Irregular time signatures and the Elektron workflow - thoughts?

Wow. That’s an impressive collection of music. Some of the glitchy songs with more melodic elements are fantastic. Cool to see more of this kind of stuff made on Elektron boxes.

I’ll keep an eye on you in the future!

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As it is now, the way Elektron implements odd time signatures is a pain in the ass. Let’s say I want to do a 3/4 time sig and I want 12 steps in the pattern to do it. Instead of each page being 12 steps, allowing for easy following of where the first beat of each bar is, it has bar 1 start on trig 1, then bar 2 start on trig 13. Then you have to remember to count on each page. Why not just let us have 12 steps on each page so it’s easier to follow along? It’s bloody infuriating.

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You and me, both. I love prog-style time signatures and many of my tracks are lengthy, ever changing things that feature multiple time signatures. The Elektron stuff takes so, so much more effort to work this way. And that’s too bad, as I love using parameter locks in my prog tracks. I would love to be able to choose the step count per page.

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yeah, i think if you °intentionally° set out to make a odd time signature song and fight it out, it probably isn’t much fun… but i have also had melodies that sounded great in my head that just didn’t get written by the time i had found the right key or pluck, i guess it depends on your disposition and process. Maybe it’s more advantageous in some cases to use samples/phrases than trigs in scale.
Generally, i just ended up with irregulars based on feeling it out, dropping in trigs, taking out, change scales, switch out samples, and for this I really like it, the push and pull of writing, seeing how it jives and getting feedback, and either building or dropping it out…so it’s probably not for the determinist, we’re in jazz territory after all!
And i too really get bored with common time, especially on the type of layout of the OT, i am coming from that background of linear writing…what i think we’re really after is Feel and Movement, or to make something °seem° more complex than it actually is.
Somehow, as time passes in a session i forget i am working in a constrained set of steps, the musicality kicks in, not paying any attention to the numerical structures at all.

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Is there any possibility of an OS update (or setting im unaware of?) that would allow the one page per bar elektron structure to work for time signatures like 3/4 or 6/8? It really sucks have a bar and a third on the first page (in the case of 6/8), and it seems like it would be much more logical if only the first 12 steps were active, afterwhich it moves to page 2 for the second bar.

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Comb through that

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Ok so i read through all of it and theres nothing answering my question (or for that matter evem related to my question besides also being about 6/4). Merry christmas btw! Hope someone can give me an answer, although im pretty sure its just not possible currently without an os change.

It would be really great if it could be added to the OS in the future. 4 pages with 14 steps each, for example…I just assumed there was a way that I hadn’t figured out yet :confused:

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Merry Christmas mate.

You didn’t find the bits about chaining patterns of odd time signatures helpful? For instance, if you’re wanting to play in 7, Pattern A01 is two pages, a bar of four (16 steps) on page one, and a bar of three (12 steps) on page two? Then to get to the next bar of the pattern, put it on A02, then on to A03, etc. Enter song mode, or chain the patterns together.

This way you can visualize the 7 (or whatever it is) a lot better. Instead of having to think to yourself “okay my beat resets on the 13th step of the second page” which, for me, really fucks with my brain.

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Ahh i didnt catch the pattern chaining workaround! Thats super helpful, thanks man.

Just came across this issue when wanting to work in 3/4. Pattern chaining 1 bar patterns is the only and best possible way to make this happen.

As a relatively new AK user, I would have to agree unless I am missing something. Played in a nice “groove” in 7 and then am forced to do maths to figure out where i amin the pattern.

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Try feeding the midi output of ‘Beat Scholar’ into whatever variant of the Elektron sequencer you have.

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…music is based on math…
elektron sequencers are in essence all the same and also based on nothing but math…
so, whenver u want “odd” countings, use ur fingers and do some math…it’s all in there…

while even straightest 4/4 can get an easy forever rolling twist with only one polymeter element involved…
so, dedicate one single track of each pattern and shorten it a little, let it run “out of time” and see where it can take all ur slave to the rhythm mantras…

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Music is also meant to be playable… In music notation someone invented bars for a reason.

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…playable…repeatable…doable…roundable…

in the meantime, everything counts…
3.1415927…only the first seven digits after komma into the eternity of pi…
the endless battle for the quadrature of the perfect circle…
each 'n every boing, bumm, tschakk…needs some klak zakk zakk…and back…

Yes I realize that. But if I’m thinking/playing in 7 (or 14), for example, pages don’t line up to ‘bars’. Not insurmountable of course, the maths is not that complicated but it’s slightly annoying.

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Man, we don’t need to downplay it. It’s crazy lame. I’m a math teacher. You think I wanna be doing math on my time off? Hell no! I get home, and all numbers go out the door. Quick, what’s 2 + 3? Hell if I know! I’m at home, b*tches!

Naw, but seriously, it’s pretty annoying.

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As such you can’t really do odd time signatures on Elektron gear.
It is doable but who wants to make maths while creating? Personnaly it is a killer, i’d never recommend to anyone who’s interested to get Elektron. And not only because i suck at maths :wink:

Some simple solutions exist and are still ignored :man_shrugging:t3:

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