AR and A4 losing sync!? Can anyone explain this?

Hey, I was just curious if you tired it with turbo, I have found my units better sync’d in turbo mode, I was only trying to help.

Thanks for following through and posting the response for support. Much appreciated.

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My bad. I didn’t mean to be rude. Really appreciate creative solutions. :pray:

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Say what? That makes less sense than their original comment. How can the receiving device know that the sending device has hit the end of its CHNG cycle?

Or am I missing something?

I guess the end of the sender’s CHNG cycle (or slightly before) is the moment when the pattern change is sent? If the sending device is readying a pattern change, it will (or should) send that PC message out to other devices near the end of the cycle so the receiver will get ready to change too. Right?

This is the important bit regarding the receiver:

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It would make sense that the PC message is sent to the receiving device at the moment you select a new pattern on the sending device. So both devices at the same time can cue the pattern. It works like that in NORMAL Pattern Scale mode. In ADVANCED mode that behaviour is broken.

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The Digitakt and Digitone have the exact same issue. They change pattern together in NORMAL pattern scale mode but not in ADVANCED (scale per track) mode.

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Amazing that you figured this out properly because these threads pop up fairly often and there’s never been a clear answer. I assume you’ve sent this video over to Elektron?

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I sent the DT/DN video to support as well.

I mean, that this issue hasn’t been caught yet. Is nobody using synched patterns maybe? I know a lot of live set for example use manual pattern switching.

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It has been talked about, my guess is people just muddle through/make do, rather than pursuing it and finding a minimal case, reporting it etc (as you have done!)

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I can’t work out what’s happening in the video… maybe renaming the Patterns to ‘Ptn 1’ ‘Ptn 2’ etc would make it easier to see.

I’m now also curious to know if it’s possible to have one machine working in Adv mode and one in Std mode and have them change together.

It is something Elektron should prioritise fixing IMO too, when you consider how many people work with 2< Elektron units… does that mean everyone is avoiding Adv mode?

@DaveMech do you have a take on this? Asking you as I’ve often seen you using more than 1 unit and I know you’ve just been doing your instructional videos…

They both look in sync in this video is that what you are trying to portray? Or am i missing something obvious?

They are supposed to change patterns at the same. time. In this video it’s clear that the DN changes pattern one cycle later than the DT. I entered trigs on all steps on both machines so it’s better visible.

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In the video I have two new initialised projects. I switch between pattern A1 and A2 on the Digitakt. Pattern A1 has trigs on all steps on both machines. Pattern A2 does not. So you can clearly see when patterns switch.

As you can see the Digitone lags behind. They should switch patterns at the same time. As a matter of fact they do when you have Pattern Scale set to global. If you set pattern scale to “per track” pattern sync breaks.

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So what happens if you have CH.LEN set to 0/Off on the Digitone and the M.LEN at a regular length (say 32 or 64)?

I will try some of this myself later on my AR and A4 too…

They will switch patterns together at 32 or 64. But then you cap all your tracks a 32 or 64 steps. Well, why not increase that number? Because then you have to wait a long time before patterns switch. Hence the CH.LEN paramater.

Typically I would set M.LEN to INF and CH.LEN to 16. Meaning I have endless patterns playing but when I cue a new pattern it will play at the next 16 cycle. And it is how the machines behave. But not together :smirk:

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I don’t have these particular machines but the patterns look like they both start at the right time and run in unison the whole length of the video. Each step lights up on the right step on both machines. Guess I am dumb I just cant see it. Maybe it would help with audio.

It’s just that the Digitone (right) is 1 Bar late.

I think I have watched it 50 times haha

It’s not about the steps being in sync. They are in sync. That’s not the issue. Pattern switching is not in sync. The DN lags behind one cycle. You can clearly see that the DN switches to pattern A2 later than the DT. On both machines the pattern with all the trigs lit should start at the same time.

My OT and AR sometimes exhibit this problem too!

Inspired by @martin01 I filmed and photographed a bit of testing. You can see all the images and videos I took here:

I tested:
AR leading OT with basic and advanced scales
OT leading AR with basic and advanced scales
The folder linked above is divided up into settings, the leading/following configuration and the basic/advanced pattern config.

During my first pass, it looked like I was going to agree with @martin01, that the sync is consistently OK with basic scales, and consistently 1 “bar” behind with advanced ones. It also looked like when the AR leads, the OT always followed correctly. However, subsequent attempts showed it’s actually not that simple in my case. It didn’t matter which box lead. It also didn’t matter whether the patterns used basic or advanced scales (although basic did seem to work correctly more often). It seems to happen more often when I restart playback without first double-stopping. But I couldn’t prove to myself that was a consistent workaround. Dig into the videos and decide for yourselves. The long one in Sync/AR_leading_OT/1 AR leading OT - basic scale is the most revealing/confusing.

On both boxes I set pattern A01 up with 1 group of four trigs in the middle, and pattern A02 with 2 groups, so you can see which pattern is playing.

I’ve also contacted Elektron support, linking this thread and my Dropbox of evidence.

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