[Sticky] Octopus (only) v6 BETA

Not sure if it's a bug but when in edit note mode, I can hold the note and extend its length by pressing another note to the right. When doing this the note extends only to the button before the one I'm holding so if I have a note in position 1 of the track and want an entire whole note 16 steps in length, it's not available using this method.

That gesture/behavior hasn't changed in v6.0 so it's probably working as intended. I'll take a look. Another way to make all notes in a track legato is to use the legato feature of Solo Recording.

Hi everybody,

it's several years ago when I subscribed to the list. To be honest, the Octopus was not much in action during this time. But now it is time to start over and to put it into the sequencing life immediately.

I am using a special version of the OS 5.00 with track MIDI-IN transpose functionality. When getting familiar with the beast again, I figured out that the original track muting functionality by just pressing the track related mutator button does not work anymore. Then I found the thread about OS 6.0Beta, read the read.me and was happy, that there were new function modes related to this topic implemented. So I immediately downloaded the OS 6.0Beta just to figure out that the track transpose function disappeared in this version.

Is there a chance to get this function back? - And by the way would it be possible to implement the original track mute function by simply pressing the corresponding track mutator button back?
NB1: double click on the track mutator button leads to soloing the track.
NB2: I loved the mute/unmute functionality with the stored set of muted tracks and pressing the MUT button implemented in the last original software.

Thanx, Werner

Hi Werner,

Good to hear from you again.

Let's see what we can do. There is a version 5.25 that probably already has the mute fixes. What I merged in to the v6 branch was an early prototype and I haven't pulled the latest code yet. I was planning to fix the remaining v6 bugs last year during the next heat wave, but there weren't any. All I've done with v6 since then is collect a list of things that I want to fix, change, or remove. The new transpose needs some UI work. There is also a record timing problem with v6 in SoloRec view. I have a hack fix that I haven't shared. It seems that I'm the only person who uses the v6 features and getting this to a quality level good enough to publish is probably more work that I'm willing to do just for the sake of saying that I've done it. So, v6 may always be an experimental version where v5.25 will likely be something that others will want to install. We will see. I have a much better idea now, years later, as to what features of v6 I actually use (fast record, fast clear, legato, and quantize mostly) and what features have since become ubiquitous with other MIDI controllers, e.g. chords as keys and transpose.

Best,

Eric

Regarding transpose, the original implementation was only able to transpose an entire page because per-track was not a capability. With the new v6 transpose we can record transpositions per-track. I've noticed that the recording is very buggy but I think live transpose may work okay. I may ditch recording have only allow live transpose. Please let me know how you'd like it to work based on what v6 does now (ignoring record with is pretty broken). I do plan to spend time making transpose near perfect.

Also, if you'd like the record fix hack for SoloRec view, let me know. The hack breaks some other things like Measure Hold, Tape Record, and the MIDI foot switch controller.

Hi Eric,

first of all, I am really grateful that the software development of the Octopus/Nemo still is alive. So "chapeau" for all your contribution to this grate sequencer which is HIGHLY appreciated. I still use just 10% of its features and have to re-learn a lot of the features.

I really like the track wise life transpose in run mode, since I do a lot of Berlin School type of music. With this flexible solution I can have 4 tracks playing synths and 4 tracks playing the drum machine (did not need to run pages in parallel as I am still in the starting phase...) 
About the implementation:
- To have a different MIDI transpose channel for each track is not required but a nice feature for transposing different synth lines different.
- The implementation that velocity below 64 (if I remember correctly) set the transposition to the base note did confuse me and I managed the situation that I set the velocity for transposition to always 127. But other people might have different opinions.

Transposition during recording never was a need for my workflow. I use to record tracks on the base note and only use track transpose in play mode. So at the moment no need for the record fix hack.

But nevertheless I will try to load 6Beta to check, if I find some issues as a "beta tester". Cannot promise that much but for sure I will let you know if I find something.

Best wishes, 

Werner ツ 

Hey Werner,

I had some time to program the Octopus yesterday and I fixed a handful of bugs, including the record timing issue that I mentioned (I think... it's a bit subtle to hear the difference while testing). I'm planning to wrap things up with v6 over the next month or so. This week I'll be reworking transpose and strum and then any bugs that I run across. Last, I'll merge in the v5.25 updates. I've updated the link at the top of this thread with the latest ELF OS file.

Cheers,

Eric

Hi,

I have updated the links at the top of this thread to point to the official release branch for Octopus v6 - Cuttlefish.

octopus-cuttlefish-6.0.0

I have merged in all of the changes from the master branch (v5+).

At this time, I haven't gone through every feature to ensure that there are no regressions caused by the merge. The way the code was labeled and written in isolated modules, I don't expect there to be many issues.

Moving forward, I will fix bugs as I come across them but the feature set described in the manual will not change.

There are some obscure features that I embedded deep inside the machine, such as the Chord Arp, the Drum Machine Scene Controller, Transpose Recording, Strum Recording, Tape Recording, and Play Along, that you should consider as "cool extras". I do not intend to spend the time to fix bugs that come up in these areas because I don't use them often enough and there are workarounds.

Cheers,

Eric

Hi Eric,

thank you so much for the update. I downloaded the 6.0.Beta but will need a couple of days to install it. I will let you know about the results.

Cheers, Werner ツ 

@oehi

Hi Werner,

I went through the v6 manual yesterday and made a list of all of the issues that I encountered. There were only a handful but I have either removed these minor features or fixed the bugs (a few little things, I decided were not worth the time fixing). Be sure to download the octopus.elf and manual again before you install.

Best,

Eric

Hi Eric,

thank you very much for the information and the hint. I did a download last week and installed the V6 beta. Unfortunately I could not make the MIDI-Keyboard transpose function working. So I will download it again and do the installation.

Best wishes,

Werner ツ 

do any of the alternative operating systems for the octopus have the modulation waveforms like the nemo does? 

i think i must have dreamed it but for some reason i remember an octopus front panel with some tape or photoshopped waveform scribbling from the nemo on it.  that would have been around 2010 maybe? its been a hot minute.  i have had a nemo off and on for many years now.  i sold my octopus in 2012 and i have a new one arriving tomorrow, super excited! i actually bought one that was purchased NOS from analoguehaven in 2019, so pretty insane find!! 

@companyofquail

No, its not implemented on the any of the octopus OS's (AFAIK)...........

However, its easy to setup template pages with the Flow Factor values stored to the tracks (for your chosen attr's) & then copy/paste a "flow" track to the page you wish to apply them on.

You will find all the Flow Factor shape values on page 48 of the v5 Nemo user guide

i was thinking this was going to be the workaround after i looked through the manual a few times.  thanks for the quick response. just unpacked the machine and put it on my desk. should be posting a photo into the appropriate thread in the coming days after i decide how to hook everything up. 

so nice to have the octopus back in my system, it really is an inspiring tool and a thing of beauty. thank you so much @jean @eellis @wilson and anyone else i may be unaware of for keeping this thing growing all these years.