Understanding Kits, Tracks and Sounds

Octar · 2015-01-08T22:42:03.000Z

""hkrabye"":

I just discovered that the fastest way to save a sound you have tweaked on a track is to push the Yes-button and the Sound-button (on AK) or the D2-button (on A4) at the same time. The first empty slot on the +Drive is automatically selected, and you just need to confirm with the Yes-button.

That helped a lot. Thanks for the hint!

tonfarben · 2015-01-11T17:37:19.000Z

I think, as strange as it seems first, the concept behind those kits is quite powerful.

Example: Maybe you know that on the korg electribe EMX1 you could have a pattern length of 128 steps. And when you have worked with that, you don´t want to miss it ever again. So to achieve this on the Analog Rytm or Keys I do this:

On a clear project

Make a Pattern A1.
2 Save kit (yes, it still has initialised sounds, but let´s not worry yet) into slot A1 and call it Kit A1
Make Pattern A2. Automatically this new Pattern has Kit A1 assigned to it.
Now in Chain-Mode make a chain containing pattern A1 and A2

Because those two patterns use the same kits they also use the same sounds. So if you now load a sound it is used in both patterns. And because you are in chain mode, those two patterns now behave as one big 128step pattern. LiveRecording works fine. And step recording of course also works but remember to look on the display where you are before setting your steps as while playing the sequencer changes the patterns on the fly without you noticing.

If you want to create another 128step Pattern:

Make a Pattern A3.
Save kit onto Slot A3 and call it Kit A3. (Notice, the created pattern A3 automatically got Kit A1 assigned to it. This you will now save -basically copy- to Slot A3 and you will call it Kit A3)
Make Pattern A4.
While Pattern A4 is active look on the display to make sure Kit A3 is used. If not, load that kit and save the pattern again.

“Why create the new kit into slot a3?”
You can see where the kits belong (kit A1 belonging to pattern A1 AND A2 because Kit-slot 2 is empty)
And if you decide later that Pattern A2 needs a variation of the sounds used in Pattern A1, despite you are using it as a big 128step Pattern, you can still simply create a copy of kit A1 and save that to slot A2, just where it belongs.

You have to get used to this process of first saving your stuff at a specific location and then start tweaking and recording, but later in the process it is much easier because everything sits already in place.

XponentOne · 2015-01-11T20:05:11.000Z

Can also start a blank project, setup and assign a few patterns/chains/blank kits then save the project and lock it, and have a template project ready to rock with your most common workflow.

hgprs · 2015-01-12T17:57:17.000Z

XponentOne, I’d never thought of that. I think it’s a very cool idea!

escargot · 2016-07-29T11:00:09.697Z

I want to start to manage my extensive library of sounds in my AK, and go thru factory sounds and sound packs. Delete some, edit some, rename, relocate sounds.
If i go thru kits, and their 4 sounds, double clicking on the track will display the sound, now if i want to see where on the +drive it is located or if after editing it i want to replace that sound, how to do this? I know how to save it in a new place, but not where it was originally.
Thanks for your help

avantronica · 2016-07-29T11:21:25.816Z

escargot:

if i want to see where on the +drive it is located or if after editing it i want to replace that sound, how to do this?

double clicking a track will bring up the sound browser, this can be focussed on either the sound pool (per project, 128 sounds) or +Drive (per machine, thousands of sounds) - whilst focussed on the browser you can audition sounds for that track, pressing yes will load them in

clicking a track will only reveal the name now assigned to that sound stored entirely within the kit, this is a legacy of earlier activity only, that sound is not stored anywhere, it is baked entirely within the kit (although its source may well have been a +Drive sound originally)

If you want to swap out a sound within a kit, just tweak and save or load from the sound manager and save into the kit

sounds like you may benefit from a refresh read on some ideas about sounds, kits, patterns etc from the manual or read the advice in the many threads on this topic
:

escargot · 2016-08-02T11:50:55.326Z

great thanks. i didn’t realise that the sounds stored in a kit are a separate entity and can be different than the sound they might originate from in the +drive. Is there a way to name them differently? or they will have the name of the sound loaded from pool or +drive regardless if it has been edited in the kit?

Also, how do you move a sound from one slot to another in the +drive? is it thru sound manager? I think i know how to do it in OB, but working just with the synth at the mo, and wanting to get more familiar with it without using OB.

thanks

escargot · 2016-08-02T11:57:52.768Z

oh yeah just found reply to my first question. Sound manager: rename to rename the sound on +drive, rename track sound to rename the sound in the kit. nice

iramrezso · 2016-08-02T12:42:48.974Z

Is there another synth out with such complex data architecture? I like it however.

clunky · 2016-08-02T16:21:41.723Z

Yes the OT, where as the A4 I find easy, the OT just bogs me down in “house keeping”

GAURA · 2016-08-11T05:02:53.746Z

I see your first question was answered… But did you ever decide to set about cataloging your +Drive library with that knowledge?

