A much-touted feature of the Pyramid is long tracks … up to 384 bars (!)
That’s great … but I’m still scratching my head over how you are supposed to manage such long tracks when you can only play back from the top of each AFAICT? (Except for the current track.)
So how do you edit multiple long tracks so they fit together?
I’m not clear on what you are asking:
Fit together as in musically. Manage as in edit or record in various places and be able to hear them together at the same places in the song.
I’m asking because basically for me, the entire point of the Pyramid is to sequence songs off the computer, so right now I have a hard decision to make.
What are you trying to achieve?
Take a loop, play a melody on top, the length of a song. Expand the loop to the full song, adding details, fills and so on, replacing bits with other loops. Add chords throughout, basslines and so on, non-loop based. So something like your conventional timeline-based sequencer. Only with Squarp’s unique powers also available of course.
the pyramid has sequences and patterns( and tracks) as its building blocks.
(patterns and tracks can be used similarly - since you can have multiple tracks using the same output)
so you can structure your ‘song’ around these.
basically patterns/tracks become sections, with the sequences tie-ing them together into ‘song’
this is a pretty common workflow for sequencers.
(what squarp refer to a sequencer mode, is often referred to as song-mode in other sequencers)
the pyramid is not really designed (imo) to do long timelines…as you say, you cannot just start and stop at arbitary points … so that would get tedious fast.
if you are sequencing songs off the computer - I guess Id either try to fit into the pyramid workflow (patterns/tracks/sequences) , or just do all the editing on the computer.
One thing you can do if you’ve recorded a massive long pattern but only want to use a bit of it, is zoom to that part and copy and paste into another pattern. It’s still a bit clunky, but I’ve used it many times and it works well once you get used to it.
Just in case anyone missed this.
Also extremely applicable if you want to try playing different variations of a riff, or have trouble getting everything ‘just right’, or even want different Velocity/slight timing variations of a riff. Make one long Track played against a loop, then snip out the bits you want to keep. ie ‘multiple takes’
This is a rather straightforward workflow and each step with their relative function is well documented in the manual.
You can Import a MIDI Clip, Step Record, or Live Record
So, Live Record (since you indicated “play”).
Depends on your definition of “expand”. You can duplicate the MIDI Events, or Copy/Paste.
You can achieve this via Step Editing. I’m not sure if footswitches allow a Punch In usage. Or your can Record a concurrent Track at the point(s) you want alternate MIDI Events and then Copy/Paste them into your long Track.
‘Bits’ is undefined in this context. I would suggest following above steps towards Editing. If you want to replace a short section of a longer Track with MIDI Event data from a Track that is looped, I’d think Step Edit → Copy/Paste would be an excellent approach. Others may have other suggestions as there are paths to the same objective.
So, Recording new Tracks?
Again: Manual → Live → Record or Manual → Step Mode → Note Stepmode (or CC Events, or FX, depending on what you want to achieve)
Keep in mind that if you’re unfamiliar with the functions of the Pyramid, you might find that a ‘building blocks’ approach as @thetechnobear describes might be better suited - at least until you have digested the Manual. Or perhaps test out the techniques described by @Loz to Record longer passages and utilise the MIDI Events you wish to keep via Copy/Paste approaches.
More advanced topics might include controlling the Pyramid via a Loopback & PyraMIDI (or just using an Event Processor and/or outboard MIDI Controller) to control Mute States so that you can manually, automatically, or even use randomisations to determine which variant of a Track plays. Remember that SEQ Mute States affect all 64 Tracks, but if you use PyraMIDI you can affect fewer Tracks. (This is where we wish that Patterns were selectable via MIDI)
This is fine for a single track. Actually I would just use the feature that let’s you play back from any point in a pattern. Being able to loop it to could potentially be useful. Didn’t think if doing that.
I’m not sure if this works when playing multiple tracks, but I think it does. But if you go into your track, and pan to the page you want to play from, press stop once, then play, and it’ll begin from the beginning of whatever is displayed on the screen.
If that doesn’t work, press stop again twice, and it should kick in.
Unfortunately there is no way to edit or truncate multiple tracks in one go, but I reckon it would end up being quite unwieldy if they did implement it, unless you could overlay all track midi on one screen - and then we’re thinking of a major major update to the product (hardware and software)
Unfortunately not, I tried it. Hence I made the topic 
This is a good idea and I think I might try it.
Just tested it, does work on mine, actually.
Go into Step mode, pan through to the beginning of the bar you want to play from.
Press stop once (or sometimes you need to press play, then stop it seems) so that you see a _ in the bottom left of the screen, next to the piano roll.
Then go into Track mode, press display so that you can see the progress of all tracks.
Press play, they’ll all start from the same point (it’s a global setting, rather than on a per track basis)
Wait what? What’s the setting??
Sorry, setting is the wrong word. It’s a global start point (so will be relative to all tracks (eg, if you start on bar 6, it’ll start on bar 6 of all tracks, and bar 2 of a 4-bar track)
Apologies: My studio is sort of in pieces waiting for a fan for one of the laptops, so couldnt’ test this.
Going into Step Mode and wanting to Play from the screen you’re on might be related to Settings → Misc → Play Pad
@thetechnobear had some excellent insights on that, or we talked about it awhile back on another thread.
whenever something is hard on the pyramid, i’m like, “do I have to do it this way?”
So… maybe this won’t feel helpful but, just because you can use 384 bars… do you really need to approach your song’s mechanics that specific way? Like, there are many ways to provide continuity and connect bars using patterns and sequences to construct your song out of smaller pieces. Maybe you could extract your 384 bar continuity thing you can’t break up into it’s own complicated track and simplify elsewhere in your song?
Anyways, my advice for managing really large tracks is… use smaller tracks 
Squarp should add an option to disable the automatic record disarm at the end of patterns or sequencer sections. Recording a long pattern while the sequence playlist is playing is hampered by this feature.
Just tested this and lo and behold it worked
You just have to remember to disable pattern mode on the tracks and unmute them in all your sequences.
And recording the whole way through the song is hampered by the feature I just mentioned.
But this is workable.
If the sequence playlist could follow along when you play/record this way , as well as the above issue I mentioned, Pyramid would be a bona fide timeline sequencer on top of a non linear one.
I am very grateful for all the support and other recommendations and think I will try them out in various instances. This is a great community. 