Hi there, I’m receiving my ST tomorrow and I’d love to have your input on what’s the best workflow to achieve my goal, if you’re inclined to help !
I don’t plan to use the internal sequencer, but instead use a DAW. [I have many reasons to do this, trust me, and please do not reply with “you’re missing the point if you’re not using the sequencer, it’s Elektron’s strength”, etc… ]
I know that there is nothing such as “kits” in the ST. So the best/only way to recall “kits” is to recall empty patterns associated with the sets of sounds ? (I used to do this with AR, only 1 step-patterns playing 2x faster).
How fast do the machines change when you switch patterns ? Is it really instant ? Also for the analog tracks ?
In case I’d want to “parameter lock from MIDI” (using MIDI CCs), do you know if the parameter values are held until the next trigger, or on the contrary, are the changes immediate ?
How “snappy” do the machines react to CC controls of parameters ? Meaning if I trigger a CC value at the same time as the note, are the parameter updated before the note triggers the sound engine ?
While I love the FUNC+NO to reload the pattern (kit, in my case), I’m quite concerned about accidentally hitting FUNC+YES in a live situation. How likely is it happening and how to recover from such a mistake ? Need to reload the project ?
The only one I can answer is 5, and the answer is that it will happen.
As for dealing with it, well that comes down to how much of a mess you make.
One method I had on my DT was to mirror each pattern with the one below it, so I could switch to a pattern’s alternate should the mistake be made. This obviously halved the amount of available patterns per bank, but I never ran out of room.
Thanks. Unfortunately your solution is not really ok for me as patterns will be recalled remotely via PC messages.
By any chance, is that accessible via Sysex ?
Hoppin on question 5.
For performances, once you have finalized your set, save the whole project and then lock it. Create a copy and work from the copy. If you make a mistake you still have the original, if you make changes you can update it.
You could always do this trick another way, by copying your kit before changing parameters, then when you are done improvising, paste the old kit back.
Thanks. In this case, FUNC+YES doesn’t save the pattern, but FUNC+NO doesn’t reload the pattern either.
I just want to avoid accidental pattern savings.
Don‘t know about st ( can‘t load the manual atm) One advantage of DN that makes it feel less fragile than a4 is reload single pattern from project after hitting temp save or temp reload. And store single pattern to project if project is not locked.
For me the advantages of the simpler dn structure and the disadvantage of the missing kits are about equal.
(I would prefer possibilty to disable autosave for feeling lesss insecure about the inevitable button accidents on both, but more on a4 (and ot). )
Edit: manual appeared now. pt reload from project seems the same on st.
Yes, or if you forgot or think you like both patterns, you can do copy-reload-paste to new pattern, save. On dn i always save pt to project afterwards, feels a bit better to me.
St kits structure seem something different than on a4, so i leave those beside in this post.
One the ST, if you make changes to a pattern X (without temp saving), switch to pattern Y and then switch to pattern X, does it load in the changed version or does it load the version saved with the Project ?
Don’t know and didn’t order st but…Quite sure the changed X. Thats the elektron pattern autosave most peope seem to like, and that has some advantages too (probably. F e kat hitting the power button or wife pulling the plug because you program a idm symphony instead of washing the dishes).
Also no pattern write (mangle ) protect comand.
But on dn there’s reload pt from project, also while playing. Edit: pt must have been saved to project ( or whole project ) before.
Your first question, every midi channel has the sounds of the 12 parts on the first 12 notes of the full midi scale, like a drum kit, and the rest of the notes are the instrument/sound of the track that is associated with the midi channel. So you can have, on one channel 11 drum sounds and play a synth sound chromatically.
There does not seem to be an afx mode, where you can key map all the sounds from the pool to the notes of one channel. The digitone does have this function, so maybe in a future software update ?
Your second question, yes, the switch is almost instantaneous. It’s very impressive.
And your fifth question. That does happen ! It’s a thing with the takt form factor. The model models have much more space between the two buttons, but they didn’t change it for the syntakt. Probably because they use the tooling and design they already have.
And also, having a digitakt and syntakt with the func yes buttons in different places would be even more confusing.
If you didn‘t save the pattern to project before ( or the whole project). If you did, you can undo the (temp) accidental save by reloading the pattern from project.
You can actually use this to have three different save-states to toggle between: ctrl-all mangled, reload from temp and reload from project.
When you reload from project, you can still reload from temp to go back to that (different) state.
Thanks, that was what I figured out in the end.
There’s no shortcut to ‘reload from project’, is it ? (FUNC+ double NO would be simple).
Damn, this would be so perfect to have an option so FUNC+NO reloads from project. Would it make sense to some of you ? I’m thinking of writing a feature request. It’s so important to me. Different songs could use the same ‘kit’ (pattern) so if it’s left in a ‘mess state’, it would ruin another song later in the performance. See what I mean ?
Or maybe taking the habit to copy a pattern to a different location for each song would be the solution…?
Damn, after a few tests, I feel like it’s not reliable to use the Syntakt as a ‘regular’ drum machine using empty patterns as kits.
Two major issues for proper live use :
There is a risk to accidentally save the ‘Temp’
If you leave a pattern after having made changes, then power the ST off, when you switch it back on, it loads the patterns as you left them, but there’s no way to recall their original form since there’s no more ‘temp’ version saved. So you have to reload the project when you power it on. Is this what you guys do ?
Damn I hate the Digi structure so much. Rytm is way easier from my point of view.
The bottom line is, maybe ST is not for me. And I should be looking to another drum machine.
Problem is I never found a drum machine that works the way I want…
Time to open up a new topic.
point 7