Elektron Machinedrum - Manual (Page 47)

THE PATTERN SEQUENCER
39
COMPOSING A PATTERN
GRID RECORDING
GRID RECORDING is a method of percussion composing that was first developed in vin-
tage drum machines. In its default state, the 16 [TRIG] keys represent 1 bar of 16th notes.
1. To start recording, press the [RECORD] key. The <RECORD> LED on the left side of the
key is now firmly lit.
2. Select the track you wish to edit using the SOUND SELECTION wheel.
3. You can press [PLAY] if you would like to have the pattern playing during composing.
The LEDs above the [TRIG] keys will start to run to indicate the current step in the pat-
tern. It will loop over and over, until you press [STOP] to stop the playback or [PLAY] to
pause it. The pattern page being played is indicated by the flashing of the corresponding
<PATTERN PAGE> LED.
4. Press the [TRIG] keys to toggle percussion trigging for the corresponding step. The
LEDs above the [TRIG] keys will indicate what steps will be triggered.
5. If the pattern contains more than 16 steps, switch to the pattern page you want to edit by
pressing the [SCALE SETUP] key. The active pattern page is being indicated by a firmly
lit <PATTERN PAGE> LED.
• In the Machinedrum, you work directly in the pattern memory. There is no need to
save patterns. If you wish to keep the data in a pattern, you will have to copy it to
another pattern before you begin editing it. See section “PATTERN COPY”, on
page 43 for more information on copying pattern data.
• If you exit the recording mode, you will not get the running LEDs above the [TRIG]
keys during playback.
• The copy, clear, paste and undo functions operate on a specific track when in
GRID RECORDING mode. See section “TRACK COPY” on page 41.
• The copy, clear, paste and undo functions operate on the full pattern when not in
GRID RECORDING mode. See section “PATTERN COPY” on page 43.
• An easy way to experiment with a pattern is to move all the trigged notes of a track
forwards or backwards. While in record mode, hold down [FUNCTION] while
pressing the [LEFT] or [RIGHT] arrow keys to perform this move. This is espe-
cially useful on tracks containing snare drums.
PATTERN PAGE FUNCTIONALITY ON MKI UNITS
On the MKI the pattern page is indicated by the LEDs <1/16>,<1/32:1> and <1/32:2>.
When patterns are up to 16 steps in length only the <1/16> LED is lit. When the pattern is
longer the <1/32:1> LED indicates the editing position being on the first page and <1/32:2>
indicates the second page.
LIVE RECORDING
Live recording is the second method of recording drum trigs. In this recording mode, the
[TRIG] keys are played like a drum set. The current kit is assigned to all [TRIG] keys, so all
16 tracks can be accessed at once.
1. To start recording using direct composing, hold [RECORD] while pressing [PLAY]. This
starts the sequencer recording and the <RECORD> LED starts to flash.