I must be a moron 
I’ve been reading and reading and trying all different things but I really cant figure out how to properly save on this great machine.
I have saved kits (currently 2 of them) and I’ve clicked the Save pattern function for both of them. It seems when I load my ket the pattern that is currently on stay on and I can’t load another pattern because there is no load pattern or name pattern.
What am I doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
The pattern is tied to the kit. So there is no way to name a pattern. Your kit name could be your pattern name.
I think you need to get the idea behind Projects
Every project has lots of kits, songs, patterns, etc…
if you save a project everything gets saved!
Every pattern is saved when you change to another pattern so you wont have to worry about them…
Heads up: If you modify the sounds in a kit and don’t save it (Yes+FX) before changing to a pattern with anonther kit, your changes will be lost
ups… thought you where talking about the Analog Rytm, hope is kind of the same for the A4
Does anyone have a step by step process I should follow for saving and loading a pattern with sounds?
It seems odd to me that it’s this difficult and I can’t find a simple process of doing this? I must be doing something very very wrong.
The pattern remembers the kit selection you made so when you select a new pattern it will have the kit it should. I don’t know how you work but I tend to have just one kit per bank and treat each of the 16 patterns as parts of an overall song. (If I used different kits then this would screw me since the volumes of each track are kept in the kit).
Getting used to using Save in conjunction with the Kit key (low C) is worth doing, as is Save and the Pattern Key (F). Once you’ve saved your pattern, you can load a new kit or individual sounds and use Reload to get it back to how it should be. Similarly, if you’ve tweaked sounds during a performance you can reload the entire kit independently too.
Apart from the track levels being stored in the kit, it’s a pretty good system I think.
You’re not alone in finding this aspect confusing.
Pattern loading :
This is not a menu operation, they’re loaded when you select one using one of the BANK buttons along with one of the 16 TRIG buttons.
A Kit is associated with a Pattern, usually on a one-to-one basis (i.e. Kit B-12 associated with Pattern B-12), but this need not be the case, i.e. a number of different Patterns can refer to the same single Kit (though note that editing this Kit will affect all Patterns using it).
Essentially, when you select (load) a Pattern, a Kit is loaded along with it (and this Kit contains 4 Sounds, etc).
Pattern saving :
Patterns are different to all other data types in the A4, in that they are auto-saved. This is done when you select (i.e. load) another Pattern (BANK + TRIG buttons).
The upshot of this is that if you alter a Pattern (experimenting with different ideas) and you don’t want these experiments to become permanent, then you have to remember to Reload the Pattern (a menu operation) before changing to another Pattern. (smokyfrog described the process.)
I found this very confusing before I realised this auto-save distiction.
So let me see if I got this right (currently not in front of my A4 to test it). If I’m working on a new pattern with a new kit (4 sounds) and I want to go back to an old pattern from the day before I should do the following:
Sorry for all of the questions but currently every time I load my kit from a previous pattern I was working on I get all of the correct sounds from that kit but it plays those sounds on the pattern I was just working on. In other words it doesn’t load my pattern. I’m wondering if I’m missing the step of going to pattern - reload pattern???
When you say ‘new pattern’ and ‘old pattern’ are you referring to the two states (saved and current) of a single Pattern, or about two different Patterns (i.e the same BANK+TRIG, or two different ones) ?
Regarding your second list item, No that’s wrong. If you want to work on the Kit associated with another Pattern, you should select that other Pattern (BANK+TRIG). The A4 will then load the Kit associated with this Pattern.
Kits belong to Patterns, not the other way round.
Regarding Kits : at any time, if you’ve edited a Kit and want to keep those edits, then you need to explicitly save the Kit. If you’ve edited only Pattern data (i.e. the sequence data: notes, plocks, etc) then you don’t need to save the Kit (because it’s not changed).
So currently I have two patterns, two totally different ideas with totally different kits. Ideally they would develop into two different songs. Lets call them Beat 1 & Beat 2.
Beat 1 one has been saved.
When I got to load a “Kit” I see Beat 1
When I go to load a “Song” I see Beat 1
Beat 2 has also been saved and it’s the pattern that is currently active when I turn on the A4.
When I got to load a “Kit” I see Beat 2
When I go to load a “Song” I see Beat 2
Here is the problem:
I want to load Beat 1 with the “Pattern” and “Kit” I wrote for this beat.
I can’t get this to happen.
I’ve tried the following:
Loading the “Kit” for Beat 1
Loading the song for Beat 1
Either I’m saving or loading wrong, or possibly both. Sorry this is turning into such a long thread it seems I should have this figured out by now.
