Why is there no different timing on different tracks

i’d really like to know the “WHY”, because they do know how cool it is for the octatrack. and it would be such an obvious good addition to the A4 as well.

i just want to understand the reasons…

cheers,
ello

1 Like

It’s the million dollar question!

Please, tell us why?

This question was asked 1k times since the A4 was introduced. But this question is still open… Also you can find it in feature requests for OS updates…
It is very strange that guys from Elektron can’t add this functionality to A4 as they already implemented it in Octatrack few years ago.
I completely agree that this is a must have feature!

So, dear developers, please reuse your OT code and add this so desired feature to A4/AK OS!

Yesss I don’t even care why, just add it to the a4/ak/ar :slight_smile:

Can you explain what is meant by different timing? Is this different than the advanced tempo settings in the manual page 36? How is this different than the current way to change different pattern lengths?

Just curious.

By hardware design we have only 16 steps (physical trig buttons) x 4 pages (changes using scale setup button) = 64 steps. But sometimes it is needed to have more than 64 steps per pattern (e.g. for the long chords progression, evolving pads etc.). BTW, even old Korg ESX1 has 8 pages with 16 steps which is equals to 512 steps. Workaround for this “issue” is tempo multiplier, which allows to change playback speed and get more long duration of pattern but with reducing resolution of the trigs grid.
The issue with A4 is in fact that in OT you have possibility to select independent tempo multiplier for each track but in A4 tempo multiplier affects all tracks simultaneously.
If this feature will be implemented for A4 in the same way as in OT – it would be possible to have e.g. 512 “steps” (by setting multiplier value to 1/8) on the 1st track for evolving long pad with different chords, 16 steps for kick drum on 2nd track, 128 on 3rd track for… and so on…

Probably this feature is not so important for techno-style music, but it’s essential for ambient-like stuff.

I’d like this to be available as much as the next man(woman). I reckon some things don’t get included for business reasons or to keep the interface balance simple. It also takes effort and they’re developing other things/overbridge etc. but I tend to think why might some features not be available ! Although the a4 started out as four mono voices, it is different from the OT and AR in that it has voice sharing between tracks and I wonder if this may partly explain why having staggered trigs may make it trickier to have transparent voice stealing, I’m not even sure that thought even stands up tbh. But I do find that many of the frequent feature requests are just implausible rather than omissions as it were. I hope it’s not just that they consider the A4 as a non-percussive type instrument and therefore it wouldn’t benefit from the ability to run a 3/4 behind a 4/4 , I use it more percussively/rhythmically/texturally than as a keys/lead type thing. Anyway I’m +1 :+1:

The issue with A4 is in fact that in OT you have possibility to select independent tempo multiplier for each track but in A4 tempo multiplier affects all tracks simultaneously.
If this feature will be implemented for A4 in the same way as in OT – it would be possible to have e.g. 512 “steps” (by setting multiplier value to 1/8) on the 1st track for evolving long pad with different chords, 16 steps for kick drum on 2nd track, 128 on 3rd track for… and so on…

I couldn’t agree more here. A tempo-multiplier per track would be SO helpful!

Maybe they left this out because it’s soo easy to set up and use chains to get progressions longer than a single pattern?

such an old topic. why doesnt it have cv ins too? …

that’s true, but good luck trying to do that live :slight_smile:

Thanks for the info! I couldn’t understand the request before.

More track multipliers please!

… But there’d be no way to go faster or to get the triplet layering, then it could also be used in a performance sense too. It’s on the AR (no ?) so it isn’t that theory

Maybe the guy who coded the multiplier in the OT got fired and took his tech with him :wink:

Individual track multipliers would be amazing.

However, in a post from /mr, an Elektron employee about why the A4 sequencer doesn’t send midi out (my most wanted feature), he said the sequencer doesn’t use midi. He didn’t specify exactly what it does use but I’m assuming some sort of internal digital organization of CV controls. Where the Octatrack uses midi as far as I know since it sends it’s midi information out it must be using midi.

So they don’t really have the same sequencers so individual track multipliers might not be as easy to implement as unfortunate as that is. Even though I’m sure they could implement it if they tried.

I don’t think we’re going to see any new features for any of their products until Overbridge is out.

na, who cares about overbridge until that tempo multiplier (which is exactly the wording i forgot when creating the thread) is added :D…

The tempo multiplier on the MKII is set to effect all four tracks and cannot be made specific to each track like in the octatrack (pattern…scale mode…per track setting). Is there any way to work around the problem? I want longer polyrhythms. i know this is a long time problem for the a4, but is there a work around? say i want 3/4x on one and 1x on another

1 Like

Sorry, neither does the feature exists, nor a workaround.

I understand why Elektron keeps such features bound to specific machines (to sell you more than one), but from a user perspective this is completely “shitty”. For many restrictions of the sequencer on a specific machine there is simply no technical reason why to keep it out …

… and even if you own multiple machines from them, it’s also a hassle to always remember which feature is available on which machines. Kind of really sucks …

Ah that makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Damn, that’s some bs though

Has anyone actually bought an Octatrack just to get track scale for the A4, and doesn’t use the A4’s sequencer and only controls it from midi tracks from OT?

1 Like