I did my best to make a quick list of every option one might have if they wanted to take an ordinary Pattern and experiment with generating some variation from it. Still learning, and would be nice to know I’m not missing anything as well as to get ideas.
If you think something should be added, or if you want to expand on which features you like best and why, I’d love to hear it!
I actually haven’t used probability that much yet, but I want to for melodic phrases to see what it ends up spitting out. I always thought that the main draw to probability was more for people who play long form ambient or techno type stuff…basically anything that is meant to sound more organic over time.
The main reason I like trig conditions is because it has the ability to make whatever pattern I’m working on seem longer than it really is. This was a concept I had a tough time understanding at first, since I didnt understand why they didnt just add 8 bars instead of 4.
LFOs routed to any param that creates good variations. Some favorites are sample slot, volume, filter, amp decay. Depending on LFO type and speed, can get anything from full random to pseudo-random (LFO speeds that don’t align with track length) to predictable. Activate with a scene or direct jump from a static pattern to a LFO’d pattern using “direct jump” for a nice fill.
In terms of having non-static or non-repeating patterns I think the trig conditions are incredibly powerful, especially once you get into the poly-metric type stuff (forgive me if the terminology is wrong).
If you have some trigs that trigger every 2/3 and some every 4/7 and some every 3/4 etc then you may not get the same 4 or 8 bars for quite some time!
I also think trig mutes are great and I want to explore that more. I like the idea of creating a fairly dense pattern and then muting lots of the trigs to start with something sparse and then gradually unmute then to build up the density. One way to make a long progression without actually programming lots of patterns. You could also experiment with muting and unmuting trigs and then when you have a pattern you like you could copy to a new pattern to build up your “bank” of variations.
It occurs to me that this might help those of us (and I’m sure there are many) that often get stuck with a 4 or 8 bar loop and struggle to turn that into a track.
These can work like a focused tool for variation of a specific track. Treat the high priority track of the choke pair (i.e. T4, T8, T10, T12) as a variation of its low-priority partner. Use similar (or the same) sounds on both, but have different trig rhythms, or different pitches, plus any other kind of variation you want. Then work out a scheme for making it useful (e.g. apply the variation as a Fill, or using Track Mutes or using polymeter to cause out-of-phase variations, or apply different LFO timings, etc). This lets you do things like having an alternative b-line/melody, or alternative p-locks just for a Fill.
Add CV inputs (that you can use by throwing audio from a track btw).
And Direct Jump, that makes it possible to melt several tracks in a very dynamic way, with very interesting artefacts.
Don’t forget FX track. It’s a nice way to add variation, although it’s uneasy to mute/unmute (technically, only Soloing or external MIDI CC control can toggle this).
There are also more discreet features such as the Swing, for which you can choose the trigs it applies to. A way to “microtime” a bunch of trigs that shouldn’t be overlooked.
There’s some really next-level tips in this thread already!
A list is such a good idea. This is prompting me to make a page in my notebook with a list of variation techniques, to consult in that moment where I’m like “ok, cool pattern, now what?”
Agreed - excellent thread and is merging nicely with an idea I’ve been formulating in my head (a bit more fluffy than technical) but the notion of a list of ‘vibe tools’ rather than just going through the motions when making music. A ramble for another thread in future perhaps.
surprised to see the velocity mod not getting more attention here.
hidden away in trig menu but when used in conjunction with retrigs a really expressive tool within the rytm arsenal.
Also yes + kit saves the kit
Then tweak what you want
Then no + kit reloads the saved kit
This can be done with the sequencer too
Shift play (i think, not with my Synth now) copies the sequencer
Then adjust trigs, shift them left/right as mentioned above, change pattern length, etc
Then past the stored pattern
I mean that with motion recording you create lots of variation to the sound but that will be repetitive unless you use the LFO to further modulate those parameters in order to have some random or non-repeating stuff going on.
