What is the problem?
Each pattern itself is limited to 16 steps. This means, that in 4/4 with a 16th note groove, I can only make the pattern one bar long.
What should this feature achieve?
I’d like to have multiple measures for a single groove. Some tools I’ve used have “pages” where you can add additional measures. It’s comes down to how patterns are grouped and how they’d play back. It would allow per pattern looping of more complex (meaning longer than 16 steps) grooves. The user would now be able to Copy n Paste to a new “page” or “measure”, allowing for easier editing if its just a few changes.
I see it like this…
I’d make, let’s say, a 4-bar pattern for the verse. And then maybe I make another 4 bar pattern as a pre-chorus, and another as a chorus. Then copy and paste for additional verses and choruses and such.
This way, when hitting play, I get the more interesting, longer grooves for each section. I could also now easily loop a verse if it needed to be open ended, and advance to the next section only when I want. And the Step is still semantically able to have the whole song in order.
Another benefit to a page function would be if the groove changed meters, so I could do the first bar in 4/4, then a bar of 3/4…etc. Unleash my inner prog rock monster…
Are there any workarounds?
Sort of. Two options really…
OPTION 1: Build multiple patterns in order. Hold Play so that you get the yellow indicator and loop song function. This works well when the beat is multimeasure but doesn’t have different sections like choruses and such.
LIMITATIONS TO OPTION 1: If the song has multiple parts, or any section needs to be open-ended, you won’t be able to loop some parts but not others.
OPTION 2: Using the Chance function to set on and off for various notes. This looks like it can be done for up to 4 repetitions, which gets us a useable solution.
LIMITATIONS TO OPTION 2: While this gets a pretty good result, it becomes an issue when the patterns’ complexity rises. It becomes really cumbersome to program, and confusing as well, as you have to manually work through each step on each instrument to view the settings, making it hard to troubleshoot. The interface doesn’t have enough visual feedback to easily see “plays” and “skips”.
It’s also impossible to vary, say, volume or attack or the like on the same step and instrument. So let’s say the snare on beat 2 needs to be full volume on the 1st pass, but soft and ghosted on the 2nd. It doesn’t seem to be possible to do this currently.
Any links to related discussions?
I haven’t found other conversations about this.
Any references to other products?
Elektron Digitakt & Syntakt also has 16 physical step buttons, but allows 128 steps (so 8 bars of 16th notes). They have a dedicated page key that moves to later steps.