Recorders and buffers

Elektron Gear Octatrack
1

Hi there,

I was working with my OT mk2 and trying to playback content from a buffer on a flex track.

What I did was,

  • sampling a 64 steps quantized loop of guitar into the buffer
  • slicing it into 16 equal slices
  • making triggers playing random slices of this sample on a flex track

But I ran into some issues when I tried to record again into that buffer.

  • The slices were gone
  • The content of the buffer was totaly erased before being written again.
  • My playback was then partially silenced and totaly messed up. I mean, there were no more slices so… it was messed up.

So my questions are :arrow_heading_down:

Is there a way to preserve slices, even when you re write a buffer ?
And is it possible to overwrite a buffer’s data sample by sample (talking about sample rate, not musical samples) ?

2

Did you use recording trigs?
If so did you remove it from the sequencer?

Are you using one shot recorder trigs? How are you arming them?

Slices on a buffer should remain even if re recorded.

Last question, no because it isn’t possible to set a recording length that short. Unless your fingers are real fast at start stop.

3

Thanks for your answer !

I used recording trigs. I tried both one shot and normal trigs. And I armed it entering the trig editor (with the record button) and pressing yes. The OT then shows “track armed” or something like so.

I think I didn’t explained correctly my sample by sample question. I dont want to record a single sample long audio file. I wonder if the recorder can overwrite the data on the buffer only one sample at the time. That way the buffer would remain filled with audio instead of being cleared, recorded again, and so on.

4

The buffer remains until you either record over it, or turn the machine off.

If you are losing recordings, most likely cause is recorder trig is still active.

5

Hmmm yeah, got it. But when you rearm the trigger or re record, the buffer is immediatly erased, right ?

6

Yep, thats how it works. Recorder buffer has audio in it, until you re record, or turn it off.

As soon as that thing starts recording then yes, the previous material is gone. It is a digital recorder, not a tape loop.

Be clear on what you want to acheive.

If you want to play the buffer audio, while recording new audio, you need to offset the playback trig from the recording trig. There are limits.

Additionaly if you have random trigs playing back slices of the sample that haven’t been recorded yet, all you get is silence. Which makes sense. If you try and play something that hasn’t happend yet, you wont hear anything

1 Like
7

Ok, I understand now.

Thanks for your help !