So overwhelming was the response to Elektron's new Octatrack that eager gearmongers and such crashed the company's site within hours of MusikMesse opening its doors today. Elektron politely offered a "Thanks for breaking our server" note on its homepage, promising to get the Web site and product specs up and running very soon. Until then, here is a peak at the Octatrack:

Designed to revolutionize the concept of sampling, the Octatrack is a multitrack digital sampler with onboard sequencer, real-time pitch shift and time stretch, and effects. At its core, the most essential features include 8 audio tracks, 4 audio inputs, 4 audio outputs, headphone output, USB 2.0 connectivity, CF reader, optical fader, and 2 effect blocks per track.

The Octatrack sports an intuitive interface that's said to make the art of recording a breeze. Once sampled, sounds may be looped, sliced, and rearranged in real-time, all the while staying in sync no matter what has been done to them. According to Elektron, samples will stay in sync even if they are pitch-shifted or if the tempo of the sequencer is changed. Single sounds can be shaped into any form.

A Compact Flash card allows you to store and access samples, while the USB port makes it easy to transfer sample libraries between your computer and the Octatrack. The optical fader can be assigned to any of the parameters, providing some fun, expressive live-control options.

Still in its prototype stage, the Octatrack is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2010.