Using EA1 for drones

[micionedellenevi]

Hey there,

I just put my hands on a EA-1 and would like to use it for drones but I have an issue to record a contiuous sound. If I set for example the lenght of the pattern to 1 and play a note with a 20 bpm tempo while the record button is on, I experience a little gap in the sound, so it's impossible for me to have a continuous sound with stops.
I saw a video on youtube of a guy doing drones without stopping, where am I wrong? should change some settings?


Thx

[thehighesttree]

The parameter you're looking for is called "Gate Time" in the matrix menu below the screen. Once you've recorded the step, highlight it and make the Gate value = 16 * (# of bars).

Let's say you need a drone that lasts the max 4 bars. Start by setting your max pattern length to 4, then begin recording the 4 bar drone as well as you can without holding it into the looping 1-beat. Afterwards, go into the menu with that step highlighted (Keyboard mode button off, push step 1) and set the Gate Time to 64.00.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL A GAP! I don't own an EA-1 but I assume it only lets you make a Gate Time up to 64 steps, and that means a drone can't be done seamlessly using only 1 step like I've shown. Using the arrow buttons, highlight the green LED for bar 3 and activate step 1 again, making sure to set its note the same as the 1st and its Gate Time to anything over 32. Because our steps now overlap, they won't retrigger the envelope, meaning a smooth drone. I recommend making these overlapping steps at regular intervals to help with performing/muting.

You can also just play it in and change the Gate manually, but it's good to get familiar with Step Sequencing. Hope that helps!

[kofla]

BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL A GAP! I don't own an EA-1 but I assume it only lets you make a Gate Time up to 64 steps, and that means a drone can't be done seamlessly using only 1 step like I've shown. Using the arrow buttons, highlight the green LED for bar 3 and activate step 1 again, making sure to set its note the same as the 1st and its Gate Time to anything over 32. Because our steps now overlap, they won't retrigger the envelope, meaning a smooth drone. I recommend making these overlapping steps at regular intervals to help with performing/muting.

You can also just play it in and change the Gate manually, but it's good to get familiar with Step Sequencing. Hope that helps!

With the Delay efect you could "cover" the eventual gap, too.

[thehighesttree]

I decided to tell him the most correct solution so that he has FX to work with. There's other ways around this too (light every step, etc.) but this is definitely the most flexible way, not the "electribe 2" way