I also would like to create a more organized +Drive with different Init patches and more categorized sections of sounds that I would like handy (in place of the preset list available now)

Seems like a healthy workflow improvement .

socaldreamer · 2018-07-25T07:33:37.000Z

So I figured out an interesting thing this evening in learning how to use song mode, kits, and pattern chaining on my Analog 4 MK2. You need to create and save each kit before switching patterns to use new set of sounds per track or you will copy over the same sounds from other banks! Been loving creating kits, songs and chaining them together to create longer compositions. That and learning how to craft tunes on the Octatrack with parts, patterns and the arranger is soo much fun.

plusn · 2018-08-03T06:19:13.450Z

Up…

So did i understand the Connections right?
+Drive -> global
128 Soundpool -> per Project
1 Kit -> per n-Pattern
n Kits -> per 1 soundpool
8 banks x 16 pattern -> per project
Performance controls -> per Kit?

amnesia · 2019-01-12T02:09:44.000Z

I am starting to think I might be going about this wrong.

I want to put together a composition so I do it this way

Create New Project
Track one make a sound and save the sound, track 2 , 3 4 FX etc
as I am doing experimental music I usually just use A1 pattern
When I am happy with what I have created I save the project

But now I have a second A4 I am able to move all sounds etc across except the projects…

I think I should start saving my compositions as Kits correct?

Snipecatcher · 2019-01-12T04:34:38.167Z

I’m about to get an A4, so I’m very curious myself to see what tips folks have!

tnussb · 2019-01-12T05:57:11.108Z

Sorry, but what’s your real question? I mean what do you want to accomplish?

Isn’t the essence of it (how to transfer stuff between two units) already answered in your previous post?

2 A4 How to transfer clone every thing to 2nd A4 Analog Keys/Four

I have just bought a second A4 Mk1 and I want to copy/ clone everything from the older A4 to the new A4 Mk1. Could someone tell me how I can do this? Thanks

Nevertheless:

IMHO it seems to me you are a little bit confused about what’s stored where. So I’ll try to clarify it.

In regards to a single pattern it’s more important to save the (automatically assigned) kit, because that’s where the sounds of all 4 tracks used in the pattern are really stored. So even without you knowing you are actually using a kit.

Saving a sound means “exporting” that sound from the kit to its own file.

Saving a sound separately is only necessary if you want to re-use a single sound somewhere else (for example: in another kit/project/whatever) OR if you want to preserve the actual settings of a single sound as backup.

Please read the first pages of the manual again (+ section “Kits and Sound”) for more details about what’s stored in the different structures (Project/Kit/Sound/Pattern).

SoundRider · 2019-01-12T09:35:10.300Z

If I understand you correctly, you would like to transfer a “sound”, which is the patch of one synth voice, from one machine to an other.

There is a feature you could use: “GLOBAL MENU/SYSEX DUMP”

This allows to send whole projects, kits, single sounds etc. out to the midi world. You have only to configure your midi-setup with the two machines and send/receive what you need.

I would recommend to read the manual from page 59 on, to get the idea (I am on OS 1.22).

ritsaert · 2019-02-05T09:10:56.000Z

Goodmorning,

I’ve been working with all kinds of devices the last 15 years. Now with my first elektron machine it’s sometimes a bit confusing how stuff works. One of the things i’m running into is the connection between patterns and kits.

With many of my ‘old’ devices, choices of sounds and parameters are stored within the pattern. With the A4 this is different. For every pattern you choose a kit (or create one) and save this with the pattern.
I’ve created about 10 pattern now and somehow i end up creating a dedicated kit for every one of them. This way i will probably end up having 128 patterns with 128 kits.

What is the use/advantage of having kits and patterns not ‘connected’ as 1 save?

chrisb78 · 2019-02-05T09:32:37.173Z

The current design lets you reuse and assign kits to as many patterns as you want. But it also lets you have patterns with different kits.

If every pattern has different sounds for you (and thus its own kit), it sounds like overkill. But for me, kits become awesome once you use song mode: if you have various patterns that evolve your track, you’ll likely reuse sounds a lot.
Having multiple patterns associated to the same kit makes sure that if I change/tweak the sound within a kit, it stays correct in all the patterns that use that kit.

sezare56 · 2019-02-05T17:35:41.492Z

ritsaert:

This way i will probably end up having 128 patterns with 128 kits.

There was Tabula Rasa project made by @void for that purpose, IIRC. I already asked where to download it, but anyway I’ll end up with making mine, with my default settings.