Patterns confusion

I have finally tried out the new pattern function but i must admit that it aint so cool as i have hoped. I thought that there was a pattern track per track (does that make sense?), but it seems that there aint and i hope that i am wrong. So what you doo is record some events on a track, then converts it to a pattern and then back into a track?!? Then it's just an advanced copy/paste function.

Lets hope that this is the beginning at something awesome that have to be developed into something that would eventually take over the track function on the MPC.

Have someone found out something more about this new pattern function that i have missed?

the PATTERN TRACK function as you mentioned is not very useful, in my opinion. it's just one track that allows you to arrange a song a little easier, but that's about it.

but the PATTERN to PAD function is a total game changer. this is where the real power lies. i'm not aware of any other hardware that does anything like this. you convert the bars of your sequence into patterns and then assign each pattern to a pad. you can have the pattern loop, just play thru once, or play one at a time in solo mode. if you have a bunch of patterns on pads all set to loop then you can have a bunch of them looping simultaneously on top of each other, limited only by the number of voices you have free.

the beauty is that the patterns are triggered to restart whenever you toggle the pad (one hit starts the pattern looping, the next hit stops it). so you can totally change up your beat depending on when you trigger the pattern. you can have just 4 pads with patterns on them and generate an endlessly changing beat just by dropping the patterns in and out at different times and having them overlap each other in different ways.

but on top of that, you can transpose the patterns or have them each play different programs if you want, all on the fly while they are looping. you can have a couple patterns looping and then go in and remix them live by tweaking the transpose amount or the program they are playing. this gives endless variety from just a couple simple ingredients. i've gotten really complex and dynamic results from just having a few patterns and a few programs loaded, and then tweaking all this stuff while they loop. you can jump around to different screens if you want to and the patterns will keep looping in the background, following the tempo if you change it, etc.

...and when you consider that patterns can also contain midi ccs and program changes that communicate with external gear it can get pretty insane in terms of potential. it's all about live jamming and on the fly improvisation. i gotta admit i wasn't feeling my MPC for a while and almost sold the thing a few weeks back, but once i tried this new pattern feature i got all excited again! this is the best thing that JJ has ever done for the MPC in my opinion.

Thanks for the reply Sooty_G, i will give it another chance tonight

Sooty_G wrote:...tried this new pattern feature i got all excited again! this is the best thing that JJ has ever done for the MPC in my opinion.

+1