Count-in Before Pattern Change

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Howdy!

Working withe a live drummer, I would like to give him a count-in whenever before a new pattern is engaged.

Let em explain more:

  • I am playing pattern 1. Pattern 1 will loop indefinitely until I decide to go to pattern 2 which is determined by my own desire to go there when it feels right musically.

  • I now press pattern 2 which is cued and is highlighted yellow as it waits for pattern 1 to complete its loop. While pattern 2 is still yellow and not actually active, I would like to give the drummer a count-in to coincide with pattern 2 becoming active. That way the drummer is aware that pattern 2 is about to engage and that he is to go to a different beat.

Can this be done?

I was thinking that I could put a count-in same on a an audio track and to trigger this manually when I go to cue pattern 2. However, that would require me to jump between different places and require me to trigger the count-in sample in time with the music - this could easily go wrong.

Any ideas/thoughts?

Thanks all!

#2
    1. You can trigger a sample with track + play, quantize it to the pattern’s length (Attibutes > Quantize). Once it plays, change your pattern.
    1. With arranger you can loop 1 or several patterns, and program mutes. More complicated to set up, but maybe safer in live conditions.

  • Set a pattern A1 loop with count in track muted, a transition pattern A1 with the unmuted count in track, and a pattern A2 loop.

  • In arranger mode, start with pattern A1 loop, and just select pattern A1 transition with the down arrow + Enter. The pattern A2 will loop just after.

  • Instead of arranger loop function, in order to reduce rows and simplify settings, you can also repeat a pattern up to 64 times, and increase its length up to 512 steps IIRC. (64x512 steps is more than 1 hour at 120 bpm).

    1. FILL trig conditions / One Shot trigs. Program FILL trigs and activate them just after pattern cueing. One Shot trigs can be used instead, holding YES to arm them.
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