Patterns and launching

Each track has eight patterns. A pattern is a complete part for that track, so you can keep several versions of a bassline or drum groove and switch between them in SESS without losing the others.

Track 1 plays pattern 1. Track 2 has pattern 2 queued and starts it at its launch point.

What a pattern holds

Per pattern Stays with the track
Steps, notes and step locks Mute
Length, beats and rotation MIDI channel and device
Speed, feel (swing, groove, humanize), direction and loop Scale, root and octave range
Generator settings (Euclid, accents, mutations, evolution) Density depth
Note source and its state Track notes and follow global key
CC and NRPN lanes, drum rack lane steps Chord and transpose following, echo and voice output settings, the drum rack setup
  Launch quantize

Edits always go to the active pattern. Switching patterns keeps the playhead running, but FIRST conditions, the evolution count and density restart for that track.

Launching a pattern

  1. Tap SESS (98).
  2. Tap the pattern pad in that track’s column. It blinks while queued.
  3. The switch happens at the track’s launch point, set on Track > Playback under LAUNCH:
LAUNCH Pad When the switch happens
Next bar 41 (default) At the next bar of the bar master. The playhead keeps running
Next cycle 42 When the track wraps back to its first step
Immediate 43 As soon as it is queued
  • A track that is not playing never wraps, so a Next cycle launch waits. Use Immediate, or cancel the launch.
  • With the transport stopped, a Next bar launch waits for bar 0 of the next start.
  • Each track can have one pending launch. A new one replaces it. Tapping the queued pattern again, or the pattern that is playing, cancels it.
  • Switching to an empty pattern starts a blank pattern.

Pad colours: an empty pattern is almost dark, a stored one is a dim version of its track’s colour, the playing one is bright, and a queued one blinks. Each track column has its own colour.

Copy, duplicate and clear

Gesture Result
SHIFT + tap a stored pattern Picks it as the copy source. It blinks. Empty patterns are refused
SHIFT + tap another pad Pastes the source there, on any track. The source stays picked for more pastes. Pasting onto the playing pattern loads it at once
SHIFT + tap the source again Drops the pick. A plain tap also drops it
Hold UP (91) + tap Duplicates the pattern into the track’s next free slot. A message says so if the pattern is empty or no slot is free
Hold DOWN (92) + tap Clears the pattern. A queued launch of it is cancelled. Clearing the playing pattern loads a blank one at once

Warning

Hold DOWN and tap clears that pattern at once. Undo and redo do not work in SESS, so copy the pattern first if you might need it.