I just read the manual on this, and searched the forum. Still don’t understand…
In the manual’s introduction to Arrangements & Variations (Chapter 7), it says “Variations allow alternative versions of tracks to be created and used to help build arrangements or just to use in a performance or live improvisations.”
I understand the value of Variations for playing live, but I do not understand whether there’s a way to utilize Variations when it comes to arranging a song in Song mode on the Play (in my case, Play+).
Does the Play just play the most recently selected combinations of track variations when playing a Pattern Chain in Song mode? If so, that seems to undermine the purpose of Song Mode (because playing with variations in Pattern view would continually change your Song).
Or, is there a way to predictably play specific Patterns and their selected Variations within the context of Song Mode?
Can someone help me understand what I’m missing? Thank you!
The playful nature of the Play (
), allows so many different ways on how to create a song/performance or how to structure a song, that i totally understand your question. 
Variations are mostly a live performance feature in my opinion. As it allows you to use the same pattern with - as the name indicates - minor or even major variations, when perfoming a song live.
However - you could create an entire song and then create a full variation of it (if you create variations for each pattern you have created). This would effectively give you two entirely different versions of the same song that can be played through sequentially.
But as you have correctly read in the manual. There is no way of automating variations and when arranging patterns, that information is not stored. So it’s a tool that you either use during a performance, or you set it at the start and don’t touch it again until your song is done. 
I hope that clears this up a bit.
Thanks @Sandroid. I’m going to ‘live’ with the box more and see what I think after some more time. To me, it doesn’t feel like a limitation (that Variations aren’t really a Song-mode feature), but I did have a hard time understanding how Variations relate to Song mode. I guess I assumed correctly … they don’t 
Personally, I really like how the Song mode works as-is… love its simplicity. And it works just fine for the way I may music.
Thanks again
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