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OTXO live performance looper

otxo online manual

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Table of Contents

  1. Getting started
    1. Controller compatibility
    2. DAW setup
  2. Using the controller
    1. Play
    2. Control
    3. Length
    4. Length Factor
    5. System
  3. Using the interface
    1. Input section
    2. Info section & Waveform lock
    3. Mixer section
    4. Track info section
    5. Export
    6. Settings
    7. About
  4. Tips & Tricks

Getting started

Controller compatibility

OTXO is made for Novation® Launchpad® controllers. A lot of care has been put into making sure it is compatible with all models. The following models have been thorougly tested:

  • Launchpad S
  • Launchpad X
  • Launchpad Mini
  • Launchpad Mini mk3
  • Launchpad Pro
  • Launchpad Pro mk3

If you have multiple Launchpads, the suggestion is to use a non-velocity-sensitive one for OTXO first, that way you can keep using a velocity sensitive one for drums, notes expression.

DAW setup

It is important to tell your DAW is not to "interfere" with OTXO's communication with your selected Launchpad controller. The way you do that in Ableton is in the MIDI preferences, you select "None" in the leftmost column ("Control Surface") for your Launchpad. The second and third column should stay as is. Then, under "MIDI Ports", uncheck everything for the launchpad that you are using, both input and output.

Ableton Live midi configuration example screenshot

Using the controller

General

On the Launchpad controller that you use for OTXO, the top row of 8 buttons are used as Pages that control various aspects of the looper and its 8 internal tracks.

On the Play and Control pages, the rightmost column of 8 darker buttons function as the record/play/overdub button for each respective track.

For this manual, operation is explained with schematic drawings of the first models of Launchpads. For any compatible model, the operation is the same, including the Pro models: top row is pages, right column is record buttons.

To clear all recorded loops on all tracks, press the rightmost Page button on the top row, and then press the top right lighter square button right under it (the button should be lighting up in red).

Play

The Play page lets you see the playheads of each track going from left to right, looping around and thus visualizing what is going on. Each track's playhead color on the controller can be green, yellow, or red, according with its status as just playing, recording in overdub mode, or recording in overwrite mode respectively. Pressing one of the square buttons in an already playing track lets you move the playhead to that section of the loop (in that track) instantly. On the far right, the round buttons will toggle recording on and off per track.

Indicates that you are on the Play page.
Indicates that track #2 is halfway the loop.
Tap this pad to skip to exactly 75% of the loop.
Tap this pad to start recording on track #5.

Control

The Control page lets you see and set various settings per track that relate to your live performance or inspiration capturing session in the studio. Mute or solo tracks, set their recording mode, or reset tracks.

Indicates that you are on the Control page.
When some tracks are muted, this pad will light up green. You can use it to unmute all tracks.
When some tracks are solo'd, this pad will light up red. Tap it to unsolo all tracks (tracks that were muted before solo was pressed on any track, are be muted again).
Indicates that track #1 is in Overdub mode.
Tap this pad to switch recording mode to Overwrite mode.
Tap this pad to switch recording mode to Volume mode (when recording, only volume changes get recorded to the track).
Tap this pad to switch recording mode to Source mode (other tracks record from this track).
Indicates that track #2 is playing (playhead is moving). Press to pause.
Reset track (delete recording, stop playback, and reset length and bpm).
Indicates that this track is not muted - tap to mute.
Indicates that this track is not on solo - tap to solo.

Length

The Length track allows you to see and set the length of each track in relation to the master BPM (this could be a free length track within OTXO, or your DAW's BPM). The buttons, from left to right, span from 1/16th note to 8 bars, each step to the right doubling the length. The round button on the far right sets that track's length to "Free", which means that it will record until you press record again.

You can double the length of a recorded loop by holding the lit-up button representing the current length, and while holding, pressing a button to the right of it.

Indicates that you are on the Length page.
Tap this pad to set track #1 to free length.
Indicates that track #4 is set to 1/4th bar length.
Tap this pad to set track #6 to 1 bar length. Each subsequent pad to the right doubles its length, a step to the left means half.

