Maschine 2 - Pattern Position vs Pattern Start?

Tom Auger

Hi Maschine friends. One thing I've come across has me scratching my head instead of my vinyl: In Pattern mode, you have both a Pattern Position associated with knob 1 and Pattern Start, associated with knob 3.

As far as I can tell they are identical, and what's more, changing the value for one automatically changes the value for the other. I have been fiddling and haven't figured out how to have them behave in any other way than linked… at least with the hardware.

I was hoping one would allow me to set the start of the pattern LOOP, where the other might set the starting position when you initially launch the pattern. Ableton does this and it's a very useful feature.

Am I wrong about these two being identical? It seems really weird to have two parameters that do the same thing…

LostInFoundation

They are not doing the same thing. One is moving the “loop” position, the other where this “loop” start.

Think it like this: you record a 16 bar pattern and then you decide you want to use only the 4 between bar 3 and bar 7. You set the start at bar 3, then change the length of the pattern to 4 bars, creating a “loop” of those bars. If then you decide you want to use bar 13 to 17, you can use Pattern Position to move those “loop markers” .

If you want to immediately notice the difference in what they are doing, do this: record a 4 bars loop, then use Pattern Position: you’ll see the pattern length will not change (4 bars), but the position will, from 1 to 5 to 2 to 6.

If you use instead Start, moving the starting point from 1:1:1 to 2:1:1 will shorten the pattern from 4 bars to 3

LostInFoundation

They are not doing the same thing. One is moving the “loop” position, the other where this “loop” start.

Think it like this: you record a 16 bar pattern and then you decide you want to use only the 4 between bar 3 and bar 7. You set the start at bar 3, then change the length of the pattern to 4 bars, creating a “loop” of those bars. If then you decide you want to use bar 13 to 17, you can use Pattern Position to move those “loop markers” .

If you want to immediately notice the difference in what they are doing, do this: record a 4 bars loop, then use Pattern Position: you’ll see the pattern length will not change (4 bars), but the position will, from 1 to 5 to 2 to 6.

If you use instead Start, moving the starting point from 1:1:1 to 2:1:1 will shorten the pattern from 4 bars to 3