Help needed: Master settings under scale / sequencer

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hey

This is my first post here. I recently bought both the ARytm and the A4. Love them equally much, especially the sequencer. I’m having a hard time with making polyrythms on the sequencer, though. In the manual it says that you can set the master lenght to INF and CHNG lenght to whatever you need, so that it changes after the input on CHNG. I’ve tried this, but the sequencer pattern will not change, but rather loop for an eternity. Am I missing something? I’m sorry if this has been discussed to Death. I tried scanning through the forums, but could’nt find a answer to this. Can anyone help?

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Master len inf & chng
Confirm? Direct Jump with LEN: "INF" doesn't work in OS1.30B
AK sequencer mode behaviour and pattern change questions
#2

Anyone? It Works sometimes if I turn CHNG all the way down to 2. Is there a parameter I’m missing?

#3

Welcome :okej:

I don’t entirely follow your question, I’m guessing there’s ambiguity about the role of Change parameter - this is for when the pattern is changed, not for changing within the pattern

If the length is set to inf then the pattern will reveal all the poly rhythms you’ve baked in with individual track length settings; whenever you need to exit from that pattern, the roller of change becomes relevant

See if the description on p37 helps

#4

Yeah, I looked it up in the manual, but still no luck. I’ll try to rephrase it a bit: Okay, so say I want to switch from bank/pattern A1 to bank/pattern A2. I press bank A/E and step button 2. Now, what I expect it to do, is to switch from pattern A1 to A2 after 64 steps, as the LENGTH input is INF and the CHNG input is 64. Neither the A4 nor the AR will do this. Both Chain-mode and Song-mode is off. What am i missing here?

#5

The CHNG parameter does not work with Chains at all. The CHNG parameter is ignored both when manually chaining (eg. Pressing Bank + A01 then A02 to create a Chain) - or when using the scratchpad / selecting a chain from the list.

It only works for Cued patterns.

I believe this is a bug as it does not work the way it is described in the manual, (p.37 - “CHNG controls for how long the active pattern will play before a cued or chained pattern will begin to play.”)

I raised a ticket with support in Feb and this is the official response: “We will treat this as a feature request, since it’s not a bug, but a feature that has not been implemented. I will forward this to our developers, but I cannot make any promises that it will be considered for an update.”

They added that the manual was wrong and would be changed.

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#6

But Chain mode is off?! Or is that the way it reacts to me pressing the A2 button, by creating a chain?

#7

TBH, I had this aspect clarified a bit to me recently, as I agree it’s ambiguously written in the manual. I can’t find that thread and I wonder if it all boils down to choice of pattern change mode. Sequential never ends in this regard, even with a lower change value as described in the manual, yet, the manual also states that you can’t change. The qualification that made a bit more sense of that is lost on me presently, but I’m inclined to agree it’s at odds with the description as it’s currently phrased/qualified

#8

So, the easiest workaround to date is to find the lowest common denominator for the different track lenghts and then add (for instance) 64 as the CHNG?

#9

It also implies that it will work with cued or chained patterns

CHNG.png948×549 79.9 KB

#10

Hmmm. It should work fine with Cued patterns. Are you positive you aren’t creating a temporary Chain?

I just booted my A4 to check and it is working fine for me with eg. Master = INF and CHNG = 8, the pattern switches after 8 steps when I Cue up another pattern.

#12

Well, the Chain mode LED is off. Is there a setting that I need to adjust? I have’nt explored all settings, just booted it and created a New Project and played with some patterns.

#13

There are two separate issues as I see it - the utility of Master being set to INF and CHNG not working with Chains.

Despite what the manual (and support) says, if Master is set to INF, the pattern will change after CHNG steps as long as you Cue the next pattern and don’t use Chains or Song mode.

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#14

When you create a temporary chain by pressing to select two or more patterns at once, the chain light will then come on.

If you are not chaining patterns and are just cueing up, the CHNG parameter should work. What are your exact Scale settings? - I will see if I can reproduce your problem.

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#15

Track 1: 9 steps
Track 2: 16 steps
Track 3: 36 steps
Track 4: 12 steps

Scale settings
LEN: INF
CHNG: 64

When I press A2 it Blinks A01 (in bold) and A02 in the left hand corner. there’s this symbol: --: before the pattern names. I tried saving the patterns too.

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#16

To be fair, if I set the Change value to be shorter or longer (or a factor) than the constituent track lengths, then it will still go on infinitely and the cued pattern will just flash away (sequential mode), nothing to do with chains

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#17

Those settings are working fine for me. The pattern switches after 64 steps.

It sounds like you are correctly cueing and not chaining - so something else must be going on!

#18

What OS are you on?

#19

@avantronica That’s not the behaviour I am seeing. CHNG works fine when set to a number lower than Master (even when Master is set to INF) and when not working with Chains or Song Mode.

@krautedaniel I’m on OS 1.23

#20

I get the exact same behaviour as the OP when using the exact values listed above

I will get an infinitely flashing cued track listed but never ever reached,

If I make the CHNG value 8, i.e. lower than any track, it still cues infinitely !!

Latest OS too

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#21

Hmmmmm… This is strange. I’m currently at work, I’ll have to look into this when I get home. It Works hlaf of the time when i set CHNG to 2, though. It creates Chains on the scratch pad, even though Chain mode is off, is one thing I noticed.