Tutorial: Patterns and Sequencer

[chardin]

Today I wanted to play around with the 12 patterns and the sequencer section. Click on any small picture to get a bigger picture.

I started with a blank Cream preset and a drum track. I set the Rate knob to 1/8 and put it a pattern. I played a F#m, B7, E, C#m progression with one chord per bar for 8 bars.
Step 1
Here is what Pattern 1 sounds like with the chord progression: http://picosong.com/RnQj

Not bad. I then right-clicked on the Pattern 1 button and selected Copy. I right-clicked on the Pattern 2 button and selected Paste. Now I can change the pattern a bit.
Step 2a
Step 2b
Step 2c
Here is what Pattern 2 sounds like with the chord progression: http://picosong.com/RnKy

Sounds good. But I want to mix the two patterns together. There are several ways to do that. One is to use the C1 octave on your keyboard to trigger the different patterns:


But my keyboard only has 49 keys so I can't play in that octave and chords at the same time. Instead of drawing in the C1 octave notes in the piano roll, I went to the Sequencer section.

The Sequencer has 3 rows:

1. Pattern: The pattern, 1 through 12, that will played.
2. Length: The number of beats (1 through 32) that the pattern will play before advancing. This depends on the how the Rate knob is set for the pattern. More on that later.
3. Repeat: How many times (1 through 32) the pattern will repeat.

I clicked the Sequencer "Power" button on and entered the following sequence. To change the sequencer values, left-click and drag. Since both patterns are playing 8th notes, setting the Length to 8 will make each pattern play for one bar.
Step 3
Here is what the two patterns sound like with the chord progression: http://picosong.com/RnQZ

Nice. For some more rhythmic interest, I clicked on Pattern 3, set the Rate knob to 1/16, and setup this pattern:
Step 4a

I changed the Sequencer section to use the new pattern. Since Pattern 3 uses 16th notes, I played with the Length row to get something I liked:
Step 4b
Here is what the three patterns sound like with the chord progression: http://picosong.com/RnQG

I hope this has been helpful. Please post any comments or questions. Thanks for reading!