Octatrack or Software/Controller Combo Right For Me?

[J0n35y]

Hi guys. I've asked for advice over on Gearslutz but thought Id ask round here too. Wasn't sure where to ask the question though so mods, feel free to move this around.

Not intending this to be an Octatrack vs The World type thread. Trust me when I say I have researched and read through mostly everything as far as the Octatrack is concerned.

I'm looking for possible alternative suggestions or pointers for what I'm looking to get into. I own Live 9 and Maschine along with a load of vst's (Komplete and others), Mopho, Miniak, X-Station and an old Yammy A4000. Oh, and an iPad.

Creative sampling is something I've always wanted to get into. It's always intrigued me though when I try and get a little more experimental with Live or within Maschine I just, well, don't really enjoy it. I think its a workflow thing with the software to be honest. Both are great for handling my drums but I'm wanting to take sound X and turn it into Y - vocals into synth pads, a recording into a strange drone, etc etc - and I just don't feel it with Live/Maschine. Outside of using sample libraries, I'll concede Im new to sampling as a whole though so maybe I'm just missing something.

Anyway, I recently flogged a mental amount of NES/SNES games and have raised a tidy some so I thought time to spend it on music! Didn't take long to come across the Octatrack and on the face of it I think it'd be a lot of fun and productive to use. Seems like something that would certainly cover what I'm trying to do and for sample related stuff I seem to enjoy hands on control a lot more. And I think I'd have a great time hooking it up to my other hardware, particularly the iPad to try a few things.

But, it's still a lot of money for me. I'm curious about software + hardware alternatives or whether I should get my head down into some proper training material and learn to live with Live/Maschine + my A4000 (which I currently use primarily as an FX unit) making it work for me. Would save the pennies but then where is the fun in that?...

I 'm not particularly knowledgeable about the vst sampling world but, for example, Alchemy seems to be something that handles samples very much in a style I'm looking for though missing the tactile hardware control. I could imagine Alchemy plus, say, The Finger being a useful combo.

Any thoughts/suggestions? I realise the Octatrack is more than just a sampler and I can accept that much of what it does is achievable with Live but, again, its that lack of hardware in Live issue and I have doubts that an APC 40, while great bit of kit, is going to cut stages out for when it comes to sampling.

Cheers