How to Sample Synths with the Elektron Octatrack // Recording Tutorial

In recording setup menu 2 the "AB" volume setting doesn't do anything unless you are using a pickup machine on that track, just FYI.

hey man. i must admit, this tutorial didnt help me at all. in fact it confused me more than anything. why wouldnt you just re record the tutorial without messing up? this did not help in the slightest

They need an Easy Mode and Hardcore Mode for the octatrack, that would fix so much lol... Like a menu toggle where many things are set a certain way to minimize set up, to just get a damn sample recorded in and go.

It's all so over complicated. If they ever make an octatrack mk2 I vote for one button press "normal person sampling" option.

If only they would make a mk3 that could do all the same stuff but was not intuitive to use 😭

Is possible to record sound from something external like a barking dog or people talk ect
If u get what I mean.

This is awesome and thorough! One step that MAY have been missed is setting up your midi transport. Go into Project > Midi > Sync, and ensure that you have send/receive selected for all the instruments that will be playing pre-recorded into the octatrack. Cheers!

Cool track you ended up with. The Octotrack seems really complicated, but I enjoyed watching you make a beat.

little bit complicated to need two tracks to sample one signal.

Hi! You can monitor easier with the DIR Parameter in the Mixer menu: [MIX] -> raise „DIR“ to 127 for the input you are using. That way you don’t have to mess around with thru machines at all. You can even have all 8 tracks playing other samples while you sample something new in because the recording buffers are separate from the samples currently assigned to the tracks (And to edit/playback the sample in the audio-editor just go to the page 3 recording menu: [REC3] -> „edit this recording“ -> save and assign if you like it.)

Couldn’t you record the midi into a midi track and just hit playback and set the record input to receive only AB? And delete the midi track or save it for later to try a different synth patch

Holy shit, this looks like a fucking nightmare to sample with. Not even samplers from the late 90's were this clunky to sample on...what the fuck is Elektron' excuse?

Incredible! I get up, I watch a Slow Haste video, and then without fail, I have a day!

It doesn't mention this in the manual but you don't need to set a trig and press play to activate the thru machine. You can simply hold the track button and press play, in your case track 3.
This is useful to hear your external sound without playing a pattern first.

I don't think the Octatrack is for me, but I enjoy watching you going through your process. I can even steal some ideas, even though I'm more of an Ableton Live boy!

Damn. Coming from the Digitakt, when you explained the thru machine to sample at the beginning, I derrrrp’d so hard 😮

I have my default sampling template set up with pairs a bit like you but not quite: T1 - Thru (in AB), T2 - Flex which records T1 (instead of an input), T3 - Thru (in CD), T4 - Flex that records T3, T5 - Flex which records T2 or T4 for resampling so I can mangle the recording then immediately sample that, etc. I find sampling with the Thru track as the source rather than assigning the "wrong" buffer to the Flex track keeps it clearer in my head what's going on and there are fewer opportunities to mess it up. Just what works for me. The end result gave sort of glitch Final Fantasy soundtrack vibes :)

Nice video! All the little sneaky traps from the OT. Got to love it for them. No matter how many times.
Couple of scrambled thoughts that I have had.
There even is a way to bypass using up a thru track and just have a flex track set up to listen to the input source, and with your trigs or one shot rec trig microtimed back, you would be able to hear what you are recording live. I haven’t successfully done this fully, but I have definitely recorded to the flex without having a thru track.

Another thought is that you can pre set a rec flex track an have it unarmed. And set a midi controller button for that tracks to arm via midi controller, and arm while the music is playing.

Do you need to clear the recording buffer, or can you just re-arm the record trig to overwrite it?

Nice tutorial! I really like the OT's sampler despite how weirdly complex it is, recording trigs and slicing and like 7+ minutes of recording time are all great 😄In the past few months I've been using it kind of like a weird digital tape machine, sequencing a song via midi and then recording it all in one go, and layering additional tracks similarly. The only problem is normalizing and saving a 3 or 4 minute recording on the OT takes longer than rewinding a cassette would 😅

A couple observations from throughout:

- If you want to hear a stopped thru track without starting the whole transport, the shortcut "Tx+PLAY" will start playing only whatever track's button was held.
- In the REC2 menu, the AB and CD levels are only useful for the pickup machine; they set the monitoring level of AB & CD so you can hear your pickup machine input without having to use a thru track or the mixer's DIR volumes.

This just reminded me why I prefer the Digitakt for easy and quick sampling 😂😂

There are so many ways to mess up and you will always find new ways of messing up.