I want it too!
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…who needs fuzz if there’s some math…
don’t think in pages…think in steps…only U define the overall length of ONE BAR…
at least since there’s a songmode by now for everyone, and chains that can become rows in a song with two klaks, u still might see the “limitation” of 64 steps in max, but no one can stop u to say this bar NOW has “only” 3, or 7, or 12, or 28, or 34 instead of 32, or 56, 62, 63 instead of 64 steps “only but at once”…forget pages…embrace every single step…
only repetition of steps makes a bar…only repetition of bars make a beat…only repetition of beats make a part…only repetition of parts make a song…only repettion of a song make a hit…
and have a second thought on individual track length versus overall pattern play length way beyond 64 steps…within every single pattern…those based on only “one” page as those based on “four” pages…only U define the frame of a beat…
focus on the box and think outside of it…
there’s always a bigger picture waiting for u to get unlocked…
surprise urself…
I think this is key. They’re “pages” not “bars”. The sequencer is just a tracker with buttons and patterns up to 64 steps long. They’re not even “beats” as far as the sequencer is concerned. Elektron would have to change the UI: the UI is hardware, and almost part of the brand. It’d be a big change.
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I don’t see where the hardware needs to be changed.
For four pages of 7 steps, only 7 buttons would be lit up per page.
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True.
With maybe one exception. This works for any time signature which is repeated 1, 2, 3 or 4 times (pages). But ideally, we could want to have a different length for each page. Then setting this up would be more challenging in terms of user interface.
But I’d be more than happy with ‘just’ a fixed page length per pattern (and per track of course !).
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Sure, that’d be nice. But it only works when the steps-per-bar is lower than 16. The paradigm will break when you want to do 17/8 or, more significantly, 24/48 steps. You’re back at the same problem we currently have, and for a fairly common metre. I suspect that the deeper you go into this problem, the more you end up needing different solutions for different step-lengths. And if you go that far, you probably just want to have a linear step display like we currently have.
(Note: I’d love to be wrong 'cos I also find it hard to count along the steps. My vision’s weak and I get more muddled than the average person trying to differentiate steps in the middle of the “page”, without getting my face even closer to the boxes.)
I think that a maximum of 16 steps per page would be a very acceptable limitation.
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It is not very intuitive, but as is, still doable. Even if you have to ask yourself which step is what. I managed to make 5/4 and 11/4 songs on the DT, and was blown away how easy it was after all.
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I’m fairly strongly against UIs which work one way for some circumstance, and another way for a variation of it. It’s a bit like how crap M.Len and Ch.Len are. Ch.Len works one way for M.Len = INF, and differently for M.Len != INF. It confuses everyone (including Elektron).
Maybe ‘manage’.
But let’s say you want to modify patterns in a live situation. If your brain can calculate where every division of the musical bar is, instantly, well, good for you, but I’m certainly not able to do so !
Can the Cirklon do this?
If I remember well, yes it can. Not sure though, it was a long time ago.
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Seems a pity Elektron cant. 4/4 is fine but you get bored of the format and start looking at unusual time signatures.
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It just depends on the project, the music, and your habits. Nothing’s wrong with it, but the it would be nice if you could do so.
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I think its good for the soul to experiment a bit 
Literally with pen and paper.
I worked out Norwegian Wood on DT several months ago, and I spent several evenings after work putting it together. (It’s in 3/4)
I’ll see if I can find my notes. There was some hacky notation I brute-forced with multiples of three to get it done.
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“It’s just a waltz, mates.”
Lennon 🫤
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Ah, of course, I meant that for composing only, I still am at the " ok how do I play this live now ?" part.
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It’d be nice to be able to customize the number of steps on each page individually, on a per track basis. Would add another layer to the current workflow, where you can set pattern length/scale per track.
So, for example, if you wanted two bars of 5/4 time, you’d leave pages 1 & 3 at 16 steps, and set pages 2 & 4 to 4 steps each.
7/4 = 1 & 3 at 16, 2 & 4 at 12
3/4 you can have four bars if you like, every page set to 12
etc.
Seems like a tractable implementation from a UI/UX perspective.
All that said, sure counting it out as you program requires a little brain bending, but making a track in an odd meter isn’t that hard as it is. When I’m doing odd time signatures I’ll often program a simple scaffold rhythm that highlights the downbeat and then play everything else in live once I feel the time signature.
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The Electribe lets you set different page lengths for each part but its sequencer has its own shortcomings too.
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