Sequencing (DIY)

[JonasEdenbrandt]

I don't know if I've mentioned it but i study interactive sound design, so alot of what i do in school is audioprograming and now recently I built a sort of hardware interface built on the arduino that has 16 piezos that can interact with a computer through a USB cabel. Now this semester we mostly have less practical courses like math and stuff so i wan't to have a project to work on anyway for the fun of it. I was thinking about building something for sequencing/controlling stuff either the computer through USB or maybe something through MIDI. Haven't done anything with CV so that would prolly be a bit to advanced for me right now, and I don't really have anything to try it on.

Now i was wondering what you guys like with the way you choose to sequence stuff, and maybe things you've thought about that you would like a sequencer to have but they don't and so on so maybe i could try diferent things. Since it's so easy to prototype and program an arduino i would prolly be able to try several things before actually building something so all ideas are welcome.


PS
The first thing I'll try is prolly 16 or 8 knobs that controll pitch of notes for a software synth.

[steevio]

i've become obsessed with analogue sequencing in the last couple of years and there a few things that ive noticed where software used to let me down.
when i used to use software, i probably did what most people do and look at a time line, and decided where to put things in relation to each other, eg. ' i'll put a hi-hat here, a snare there, a bass note there etc.' and create loops that repeat in different lengths etc.. building the track up and breaking it down in either an arrangement or live jam.

The way i work now, there is no time line, a sequence for me has no finite direction, it can go in any direction at any time, and that direction can be modulated in lots of different ways. here's two ; a repeating envelope or an LFO can change the direction, or say a coalesence event between two sequences. for instance when two different sequences have triggers firing at the same time, (say a bassnote from seq1 and a rimshot from seq2) the direction of seq1 reverses or even a combination of many different modulations.

not only do i not have a timeline, i dont have any finite path for the triggers, i modulate VC switches to send the triggers to different locations. so a trigger that was a bassnote a moment ago is now sent to a different location say a synth sound, and again that modulation can be acheived in lots of different ways. for instance each time a hihat sequence and a a low percussion sequence coalesce, a signal is sent to switch a bass sound to a synth sound, and maybe it is switched back again when sequence two reverses direction.

also sequences can freeze in time. i create space in my sequences by stopping and starting the sequences in different ways, and again this modulation can be acheived in an endless number of ways..

and the same goes for the notes. with just two notes in a sequence you can create complex melodies or riffs, simply by modulating a switch which sends the pitch info (CVs) to different quantizers set to different scales and/or keys, you can even modulate those keys etc. by transposing the quantizers in different ways..

i could fill a book with all of the possibilities of analogue sequencing, so i'll stop there with just those simple few examples, but needless to say the thought of a straightforward 16 step repeating sequence is utter boredom to me.

by modulating sequences in these ways, you can start with say two absolutely simple 8 step sequences with just a couple of notes and triggers in each and create the most complex music imaginable, that is fractal in nature and mathematically holistic.

i should point out that i'm only just getting there with my sequencing rig, i'm only just starting to get the results i was hoping for after two years building it, i'll post some examples over the next year so you can see where i'm at with it,

an example of what i'm talking about exists on this video; (ignore the first 40 seconds, thats just straightforward techno)
everything you a hearing was created from two 8 step sequences of just two notes each, with only three triggers in each sequence

eg. seq1 - x x x C x F x F seq2 - D D x x x x A# x

and by moving just one note in each sequence and changing its pitch, you will get a completely different tune, that doesnt resemble the first at all.
apologies - this is not a self-promotion honestly.

[oblioblioblio]

fuckin ell steevio.

mindbending.

[AK]

i've become obsessed with analogue sequencing in the last couple of years and there a few things that ive noticed where software used to let me down.
when i used to use software, i probably did what most people do and look at a time line, and decided where to put things in relation to each other, eg. ' i'll put a hi-hat here, a snare there, a bass note there etc.' and create loops that repeat in different lengths etc.. building the track up and breaking it down in either an arrangement or live jam.

I think software companies ( or some of them ) are latching onto this type of linear, same-old-same-old approach and have started doing interesting things. I think maybe Live with its session view and/or Energy XT ( and to some extent actually Reason ) started to break away from the linear thing dominated by Cubase etc. Certainly with something like Numerology, pretty much any sequencing method can be used as far as I can tell, certainly analogue style sequencing ( gotta buy a Mac first though - boo! ) but the idea is great for people who are sequencing ITB and want to break free of that linear mould that software always used to force you into..I'm jealous of Mac users at the minute simply because of Numerology but there's no way I'm going out and buying a Mac just to get access to it.

and the same goes for the notes. with just two notes in a sequence you can create complex melodies or riffs, simply by modulating a switch which sends the pitch info (CVs) to different quantizers set to different scales and/or keys, you can even modulate those keys etc. by transposing the quantizers in different ways..

That sounds really exciting, I can't quite comprehend that amount of possibilities...

an example of what i'm talking about exists on this video; (ignore the first 40 seconds, thats just straightforward techno)
everything you a hearing was created from two 8 step sequences of just two notes each, with only three triggers in each sequence

eg. seq1 - x x x C x F x F seq2 - D D x x x x A# x

Cool..... Bad ass tuned percussion sound coming in at 40 secs, what's that from?

[kdgh]

would love to a 16/32/64 step sequnencer (a la machinedrum) that can be hooked up with a computer.

here's a little design for what i mean :


No internal drumsounds. Just a midi implant so it can be hooked up with ableton.
Some smart ableton programming and we got ourselfs a cool drummachine.
yes a normal MD can this too, but those machines are very expensive for this purpose only.
I also did the same with a launchpad, but you only have 8x8 pads and i really would love 16x16.

I don't know if this is a sequencer you mean, but you can probably hook up some synths with this principle

[steevio]

Cool..... Bad azz tuned percussion sound coming in at 40 secs, what's that from?

thats a tiptop Z3000 VCO being FM'd by an Analogue Systems RS95e VCO through a MakeNoise QMMG multimode gate being controlled by a MakeNoise Maths,
infact all the percussion you can hear is coming from that set-up, (apart from snare / hihats / shakers and 909 clap) the high perc is the RS95e being FM'd by the Z3000 at the same time.

[Phase Ghost]

..I'm jealous of Mac users at the minute simply because of Numerology but there's no way I'm going out and buying a Mac just to get access to it.

What kind of motherboard are you running in your new PC? The reason I ask is because I'm not using an official Apple Mac to run Numerology and Logic (both of which I bought along with all my other plugins). I've got a hackintosh as my music computer that runs just as good as my macbook. Audio interface, midi gear, etc...all run perfect. If you know your motherboard, you can probably get a boot up disk to install OSX (I would highly recommend it be installed on a new drive). Compared to 4 years ago when I first started with the hackintosh stuff, the install process is infinitely easier (and better).

Currently my pc has a OSX drive, a Ubuntu drive and a drive with TinyXP for playing racing simulators. If you're interested I could help answer any questions.

[skept]

this video

this is incredible. thanks for sharing. i really enjoyed it.