Chain Mode and Track Mutes

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

When in Chain Mode is it possible to mute tracks in a pattern but those tracks become active again when the Chain moves to the next pattern (or vice versa)?

For example. Say I have a two pattern Chain with patterns A01 and A02 alternating. Can I mute track one when pattern A01 is playing but have it automatically become active again when pattern A02 plays?

I know this can be done in Song mode but I was hoping for some more on the fly performance where I create a Chain with several patterns, looping some patterns (by coming out of Chain mode) and muting some tracks as it plays. Then going back into Chain mode and muted tracks becoming active as the Chain moves on and the pattern switches.

If I understand Song mode correctly it is a little more rigid in that it will loop the whole song without the ability to loop certain patterns as the desire arises.

I have looked at the manual and online but can’t figure this out. Any help and advice appreciated.

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#2

Im pretty sure there are only song mutes, no chain mutes at all. But you can go in and out of song mode as you please, and when out of song mode you can do whatever you want regarding switching patterns

#3

I think you’re correct. I certainly couldn’t figure it out. I was a little confused by the slightly ambiguous wording in the manual which states:

_‘Tracks can also be muted in SONG and CHAIN mode. This sort of muting, called song muting, works differently compared to track muting, most notably because song mutes are pattern exclusive. See page 45 for more info.’

It seems to infer that Song and Chain mode can operate on a pattern exclusive basis. It’s correct for Song mode but I don’t think it is for Chain.

#4

Chain mode, where the hits keep comin’

I literally blew a gasket when i found out that chain mode deactivates modulus conditions (conditional trigs).

i realize everyone works differently in this machine - but at the very least this could be as logical as a setting instead of forcing the user’s hand, leaving them to manual operation of patterns for the activation of these trigs. this is a major pain in the a** for those of us who would rather not stand over the keyboard and manually deactivate chains so modulus trigs can do their thing.

so yeah…chain / song mode could use some love. the 4 bar loop exit requires a babysitter to really take advantage of the sequencer’s feature set. there shouldn’t have to be a workaround for stuff like this.

#5

Old thread I know…
I was worried about this in Song Mode but I just tested this out and Trig conditions work as I expected. I half thought that they weren’t going to work as I thought song mode would restart the pattern as it moved along the Song Row negating the Trig Cond. but it wasn’t the case. I had G01 playing 4 times back to back and added a trig condition on the second note of the pattern (2:2). The pattern played once all the way through, moved to the next (same) pattern on the row and played the pattern again with the Trig condition activating.
I don’t use chain mode much so I’ll have to try it out later to corroborate your findings but thank the stars it works as I’d hoped in Song Mode.

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