Sequencer won't play. Stuck on step 1

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Had this problem come up 6 times in last couple of days. The sequencer suddenly just won’t play. The first step LED stays lit in yellow.

Switching projects doesn’t solve it. Switching sets doesn’t solve it! Switching off is only option.

Other symptoms: can get no audio at all - no preview possible in editor or file browser. Also the AB meter LEDs stayed frozen at a fixed ‘glow’ even after source detached and mixer gain turned down.

Not using EXT sync. No midi connections at all.

Seems a lot like the issue with plays free tracks in direct getting stuck. Except it’s the whole machine :frowning:

I have one lays free track. Not direct though.

Anyone had anything like this?

Octatrack MKII Anniversary Edition
Yellow Trig Madness
#2

Last 2 times it occurred straight after a save. Once an all parts save, once a project save.

#3

Yesterday I had a play and preview problem too, after saving the project. I had to reload the sample. It happenned twice. Dynamic Recorders on.
I don’t think the sequencer was stuck though.

#4

Are you in pattern mode? It sounds like you switched to song/arranger mode

2 Likes
#5

No definitely not that. Like I said, even changing set didn’t clear it.

Definitely a bug but can’t work out what’s making it happen.

One other thing I noticed. Going into grid record and pressing play would sometimes advance the yellow LED to step 2, but no further - and no audio

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#6

Is it for different projects ?
Special settings in Personalize menu, Pattern Settings menu (Fn + Bank) ?

#7

It locks up. No audio. All projects.

What setting could cause that?

#8

I haven’t a clue, but you need to find one.
What is your Os ?
Maybe a card problem. With Statics, Flexs, Thru, no audio ?
Very annoying.

#9

You surely meant Plays Free, did you try to deactivate it ?

#10

No I didn’t try that. Will do if it happens again. Thanks

#11

…although changing projects/sets would effectively acheive the same thing anyway. I changed to projects which had no plays free tracks.

#12

If you had just switched dynamic recorders on then this sounds like a known issue -

making any changes in the Memory settings makes all slots silent! You either have to reload the project (that’s if you’ve saved it and don’t mind losing what you’ve worked on since last save) or go into every slot’s editor to get the sound back. It’s one of the bugs I really hope Elektron fixes.

1 Like
#13

Ok thanks for the info. Hopefully it’s not a live condition problem.
Yesterday I thought it could be Plays Free because I had the “no sound” problem again trying Plays Free, but I’m not sure if I switched Dynamic Recorders off…

#14

Hi Clancy! I was bugged with the same problem for years!! I finally found out the reason for it.

Please, refer to the OT Manual page 90.

When NOT in GRID RECORD MODE, press [FUNCTION]+ Bank to bring the Pattern Settings. Choose the track you’re finding this issue, and clear/uncheck the box “PLAYS FREE”. DONE!!

Let me know if you were able to fix it!

Best,

1 Like
#15

Cheers. Going to have another look at it.

#16

Just happend to me second time in a row. Have to turn off and on again in order to get Octa to work again.

Strange is that my AK that is receiving clock and transport from OT also does not play and the first step lights up red.
AK plays when I press play on the Analog Keys, though.

Will investigate what could cause this…

No midi coming into OT, OT is playing samples on flex, and sequencing synths over midi like it does 7 days a week.

*Edit after I’ve switched it off and on again I copied the part I was using to another unused one and now it seems to work again.

Maybe something along the lines of the ‘bank unavailable’ thing, but with a part? Corrupted data?

Next time this happens I’ll check if copying the part to another one can solve the issue without turning OT off.

1 Like
#17

Are you getting the first trig lighting yellow like I did?

I haven’t had the issue for a long time now but I recently dug out some old notes on OT bugs and I’d written something about copying a thru track to the adjacent track, turning it into a neighbour and setting it to plays free - pretty convoluted! I haven’t run into it for ages & couldn’t reproduce the problem recently so I’ve assumed OS update(s) have solved it. But maybe my notes were just not that accurate. or it’s more temperamental… anyway just putting that in here in case it sounds similar to what you were doing with the tracks

Yellow Trig Madness
#18

Yes, first trig was yellow (grid recording on) and in mute mode it was green. My AK had a solid red trig on step one, so whatever was happening in my OT was also causing my AK to show a red trig.

After I turned my OT off and on again, I thought everything was fine and continued to work on my track. The next time I saved the part, it happpend again.

After that second time I copied the part over to another one and OT worked again.

Reloading the project and saving the project as new didn’t do anything btw still that yellow trig.

I had just started a new track, so I had just some one shot drums on four flex tracks, a single cycle wav on another and a samplechain was also on a track.
2 midi tracks were sequencing synths and I had a master track.
Like I usually do, master length was 64, most tracks were 16 steps, some had longer sequences.
That’s basically how I start my tracks always and my OT is running 7 days a week.

I hope I catch that bug again, though, because I’m not sure if that copying of the part solved it or if it disappeared on its own…

1 Like
#19

Haven’t had this bug in a while, but in my experience it was much more prevalent when I was saving parts with the sequencer running. I am now in the habit of double-stopping before saving a part, and I haven’t seen it in a significant amount of time.

1 Like
#20

I just got this bug today and it took me a bit of trouble-shooting but I’ve fixed it while typing this out just now so fwiw i’ll post my findings on here;

Had a transition from C04 to A01 which included some hanging notes (intended). This was working fine yesterday but today started crashing the OT engine - causing no sound and frozen on step 1 until a reboot. This happened both in and out of the arrangement mode when playing these patterns back to back. Not sure why this started happening today but I tried putting stops on the hanging samples, that didn;t work and it was only when I stopped every single track dead on A01 step 01 that it stopped crashing so there must have been an hanging but silent sample causing the crashes. I removed the stops on T5 & T6 where I wanted the overlapping audio and I’m back up and running again with no crashes atm

Might need to look into which sample was crashing the OT to avoid it happening again… but for now at least I can get back to work!

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