What should I do first?

[gseher]

Hi,
my Octopus is all bought and paid for and is on its
way from Awave by Tuesday!

So, what do I need to do first?
What is the best way to approach it?

I intend to setup 2 4m MIDI pairs for the 2 ports,
back to one of my AMT-8’s.

Should I update the firmware right away, before
using it? And then what combinations of documents
and sections should I be reading up on first?

Can someone direct me or discuss a quick and dirty
setup method? What I intended first, was to get it
working with my Novation Drumstation sound module
and use it as a glorified x0x programmer, then bring
in my various mono and poly synths – so I need to
know how to assign voices and MIDI channels to Octopus
tracks.

Am I best letting Logic be the Sync master or do I
now hand this over to the Octopus?

I know to use the Channel Splitter in Logic,
so I will cut an Environment together for this,
to allow me to access all my instruments.

Does anyone have anything worth sharing – patch
setups, environment settings etc?

I have already bought a USB flexi lamp. Octopus
will be underneath my MiniMoog most probably and will need a bit of lighting up.

I am so excited to get this – I can hardly wait!

rachel

[Mike]

Check the OS version first, then upgrade if needed.

Then I would start with wiring the Octo directly up to a module, like the drumstation and maybe a synthesizer.

Then just put in a very simple sequence, don’t start writing a song first thing. Crack open the manual and start going through it page by page and actually perform the things described in the manual. You probably won’t get very far the first time through

You will probably want to skip over most of the advanced topics at first. Then I would start building a really simple song and reread sections of the manual as needed to complete the song.

Then hook the Octopus up to the rest of the studio.

At that point I reread the manual again, taking sticky notes and putting them on pages that had things I never tried to do. Then I set up a time to specific do the things I had marked even if I never had a use for them.

By this time you will be very fluent in "Octopus" and have it integrated well into the studio.

Things I think are most valuable to learn well are the EDIT mode for PAGES (to enter step pitch, velocity and length). TRACK multipliers and chaining, and dumping/saving the machine state.

cheers
ripe

cheers
ripe

[gseher]

OK,
my Octopus arrived yesterday but I’ve only just
powered it up and got it in the rack.

I still have to hook up the MIDI ports to my AMT
but I will do that shortly.

It seems I have Serial Number #NC001 – is this
significant? Doesn’t "NC" mean "New Classic"
and if so, is it #001 in the series? I am surprised
if #001 ended up in Australia!

Anyway, it seems to have OS 1.42 installed. That is,
if I am reading the display correctly. When I go into
System Mode, the number 100 is lit, plus numbers
1,3,4 in red and 2 in green – so that is 1.42, right?

Once I get confirmation, I will need to do the
update to 1.60 or latest. How many files do
I need to do this?

rachel

[gseher]

Woohoo! My machine is now updated to 1.60 ie
in System mode it’s got a 100 and 6 red LED’s lit.

Then I did the reset and memory refresh, so I guess
I am ready to fly!

I now have to buy longer MIDI cables as the 4m ones
I have now are too short so I will need 5-6m instead!

So my next trick is to walk through the manual
and give the Octopus some thought….

rachel

[Jordi]

I’d go through a row of pages, make channel assignments, and think about changing the default pitch assignments for the tracks (if for example you use one or two pages for your drum machines, or something). Then I’d save that blank set of pages with those new channel and pitch assignments.

The next thing to think about is what CCs you want the Mix knobs to send, and adding those assignments to your default machine state, but that’s not something you really will need to worry about immediately, and maybe doesn’t even make sense to do until you’ve wrapped your head around the workflow a bit more.

[gseher]

Hello Rachel,
and congratulations to your new machine!
NC001 is indeed #001 of the New Classic series, as Awave’s was among the first New Classic orders as soon as we’d announced it, and it just so happens that things do not happen in perfect sequence in life It has of course no technical significance at all, only an aesthetic one – what a nice number to have!
Enjoy the machine, and let us all know how it goes.
Cheers,
Gabriel

[gseher]

Hi rachel,
I hope that you have understood the basic operations of the Octopus. A good Idea is now to look for video on your tube and the genoqs webpage. Another thing is, to setup your "finally" Setup with Logic. You should allwas use the Octopus as the master (master clock) and all other devices as slave. One misty thing is that Logic 8 do not accept Midi Clock in anymore (grrrrr). So you can use the channel splitter to trigger different plugins via different midi chanels via the Octopus.

Post edited by: Dayflight, at: 2008/12/16 16:07

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