So, I’ve simplified my setup a little and have just my OTmk2 with AR and A4.
I generally prefer to write out a song fairly complete then deconstruct for performance. I struggled with the trinity as I couldn’t control all the mutes of the AR (12 midi channels needed, 16 if you include A4 and OT only has 8 Midi tracks) and muting is a big part of my performance (as I’m sure most agree). Song modes on the AR/A4 were my old go to before OT to but now I’m using the Arranger so I wasn’t sure what to do.
Breakthrough!! The Arranger and each synths song mode work perfectly together! So now I write everything in all three and create the whole song this way ( OT handles performance and scenes via MIDI).
Then when finished, I can disengage AR/A4 song modes and respective OT midi tracks and practice recreating performance live!! This is huge for my workflow. The icing on top is OT arranger allows me to select a row by hitting yes, and the AR/A4 song modes line up perfectly at that part of the song so writing is quick and focused.
One thing to keep in mind is hitting stop on OT brings all 3 machines back to the beginning of the song but double tapping stop on OT does the same AND also turns off song mode on the other machines.
I thought I’d share this as I wish I knew it a long time ago as it’s changed everything for me in such a fantastic way. I still have a wall of synths, guitars, basses, etc… for my traditional music I record in DAWs but now I have a focused, computerless setup that brings nearly all the things I was missing from my computer/daw setup to my Trinity! Seriously couldn’t be more excited!
noooooooo, I spoke too soon.
I was so excited to share I didn’t see this coming at all. With this setup I was maximizing the 1st pattern slot of all three machines. As soon as you switch to a new pattern in the Arranger (OT) it reverts both AR and A4 to the scratch track…WTF??? That doesn’t even make sense. I’ll share if I figure out what’s going on.
UPDATE:
Turning off Program Change output on OT seems to solve the issue. But it does take away pattern sync when not using Arranger. Not all is lost!
Just some final notes incase anybody finds this helpful:
Program Change output from OT turned off does indeed bring back the synced song modes across all machines. Hell yeah!!
Only one catch, each pattern corresponding to a song section must be the same (master) length. I.e. if OT arranger row plays it’s pattern (say A01) for 32 steps, AR/A4’s pattern (A01) must also be 32 steps (master length).
With that said, I’m very very pleased with this!
You need to put everyone’s channel on the same channel change # arranger is great awesome for tempo changes too
I actually had them all on ch 16 for program changes. As soon as the arranger changed the pattern on the OT it would turn off Song mode on AR/A4 and switch both to the “scratch pad” lane in their respective songs. Didn’t make any sense so I turned program change from OT off and it works great.
That is weird I’ve been using the arranger for years never had that issue something must be off in the set up
Just to be clear, if I only use the Arranger and not also using Song Modes on the AR and A4 the program change setup works correctly.
If I use OT Arranger and both A4/AR’s Song Modes, then Program Change output on OT must be turned off or A4/AR song modes do not stay lined up. In fact, once Arranger goes to a row with a different Program (I.e. A01 to A02) AR and A4’s song modes jump to the scratch lane (row without a number) and, strangely enough, turn off Song mode on AR/A4.
Are you saying you can use Arranger and Song Modes together with Program change on and it works fine for you?