Apologies if this is an old question; the manual’s not forthcoming and it’s very hard to search for the answer without getting the answer to other questions.
I’m looking to perform by switching to different copies of the same pattern played back at different beat divisions; 1/8th, 1/4th, 1/2, 1x. I can do this by turning the knob, but not without accidentally getting stuck in triplets (where I don’t wanna be) or overshooting 1x with the continuous encoder. So I thought I’d make a bunch of different patterns at different beat divisions and do it that way.
PRoblem is, I want them to be longish patterns (so they don’t sound too repetitive) and it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to get the sequencer to change patterns before a pattern is finished without stopping and restarting. I don’t need the change to be instantaneous, it would be fine on the next full beat or whatever, but is there really no way to change to a different pattern before a 64 step pattern has run its course? Yet another feature I kinda miss from the BeatStep Pro
Afaik the Digitakt doesn’t have that feature. A4/AK and AR have it and you can do it on the Octatrack with the Arranger.
A4/AK and AR have three modes; Sequential which is the ‘normal’ mode, pattern changes at the end, direct jump immediately change patterns and the new pattern will start playing from the position where the previous pattern was, direct start immediately changes pattern, but plays the new one from the beginning.
Ex :
Make a 16x1 beat patterns loop (64 steps) with signature 1, sending corresponding program changes with midi track 1.
Make a 16x1 beat patterns loop (64 steps) with signature 2, sending corresponding program changes with midi track 2.
Etc.
Use mutes to choose the midi track corresponding to the signature you want.
At first you can make your 64 steps pattern as you like, then copy / paste, shift steps with Fn+left arrow in grid recording, reduce to 4 steps.
What about using copy/paste?. Copy the next pattern in line whilst the current one is playing then paste when you want to make the change, might take a bit more effort but its much better for immediate changes.