Best so far
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It has 4 pages of 16 steps each for a total of 64 steps. When you extend to 32 steps, the next 16 steps are blank. You can copy steps 1-16 and paste it to steps 17 to 32, or select a range of steps (i.e. steps 3-9) and copy over. Each page doesnāt have to be 16 steps too. It can be as short as 1 step. There is an option to duplicate parts and patterns too but I find it clunky as it seems to duplicate steps to the max 64 steps. I could be wrong, maybe there is a way to select it, but Iām not sure why this feature is not under the COPY feature but under the UTILITY feature.
2 Likes
Are mutes saved per pattern or are they global?
I really love using this thing, but having to save my current session to a pattern for it to exist is the stupidest thing Iāve ever experienced. I was jamming for an hour and accidentally changed the pattern and guess what itās all gone.
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Itās quite common. Electribes work the same way
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Doesnāt the majority of gear work that way?
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My Sh-4D arrives tomorrow. Iām embracing the limitations and issues and gonna make some bangers on this thing.
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Looking forward to your perspective! Iām really fascinated at how differently everyone approaches this device.
Thanks. My plan is to use it as a Groovebox and then when Iām fluent add in my Perkons for my ā2 box techno setupā.
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On Digitakt I donāt need to explicitly save the pattern before I switch to another one. I do save projects occasionally, or it will get lost on things like firmware update or if I change to another project (itās hard to do this accidentally though). Similar with TR-8s. On MC-707 itās necessary to save changes before turning it off, if I change project it will ask me if I want to save first.
Losing everything on pattern change without a warning is bad design, if thatās how it works on SH-4d (I donāt own one).
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On all the synths I have ever owned you had/have to save a patch.
The only one thing I own which is auto-saving the whole time is op-z. I like that paradigm but I know a ton of people turn it off precisely for live jamming so tweaks and mangles arenāt stored and stick with an explicit save command.
Regardless, I get it is frustrating to lose a patch though!
I think there is no warning because most devices work like that, itās kind of the standard. Elektron is the outlier here. My only other device that doesnāt erase the pattern/patch if I havenāt saved before change to another pattern is my MPC, but that workflow is so different from most of my other devices it isnāt really a fair comparison. It doesnāt make it suck any less to lose a patch/ pattern though.
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Fortunately based on a ticket I opened with Roland it seems like they are hearing this A LOT so hopefully theyāll find a better way to handle this in a future update.
I get that some people appreciate the flexibility, but speed and simplicity to me is the key to being able to stay in the creative zone. Personally I wish all the sounds were autosaved with the pattern, and the saving of voice patches was optional.
Roland just need to catch up with so many new standard features. Their UI/UX architecture is still stuck from their past Iām guessing. At the same time, something as standard as count-in metronome was not included š¤¦š» The synth is a joy, but a pain to use at the moment. And I thought Elektron was a pain, but now, that standard UI/UX architecture across most of their products seem so elegant, logical and powerful.
Roland just need a collab product with Elektron or hire one of their past wizards then presto!
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Sure not saving the session is a mistake on my side, but i feel like the problem are all the shift + x operations. One gets used to pressing multiple buttons fast, even the mixer section is only available through pattern + sound, and muting parts can be done via holding pattern for 1-2 seconds then pressing 1-5. I think that was my mistake, i didnt hold it i just pressed pattern and wanted to mute part 2 but switched to pattern 2.
Roland listened to a lot of feedback regarding the SP404MKII or the MC101 so Roland does listen, itās just that updates take a lot of time (sometimes a year).
Of course it would be better of those functions existed day one.
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There is more than enough good to outweigh the bad even in V1ā¦its fun, plenty of knobs and sliders and it sounds great, thatās all I need!
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Every demo so far sounds fantastic! Really nice form factor as well for a desktop unit. Letās hope sales are good enough that they warrant SP-404 mk2 levels of OS enhancement.
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My sh-4d arrived today. First impressions are that itās a nice form factor. Build quality is ok, acceptable for the price. It was quick and easy to start making a pattern without reading the manual. Now to dig in and see what it can do.
7 Likes