Hello forum fellows,
I have a problem with generating polyrhythmic patterns right now. Basic pattern length is 32 steps and I want to have another track that has just 18 steps. My problem is that this shorter track is always retriggered after the 32 steps of the master length are repeating. My goal would be to have these 18 steps played endlessly so they get out of phase over a long period of time. Is there a workaround?
Thanks,
L.
You need to have the master length set to the least common multiple of all of the sequences for them all to loop together perfectly.
in this case, LCM (18,32)=288…
However, for a lot of purposes I find forcing the loop to restart early gives better musical results (depending what step lengths you use the required loops can be quite long, especially for prime number of steps - forcing a restart keeps it more musical) .
Set the master length to INF (it’s the value before 2).
That’s it.
There is a simple way to work out LCMs btw using their prime factorisations - but is easiest just to type it into wolframalpha.com as LCM (x, y, z).
This. And read the manual.
“Read the Manual”, lovely advice!
Thanks to you guys. The infinity “trick” has the downside that pattern change only works in “direct change” mode which is not always useful in my case. Forgot to mention this in my original post.
To me is really important to know when your polyrhythms are going to return to the identity though (not necessarily for setting master length though - as you say, inf covers all bases) - especially if you ever want to use more than two rhythms. Three relatively short prime length sequences can have surprisingly long period - e.g. 13, 17, 19 has period 4199 steps - nearly 9 mins at 120bpm and 4/4 time.
in op’s example - the 32 length seq plays 9 times, the 18 plays 16 times a cycle - so can use that to your advantage (add a motif every 4th round of the 18 length seq maybe - would sound cool when it all comes back together)
XponentOne: I hear you and basically agree with you. Still in my case I wish this loose additional track to be completely independent of the basic loop. But as I said in “direct change” mode it would work with the infinity setting or your method as well.
[Edit] Slow post, some things have been discussed above, yet this might be helpful:
E.g. LCM(18,32) = 288
But it strongly depends on what the actual track is set up to. It doesn’t necessarily mean that 288 is always the best choice musically.
A better way would be to keep the Master Length at Inf and set the Change Value (afair CHG) to something that sounds musical to you. Having 18 over 32 steps I assume you’re doing 9 over 16 basically which could reduce change to 144. If you’re switching patterns by ear you could even be as bold as to quantize to the stronger rhythm, most likely the 4/4 so try setting CHG to 16 and try to switch patterns by ear.
Another approach: if you keep your basic polyrhythm-length in the next pattern you could use DIRECT JUMP mode to switch patterns by ear anytime. That way the transition could be as smooth as you want it to be. You’ll need the CHG value for the other modes and pattern chains though…
snowcrash: great!!!
It’s the best advice. The manuals are pretty comprehensive and to the point. I learn new things every time I have a read through.
Kotare: I read the manuals dozens of times. Still sometimes it’s hard to remember all the features and tricks. And some users here found elegant workarounds for some special situations. That’s why I consult you guys here before reading through the whole manual over and over again.
“My goal would be to have these 18 steps played endlessly so they get out of phase over a long period of time. Is there a workaround?”
A bit off-topic, I know, but the news electribes do this by default. Pretty sick results 
Nitpicking: It’s polymeters, not polyrhythms.
Well, up to 16 steps they do. And if you pick, say, 1 step, you get 1 step per bar, which can be a PITA if you wanted to tweak just its note value in a 4 bar pattern as the sequence plays…
nitpicking #2: Yes it’s polymeters. And by using polymeters one can create polyrhythms 
So those machines are really smart. If one considers that bands like Tangerine Dream did this kind of polyrhthm/polymeter stuff decades ago…
oops, by “those machines” I meant the electribe mentioned above…
Great topic. I didn’t think to look into the manual either.
I have to give this a try asap…
Hi,
you must go the the advanced scale setup and then you can define different track length per track to create poly rhythmic patterns.