I’ve only had my A4 for two hours, so forgive me if I’m missing something.
The only way I found to save a sound is to hit SND, go to Sound Manager, browse to an empty location and save track sound.
I find it quite disturbing when you have a sequence going, because you have to browse the whole library and it’s quite distracting, killing the vibe. Is there another way where you can select a destination location without hearing the “browsing” ?
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But isn’t the decision to save a sound mid jam the root of the vibe-kill? What were you aiming to do next? Do you even need to save the sound at that point?
I didn’t even find that option to save when I searched really hard last time. Now I know I’m looking for an empty slot - thx 
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Yeah maybe you’re right. It’s just that I tend to do massive session of only sound design when I’m bored.
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So you never save sounds ? Only deal with whole kits ?
Kits are broken by design because they’re not global (only per project) … and yeah never saved a sound. Would love to save both with the press of a button
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That’s a good idea. When you wrote “it’s quite distracting, killing the vibe” I assumed you were jamming a track.
I don’t have an A4, but I do have an AR. AFAIK, they have the same data structure and workflow (ignoring samples on the AR and CV on the A4). I rarely have dedicated sound design sessions on the AR, because the drum pads invite jamming out rhythms which quickly turns into sketching. I sometimes save sounds, when I want to reuse them in a different Project or if I really, really like them. I almost never load them up elsewhere because of the Project-based architecture/limitation. If I want to use a sound in another kit in the same project, I usually copy & paste it.
I guess @PekeDorty’s right, in that the kit design is “broken” as it tends to put people off trying to reuse Kits (at least from Project to Project). I’ve gone along with the design choice and developed my workflow around it rather than complain too much. I typically theme my Projects and don’t try to copy stuff over. I tend to find sound design quick enough on the AR that it doesn’t get in my way; I’ve also always done sound design as part of composition (like on and off for 30years), so the AR way has felt quite natural to me. Dedicated sound design sessions are a fairly new addition to my workflow (and I like it a lot with my keyboard synths).
I can imagine that sound design takes longer on the A4, for some kinds of sounds. I imagine this because leads, pads and FX seem more involved than drums. So, I can also imagine you’d want to save more often. Can’t you save to an empty slot without having to first choose one?
Two suggestions:-
- Hit pause (heh)
- When you press down the encoder as you scroll it moves exponentially faster, so you can get to where the blank slots start very quickly. And there are many banks of those.
Saving sounds is straightforward … takes you straight to an empty slot
Press(hold) Save[Yes] + Snd
if you’ve had it two hours you might want to take 20mins out to flick through the manual to the quick shortcuts (usually there) to get a feel of what’s also detailed within the meat of the document
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Not nagging, but do try the search - lots of hits there - this one points to shortcuts (mk1, most the same) if they’re not in the manual, but i was under the impression that was the new norm …
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… indeed 
16. USEFUL KEY COMBINATIONS (QUICK KEYS)
Use the key combinations below in order to quickly perform certain tasks.
16.1 GENERAL
[FUNC] + [RECORD] will perform a copy command. Action depends on the currently active page or mode.
[FUNC] + [PLAY] will perform a clear command. Action depends on the currently active page or mode.
[FUNC] + [STOP] will perform a paste command. Action depends on the content that was copied.
16.2 NAMING
[FUNC] + [ARROW] (on the NAMING screen) to choose a letter.
[FUNC] + [NO] (on the NAMING screen) to erase a letter.
16.3 SOUND BROWSER
Double-press [T1–4] key to quickly access the SOUND BROWSER.
Use [ARROW] keys to browse. Press [YES] to load the sound to the track.
16.4 SAVING AND RELOADING
[YES] + [KIT] saves Kit.
[NO] + [KIT] reloads Kit.
[YES] + [SND] saves Sound. 
[NO] + [SND] reloads Sound.
[YES] + [TRK] saves Track.
[NO] + [TRK] reloads Track.
[YES] + [PTN] saves Pattern.
[NO] + [PTN] reloads Pattern.
[YES] + [SONG] saves Song.
[NO] + [SONG] reloads Song.
[PARAMETER] key + [NO] will reload the parameters on a specific parameter page to their last saved state.
16.5 SEQUENCER SETTINGS
[FUNC] + [TEMPO] to tap tempo.
[FUNC] + [TRK] to open CLICK TRACK menu.
[FUNC] + [TRK] pressed for a second to toggle the click on or off.
[FUNC] + [NOTE] to access the QUANTIZE settings for the active track.
[FUNC] + [PAGE] to access the pattern / track SCALE settings. Increase pattern length by 16 steps a pop
by pressing [PAGE] repeatedly.
16.6 MUTES
[FUNC] + [TRACK] will mute/unmute one or several Tracks.
16.7 RECORDING
[RECORD] + [PLAY] to start LIVE RECORDING.
[RECORD] + double-tap [PLAY] will activate/deactivate QUANTIZE LIVE RECORDING.
16.8 CLEAR TRACK / CLEAR PATTERN
[FUNC] + [PLAY] (while in GRID RECORDING mode) to clear active Track.
[FUNC] + [PLAY] (while in no mode or LIVE RECORDING mode) to clear Pattern.
16.9 SHIFTING TRIGS AROUND
[FUNC] + [LEFT/RIGHT] to move all trigs a whole step, left or right.
[TRIG] + [LEFT/RIGHT] to nudge a single trig a fractional step left or right.
16.10 CHAIN EDITING
[FUNC] + [CHAIN] to create new scratch pad row.
[CHAIN] + [LEFT/RIGHT] to move chain cursor.
[CHAIN] + [NO] to remove Pattern from the chain before cursor (or selected).
[BANK X/X] + [TRIG] to enter a new Pattern into the chain (positioned where the cursor is at).
16.11 RANDOMIZE PARAMETERS
Press [PARAMETER] key + [YES] to randomize that parameters on that page.
Press [PARAMETER] key + [NO] to reset the PARAMETER page to its last saved state.
16.12 SOUND/TRIG PREVIEW
[FUNC] + [YES] (In the SOUND BROWSER/SOUND MANAGER) previews the highlighted Sound.
[TRIG] + [YES] (In GRID- and STEP RECORDING mode) previews the selected trig.
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ahhh what a blessing! Thx! Now let’s all take a break and RTFM
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Thanks a lot.
I read the manual quite a lot of times before receiving the instrument, trust me. Reading manuals is my favorite hobby ! I just didn’t register this.
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Congrats on getting an A4! It’s awesome =). Check out the other YES+PAGE shortcuts, they’re really handy and not-flow-ruining!
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Ive been using A4 for around a year and a half without finding this list of shortcuts hahaha, thanks for sharing, the scrolling through sounds to save drove me nuts as well!
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One that I just learned that wasn’t on the list is step record. Record + Stop.
Coming back here later to revisit these and gonna check out the yes page shortcuts too.
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Bit of an old thread but … Is there a shortcut or a way to save the sound of a specific trig ? For example if I really dig the sound of a plock trig ?
Appart from reading the manual of course 
No.
Ok, too bad ! Thanks
Would be great. Seems like the next logical next step after TRIG+YES was added.
Copy trig > open Sound Manager > paste ?
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