I edited the title of the thread to reflect new info on my issue:
I love my OT for sure, but damn, it’s doing my head in with bugginess/inconsistencies. So, I’m working on a project where I have one or two pickup machines on a given part (tracks 1 and 2). Also, I’m writing with one bank=one composition/song in mind.
Now, when I switch banks, my effects for a given pickup machine will not reflect the sound I hear. For instance. I have my saz on track 1 going into input A. On the first three banks, my effects are generally a chorus and dark reverb on track 1. On bank four track 1, I have a lo-fi and filter. When I switch from bank one to bank four, it shows lo-fi, but there’s no distortion (distortion setting on screen shows 87) heard at all, but there is reverb on my sound (pretty much the FX settings from the last bank). Anyone encounter this bug?
Second, on one of my banks, I have a pickup become a static machine when I switch patterns/parts. Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason as to whether the samples on the static machine start or not. What I mean is, I can have a pickup loop going on track 1, switch patterns (and also part at same time) and track 1 is a static machine with a completely new sample (chain) assigned. This may or may not play (I have no idea as to the cause) though it does seem SOMETIMES to be reflective of whether I’ve got the pickup loop going when I switch. This should not matter though. The sample chain on pattern A02/part 2 should play independent of what was going on on pattern A01/part 1, right? Sometimes it starts fine, and sometimes it doesn’t.
These are exasperating and disabling bugs that prevent me from getting work done and don’t bode well for playing live with this thing. Please tell me I’m not going crazy! I’ve been loving this machine otherwise. I’ve put in a proper support request as well.
By the way, I’ve tried numerous empty resets, even re-upgrading the OS. These problems all remain.
I believe some of your problems could be solved by adjusting the pattern settings. Its in the manual (p. 91)
START SILENT
controls whether the track of a previous pattern linked to a different part
should keep on sounding or not when the currently active pattern starts playing.
Three settings exist. Select between them using the LEVEL knob
If you switch banks (which means you also switch patterns) the new pattern/bank can behave in different ways, depending on your settings in the menu. I do not have the OT in front of me, but if I remember it right, the “default” setting lets the tracks of the previous pattern stay active until you start the “new” track on the “new” pattern (e.g. with a trig).
However, there are several options for you to set , so that the way patterns and tracks behave, when you change of pattern, may fit to your style of working.
To me the OT behaves very “consistent”. Nothing of what you described occured to me as a “bug”. There may be unconvetional design decisions here and there, but I guess you will find out how the OT does what it does as you go on and try out all kind of different things!
Thanks for replying Metageist! I’ll definitely have a look at my pattern settings. The start silent may be what I’m looking for. Today is a new day with the OT and I’ll report back whether the other two issues continue. The OT IS overall very consistent (aside from the issues I described).
Okay, on checking my pattern settings, this seems to do the trick. But I still had problems with track 2 Pickup (part 1) A01, changing to Static (part 2)A02 and playing the trigs I’d set. Sometimes it played and sometimes not Luckily, I wasn’t using the pattern A01/part 1 pickup machine on this track and just changed it to a static with the same sample assigned as part 2/A02 but with no trigs. Now it starts fine when switching patterns. Hmm. Still suspicious of this…
The copy/paste track thing was my fault Sorted. I keep forgetting my scene XLV assignments!
Though, the FX assignments changing when changing banks is tricky and also weird. I can change banks and the FX settings of a given track stay the same as the previous assignments, but if I reload the part, it changes to the correct new assignments. HOWEVER, in one case the shortcut for part reload (function+cue) didn’t work and I had to go into the part edit menu to reload the part there for the new assignments to take effect. BUT I just tried it again and the shortcut worked. This is the inconsistency that I’m referring to. At the moment it’s behaving I’m a little disappointed that I have to manually reload a part when switching to a new bank for my fx assignments to take effect however. Perhaps this is only present on pickup machines? Can anyone confirm needing to do this between banks of pickup machines assigned to the same track?
I don’t use pickup machines, but another thing to watch out for when switching between patterns with different parts is amp envelope settings. “start silent” is kind of misleading, because it actually makes the track from the previous part go into the release phase of it’s amp envelope. when this is set to the default infinite or another long value, it can lead to unexpected behavior. I don’t know how that works with pickups tho…
Interesting. But according to the manual even if you have start silent as “No” for the pattern setting, “The track of the previous pattern will stop sounding once a trig on the track of the active pattern is activated by the sequencer.” So since I have trigs on step 1, pattern A02/part 2, the amp envelope settings and the start silent pattern setting should not matter at all. Those trigs should play.
This is my example: I have a pickup machine on track 2, pattern A01, part 1. I have a static machine on the same track on pattern A02, Part 2 with a trig on step 1. The very first time I trig pattern A02, from actively playing pattern A01 (regardless of whether there is a loop going in the pickup machine), pattern A02/Part 2 plays fine. If I open up the parts menu, I notice that Part 2 has an asterisk by it, meaning it’s not been saved. But I’ve done nothing but trig pattern A02 and thus part 2 because they are linked. The manual is wrong in saying that this asterisk means a part has been altered but not saved. I’ve done nothing to alter it. Am I the only one confused by this behaviour? When I switch back to pattern A01/part 1, of course my pickup loop (If I have one previously recorded) does not start; I have to trig it manually every time. But now when I switch back to pattern A02/part 2, my trigs don’t play unless I reload part 2. The asterisk is there, I’ve not changed a single parameter and it further lets me reload the part when the asterisk indicates that I need to save the part first. The message that the manual says will pop up (“SAVE PART FIRST”) never appears .
By the way, I appreciate all your help with this, as it’s confusing as hell and quite frustrating.
I think that should only pop up if you’ve never saved the part before. if you have the part loaded in its saved state (i.e., no asterisk), and it somehow gets altered (asterisk appears) after the pattern change, it sounds like a bug to me.
Okay, thanks for that. It definitely sounds like a bug. I’ll update my support ticket. Can anyone else replicate this needing to constantly reload a part when switching for new FX assignments to take effect and for certain new patterns to trig at all?
Also, it would be nice to be able to go back to OS 1.25 if it doesn’t exhibit this behaviour, but Elektron no longer has 1.25 on the site? Anyone still running it willing to upload it for folks who might want to revert?