Octatrack Loopbox (Pickup Machine) Tutorial

[@murahachibu]

I think you really should consider becoming a school music teacher. I wish I had a music teacher like you when I was a kid. You have a gift, not just for music, but for teaching. I have been watching your Octatrack videos, but I have to admit the menu diving makes me think this may not be the device for me. I do however want a piano now. :-)

[@OrangeJackson]

+murahachibu Yeah, time is precious and menu diving is time. Not for me either.

[@domtak]

A lot of the menu diving here was because Cuckoo was setting up from a blank project. With a bit of planning you can create a personal template with all the settings pre-configured to how you personally like them. It's a great machine but once you know it, everything is logical and fairly quick. And I agree, a piano would be ace :-)

[@Tapepusher]

It’s been 7 years and I still can’t get over 33:45 “eff… ect” 😂💀 the non-challant execution of this sick effect kills me 💀😂

[@webmongo]

Comic gold at 18:00. Explaining one2 while looping. Made my day. Love your Octatrack videos!

[@truecuckoo]

Ha ha, yeah it was a bit fuzzy there ;-)

[@RabidElephant]

+webmongo lol, quite the chuckle!

[@Amazology]

Yep - that was great :)

[@FNX_Techno]

XDDD

[@alfiedotwtf]

Jumping Gigawatts, I felt like I fell into a bit of a time loop

[@nellyumbau]

Cannot describe how grateful I was to discover this. Your mode of setting up the session is the best one I've found so far and I really appreciate the deep dive into the process of using this complex machine.

[@adamstetzer2910]

Still very relevant and helpful for people just getting into the Octatrack for looping! Thank you! One thing I'd love to learn is how to make the new recordings (which I assume are in the buffer) persist. They seem to disappear when I turn the unit off.

[@timwilson9088]

@Adam Stetzer you need to save the recording to the audio pool once you've recorded it

[@CarlGontheBeat]

Your structure makes sense. Most people make tracks in the format you show. The structure is not important, it's all about workflow!

[@user82938]

I didn't think it was too chaotic. Having an existing understanding of the OT (but not really pickups) made it pretty easy to follow.

[@Unifono2012]

i own it for 3 years but never used the pick ups. Now I need them for a live performance and your video told me everything I need to know :) Thanks

[@KamilKisiel]

This is your best Octatrack tutorial yet. Really well done. I consider myself pretty familiar with the Octatrack and I still learned a lot.

[@iancain6647]

Thank you man. I've been really enjoying learning how to use the octatrack from you.

[@MatheusLeston]

great stuff! just one important thing about the ram memory: it is shared between the pickup and flex machines. so it is important to find the right balance in each project.

[@truecuckoo]

Thanks, good clarification.

[@linusrastegar8482]

Awesome jam and tutorial! I thoroughly enjoyed this laid back and minimal style. One thing I would have enjoyed is a vibraphone playing along in the background!

[@duncan-rmi]

shambling, rambling, hopelessly unprepared.... & wonderful. I learned loads, & I've had my OT since 2011. now finally I might ditch my old electrix repeater. the problem I've always had with the p/u machines is that I can't allow them to decide the tempo, because I've already got sequenced parts running (from the OT itself & other devices), so the tempo is already determined. this has led to clicks & other issues with the audio loops. now I feel like I can have another go at it.

[@CarlGontheBeat]

You are the man! My set up it the DSI Tempest, the OctaTrack, and the Minilogue. This is so helpful.

[@aki_gong6271]

Thanks for such an amazing collection about the elektron devices, helps a lot to understand the machines along with the user manual. Pleasure watching too.

[@TechnoShamanism]

such a brilliant intro to the Octatrack...i just got one, didn't know where to start and this helped me out big time! Now making music with the pickup machine, thank you! :) Next stop, learning about the flex machine...

[@merlinoner]

Thanks Cuckoo for the tutorial. I didn't get everything but I understood some things and that's already a starting point.

[@electronicexposure]

So, now that I know my way around this little beast your videos are a lot more useful. At first I thought the layout was bonkers, but now it makes a lot of sense!

