What is the problem?
Currently the patterns on the Tracker are limited to a maximum length of 128 steps. While this looks like a lot, and is more than many sequencers provide, you quickly run into this limit when creating long evolving patterns, or when you want an effect (e.g. volume) to slowly build up over the course of multiple 128 step patterns.
Preferably the maximum would be at least 256 steps, but 512 or 1024 would be even better. Since the BPM maximum of 800 can be easily reached by just using the jog wheel, reaching 1024 for the steps per pattern shouldn’t be a problem. Higher values won’t be necessary. Since each increase would be a doubling, this would also double the necessary jog wheel travel.
What should this feature achieve?
The benefit of this would obviously be that you’d be able to creating long evolving ideas in one single pattern, spread effect buildups out longer, or make it easier to create more variations in your patterns, because you don’t have to go back and forth to song mode just to find what the next pattern in the sequence is.
But aside from this you would also be able to copy/paste multiple pre-existing patterns into one pattern that you can loop in song mode, essentially eliminating the need for this feature request: Looping multiple patterns in song-mode - #8 by inz1
Are there any workarounds?
You can keep spreading out buildups over multiple 128 step patterns, but this way you still can’t loop multiple patterns in song mode. You could also halve the BPM, but that will cost you in resolution, and will affect other gear that’s running off the Tracker’s MIDI clock.
Any links to related discussions?
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Any references to other products?
Renoise has a practically endless pattern length.