I took the opposite approach. Just plugged it in and started reading the manual. But it was pretty rough for a while. Extreme mangling came easily, but not much else. Now I'm getting to where my goals are more pointed, more specific. Since I'm one of those folks who had little synth/sequencer experience prior to the Octa, I'll admit to a steep learning curve. Getting the Digitone (after the Octatrack) opened some doors for me because it's ALMOST intuitive. Read the manual, then practice. With the Octatrack, it's more like a three-pronged approach: Read the manual, watch videos, THEN practice... Best of luck, guys!

Nice jam! Love my octatrack. I refuse to ever part ways with it. Just wish they would reboot monomachine but on steroids. You have to take it slow with elektron devices and nothing to be ashamed of people. It’s worth the effort. Insane modulations and mangling can be had that others can’t come close.

Great honest information 👍 I fully agree. I totally didn’t gel with it, even though I love all the other Elektron instruments. Sold it to buy an MPC Live which makes much more sense to me.

I'm in love with my OT... now I understand it. It took a while for our relationship to bloom.

The Octa is my desert island piece of gear. You can just do SO much with it. It’s just as good as a stand-alone sampler, groovebox and synth or as the brain for a larger setup. I love it so much, it’s totally worth the effort put in to learning it!

One thing I feel is worth mentioning about the Octa - don’t sleep on learning parts! There are a couple of ways to use them but here are my two favourites: 1: since trigs are constant among parts in a pattern, you can use parts to flip samples easily without wasting a pattern slot. And 2: assign patterns 1-4 for example to part 1, 2-8 to part 2 etc. this allows you to ‘chop up’ banks into logical groupings. Really upped my game when performing and gives my tracks a bit more variety and theming.

Nice video.. I’m learning to use the Octatrack right now and I agree to everything you said here. It’s an amazing machine but it needs some figuring out but once you get it it’s just so amazing and feels like it can do anything 😄

Great jam, sounds like chemical bros

I think it mainly has this reputation of being complicated and scary because everybody's saying so. When I ask those who are afraid how far they're into the manual, most of the times the next thing I hear is "oh yeah too long, didn't read. I don't need a manual anyways", which is a funny thing to say when you're stuck ^^ 4:30 good points. It makes sense to start with only a small subset of the functionalities. The rest comes when time is right. When you're ready for more input, you automatically start searching for information. 💪

Hey! Pls continue to make that kind of videos more, I have a believe that your chanel will be big one day, Im here and looking forward to the new stuffs! Keep it up!

Whoa as an Axe III owner my mind was blown when you grabbed the Fractal unit. So unexpected. I have been doing research now and then for a long time about the Octa and Digitakt. I am also mainly a guitarist, shoegaze with solos I guess. But with some soft synths involved. Love unexpected sounds. The main answer I see on forums to the question of why Elektron instead of ITB or even iPad is "I work on a computer all day" which I understand but is not an issue for me. Or else the argument is that a tactile interface is more conducive to creativity. Your thoughts on this? A video on the Analog 4 would be welcome, given your experience of it as an introduction to Elektron. I keep looking at the Digitakt knowing that I probably can't just jump in with an Octa but it seems a little too limited. (Digitakt owners might disagree.) Good luck with your channel. It's a niche that a lot of guitarists and others are interested in.

Would greatly appreciate info on that riser you’ve got the A4 on! 😅 Recently picked up an RYTM and want this setup with my OT.

Jon Makes Beats is a nice advertisement for the piece too if you are in to hip hop 👨‍🍳😄

I was almost one of those that would have put my octa on offer up or reverb, the early firmware didn't sleep or have a screen saver so my screen got burned with the arp page! It's not really a bother, and doesn't effect workability. I've started with pickup machine right now, because it's an incredible and powerful looper that I can just jump in and start playing around so I don't get discouraged as I did after I first bought it, but also it's really easy that way to record complex and original samples. My next goal is to chop up pickup loops into mangled samples in a flex machine. I'm planning on having my RD-8 go to a thru machine and to record the 808 style drums so I wouldn't have to lug the drum machine around, or use the drum machine live in a thru and perhaps record synth basses from my matriarch or eurorack so I'll never have to lug that shit around which wouldn't be ideal- if I ever decide to play live again. I'm trying to learn how to make more DnBish rhythms like chopping up the "amen break" or something, which I realised the octatrack would probably excel at. So after years of playing with CV/gate with no midi or centralised midi machine after my mpc1000 broke (I think it was the motherboard or flash memory went sour cause it doesn't store samples), I'm dedicating myself to learning the machine despite how poorly the manual is written; the manual really leaves shit out that KZfaq tutorials fill in and they are just more my learning type. Anyway, thanks for the vote of confidence!

I love and hate my octatrack at the same time. I have used it for sound design in animations and keep it for that one purpose but for making music it is so uninspiring and troublesome. Recently been using an rc505 and pulsar 23 an those are like dragons, so much hands on fun and instantly playable. Octatrack takes ages to get anywhere... But when you get there it sounds good (eventually)