[@toffchunks]

one last thing : love your end improvisation thks again

[@taylormadescores]

Hey Cuckoo great stuff!! I've been itching to work on the Pickup Machine function and this is pretty comprehensive and really gets to the heart of it. I'm still going through it slowly. I've broken it up into sections so I can digest it easier (esp since I've never really used a looper before). Right now I'm working on getting used to recording and overdubbing. Not too half bad but it takes practice in getting it right. Your presentation is very helpful. Thank you!!!!

[@truecuckoo]

+Josh Taylor Cool. It got a little messy there, but at least you've got a video where I'm showing it all in context.

[@taylormadescores]

+cuckoomusic I totally just figured out how to connect the Octatrack with my Fireface 802 for sampling and looping. Took a stereo pair on outputs 3/4 into the octatrack A/B then mains of octatrack to stereo inputs on Fireface (1/2) don't forget to route in Total Mix to make sure 3/4 are not also going through the mians or headphones! This makes it possible to sample and loop software instruments and vocals BTW I really love the sounds you got out of your piano (micing? prepared? just quirky? whatever it is it's fantastic) and was inspired to get a pair of Blue Hummingbirds and record with it more because it has a quirkiness of it's own which I should exploit. Lots of fun! Octatrack is such an inspiring instrument in so many different and unintentional ways.

[@preahko]

Thanks for taking the time to do this! Very informative. Also thanks for mentioning the Mode Machines MIDI/USB interface; that's EXACTLY the piece of gear I was looking for (I like to keep my performance setup simple, light, and hardware-based, no computers!)...I was lucky to find it for sale at Perfect Audio in the US (not easy to find here)...I'll be using it with the Logidy, which is easy to come by here.

[@truecuckoo]

+Frank Smith cool, you're welcome, mate! I've tried the ModeMachines a few times, and it works fine in most cases. There's also the Kenton MIDI USB Host, which both has got midi in and out in case you need more.

[@emnigmamachine]

You inspired me to try out the pickup machines! I've never really messed with them.

[@ryanboyce3365]

At 12:00 the explanation on how to gain stage is very helpful thank you very much:)

[@shug6009]

Woah. Breaking down the fourth wall with the swap of audio to the direct monitor.

[@KiloLaku]

Its been 8 years and im so glad these exist as i am waiting for day 1 with my octatrack😅

[@kaostrip]

really useful video ! octatrack is amazing machine! I think an entire life is not enough to use all fonction 😊

[@danielkushner566]

I just pledged on Patreon for Cuckoo.

[@truecuckoo]

Thank you so much Daniel! Truly appreciate it! ❤️

[@danielkushner566]

I got my Octatrack 1 week ago and your tutorials have been amazing. How could I not?

[@winduberry]

I’m seriously in love with you

[@AxelKrygier]

Cuckoo, muchacho,, muy útil y divertido. Anyway I'm still trying to synchronize my pickups machines... Greetings y saludos desde Buenos Aires.

[@lucakyoung]

thanks cuckoo. one question. how would one record a pickup machine loop to a SET BPM of the sequence (timeline) without it changing the BPM to the loop recording?

[@DayflightTrok]

Hi, can you make a video, to explain the sample management (projects,, pattern, parts and change of samples from Pattern to Pattern)?

[@clemrslt]

Thanks Cuckoo! Very very useful and well explained!

[@freetimeprojex]

Hey! Great tutorial! I was wondering if you’ve ever used the octatrack as a looper for an instrument while playing it live. If so, I’d love to see how you set up your controllers

[@afghamistam1860]

Cuckoo can you tell me if you are using a pre amp for the microphones I can’t get a good signal

[@EwanMatheson]

Been watching Cuckoo videos all afternoon... I really really really want an Octotrack now (although truth be told I have done for years now...) Maybe if I ask really nicely come Christmas Santa (i.e. me because I'm fed up buying gifts for people) will get me one. And an Analog Four while I'm at it... Elektron get a lot of hassle because of their "complicated workflow" looking through these videos I really don't see what's complicated... If you took the same functionality and applied it to something like the volca range it would be utter insanity. There are some more esoteric functions that yes, seem to be well hidden but it seems pretty logical and straight-forward to me. Nobody is going to be menu-diving like this on stage... Once it's setup you're good to go!

[@bartleyrob]

your fine im the same chaotic, thanks for the video

[@toffchunks]

thks for sharing your knowledge🙏🙏🙏

[@mrpelledj]

what about recorded file in a pickup machine?They still be in the project if i save them, i've to save every file or they are just momentary and so i'll lose them?

