It's unlikely that we'll ever get kits on the Dark Trio, but I had an idea

[badbass]

@Roger - In response to your first post, I suppose pressing a TRIG repeatedly in this SONG MODE MUTE PAGE mode, would cycle between:

Normal (un-muted),

Muted,

Sound-locked (i.e the track sound parameter changes are muted, but note events still register),

Seq-locked ( per step trigs still active (!!))

and presumably the icons for each track would alter to reflect these 4 states as per my very crude scribbling below. (nb I renamed page from MUTE to TRACK PAGE - its still a single page)

Not sure how this would work from a FX perspective…

The midi tracks would of course just toggle between muted/unmuted in response to repeated TRIG presses in this context.

[reeloy]

…i love the a4…since ages by now…still struggle with kits from time to time, no matter how much i’m aware of all advantages the concept of kits has to offer…

with this inbetween locking feature, it could bring best of both worlds to the actual square to be there trio of swedish devices…

[your_lamp]

Yeah I agree with you @reeloy. This seems like really good thinking, nice work @Roger.

I love using kits, I’m OK with the idea that they don’t fit within the Digi-box paradigm, but it feels like a solution is needed to really get the most out of Song Mode — and this would address it head on.

[Azzarole]

This! I actively hated kits on A4 and would always make a new kit for each pattern and then compulsively save them. This made kits useless and I would still accidentally lose sounds from time to time. An in between solution for transitioning and tweaking like the track locks would be awesome!

[Roger]

@bibenu

Suggestion (if you haven’t already done this)

• add an entry for each box to the relevant feature request thread, linking here.
• submit a formal feature request for each box.

Done; although I only sent one feature request since there’s only a single email address.

I also posted on M:C and M:S’s feature request threads because why not

[slicetwo]

An idea for kits on the DT

I had a genius idea for implementing a kit like function on the DT while driving to work this morning before the sun came up. It’s inspired by the way I use my DT. I tend to have my kicks and snares the same throughout the majority of a song, which is usually multiple patterns in a single bank. Other sounds get changed per pattern, though, so the regular KIT idea from the A4 may be a bit of a pain. Unfortunately, without any KIT functionality, when making a change to the kick/snare/etc sounds th…

I came up with this one earlier this year. I want kits, goddamnit!

What I really want is to be able to choose what sounds stay the same throughout per track. So my kick, for example, is always the same, but some of my synths can easily be switched up.

I don’t know if there’s really a good solution that would work for everyone, but I think we can all agreed that we need some way for slowly evolving live tweaks to flow into the following patterns for fluidity.

[warpigs330]

What I wonder about the implementation of this. What happens if you lock a track sound, change the sound, then save the pattern, does it save the locked sound to that track on the pattern?

[Roger]

My guess would be to throw up a warning asking the user what they’d like to do. Save the locked track(s) in the pattern, save only unlocked tracks, or cancel. If they cancel, they can unlock if that’s not what they wanted, and save again. (This warning always comes up if there are one or more locked tracks.)

[bibenu]

@Roger

Save the locked track(s) in the pattern

Which pattern ? The pattern they came from, or the pattern that’s playing?

[Roger]

The one that’s playing.

[bibenu]

So you’d then have an unlocked local copy (near copy actually) of the locked track in your current, playing pattern ?

[Roger]

Right, but I suppose the track should remain locked. The locked track(s) can be thought of like a “paintbrush” now.

[Roger]

Updated the description with details about saving and reloading patterns.

[OverneathTheSkybridge]

I find that I butt up against the kits thing as well when I’m working with the Octatrack and the Digitakt. I would gladly sacrifice the Octatrack’s “parts” feature to have a completely new machine set up on each pattern, or be able to copy that machine state from pattern to pattern as needed. The Digitakt is great for that.

I think the answer to the kits issue would be to design your kits in individual patterns in the higher up banks. H01 through H16 can easily be 16 different kits. You can label them and create template projects with your kits premade so you can just copy them to the patterns you need.

[smokyfrog]

I have four unique and named (6 chars) patterns/parts in each bank. I get by - but I’d sure love to have 16 totally unique/named patterns in every bank. Guess the OT is full though so it’s unlikely.

[bibenu]

@Roger

Updated the description

IMHO not only should Elektron implement this, but they should pay you consultancy fees for working out the entire UI.

EDIT: or maybe give you a free digi-box of your choosing. Because the problem you’re solving represents one of the major show-stoppers for me going any further with elektron boxes.

[slicetwo]

Another thing to keep in mind is at what level does the track lock? Is it per project? Bank? Only certain patterns? If each bank is a song, would this still work?

I miss the A4 kits…

[badbass]

Reflecting again on how to wrangle the relation between DNDTST Song Mode and avoiding unexpected jumps in sound… a slightly different approach…

In a ‘sound locked’ track pattern - the track starts, the stored track pattern sound, FX parameters and embedded sound trigs are ignored and whatever state the sound engine and FX engines were in at the head of the running track pattern remain, so no unexpected jumps. Lovely.

Altering sound/FX parameters on the fly no problem - the parameters that are now active or appear as newly added sound trigs, still override whatever is stored. If the pattern is then saved, the previously embedded trigs and other parameters are lost forever. Tough.

(Nb in the last sketch above, tracks 9 - 16 would be midi, so they couldn’t be Seq locked or Sound Locked) I don’t have time to update the sketch but you get the drift).

How would the proposals discussed, deal with existing sound engine trig locks in a ‘seq locked’ track pattern?

If incoming sound parameter trigs are active and the sound engine responds to them on the fly, what would happen on the ST if a different machine parameter is being addressed by the stored trig? I presume the existing firmware has a means to adapt dynamically. The results might be unpredictable but that’s the Elektron way.

[x0x]

Wouldn’t an approach similar to the new Global FX feature, but for track parameters, be better?

Maybe this is where Elektron are heading with this, and if they’ve done it for the FX track it might be possible to implement for the other tracks.

From the release notes…

Added a GLOBAL FX/MIX menu item in the SETTINGS menu. In the GLOBAL FX/MIX menu, you have the option to set the parameters on the INTERNAL MIXER, EXTERNAL MIXER, and the FX TRACK’s SYN, FILTER, AMP, DELAY, REVERB, LFO pages to be global (making any change to these parameters affect all patterns in the project and not only the active pattern).

[bibenu]

@x0x

but for track parameters,

Would you include track sequence in that ? I can’t see how that would work, but I think it would be necessary to match @Roger’s original idea.

@Roger

and optionally to keep playing the same sequence