Can I control and set up chains for the A4 and other Elektron devices through the OT?
The arranger is the best option, in my humble opinion. You can slave the ârowsâ between Elektron sequencers.
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I got the impression the other machines dont follow when in arrranger mode?
Allthough just simply chaining the patterns together by pressing a sequence of patterns works fineâŚ
I also find myself lost in the arrangement when using the arranger
Its fine for arranging one song, and even then i prefer to do it live
But i once programmed a whole live set in the arranger,(before i had the A4 and MD)
handy for bpms and scenes, but i def felt lost inside it!
It would be better if you could just have a song mode where your patterns werent limited to 4 bars
But every pattern is limited to a maximum size of 4 bars?
AnyhoeâŚ
I think arranger and song modes are perfect. Itâs what you need to if you use an elektron as more than a tool or addition to an existing setup.
Sure, you need to remember things and count measures and remember which parts of a pattern to mute and what to loop. Maybe even use pen and paper to write out your composition or make notes.
But hey, isnât that what composing is all about⌠effort! Put in the hours, make the pieces of the puzzle fit!
If composing with electronic gear was easy we would have thousands of soundcloud and bandcamp accounts and people uploading hundreds of videos to youtube of themselves headbanging behind their setup! We would be overwhelmed with mediocrity and everything will slowly sound alike and all the same. Eventually weâll get bored and have to buy new gear to start the cycle all over again.
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@ Husc
âBut hey, isnât that what composing is all about⌠effort! Put in the hours, make the pieces of the puzzle fit!â
Yes of course but having used lots of other hardware sequencer arrangers
I still feel a bit frustrated with OTâs one,
Itâs ok, and i have put in hours and lots of work to sequence good results
But for example on the MPcâs sequencer you have a very similar arranger, which you can then convert to a song of for example 128 measures
Which is great for example for working on a particular break, or programming something at a certain point in the song
Anyway, i love the octatrack, and ive excepted what it cant do, cos it CAN do so much more than anything else ive played with
I queried earlier, does the arranger mode work with other machines synced?
"If composing with electronic gear was easy we would have thousands of soundcloud and bandcamp accounts and people uploading hundreds of videos to youtube of themselves headbanging behind their setup! We would be overwhelmed with mediocrity and everything will slowly sound alike and all the same.
"
Uh i think that already happened!
If you set other Elektron machines to song mode the rows sync up.
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[quote="âhuscâ"]
If you set other Elektron machines to song mode the rows sync up. [/quote]
Ok cheers, good to know
Presumably from what you said, one would only have to program the arranger in the octatrack, ( rather than have to program all 3 arrangers)
very interesting
If you set other Elektron machines to song mode the rows sync up. [/quote]
Ok cheers, good to know
Presumably from what you said, one would only have to program the arranger in the octatrack, ( rather than have to program all 3 arrangers)
very interesting[/quote]
The rows sync up, so letâs assume you use a octatrack in arranger and a machinedrum. You program a song in the arranger, 14 rows long, now everytime it jumps to the next row it does so as well on the machinedrum. If the machinedrum is set to a different tempo or has a different number of rows it will still follow the row number of the octatrack.
To make the two sync up perfectly and do fantastic stuff like setting different pattern lengths, tempo settings and loops, youâll need a bit of organizing and math! 
I use a piece of paper and write down the total number of steps in a row and the BPM, then program a row on the machinedrum of equal length. I can calculate the number of steps or BPM required on the machinedrum:
i just stumbled across this thread as i was looking for a solution to arrange my Analog Four & Analog Rytm from the OT (please see this thread).
Does this work with MDâs Arranger only? As I did not manage to make it work with OT & A4/AR.
The arranger is the best option, in my humble opinion. You can slave the ârowsâ between Elektron sequencers.[/quote]
I listened to MIDI messages coming from the OT and nothing comes when a row change if the pattern doesnât changes, nor program change, nor RT, nor sysex.
Which kind of messages the Octatrack sends when a row that has the same pattern changes?
If you set other Elektron machines to song mode the rows sync up. [/quote]
Ok cheers, good to know
Presumably from what you said, one would only have to program the arranger in the octatrack, ( rather than have to program all 3 arrangers)
very interesting[/quote]
The rows sync up, so letâs assume you use a octatrack in arranger and a machinedrum. You program a song in the arranger, 14 rows long, now everytime it jumps to the next row it does so as well on the machinedrum. If the machinedrum is set to a different tempo or has a different number of rows it will still follow the row number of the octatrack.
To make the two sync up perfectly and do fantastic stuff like setting different pattern lengths, tempo settings and loops, youâll need a bit of organizing and math!
I use a piece of paper and write down the total number of steps in a row and the BPM, then program a row on the machinedrum of equal length. I can calculate the number of steps or BPM required on the machinedrum:
[/quote]
Iâve been trying to get this to work for the past couple of days with no luck. Iâve got the main arrangement set up in the OT, and the pattern changes sync well, but if a row in the OT is shorter than the pattern on the MD (row is 12 steps and the MD pattern is 16 steps), the MD wonât change patterns until its sixteen steps have been played and by then the OT is already way ahead in the arrangement.
If I turn on MDâs song mode and set up the same number of rows with the same patterns as found in the OTâs arranger, the same thing occurs. My hope is that I can just set up a master arrangement in the OT and work in the MDâs song mode as little as possible, i.e. not have to set up the same arrangement (exact patterns and step lengths) twice.
Iâve done a bit of troubleshooting, but Iâm still here scratching my beard. Any idea on what Iâm missing here?
Bumping to avoid making another topic and hoping for some wisdom regarding my post above^^
Iâve been putting off arranging a track for a while thatâs going to require programming the same arrangement in both machines. One more bump to see if this can be simplified before I dive in this week.
Did this ever get an answer?
Back and more active on the forum after traveling without Elektrons for a long period, now I bought a pelican flightcase! 
Currently recording and writing on both my MD and OT. Soon I will get to the sync and arranging side of things.
I enjoyed the polyrhythmic and irregular possibilities of not having equal length patterns synced on both machines, or different tempi. I did however always choose on method instead of both, or it got to complicated and random.
I used both Elektrons in song mode for a performance and that lead to my comments! So, I have not experimented with the MD slaved in pattern mode, but my guess is your experience is normal behaviour, the OT will not send itâs pattern modeâs pattern changes, but row number info (I have no computer here to research this).
Hope to read more on this, it is extremely useful and powerful to me in performance and composing work.