn more from cuckoo's videos, but seriously, this isn't called 'how to use slice mode' or 'how to improvise a loop' it's called how to structure a song and I've been watching for over 10 minutes, still no arranger mode here.
Perfect if you are to fucked up to play.
You look like Borgore :D
Bro......come on. alll of you vids take to long to get to the piece. Im ready to move on. All of these vids make you feel like you have had this for years......wheres the simple how to start video??
wow really sorry but that solo piano thing sounds terrible. I'm mean with artifacts all over it etc. Just saying as constructive critic cause i'm really trying to watch the video. thanks anyway