After the Jamuary I will do my best to remedy the situation a bit.
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I love my A4, but that doesn’t mean I like to work with it solo 
I often post in the current sounds thread, will try to crosspost here too!
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the a4 is such an endless box of beauty and possibilities…here with a couple of its friends…
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I haven’t tried it yet with the CV track, But I have been experimenting with sequencing back to the DAW from the A4 MK2. You tie up a track to do this, But if you are not using the CV, this would be an ideal track I would think. If you have soft synths that you feel would nicely augment what you are doing on your dedicated four tracks, there is a free track right there to do it with without tying up any of the four main ones that you are using.
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been on an A4 binge lately…
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also thanks @LyingDalai for always fixing the yt link…I have no clue what I am doing wrong!
[mod edit] when you have trouble with Discourse integration, check this thread!
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I’ve been on an A4 binge too, now remember how much I hate its kit system and why I stopped using it so much. If they made a new version without that level of faff, I’d be on it like a cat with a baby bird.
As someone who’s never really paid any attention to the kits I wonder what do you hate about it?
It would be cool to hear from others as well as to how are you guys using those, and how did you initially start incorporating them into your workflow?
I use kits all the time…they are essential for my workflow…like parts on the OT…I can change the sounds of all tracks from one pattern to the next…all you need to do is save your kits before saving the project, then nothing gets lost…
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That doesn’t end well for the bird…
Kits, like parts on the OT, make explicit what’s implicit in the Digi boxes. And being explicit means it can be studied, learned, and harnessed for creative use — at the cost of having to remember changes affect everything pointing to a kit, of course. But that feels a small price to pay in exchange for the power and flexibility offered.
To me, kits and parts are the thing that distinguish the “fun” elektrons from the “serious” ones. Both have their place, but you know which one to reach for when there’s work to be done.
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I totally get that a lot of people like kits. When I got my Digitone and every pattern was unique (and I could name them), I rejoiced. It suits the way I work (and have always done - on things like Electribes). I like to always continue from where I was, copy the pattern to the next location and tweak slightly (or heavily) and move ever-forwards. Having to think about kits, which patterns point to which kits, saving them (because I discovered, quite late, this isn’t so simple as the auto-save for each pattern as you go) and generally managing a whole extra level of stuff I don’t want to deal with and always cock up. I’m old, so I like simple.
As for the Octatrack, I manage that by having four patterns per bank, each with a (named) part. Was pretty relieved when they finally allowed per-pattern tempo on that baby, definite progress. But I would so love each pattern to be totally unique and nameable. Can never find anything in the fecker… did I mention I’m old?
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There’s so much you can do with them, even just from the perspective of project management. But also they’re not really complicated, despite their rep. So the best thing to do is play with them until you feel you understand what’s going on. Then ways to use them will just come to you when you need it.
But one example I’m fond of is using them as a reset point after tweaking. Like, you know the FUNC + YES and FUNC + NO of the Digis? What if, rather than just having the one slot of instrument settings to jump back to you had 128 of them that you could name and switch between? Kits let you do that.
This is useful not just in sound design (“oops, I liked that better before I started messing with it”) but also in performance. In fact, kits save your macro settings, too, so there’s a whole world of performance possibilities switching between them and using them as restore states, live.
In short (too late ), Digis force you to one kit per pattern. You can easily do that with an A4. But you also have the option to have one kit for many patterns (to keep instruments in “sync” across patterns). Or many kits in one pattern (to switch up sounds, save states, or macros).
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Sounds v useful, I’ve got to start learning this stuff right away.
I haven’t used the digis all that much but I am aware of that func yes/func no -functionality.
Yeah, performance-wise this makes a lot of sense, and as I’m currently trying to achieve a level of familiarity with the Elektron workflow that’ll allow me to start playing live, this seems like a no-brainer really.
edit: Oh man, the fact that all of the macros, velocity destinations and settings, cv-configurations and stuff like that can be saved as kits blows my mind, just like the fact that I haven’t bothered looking into this stuff earlier does.
Thank you @jemmons for the concise and inspiring explanation on this stuff. 
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Oh, I like that drone at 15:40. Moody 'n dark.
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Don’t you have to save your kits as you go? I have lost stuff by forgetting that there aren’t infinite edit buffers and always save my kit before I start editing another. Still lose tweaks though from time to time, again probably just by being old and feeble.
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Whenever I create a new pattern, I start by clearing the kit, then I save it with a name corresponding to the pattern’s destination (E5 KIT, f.e.). Always using odd numbers. Next, I save the pattern to ensure that the kit is locked to the pattern.
I usually associate the same kit with the next pattern to allow variations of the same kit to be applied to a completely different pattern.
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Yes you are right. Saving the kits as you move along the project. .it became second nature in both the A4 and the AR, even tho the button combo/placement is a little different. I did lose quite a few sounds because of not saving a kit. being greeted by a stakkatto of init sounds when anticipating your finest A4 late night idm work is one of the darker experiences of elektronauting!
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You can also use the Tabula Rasa project that binds a kit per pattern from the start. Set it as protected to enforce a “save as” action to save the current project.
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Tabula Rasa saved my ass many times. First project I put on A4 Mk2 upon purchase.
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