[@distorson]

After recording a loop, can you than treat it like a normal sample and play with the pitch of the recording, or the loop length while the loop is playing?

[@solomonjenkins9505]

your brain logic works the exact opposite of mine so these are hard for me lol appreciate the uploads

[@Rustik1722]

At 10:30, you say in regard to pressing the REC1 button, it sets the length.....I thought the RLEN setting handled that? I don't know about this so I am not busting balls, I am just wondering if you press it and then press it to determine the length I am confused of why we have the RLEN setting? Does you pressing Rec1 again match BPM?

[@johnpalmermusic]

thank you!! excellent tutorial, there´s nothing else out there as good :) one question, we should save each track as we do samples? because just saving the project will loose the recordings?

[@bbiimmkkaa]

Hi! Can each pickup machine be unsynchronized from the master track? What if want to create out of sync loops.

[@DespairQuietlyPlease]

Is there a free mode like the rc505 where you don’t have to pretermine loops lengths you just switch record on and off?

[@petergrandlautor]

Great Job Cuckoo!!!!

[@rnxrx5148]

Love you mate.. thanks for all your videos!

[@Advadva]

Oh man, that's awesome :) will watch!

[@truecuckoo]

+Artyom Nikolaev Thanks! Happy watching :)

[@rafaelikenaga]

can you program each switch of your foot controller to directly access parameters of the looper in each track? for example you have 3 switch, can you set each switch to hit play on the looper in different tracks, like one switch hits play on loop in track1, second switch hots play on loop in track 2 and so on...?

[@Schneider314]

Wonderfully helpful. Thank you, crazy bearded man.

[@TherapyHiccup]

thanks for the video :) and your explaination worked for me hehe

[@devlinrcg]

Amazing, Cuckoo!!!

[@BrunoWiebelt]

thank you learned a lot! nice singing

[@nikolajjakobsen436]

thanks a lot for the effort mate!

[@samk.4877]

Hi, Cuckoo. Great tutor, thanx !! I got one question : when i have recorded smth on pick up machines ( few of them) and pressed stop, and then want them all to start playback(simultaneously) they don't start, you need to start them one by one with "track button + play button" combination) do you have the same problem and how can i fix it? thank you

[@truecuckoo]

When you're jamming live they're started by your manual recording. When you want to play it back afterwards, you need to somehow decide how to start them. The easiest way is probably to put a trig on each track, and let it start this way. Depending on how long the sample is, you might want to adjust the pattern length.. and other things.

[@caroarroba]

Hi cuckoo you are great . Well i need to know if can put a microphone into the octatrack mkI so i can sample on the fly the sound of a violin ...... Best regards

[@truecuckoo]

+Carolina Arroba thanks! you can. However the gain in the Octatrack can’t do miracles to microphones. So it might be a good thing to check whether your microphone is giving off a strong enough signal, or to be safe and use some sort of controlled pregain/ preamp.

[@caroarroba]

cuckoo thanks for doing this tutorials....another question i have to put the compact flash card when te octatrack is on or off? And how i load samples into the compact flash card ? I AM new un this jeje a big hug from ecuador

[@truecuckoo]

+Carolina Arroba in the menu select “sync to card” and then you can remove the flash card while it’s on. Create a folder inside the main set folder on the flash card with all your sounds.

[@caroarroba]

cuckoomusic thanks so much i Will do it best regards a big hug

[@rileymiller2513]

Thank you so much Cuckoo!

[@kotn2]

Very good tutorial!!)

[@SverkerSvensson-d4b]

Thank you for this!

[@miguellucasmendes201]

Do you use pre amp for the microphone? And if a guitar do you need an extra preamp?

[@aarondorris7639]

I did 2 pickup machines then the third one told me " REC MEMORY FULL " does the octatrack only allow 2 at once that doesn't sound right tho... can't figure out how to get past this

[@duncan-rmi]

memory management is a per-project setting. 23'30 in this vid.

[@perruschke6691]

Sounds great, can you tell me what kind of piano you have?

[@truecuckoo]

Cool. This is a regular small sized upright. A Norwegian brand called Grøndahl. I've prepared the strings with duct tape to dampen them, and to give it a snappier sound with a shorter release.

