A4 + AR live set - where am I in my timeline?

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
1

A lot of us have faced the fact that the combination of A4 + AR is unbeatable.

But how do you orientate in your live set time wise?

I play with two other musicians and we arrange everything on a time line.
As any performing live musician in a band, I need a cue for breaks etc.

I use the AR as my main sequencer and find it challenging to use.

Am I the only one here who went through this process:

  • Lost the overview of chains longer than 4 patterns (exceeding the screen area)
  • Made more chains and finally met the limit of 62 chains per song
  • Started using chain repeats but cannot find a way to see which of the repetitions I’m in

Please let me know your workarounds

2

I generally only use one pattern per song during live, so there’s no problems about running out of chains.

Do you absolutely need to preprogram all rhythmic structures in advance? Perhaps you could simplify a bit… You can still use mutes and reprogram steps when running in chain mode, so you could use the pattern chain to introduce only the macro-level rhythmic changes, and tweak the micromanagements/subtleties in realtime with mutes and performance macros etc.

Also, I recommend using the trig conditions heavily. You can cram a lot more changes into one pattern with 8/8 etc trig conditions.