i’ve been wondering about how to go about setting up patterns and general approach to arrangement and wanted to hear other people methods. i’ve been taking to creating templates that have say 200 empty patterns already setup but now i’m playing around with different step times and tempos and not using the template i;ve been using.
how does everyone go about making blank patterns to make new sequences? do they just create a sequence then create and empty pattern? or do they move through the patterns then create new ones and assign the desired pattern number to that pattern etc… am i making sense? whats you best short cut for making a new pattern next in the pattern sequencer?
i always start ith a fresh, blank project. i dont use templates… just cause i guess i cant be bothered to make one then i come up with a good 8 to 16 bar loop and go from there. i tend to clone patterns, make new ones, merge them, and whatever else seems to make sense at the time.
If you hove over the +pattern button (above the pattern arranger) on a mac, it will tell you that numlock, and not ins, is the key on mac that makes a new pattern instance.
If you have a new aluminium keyboard, you won’t have a numlock key either! In that case, you press clear — which can be found to the top left of the numpad.
8 empty patterns of 64 lines (default), all cloned so they’re independant, and named “Track 1”, “Track 2”, etc. except for:
Pattern 7 (for track 7) named for my current favorite synth, Panzertank at the moment, with VSTi loaded
Pattern 8 (for track 8) named for my current favorite “drum maker”, Drumatic 3 at the moment, with VSTi loaded
The idea here is to have a “sketch pattern” for each track which I’ll then cut/paste/copy from as things get built up.
Also have Compressor, EQ10, and mpReverb assigned to the Master but disabled. Mainly for easy access to drag and drop to other tracks to experiment.
When I get some room and organization I’ll experiment with adding some baseline midi mappings to this for the mixer and whatever else makes sense.
I tend to start with something simple like a one or two track minimal beat using some interesting samples, then build onto it over eight patterns or so until a theme develops, then modify the theme for 10 or 20 more patterns, then start cropping out the boring or useless patterns.
I definitely need to start using a template. I’d probably have the template start off with 32 patterns 0-31 in the sequence list. It helps me see the structure as I’m sequencing.
i;m afaird this isnt working for me either. when i hover over the new pattern button is says INS and the numlock/clear button (above number 7, yes?) doesn’t work for creating a new pattern. does it work for you? do i have to set something up in leopard? the renoise tutorial says that for macs you have to use the fn button in conjunction with the command button, which also does nothing except start the pattern. any help would be greatly received.
i always start fresh with the default, whack the tempo and or speed up and take it from there. once i’m happy with a pattern then i clone it 3 times and go through changing things in each pattern until i’m happy with the longer loop then i jam over the top, mute some tracks and bring in new elements if it needs it then clone pattern make the changes and then repeat the above steps. once i get over 2 minutes i start arranging things in the (pretty terrible) pattern arranger and that watching for moments that need more definition or bits that can be stretched out and repeated.
i try to take a couple of sessions to arrange things as something that doesn’t sound right at first will sometimes work on a second listen and vice versa.
yeah! its all about clone! gotta be careful that your not just making loops, but i’ll clone something and go through the cloned pattern and completely rewrite the drums or a melody progression sometimes. othertimes not… just gotta make sure your not making loops
then i come up with a good 8 to 16 bar loop and go from there. i tend to clone patterns, make new ones, merge them, and whatever else seems to make sense at the time.