Length Factor

The Length Factor page lets you deviate from standard power-of-2 length differences between tracks. It does this by letting you select a numerator and a denominator for the fraction to multiply the length with that is set in the Length page for the track in question. For an example, please refer to the tooltips below.

Indicates that you are on the Length Factor page.
Indicates that the currently selected track (track #3, see lit-up round button on the right) has a length factor of 3/2. That means that its length, set in the Length page, will be multiplied by 3 and then divided by 2. If track #2's length is set to two bars on the length page, its recording time will in effect be 3 bars.
Indicates that track #3 is selected for the purposes of the Length Factor page.
Tap this pad to select track #4 in order to be able to set its length factor.

System

The System page lets you quickly do a full reset/clear of the looper, as well as toggle monitoring, toggle track output, and left/right channel configuration options.

Indicates that you are on the System page.
Indicates that input monitoring is turned on - tap to toggle.
Indicates that track output is turned on - tap to toggle.
Indicates that input to tracks is stereo - tap to switch to use left channel only.
Indicates that input to tracks is stereo - tap to switch to use right channel only.
Tap this pad to do a full reset: stop all tracks' playback, clear in-memory recordings, and reset lengths.

Using the interface

For the most part, the interface behaves exactly like the controller does. But there are a few extra controls in the following sections:

Annotated screenshot of the otxo interface
  1. Input section
  2. Info section & Waveform lock
  3. Mixer section
  4. Track info section
  5. Export
  6. Settings
  7. About

Input section

Contains:

  • Channel selector, to record only from left or right channel, or regular stereo
  • Gain knob with VU, to measure and set the input gain
  • Monitor toggle, to set whether input is also routed to output

Info section & Waveform lock

The Info panel shows what control the mouse is currently hovering over, and in many cases also the current value of that control.

The Waveform lock toggle button lets you lock the page on screen to the Play page. This is helpful if you have learned all of the controls on the controller by heart, and you want to always see the waveforms of the loops on screen.

Mixer section

Level knobs and VU meters per track and for the master track. Also contains mute and solo buttons per track.

Track info section

Shows what each track's length and record mode is.

Export

Facilitates two ways of exporting loops: clicking and drag-and-drop. The second option deserves some caution.

  • Clicking the button presents a standard save-as window, where you can select an empty directory to export into.
  • Dragging and dropping lets you drop the loop wave files straight into your DAW or anywhere else on your file system. There's one catch: they end up first in some temporary directory specified by the operating system. Even though this directory is not cleared automatically, it's expected that you choose to remove temporary files at any moment, and your DAW might not know to collect all the loop files when it saves the project. In Ableton for example, you can force copying the loop files into the live set by a "Collect all and Save" action in the File menu. Note that the Settings window (see below) allows you to find the temporary directory with the loop files in it.

Settings

Screenshot of the settings window

Contains:

  • Device connection selector, to connect to and disconnect from your dedicated Launchpad® controller.
  • Loop mode selector, to choose between Rec-Play-Overdub and Rec-Overdub-Play.
  • Tempo guess range, to set a range within which computed BPM should fall.
  • Tempo send control, to select when tracks should transmit their computed tempo to the DAW via Abletoon Link.
  • Temp files browse, to browse through all the temporary files that drag-and-drop left here.

About

The OTXO logo is also a button that shows a credits, license, and other miscellaneous information when clicked. It tells you whether you have a trial or a full license. If you are on a trial period, the screen will read until when that trial license is valid and supply a handy link to buy, should you opt to.

Tips & Tricks

Note that you can hold a page button, press something in it, and let go of the page button as a sort of shortcut. You will be taken back to the page that you were on before pressing the shortcut.

The OTXO Software has not been sponsored or endorsed by Focusrite. Novation and Launchpad are registered trademarks of Focusrite Audio Engineering Limited in the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States of America and other territories.

Ableton Link is a technology that synchronises beat, phase and tempo between Ableton Live and Link-enabled applications over a network, built by Ableton.