Can you seriously not make song mode loop?
WHY
You can loop song mode this way:
- Load up a row in your song
- Press chain: it will now loop this row in the song until you press chain again
You can use song mode this way to have “one looping part” per row (or even “one song” per row)
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Actually I was misleading, I replied too fast last night: it’s going to loop the current pattern in that row until you press chain again. I don’t think there’s anyway way to loop a whole song and I’m unsure for a row, but there might be a combination that could work for you, messing around with song + chain buttons is probably the key.
Went digging for the answer around here and was only able to find a single thread on it:
Is there still no way to have the last row of Song mode loop back to the first row once it’s finished playing?
What is the reasoning behind this? Is there a workaround?
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Because you have to buy an Octatrack for that feature? I can’t think of another explanation 
or at least Elektron is not giving us any other choice than letting us think this is the reason. Such an essential feature. Personally I was super disappointed when I realized how crippled the song mode is compared to the OT’s. That’s like advertising a car and then it only has one wheel.
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I returned my AR MKII shortly after finding this out - the bugs in the early OS were minor, but this limitation made me return it.
The AR is more of a 64-step machine in some ways… but it’s been a while since I played around with one, so I don’t recall what it was that I didn’t like about it.
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Damn, forreal?
That’s pretty irritating. I already have my AR2 so I guess I’ll have to figure out a way to live with this.
Also, I had no idea there was such a disparity between the boxes. The AR is my first one and so I haven’t looked into what the other boxes do yet.
I’m a bit sarcastic. But you know… there is some truth in that. Maybe create a support ticket / write an email to feature-request@elektron.se
I think: They already have made a song mode that is close to perfection (OT) … and then they decide to implement a new one and leave out such basic but important feature? Pretty strange imho.
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Ugh, what a bummer man.
I work in product development and I’ve seen many unfortunate intentional design decisions like this.
There’s still quite a bit about this box I dont know, so I myself dont feel comfortable trading it in for something else.
Best I can do at this point is deal with it and hope for an update.
Honestly man, I think I will do that.
Yeah based on my career experience this is probably intentional.
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The thing I absolutely did not like about it was this: try programming a beat using more than 64-steps.
-Chain pattern 1 and pattern 2, etc.
-Do not tweak the settings while programming the sequence.
-After programming your beat that’s longer than 64-steps (using a simple pattern chain), tweak the parameter settings as you’d do in a live situation.
-Hit pattern reload.
Your pattern chain now has many odd sounding (automatically saved) instances of parameters in every pattern. And these parameters cannot be quickly reloaded to how they were before you programmed your sequence.
You can easily chain and reload many patterns (or song arrangements) back to how they were originally - “but only on the Octatrack”®.
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Can’t believe the song mode can’t loop back to the beginning (or anywhere) like on the Octatrack. Terrible.
Yes this is infinitely frustrating
It could be as simple as a project setting
Just at least for chain development then copy it to the main song
Or jamming
Can’t even copy entire rows along with the number of reps
You can create long chains, with mute states, in the song editor. If the machine is in Chain mode, not Song mode, the currently selected chain will loop infinitely. Not perfect, but this workaround is OK for me.
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I guess I’ll have to try this as somebody above said it would only loop the current pattern but on second thought that doesn’t make sense so I will try it
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