Working only on Digitakt at the moment as my home studio got major humidity/pipe leaks issues…
I have come across something weird, maybe I am not understanding the concept:
Track 1 is a 4 to the floor kick.
Track 2 is a clava with a track length of 6 steps with triggers on 2 and 4.
Pretty basic. No other change to master length in the pattern/track parameters’ page.
The issue: while the sequencer is playing (1 bar pattern), track 2 actually does not run “as it should” (maybe this is where my understanding of the concept of track length is not clear): instead of running through the 6 steps, it seems like running 6 steps then 2 steps then back to 6 steps and then again through only 2 steps.
Anybody would care to clarify this?
In the SCALE menu, PER TRACK mode, change M.LEN to the lowest common multiple of your track lengths. In your example, I expect it should be 48 whereas you have left it at 16.
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@PeterHanes WoW that was fast!
Thanks for clarifying.
Though this was not the case (a requirement) before or am I mistaken?
Indeed the M.LEN is at 16 at the moment.
You are mistaken.
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Thanks again for clarifying 
Much appreciated.
Going to have to get a calculator for my future polymeric experimentations I suppose…
you can also set M.LEN to infinite if you aren’t going for a specific reset point in your polymeter and then set CH.LEN to something you like so you can still switch patterns
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Not sure I understand this one.
Would you mind explaining?
Like you could make sure every 48 steps it starts over even if you had something with more variations programed. Personally I pretty much always use M.LEN infinite, especially if you are mixing odd step lengths with track scaling it gets hard to math it out.
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Not sure I got this entirely but will experiment
For the moment the Lowest Common Multiple is the way for me it seems.
M.LEN infinite would never reset any tracks to step 1, all would run at their own lenght - but on Elektrons, you can’t change to another pattern when M.LEN (or master length on other Elektrons) is set to inf, because the pattern change behaviour is tied to the master pattern length.
That’s what the CH.LEN parameter is for - if you set it to 16, the pattern will behave like a 16 pattern in terms of cueing a new pattern = you select a new pattern and it switches within 16 steps to the new pattern.
If you set it to 64, the pattern will behave like a 64 step long pattern = when you select a new pattern, the currently running pattern will first complete its 64 step cycle, then change.
Probaply sounds more complicated than it actually is.
It’s just one of these Elektron things, given you many control options to configure how the boxes will behave.
It makes sense, though - for example, you have a 512 step long pattern, do you always want to wait until a 512 step long loop cycle has finished before the machine switches pattern? Probaply not^^
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Sorry to bother again with my initial question again.
I realise the importance (now) of the LCM with regards to pattern change ie making sure the polymeric track (in my case T2) runs a “complete"cycle” BEFORE changing to a cued pattern.
My issue is not related to this I believe.
Please excuse my lack of understanding if this is not the case.
In my case, when I hit PLAY, the polymeric track runs 6 steps then 2 steps (and again in that way).
This surely cannot relate to M.LEN as in my case it is set to 16. 6+2=8 so not even the M.LEN setting.
Getting confused here though I now understand (and sees the utility of) the concept of LCM and M.LEN thanks to @PeterHanes and @Schnork
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You’re over-complicating this.
If you’re set to 16, your 6 part will play twice-around, then go once for 4 beats and reset/repeat.
Set your M to INF and it will continue to run in 6’s without resetting.
Your L-Change value will then be used for changing patterns, so set that to 16, 32 or 64, etc, and it’ll keep your changes on the beat.
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Hahaha!!!
I do indeed have a tendency for this
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I appreciate.
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I don’t think you do fully understand MLEN when using different length patterns.
Basically you have two options, set MLEN to infinity, which is like switching it off, or set its value to an exact multiple of all your pattern lenghts.
You have a pattern lenght of 16 and a pattern length of 6 so you could set MLEN to 96 or the lowest possible number, which is 48 as stated by Peter Haynes (48 is an exact multiple of both 6 and 16).
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I actually realize I don’t
I will indeed stick to the notion of LCM
M.LEN or master length is basically an invisible loop length all tracks follow. You set it to 48, all tracks will reset to 1 after 48 steps have passed. Set it 512, all tracks reset to 1 after 512 steps have passed.
Set it to inf, all tracks run freely on their own length.
What is LCM?
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Lowest Common Multiple.
Thanks @Schnork for clarifying.
Really appreciate all the efforts you guys are putting in.
I am nearly 50 so my brain is not (that) flexible anymore
So if I gather well: if (in my case scenario) I want my T2 to run freely through its 6 steps, I have to set M.LEN to INF? But then I loose the ability to change to a cued pattern?
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You can set it to 48 (6 step long track runs 8 times during 48 steps) or use inf.
Not really, just set CH.LEN (pattern change length) to a sensible number like 16 (will behave as if you had a 16 step patten going).
Inf just requires a second parameter to be set, that’s all. If you don’t do this, you can’t change pattern.
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