Saving/power issue

Elektron Gear Model:Cycles
#1

I worked for a couple of hours today on two tracks that I really liked. The patterns were named and saved. I loaded a different project, then reloaded the project with the new patterns and they were gone. Thought it was a fluke, so I did my best to recreate them, continuously saving throughout that time. They were there in the patterns that could be selected. Then the device powered off all of a sudden and those two new patterns were gone again when I turned Cycles back on. Presets that I saved during that time were still saved.

What’s going on? Is there any way to recover my patterns? I love the Cycles and have used it for a couple of years without issue. I probably have a hundred or more patterns saved. Am I running out of memory? Anyone else having issues like this?

#2

I think that’s the key to it. The set of changes that you’re working on, but have not yet saved to a project are kind of temporary. If you deliberately power off with the white knob, they get saved as ‘working memory’. When you power on, the working memory is restored. If power is interrupted in any way, that working memory disappears, and all you have left is what you deliberately saved to a project.

It catches a lot of people out. I’ll add some links when I’m back at my computer.

BTW, working memory may not be the official term for it.

#3

Thanks for your comment!

I definitely had these patterns saved in the project. I’ve been working with Elektron devices for years and have a habit of saving projects regularly.

Even so, the first time it happened, I thought maybe I did something incorrectly. But then I saved multiple times with the second round of work and confirmed that everything was there by loading a different project and loading back into the one with the newly saved patterns. They were all there as expected.

I wouldn’t have thought a power glitch would kill off parts of a saved project, but it did. That’s why I was wondering if I was possibly hitting some kind of internal memory wall for the device. I’ve ten projects with all available slots in all pattern banks filled.

#4

That’s why it catches people out. Most people (including me) would not expect a device to behave like that, but the model series appears to be deliberately designed that way.

There may be other things affecting the case when (I think ?) you said that no power outage was involve. There might be a special edge case (like maybe if you save the patterns but the project itself is not saved perhaps ?) but the power loss will definitely account for some of your troubles.

There are others who have had the same experience. This is a quote from just one thread

#5

I haven’t done the sums, but the amount of memory occupied by projects, presets, tracks is tiny … I mean, there’s no saving of wavs involved … so I would guess that memory is not the issue here … but I’m a mere user so :man_shrugging:

#6

I have found that if you have been saving patterns to a project, and you lose power, those pattern appear to be gone when you restart. But if you reload the project, you will find the patterns again.

#7

Send it in to elektron. I had similar issues and they kept getting worse. I worked 3 hours on a track and lost it all with the power just shutting off. I was saving the pattern and the project constantly and when I opened it back up, the project reverted to its previous save state. Hopefully you are within the warranty!