POLY8 for Elektron Octatrack

Eight-voice FLEX playback with native chord recording and a shared machine chooser.

Module version 0.2.6-experimental. Base firmware: 1.40C.

About this module

One POLY8 per Part, eight sample voices and fixed headroom. Combine with Repitch, Mute Modes, Scale Quantizer, Analog BD, VECTOR and FM Synth, subject to native memory limits. Physical timing and reboot qualification remain incomplete.

• One POLY8 per Part; refusal modal closes with NO or automatically after 120 native UI ticks.
• Eight shared voices; release tails yield before held notes.
• Independent ATK/HOLD/REL, with no per-note DSP or heap allocation.
• Ten panel octave positions and dedicated-route MIDI notes 0–127.
• PTCH tunes the chord; double-TRACK opens FLEX samples.
• LOOP OFF on new assignments; panel chords record into native bank locks.
• Fixed -18.06 dB per voice keeps eight full-scale voices within the mix range.
• Shared chooser with Analog BD, VECTOR and FM Synth; Repitch, Mute Modes and Scale Quantizer can be included.

How to use it

1. Select an audio track, open SRC SETUP, choose POLY8 and press YES.
2. Only one POLY8 can be assigned in each Part. A second assignment is refused without changing the track; press NO to dismiss the modal. Inactive Parts can each hold one POLY8.
3. After assignment, POLY8 stays on the current page like FLEX/STATIC. Double-press the track key to open its FLEX sample pool. Load a sample with the stock file browser, then confirm its slot with YES. NO leaves the browser.
4. Return to SRC, open the trig-mode menu with FUNC+DOWN, select CHROMATIC and confirm with YES. Hold several trig keys; FUNC+LEFT/RIGHT changes octave from -6 to +3.
5. Turn PTCH to transpose the sounding chord. A dedicated POLY8 MIDI channel accepts notes 0–127; note 84 plays the tuned sample root.
6. New assignments default to LOOP OFF. POLY8 has a maximum of eight voices, subject to the pitch-work limit, with fixed -18.06 dB gain per voice.
7. Use REC+PLAY in chromatic mode to record up to four held panel notes spanning at most eleven semitones. Recorded duration follows AMP HOLD.

Controls

PTCH

Track-wide sample tuning; each note adds an independent semitone offset. Held and releasing voices follow tuning changes.

LOOP

Native FLEX loop mode. New POLY8 assignments default to OFF; existing selections are preserved.

Compatibility notes

• Experimental release: physical CPU deadlines, recording, reboot persistence and broader stock workflows remain unqualified.
• Only one newly assigned POLY8 machine per Part; older multi-POLY8 Parts must be reduced to one before use. Fixed headroom makes a single note 18.06 dB quieter than 0.2.1.
• TSTR is OFF while POLY8 is active.
• FLEX only; STATIC requires independent streaming-cache support.
• Panel recording supports up to four notes within an octave; wider/larger chords and recorded key-up duration are unsupported. Extended-range MIDI recording remains incomplete.
• MIDI channels shared with non-POLY8 audio tracks keep stock note-command mapping outside 72–96.
• Linear interpolation can alias at high pitches; no anti-aliasing upgrade is claimed.
• Ratios saturate below 32× rather than fold by octaves; very low pitches are limited by Q16 playback phase.
• The octave selector is a global live control; it is not saved per Part.
• Recorded chord steps use PTCH lock storage for their root. Stock PTCH lock editing/display for those steps is not qualified; native SAMPLE locks remain available.
• Shared-machine composition is covered by guarded dispatch seams; native memory and DSP limits can still refuse a selection.

Test evidence

T07/T08 MKII boot failure was traced to an unloaded initialization flag. Corrected T09 received the owner report "works really well"; the exact T10 selection-flow update then received "works like a charm" on MKII. Duration, separate persistence tests and maximum-load coverage were not reported. Chip deadlines and complete memory bounds remain unqualified under an exact-version owner exception.