3. Patterns, mutes and scenes

One loop is not a track. Here you make a second version of a pattern, silence tracks to build sections, store those sections as scenes and put them in order. Everything stays on the first eight tracks and the first few patterns.

See a track’s patterns at once

Press R4 for Pattern mode. Every pad is one of the selected track’s 64 patterns, reading left to right and top down, so the first pad is pattern 1 and the last is pattern 64. B1–B8 pick the track, just as they do in Note mode, and the grid changes to that track’s patterns.

Green is the pattern the track is playing — there is always exactly one — dim blue means a pattern has something in it, grey means it is empty. Amber in the bottom half is the built-in bank, which ships with the instrument. The beat from tutorial 1 shows as a green pad at the top left of each of its tracks.

Make a variation

1. Press B3 for track 3 — the hats. Its green pad is pattern 1.
2. Hold DUPLICATE and tap that green pad. It marks the source.
3. Tap the pad next to it, pattern 2. The copy lands there.
4. Release DUPLICATE, then tap that pad to make track 3 play the copy.
5. Press R1 to edit it in Note mode — add a few extra hats — then R4 to come back.

Tapping a pattern switches that track over from the next step; it does not wait for the end of the bar, the way a scene does. Each track switches on its own, so you can leave the kick on pattern 1 while the hats run through 2, 3 and 4.

To copy a pattern to a different track, press that track’s B button while still holding DUPLICATE: the source remembers which track it came from.

Silence a track

Mutes are on the mixer: press the MUTE button of that track’s strip, no modifier. The track goes quiet; in Pattern mode its whole grid dims, so it is obvious the pattern you are auditioning is not being heard. Press again to bring it back.

Without a mixer, Scenes’ bottom pad row does the same for the eight tracks of the current track page — also a bare press. Muting only stops the sequencer: notes you play by hand still sound.

Store the mutes as a scene

A scene is what is playing — which tracks are silent, and which pattern each of the others plays: an intro with only drums, a drop with everything in. Hold SHIFT and press R1, and the grid flips to Scene mode. R4 flips back to the patterns, R1 to the notes.

• The top four rows are 32 scene pads: grey empty, blue holds a scene, green the one playing.
• The bottom row mutes tracks 1–8 directly, no SHIFT needed. This is where you set up a section.
• Hold REC — on the page panel — and tap a scene pad to capture what you are hearing: the mutes, and the pattern each track is playing. The scene pads turn red while it is held, so you can see you are about to write.
• Tap a scene pad to launch it at the top of the next bar. It blinks while it waits, then every track takes the scene's mutes and patterns together.
• CLEAR + a pad erases a scene, DUPLICATE + pad + pad copies one.

Build three: mute everything but the drums and capture scene 1 as the intro; unmute the bass and capture scene 2; unmute the lot and capture scene 3 as the drop. Then tap between them while the loop runs — that is a performance already.

Mutes are live state, not part of a scene’s recall order: they stay as they are when you flip to Pattern mode and back, which is what makes it easy to audition patterns inside a section.

Put the scenes in order

Hold SHIFT and press R2 for the song — or SONG on the panel. The scenes stay in the top four rows; the bottom four rows are 32 song steps, four bars each.

1. Hold the first song step and tap scene 1. The step takes the scene’s colour and says which scene it plays.
2. Hold the second step, tap scene 2. Hold the third, tap scene 3.
3. For a longer section, put the same scene in several steps in a row, or fill one and copy it with DUPLICATE.
4. Tap a song step on its own to jump there and hear it; the step turns white.
5. Press PLAY here and the song plays itself, four bars a step, skipping empty steps and looping at the end. Tapping a scene takes over, and the marker dims to show the song has stopped moving on.

Everything you write is kept with the project.

What you learned

• R4 shows all 64 of a track’s patterns at once, with B1–B8 picking the track; DUPLICATE makes variations.
• The mixer’s MUTE row silences tracks; a muted track’s grid dims.
• SHIFT + R1 — or SCENE on the panel — opens scenes: REC + pad captures the mutes, a tap launches them.
• SHIFT + R2 arranges the scenes into a song, four bars a step, and PLAY there plays it.

That is the whole instrument without paging. Beyond it lie the other 56 tracks, patterns of up to 1024 steps, the pattern library and the mixer.