Program change from MPC X

Elektron Gear Model:Cycles
#1

After reading many panicked threads about issues with changing of pattern from an external MIDI device I need to ask before buying.

Does Model:Cycles change pattern immediately when it receives a program change message? Or is it somehow queued and waits until the next bar/beat/loop/…?

In my setup MPC X is the master and a song is divided into several sections. At the beginning of every section MPC X can send a program change message to an external MIDI device and I need Model:Cycles to switch the pattern immediately so that the two things are in sync.

Edit: Am I actually trying to do the right thing? Should I just keep the two independent and switch them manually?

#2

It will not change immediately, it will change after an interval you determine, which is specified in beats.

In my experience this may get unpredictable if the model:X has varying track lengths within the pattern, but keep the track lengths the same and you should not have a problem. This is all assuming the model:X is the receiver/follower of an incoming program change.

So that means the sender will need to send the program change in advance.

#3

@bibenu

which is specified in beats.

Can it be zero? Where is it specified? I think I’ve read the manual.

#4

Hold FUNC, hit PAGE and you will see a value ‘Chg’. Not sure exactly where that is in the manual but it must be the chapter about the sequencer.

2 is the minimum value.

EDIT: sorry I don’t use this much, so I’m not sure if (for instance) 8 might mean ‘at intervals of 8 beats’ or ‘at least 8 beats from the start of the pattern’ . The typical use case is for 1, 2 or 4 repeats of the whole pattern, not down to the beat level.

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#5

I see it now. Thanks a lot.

CHG Change controls for how long the active pattern plays before it loops or a cued (the next selected) pattern begins to play. If CHG is set to 64, the pattern behaves like a pattern consisting of 64 steps regarding cueing and chaining. If CHG is set to OFF, the default change length is INF (infinite) in TRACK mode and the same value as LEN in PATTERN mode.

#6

Ah you found it, good. The one thing the one thing the manual won’t warn you about is that, as a receiver, ‘Mod’ must be set to PTN (meaning all tracks same length)

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