Octatrack MkII (Black)

Imagine a sampler that doesn't just play samples—it reshapes them on the fly, turning static loops into living, breathing performances that evolve with every twist of a knob. That's the magic at the heart of this updated classic from Elektron, reborn with hardware refinements that make it even more reliable for stage and studio marathons.

At its core, it's an eight-track dynamic performance sampler with Flex, Static, Thru, Neighbor, and Pickup machines, letting you record, slice, time-stretch, and pitch-shift samples in real time across polyphonic voices. Each track offers multimode filters (12dB and 24dB/oct), one envelope, three deeply customizable LFOs with an etch-a-sketch-style designer, and two insert effects from a palette including reverb, delay, distortion, compressor, phaser, flanger, chorus, spatializer, comb filter, and lo-fi. The sequencer shines with parameter locks, conditional triggers, micro-timing, swing, arpeggiator, and polyrhythmic lengths, plus eight MIDI tracks with four-note polyphony, CC control, and MIDI LFOs. Hands-on control comes via 16 velocity-sensitive pads, a silky smooth crossfader for seamless transitions, precise hi-res encoders, durable backlit buttons, and a crisp 128x64 OLED screen—all in a compact 340 x 184 x 63 mm metal chassis weighing 2.3 kg. Connectivity is robust: four balanced/unbalanced 1/4" inputs, stereo main and cue outs, headphone jack, DIN MIDI in/out/thru, USB, and CompactFlash for up to 2GB static samples or flexible RAM allocation.

Users love its limitless sound design potential and role as a live centerpiece or mixer hub, though the learning curve rewards those who dive deep into its workflow. It's the ultimate tool for anyone serious about sample mangling and spontaneous sequencing.