So keep in mind the patterns are saved to each bank location. So Bank A and slot 01 will have whatever pattern you created there. This bank remembers the kit you have assigned to it unless you load in a new kit to that pattern. Lets say you saved this kit as Kit A.
If you created and saved a new kit (Kit B) and started a new pattern at bank B slot 01 then Kit B will be assigned to the pattern on B01. If you move on to bank B02 (as long as it has not been edited before) then it will start using Kit B unless you load up a new one. Once you are done with this pattern, it will auto save when you move on to another bank like B03. Now you have B01 B02 and B03 all assigned to Kit B.
Now you want to go back to the old kit (Kit A). Simply load up bank A01 and it will automatically load Kit A since it was the last kit used on that pattern and will recall the auto saved pattern on A01.
If you switch back to bank B01, it will load back up Kit B again and the associated pattern in that bank.
Did that clear up a few things? I know it took me some time to understand this on my Machinedrum but once it clicked I was annoyed at how simple it really is 
Good thread. I want to take the opportunity to ask about the thing I dont understand: Tracks
Lets say I save the sound, then I save the pattern, then I save the Kit.
If I then save the track, what exactly am i saving that has not already been saved in the other 3?
From the A4 manual :
“SAVE TRACK will save changes made to the active track. This is a special feature available in addition to the general, automatic, saving of patterns which occurs when patterns are changed. The feature is useful in situations where an individual track is being worked on, the results are favorable and you want to keep on working with the track while having the ability to revert it to a specific saved state. The SAVE TRACK command makes this possible. When reloading the track, it will not be reloaded to its original, pattern auto-saved, state, but to the manually saved state. Press [YES/SAVE]+[KEYBOARD E1] for a short cut to the SAVE TRACK command.”
Thanks. I appreciate the effort but I’ve already read the manual and that doesn’t actually answer my question. I didn’t ask “what is a Track?” Actually, I intentionally phrased my question to be very specific in hopes of getting a specific answer in someone’s own words. I’ve also read most or all of the threads on this topic and the problem I see is that the questions on this are always very general or vague and so the answers end up being the same which is why the topic is being re-visited so much. Specific questions and answers will help get to the heart of the matter and I’m seeing some good explanations in this thread. If the manual had all the answers for everyone there would be no purpose to having the forum. So… my question is still open if any of you other lovely members have any creative communication skills.
From my time with an a4 my suggestion would be to ignore the save track concept as it is not fundamental to the operation of the machine. Once you are confident you might find a use for it.
In response to the original post:
A pattern is a sequence of notes. Eg a01 as a 1 bar loop(like a midi clip).
A sound is a single synth patch.
The kit is the sound set the pattern plays and is locked to the pattern unless you load another kit while on this pattern. (Like a synth multi)
Don’t worry about saving patterns as they are automatically saved.
Concentrate on saving kits when you like the way it sounds. If you go mental with the controls you can reload.
Save the project when you reach a landmark. If you get lost you can reload.
I hope this helps.
Edit: a typical piece of music consists of maybe 16 patterns (beats, chords, basslines layered as desired) that all play the same kit of sounds.
Switch between the patterns and tweak the sounds to get progression. This machine is so complex it’s good to start basic.
Yes it’s very difficult to put into words in a clear way.
Yes I agree. Ive had the A4 for a long time and Ive been able to get by fine without using save track or even needing to understand it but it leaves me wondering if there is any benefit I might gain from its use. Its not a matter of confidence, its a matter of understanding what it is exactly that Im saving or loading in regards to “track”
My bad. I should probably create my own post for this.
Thanks for all the great replies!
So when I load my old kit for “Beat 1” the pattern does not change. How do I load the pattern that I had saved for that kit?
Read Lenny’s post above. You don’t save a pattern for a kit, you save a kit for the pattern.
Start with a pattern, get the right notes in place on the steps of the pattern. Adjust the synth sounds until it all sounds good. Then SAVE THE KIT. The pattern (notes on steps, plus a reference to the kit) is saved automatically.
When you select the pattern again, the appropriate kit for that pattern will be loaded.
I suggest you use bank a’s patterns a01-a16 for beat1, bank b’s for beat 2 and see how you get on from there.
Keep separate beats on separate patterns.
tintao’s response did actually include the answer.
The distinction is this :
Save Track saves the sequence data for just a single track (the current one, as selected by the 6 TRACK buttons on the right of the A4).
Save Pattern saves the sequence data for all tracks.
So the Save Track command gives you finer control cf Save Pattern.