Can someone explain to me the benefits of using variations over patterns. Either way, to build up a song it seems that one would copy the previous pattern into the next slot and then modify it. What am I missing?
The main benefit is that you can apply some āvariationā within a pattern. Say for hi-hats you could have one variation at 1/8th notes and another at 1/16th which would let you switch between them within the same pattern.
This becomes very useful as a live performance tool as it allows you to stick within a pattern and create modifications on the fly.
Hope that helps!
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Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but why are variations better for a live performance as compared to just changing to another identical pattern with different hi-hats?
In a performance context you may want to build up / evolve a pattern over time. Which means you may sit on a singular pattern for quite a while. Having the ability to add variation on individual parts then is super helpful to keep things āaliveā / fresh / changing.
Hope that helps 
A somewhat silly analogy;
Patterns are a bunch of appetizers that you have cooked
Variations are a bunch of dips for your appetizers.
So on the spot you can add variation to your appetizer via eating it with various dips 
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Is seems that focus of variations is on modifying limited tracks as compared to a new pattern with many tracks being changed. Also variations cannot use shift/play for āplay allā which means the variations need to be chosen manually. Can I copy a variation to make a new pattern with it?
Correct. Itās more of a individual workflow preference than anything else.
Some people donāt build āsongsā per se but rather build the song by choosing when to jump to another pattern, rather than playing them all sequentially and might vary the sound within the pattern through the variations.
I personally have used both approaches in the past and most likely will keep doing so - depending on what iām trying to achieve.
You can copy the pattern that contains the variations. When copying a pattern all that data is copied as well. You can copy individual varations within the same pattern though. Using the same behaviour for copying as you would for copying patterns.
hey there!
If we could manually record a sequence of patterns or segments/parts of them in variation mode, we would have two differentiated modes:
- pattern mode (static)
- variation mode (dynamic) to give organicity to the patterns!!!
I donāt do live performances. But I use variations a lot while Iām early in a writing/experimentation process. E.g. have a nice melody going on a track, but I want to see if an idea will work out. I then copy to another variation and do experiments there. And can do so knowing that I havenāt ruined anything, as I have a copy of the āoriginalā melody.
And, yes, you can sort of do this with patterns as well. But itās so much easier with variations, especially to mix and match them across tracks and see what fits together.
I often end up with a single pattern containing a bunch of variations for each track, that I eventually āspread outā to a range of patterns, choose different sets of variations on each pattern and build my songs from there.
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Actually if you hold down the āScreenā button and hit one of the variation pads, it will select all of your tracks variations in that row. So yes, there is a way to have all tracks switch variations at once, but you have to plan that in the placement of your variations on each track.
You can also hold down Shift to switch to the variation immediately instead of waiting for the next pattern loop.