If I had 16 songs to perform, most with different drum sounds and patterns, what’s the best way of setting it all up? 1st off it seems I can do most with Chain mode and not having to use Song mode, what do people prefer? A project can have I believe 128 patterns, so that breaks down to 16 songs = 8 patterns each A through H, is that correct? To what extent do people rely on chains or do they use the mute page a lot to bring in and drop out elements? I might as well add that it seems with Scenes you can bring in and out different elements of a song as well so I’'m not sure how much structure to use (Chains) or merely looping patterns and using Scenes and Mutes.
if you have never used a “groovebox” type device before… (heh) … then you will just have to play it by ear and see what feels best… my first one was a yammy RM1x - and being the first it wired my brain a certain way, so i still play things that way on boxes i use now… to a large extent
my preference is cueing patterns as I go, sometimes chaining a few together, sometimes not… i pretty much never use song mode - if i need to make a linear track, i just bounce in various patterns to my PC DAW, then edit from there if need be
but thats just my preference… nah mean? thats my pleasure
We all have our preferences, so I second the suggestion above. Try different things and see what you prefer. I think that also music styles can dictate this a bit, more “traxx” type music requires less parts than jazzier, structured music.
Personally I use one pattern per “song” (sometimes two, but rarely) and reprogram trigs, mess with the mutes and use the performance macros to build the progressions on the fly, playing some odd flams and fills with the pads in parts where the groove is not robotic-100%-on-grid. I try to avoid chains/songs to keep myself stressed a bit, which introduces more chances for things to go wrong, but is also much more rewarding for me in the end.
Cool thanks for the input. Yeah I guess I’m gonna have to test it out. I know I can’t tweak the AR + tweak my Synths at the same time (only 2 hands) so I gotta figure out best practise for automation. I suppose manually switching patterns you are making sure you have control over different aspects of the song without something running away from you. I’d be curious to know how Dataline does it.
you just gotta practice it like any other instrument… think of it like that, rather than a DAW-in-a-box
drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, groovebox - its like that
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