One thing I’m struggling to get my head round is stopping the A4 from automatically editing my song, even though I’m not in song mode.
Whenever I change a pattern, the A4 seems to decide to change the pattern in whatever song row it happens to be at. This is incredibly annoying, as I’ll come out of Song Mode, tweak a couple of patterns here and there, and when I return to song mode, all my changing between patterns has overwritten what the song originally was.
How do I prevent the A4 from doing this? I dread to think what changes have occured without me knowing, whilst I’m editing, then accidentally save the newly overwritten song.
Song mode just refers to existing patterns and then changes a few params, like mutes, transpose, etc - if you change the pattern it refers to, you will change the resulting song.
If you want to change a pattern that is also used in a Song, then make a copy of it first and then work on the new cloned pattern instead.
Had the same thing. I had to change the way I approached the A4.
FWIW I adopted the following mindset:
Assume a song is always loaded
Always be working on a song.
Only navigate that song’s patterns via the song edit screen
Use “Clear song” when you need a blank slate and navigate patterns freely.
Dont forget to save/load
You can also try using the sketchpad, I think you’re supposed to put that on the very first row but I remember having some trouble with that. Your mileage may vary.
I’ve just discovered the “sketchpad”, the one before row 00. I think that’s the solution I’m looking for, but it isn’t 100% effective. As you guys say, I think I’m just gong to have to remember to save and clear a song before I start tinkering with patterns again.