Heya,
On Digitakt, there was a procedure to repeat the first pattern in the chain:
(Sourced from here courtesy of @thie1210)
However I can’t seem to get this to work on the Model:Samples. Has anyone found a way to be able to create a pattern chain in which the first pattern is repeated multiple times?
I can’t even get the Chain to work. I follow the manual then press play and no chain plays. But I get what you are saying about the repeat. What’s the trick?
I’ve had this issue too - my workaround is to create a duplicate of the first pattern and then just chain those.
We’re you able to fix this problem? I can’t get the chain to work at all either?
I can’t get it to work. I opened a Support Ticket about it but had a reply saying that it does work. But it doesn’t! 
The problem is, to repeat a Pattern you first have to have chained a different Pattern - because you can’t simultaneously hold a Trig key and then press it again as when you let it go the chain is broken.
So you could do 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 etc. because you can keep holding Trig 1 while tapping 2 to chain the repeats. You definitely can’t do 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 etc.
I think it’s an oversight in the UI. The whole business with holding the previous Trig key in order to chain another is a bad move and not intuitive. The chaining should keep chaining for as long as you hold the Pattern button down, no need for holding the previous Trig button. Doesn’t make sense.
I have both model: samples & model: cycles and neither chain!!! I’m going crazy holding down pattern as well as T2 Trigger as well as A 1-16 trigger and nothing happens!? No confirmation of chaining appears. Does anyone have any tips?
I hate that I can’t do this with the Model:Samples.
I hate that you can’t SAVE pattern chains in the Project, either.
The only workaround is what someone mentioned above… if Pattern 1 is the one you want repeated more than the others… copy it to Pattern 2.
Pattern+1, +2, +2, +2 (is Pattern 1 repeated four times).
Elektron… help? 
Use the Chg setting in the scale setup menu. If you always want your first pattern to play four times, set Chg to four times the length of the pattern, and it’ll play four times before moving on to the next pattern in the chain.
Thx!
This works for me on v1.12
Press and hold [ PTN ].
Press and hold any [ TRIG 1–16 ] that is not the desired first pattern in the chain (continue holding throughout).
Press the desired first pattern [ TRIG 1–16 ] and then release. (Ignore the temporary chain displayed on the screen).
Release [ PTN ] then press and hold again.
Finally, press the desired first pattern [TRIG 1–16] multiple times to repeat the first pattern.
… Yep.
Update: Instructions for OS 1.13
I have never used that because of this
As I was researching whether to buy the M:S, it was maddening to learn about this design choice/omission, and that it wasn’t corrected in any of the firmware updates that added other significant feature. I did buy a M:S and mostly think it is great, but for all of its hard drive storage and otherwise intuitive workflow, it is absolutely crazy that there is no way to repeat a pattern. It’s obviously not a hardware limitation - I think Elektron had a specific workflow in mind as to keystrokes that would get you a pattern chain, and realized too far into it that it meant you could never repeat the first pattern in a chain.
I’m used - and somewhat tolerant of - limitations of this kind coming over as a Volca Sample. But if I can save thousands of samples to a device, and switch two dozen of them in and out within a single pattern, there just has to be a way to repeat patterns within a chain and then SAVE said chain within a project. I’m actually not sure what function “Projects” serve if there isn’t a song mode and you can’t retain pattern chains - isn’t that just more like a new storage “bank” for patterns beyond the initial 96?
Nice! This is a great tip (that should NOT work)! I didn’t fully understand your directions at first… the key is to keep holding the trig that is NOT the desired first pattern until after step 5. At that point you can hold a different trig and release that first one if you want to use that first one in the chain. Nice!
Agreed. Looks like an accidental feature to me. Hope they don’t ‘fix’ it.
Nobody has mentioned that yet, so here is my 2 cents. Let’s say that pattern 1 will be first pattern in the chain. It’s 16 steps long, but you want it to be played 8 times before moving to next pattern:
Note: in case you use TRK mode instead of PTN in the scale setup, it should be sufficient to set Chg for just one (usually 1st) track…
Yup. That works great if pattern 1 always occurs 8 times. If later on you want pattern 1 something other than 8 times, you still need the other method.
yes, but it depends on your workflow
If you don’t mind having more patterns, you can use copies. So you make e.g. chain A01-A02-A03-A04 instead of A01-A01-A02-A01-A02-A02, where A03 and A04 are copies of A01 and A02 with just different Change parameter (and possibly some minor variations too).
Result: shorter chain (in case of repetition) and ascending order of patterns, so you can recreate chain very quickly anytime in the future without remembering anything.
Downside is strictly given structure, so in my example you might need another 2 pattern copies for purpose of live jam (placed e.g. on last 2 positions of the same bank), where Chg value would be equal as Len…
I was thinking the other day how nice it would be to have a Pattern Chain/Song Mode on the M:S where the Trig buttons become Pattern Slots, and you assign Patterns to the Trigs with the orange encoder, the same way you assign note value. Even if there were limitations - e.g. only patterns from the same bank/only 16 instead of 64 patterns total/no saving/whatever - I think this would make sense as a workflow if it’d be at all feasible to implement.
That’s a really interesting idea! Plus you could have additional features like mutes (hold the trig and press a pad to turn it off/on for that slot) or different length/tempo (press level encoder to jump to next parameter much like the note/length/velocity plocks).