[@perruschke6691]

+cuckoomusic Ah ok, sounds really great, maybe i will try it too, thx!!

[@Ancaja123]

please someone explain if there is a way to use pickup machines (running freely, not specificied by Rlen or anything) WITHOUT the BPM changing. I understand the purpose of this but i really wish there was a way to just treat them like unsynced loopers

[@Ancaja123]

it seems to me if you had a performance that was already going and you wanted to add some quick on the fly loops, it would throw your performance out of wack because the BPM automatically changes, I've been through the manual a million times i can't find any explanation!

[@solomonjenkins9505]

as amazing as the octatrack is, I do wonder why they didn't add more ram...wouldn't have been that expensive, they could have at least made it upgradeable...even with the mkII it's still not so clearly the uses I intend for this machine most people don't. It should be noted that by using static machines to play back your stuff instead of pickups you can have lots of free ram memory for sampling as long as you want, maybe sampling your entire song

[@alexandershchegretsov9701]

нормал видео,thx for octa tutorials!

[@alpakaalpaka3983]

Allways fun!

[@rosati1353]

Thanks boss

[@mgregory22]

Great vid Cuckoo! I got an Octatrack a couple months ago and I'm still learning new things about it all the time. What I don't like about the pickup machines is that you can't play a beat on a track or another synced thing like a Rytm and then do a pickup machine on another track without it messing up the tempo. Or am I mistaken? Is that a una corda piano or something? It has a weird tone for a piano.

[@truecuckoo]

+Matt Gregory I wish it was an Una Corda! Those are just wonderful sounding instruments! This is the poor man's Una Corda, lol. Duct tape on strings. If the Octatrack is already running at a tempo synced to anything, making a pickup recording should sync to the tempo. There are many settings, so it is easy to get things wrong at first. What I was doing here was to let the first recording dictate the master tempo.

[@mgregory22]

The duct tape sounds really cool. Makes me wonder why they didn't make a piano pedal that does a palm mute kind of thing. I guess that would be too complicated. Yeah, there are a lot of settings and weird interactions between the settings that are taking me awhile to figure out. I'll keep working on it. Thanks for the reply. Cheers!

[@LudovicCoullet]

Dear Cuckoo, what's the name of your usb-powered midi host again ?

[@truecuckoo]

+Ludovic Coullet It's called CerebelUSB www.modemachines.com/products/catalogue/cerebelusb/

[@LudovicCoullet]

Thanks a lot, still considering an autonomous usb host to connect an OP-1 to my Monomachine AND/OR Korg Circuit.

[@lommelinn]

great vid!

[@leandropazos]

Hello! I wanted to ask you about "Pickup Machine". I saw your tutorials, excellent. I've been working with PM for a while, but lately they behave strangely. Sometimes randomly, when I record, it automatically plays in reverse. And without changing the settings other times it does it in the right direction. I have read in forums, I have looked for videos and of course the manual. And I can't solve this. Do you know what it could be?

[@TechnoShamanism]

LEANDRO PAZOS just to rule things out: do you have any midi going into your octatrack? it's midi implementation is quite unique, and playing midi notes into it (the OT maps quite a few important functions to midi notes, not CC) can lead to all sort of ghostly behaviour. the other question would be: do you observe the same behaviour when you start with a blank project from scratch? if that works, you should check your scenes / and trigs to make sure you don't have any p-locking or scene automation going on.

[@leandropazos]

@@TechnoShamanism No Midi, Scenes Off, No LFO, all parameters clean, it's very strange. I'm going to try a new project. I have a theory ... I was changing the memory parameters in this proyect (bits, Dynamic recorders, Reserve Recordings ...) maybe that made it behave strangely. Does it seem possible to you?

[@edgarsilva9905]

Check the patterns (1 to 16) settings, one by one.

[@leandropazos]

@@edgarsilva9905 In Pickup Machine no have Patterns

[@leandropazos]

elektron's answer (support ticket): Hi Leandro, This is a known bug and our developers are looking into it. It can happen when changing parts. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and I hope this will be fixed soon.

[@nikgray7665]

Thx cuckoo 👍

[@fris113]

Amazing video! It helped me understanding pickup machine And now I have a question Are there any way to save the sample that you recorded on pick up machine? (to use the recorded sample on static machine) Thanks very much for your amazing jobs on youtube.

