I/O AND SAMPLING

While it lacks digital audio or MIDI communication from the USB port, the Octatrack is otherwise well equipped on the I/O front. There are two pairs of balanced jack outputs, one set acting as the main outputs, one as a cue output. There’s also a separate back-panel headphone output. These are joined by four input packs, used for sampling, recording and processing audio, and arranged as two stereo pairs: A/B and C/D. For the MkII, these have been upgraded to balanced inputs, which is a nice touch, adding to the sampling and recording flexibility. These are joined on the rear panel by MIDI In, Out and Thru ports. The process of sampling and recording through the inputs – or internally resampling – is pretty smooth and intuitive, once you’ve got your head around the setup process. Recording can be done manually or triggered via the sequencer. Looping, via Pickup Machines, can also be controlled via a foot pedal. The inputs can be set up with noise gates and delay compensation. Once recorded, samples can be tweaked using the Octatrack’s flexible audio editor, which can be used to slice, trim and manipute recorded clips.