I’ve seen a bunch of threads on the forum regarding accidentally cleared patterns. But still, I’m frustrated enough because it happened to me in the past and two times today. Between copying and pasting patterns, between live recording and playing back and using the function key for all sorts of things… there is the key combo of doom: func+play = stunned silence.
It might be me getting old. the muscle memory of some years of ctrl+c/v and then even more years of cmd+c/v playing tricks on me. But just imagine the evil alternate universe where whoever dreamt up those original key combinations had inserted a “delete all your work” shortcut right in between copy and paste. And some mandatory code, where any additional action you might perform in panic will erase the undo buffer.
I have spent many months learning to use the Octatrack, A4 and AH. Some parts are still a mystery to me and surely there are parts I haven’t even seen yet. But one thing I’m certain of: no matter how good I will get at finding my way around these equally brilliant and awkward devices… This is a trap I know I will fall into every now and then. a “clear” button right in between copy and paste, thereby the most easily accessible button of the three (just miss one of the others by a few mm) is just bad design. There should be an “are you sure?” dialog. This dialog does exist in other places.
So… I know I’m about 15 years late with this. I’m not the first, I won’t be the last. Even the latest Model:Samples has the Copy/Clear/Paste button arrangement. And I admit I sometimes subscribe to the pseudo-Darwinesque (or so) way of thinking of ideas in the sense that “what’s worth remembering will be remembered”. So maybe a “well-placed” clear button kind of helps weeding out boring ideas… but man, this has not been a pleasant day with the Elektrons. Just needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening.
Another thing that you may already know is that on the A4, [YES] + [TRK] will save the current track you are working on, and [NO] + [TRK] will reload it. When I am working on something, I will save the track every now an then when I get something I am happy with. That way, if I make some changes I don’t like, or make a mistake, I can revert to an earlier save point of my choosing. Also good for jamming, because you can tweak away, and then get back to your starting point. Probably something similar for the other machines. I know on the DN it is FUNC + YES to save, and FUNC + NO to reload. Anyway, it may not be the magical answer to your problems, but maybe a practice worth picking up.
Yes, I found out why you’d want to save tracks the hard way
I did know about the undo command, but after copying and pasting a bunch of things in stop mode, it was already far too late when I noticed that I had cleared my patterns…
The problem with this kind of dialogs is that if they are part of an often used workflow where “yes” is the answer in 99.9% of the cases you won’t notice them anymore and hit just “yes” automatically.
IMHO it’s better to adjust your workflow like working on copies of patterns.
Normally in such a situation it is not “far too late”. At least on the A4 - as long as you haven’t used “save project” - you can always get your lost pattern(s) back by reloading the project (the “autosaving pattern” mechanism just operates in RAM and doesn’t write to the +drive).
BUT (and this falls again into the “adjust your workflow” category) you need to have a good save on the +drive. So don’t forget to regularly use “save project”.
Use “save to” in the project manager ever so often to create a backup of your complete project is also one of these “adjust your workflow” tips. Better being safe than sorry.
No. In case you used “save project” after you deleted too much. Just as an additional safety net …
While sysex backups are a pain-in-the-ass, because the whole procedure will take some time (so you won’t do it so often), a project backup via “save to” takes just a few seconds and you don’t have to keep them for long.
On the AK, I’ll usually move stuff around and then delete those things when the track is finished. I use trig mutes, copy patterns to unused locations in the same bank or move everything in one track to another (for example if early in the process, Track 4 isn’t being used, I’ll put stuff there).
Or maybe if I’m unsure if I’d need this motive later, I’d just copy the whole pattern + kit to an unused location.
Having backup projects, that later can be erased is probaply the better solution, yeah^^