[@truecuckoo]

+ind_ fris cool! Yes you can enter edit mode (function + bank). On the "File" tab there are save options.

[@fabfaborganasm]

"edit mode" isn't "function+bank" but the "track you want+bank" (edit in red letters), if I may, based on excellent Cuckoo Tutorials #1 & #2 ;) Or there is another way? Ha ha ha this machine is s-i-c-k

[@fris113]

thanks a lot!!

[@dinraum]

What brand of Piano is it? I really like the sound. And thanks for detailed explanations. Octatrack is so complex.

[@ryanholmberg]

Sounds like a “thumb tack” piano to me. Could be wrong tho

[@ryanholmberg]

Actually I’d bet it’s a muted thumbtack piano

[@dinraum]

@@ryanholmberg Never heard of thumb tack pianos. Interesting.

[@ryanholmberg]

Ya they have an interesting tone. I think all you gotta do is put thumb tacks on all the hammers. And in this case also mute the strings with felt or something soft

[@NicoResonic]

Thanks a lot! great!

[@alienbleeps]

18:00 + going cuckoo over here :-D xxx Great Tutorial thank you

[@truecuckoo]

+ALIENNA Thank you!! I'm happy to hear it :)

[@MilenaEtc]

yeah!

[@tronlady1]

love you cuckoo. I'm a girl-nerd but not as clever as you :o) I could listen to your lovely voice and playing all day love. I also love your little bag with "cuckoo" on :o) What's that accent, it's intriguing?

[@truecuckoo]

+tronlady1 Hey Tronlady! In a perfect world there'd be many more girl-nerds like you! Thanks a lot for your kind words! The accent, I guess, is a mix of not being a native English speaker, and having somewhat British influences in my life.. or something like that.

[@LowestPuppet]

can you do a vid while your stoned :)

[@solomonjenkins9505]

HAHA

[@DailyJam]

I just can't understand why this has 10 thumbs down

[@truecuckoo]

Yeah... I guess there are 10 thumbs that just really can't stand either me, or the Octatrack, or the music I made in this video, or they can't stand people helping other people for free. The world has plenty of different people...

[@KorhanErel]

or they were watching the video while standing upside down ;)

[@solomonjenkins9505]

well cuckoo's style is very meandering and unfocused feeling at times...long videos with lots of great information we weren't looking for but often can use anyway, still, it would be nice to have someone with cuckoo's level of octatrack knowledge making shorter more focused videos in a series

[@frankie1833]

thanks for these videos Cuckoo! extremely helpful. I have a question, at 17:50 when you record a sample and then overdub on to it... is that overdub saved in to the same Recording buffer slot? Can you have unlimited overdubs on one track or does it count against the internal storage? Thanks for your help!

[@truecuckoo]

+shredderghost unlimited overdubbing in the same buffer yeah! It's quick and fun. But when you overdub there's no way to separate them like if you record on separate tracks.

[@frankie1833]

brilliant! thanks so much!

[@halpehalpe]

port number d haha

[@valentinkimstedt566]

hey cuckoo, do you know how to avoid automatic bpm change when first recording to the master pickup machine? For example I have a Song playing at 120 bpm and want to add some loops with the pickup machine. When doing so, the bpm will very likely change due to the automatic calculation.

[@lucakyoung]

I'm trying to figure this out too. did you figure it out??

[@valentinkimstedt566]

Luca Young hey, i found one option, but it takes a bit of the fun away: put recording mode to hold (in stead of one or one2), place a recorder trig on the sequencer, and make it a single shot trig. recording will start automatically and not affect the bpm.

[@lucakyoung]

Valentin Kimstedt interesting.. thank you ! Ill let you know how it goes

[@valentinkimstedt566]

Luca Young u r welcome. yes please let me know.

[@ralph_heidel]

Is there no other solution for that problem? =)

[@UncleGordon1978]

argh why it's so loud? ?!

[@0101010101122]

maybe try to turn down the volume of your computer ?

[@shatteredsquare]

11:11

[@lashesfordaze]

We need to change the lingo from master/slave to something else that has less connotation to this awful historical reference. How about prophet and disciple?