Elektron-Users

pretty disappointing if they don't implement this a little better. its pretty much the reason i bought this machine, especially since they advertised it somewhat heavily as a backing track machine. it seems like it would be easy for them to streamline the process; maybe make a dedicated submenu for backing tracks. as it is now there are just too many hoops to jump through to get the tracks to play back properly. i've got a lot of other stuff happening on stage (playing synth with both hands, tweaking knobs etc), and i need my drum tracks to be foolproof; as it is now there are too many steps in the process where something can go wrong.

don't get me wrong, i'm really loving the octatrack from a production standpoint. i'll probably produce more of my next record on in than on ableton, and thats a good thing. it just kind of sucks that it excels so well at the complicated tasks, while the easier "no-brainer" stuff like backing track functionality is made more complicated than it should be.

FWIW, they way i'm currently doing my backing tracks is to turn off the sequencer, set all tracks to play freely, and then trig the backing track manually. this works ok i guess, but the setup between songs is not as reliable as i need it to be. also, by trigging the track this way, i'm only getting access to one track per song. i had intended on using all 8 tracks per song, with track one being the drum master track, and tracks 2-8 being the seperated component drum tracks (track 2 bass, track 3 snare, etc.) so i could manipulate them on the fly. as it is now, the only way i can see to have them all play at the same time is to manually trig them all at once, which is virtually impossible.

anyway, i know this topic is going to be a little simplistic for most of you here, but i still hope elektron offers a better way to do this in an upcoming OS

I agree! hopefully they'll address playback of backing tracks in a future firmware update.

Well, i have to say i do agree .
As a backing track machine the Octatrack is not good at all sorry .
I really like the Octatrack for everything else but i really hope they work on the Backtrack aspect because that is one of the reason i bought the Octa.

Hello to everyone.

I was thinking to get an octatrack, but after reading this post Im not sure anymore. I was looking for a way of playing my tracks without a laptop, cause I use to play with hardware and enjoy a lot, I had to change my setup due to airlines restrictions, so I end up doing my live set with ableton and apc-20.

Anyway after searching online a lot, I end up finding the octatrack the most suitable solution for my need, due to the CF streaming wich would allow me to load my live set.

I add a picture so you can see how I organize my live set in ableton once I have all the tracks ready...

Basically in my set, the tracks need to be mixed by hand using the clips, but once I hit the first scene within a track, BPM change to match the new track and the scenes will follow playing automaticly untill the end, the result is like the original estructure, but I can allways change it, mute parts, affect them with effects or create new estructures...

My question is simple, is this possible within the octatrack?

Thanks a lot in advance and sorry for my english
All the best!

I have been using the OT for backing tracks and it works pretty slick and easy to setup if you use the arranger. Here is how I do it.

Setup a part to have 6 different tracks and on each static track is a different backing track . Be sure to nail down the tempo of your track and align the start of the sample perfectly. Set a oneshot recorder trig on each track.
Now got to the ARRANGER and setup an arrangement. I have many songs so I need way more than 8 arrangments. My remedie is putting all the songs (or as many as I want) on the first arrangement. Go into the arrangement edit screen, setup the first step as a naming step, name your song, go to the next step and set that to whichever bank and pattern it is on. Now go to the mute window inside the arrange edit menu and set the correct mutes. I leave tr 6 and 7 always unmuted because those are my thru inputs so I can use outboard synths and drum machines. Then go to the bpm area and set your tempo. In the next row, place a loop to go back to where the song started. Now go to the next row, set a name for the next song, and then got the next row and set the bank, pattern, mute and tempo and so on and so on. Now I can have as many songs in the arrangement area and have the tempos locked as well with all my favorite scenes ready to roll.
Now when you exit the arrange edit menu and you are just in arrangement view, you can use the cursors to move to whichever song you need. Just remember that when you hit stop, you have to hit it twice (sometimes more than that) so that it re-arms your one shot trigs.
I also have midi setup so I can keep all my synths in sync, although I have not found a proper way to send prgrm changes in this type of situation.

For program changes, just have each song in a different bank.

Thats a good idea, in fact, I could probably just use a few banks, and have 4 songs (parts) per bank. Have a neighbor machine on each song track for added effects to the backing tracks. Then I could have it send out the prgrm changes as well. Good tip
D