I’m terrible for this. Particularly on the Rytm and Octatrack, I tend to make a 4 bar loop that ends up sounding nice and then noodling around with it for ages (fiddling with sounds, mutes, performance mode, conditional trigs, etc), not really going anywhere. On Elektron equipment, how do you guys manage to force yourselves out of this mindset and make songs using multiple patterns and banks? What’s the workflow you use that’s most productive for this?
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I had that problem for a long time best thing to do is start recording things live multitracked into a mixer and switch of tracks change patterns on the fly and modulate parameters. Using song mode on the Rytm can be of help as well.
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i usually just copy the pattern and make changes either adding new sounds or dropping them, try to work between patterns, build ups and drop outs. or control-all style changes to the pattern, save it in a new pattern then try to get from the original pattern to the new altered version
I’m trying an experiment (for myself) right now where I’m just using single bar patterns, sometimes with less than 16 steps, with the idea that I’ll be able to more easily dynamically assemble those patterns into a song. One thing this has done is helped me focus on tightening up the individual steps a bit more easily, and also into using my LFOs (particularly on pre-trig-condition machines like Monomachine) more creativily.
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I love Elektron and all their instruments are beautiful and rad. But I broke out of that loop when I stopped using their sequencers…
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Try writing something that isn’t beat oriented. I have found this to be helpful when I’m stuck in loop mode.
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I think you need to focus on transition sounds. I need to do this too… big swells, filtered hiss, all that stuff… once you have that, you’ll feel the need to move into the next section 
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OT’s arranger really set me free from sending myself doolally in the 4 bar loophog day.
You can hammer out proper song structures. I love to jam and used to be prone to getting completely lost in it and come to 78 minutes later. The arranger is fantastic for disciplining oneself to avoid these Grand Opus’ and it’s rep counts and display helps immensely using song mode on my other Elektron boxes.
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the sad reality of the situation is their gear alone isnt sufficient eventually. you will need outside help, plain and simple. Can be something dedicated to program control messages, other sequencers or something helpful in the pexressive field. OR a combination of all. Then some b/c im not that smart.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but try writing 1-bar loops. That will force you out of the idea of melodic progression and into the realm of pure dynamic tension.
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3/4 is much cooler than 4/4. Makes for better dance grooves for crowds that are not already brain dead from X. Set OT to 12/16. Wild! Wild!
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F.ck it. Make a 1/2 beat. That should keep you moving
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1/1 drones all day 
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I think there’s something to this. 4 bars is long enough to trick you into thinking there’s enough variation going on to be interesting on its own. 1 bar is short enough that you’re forced to do things that aren’t annoying as loops, and these types of loops tend to play well with others.
I only do repetitive minimal music so cannot help… 4 bars with conditrigs usually gets me where I need to be (or less).
But I recommend copypasting a pattn across several slots and mutating things from there… and then configure performance macros etc around transitioning betweeen these pattns. Song mode could also be great but I just dread that sort of compositional style nowadays… Two decades staring “lego brick” DAW arrangements can f up the mind like that… though YMMV as always.
Interesting topic. I have been thinking about this lately. I think that on the elektron machines, it is easy to become slave to the pattern. You can get so focused filling a pattern that you don’t think outside of that. They are after all suped up step sequencers.
I find myself most productive when I can think about the entire song structure. I have been thinking that it might make sense to figure that out first before recording anything. I think the arranger might help in thinking in that top down sort of way.
The other thing is being goal oriented. When you start using your machines, what are you trying to accomplish? If it i just fooling around, that is one thing. If you are actually trying to create/finish a song, what steps are needed to finish it?
Anyway, I haven’t finished much recently, but there are some thoughts on how I may try to break the logjam.
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Set the number of steps in you rpattern to something other than a multiple of 4.
Helps if you are already listening to non-4-bar music like Bulgarian folk music, certain prog rock bands, etc.
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Great tips here!
Also, if more sequencers are in play, just don’t sync them and operate manually.
A single sequencer leads often to a tunnel vision 
Can work great for some things minimal monotone though. Choices… .
Singing or humming helps a lot too or spoken word even - like a todo list for next week or shopping grocery list… - the what doesn’t (have to) matter.
Here’s an example of non-4-bar music I made a few years ago on the Stroke Machine app:
I think the main pattern was set to 22 steps for an 11/8 feel - something like that. The quieter portion was some multiple of 3 - a 9/8 kind of thing.
make an 8 bar loop or a 64 bar loop make 2 loops, one 32 bars, the other 16. loop them