Seq2 Preview - PCB Project

[Jim Patchell]

    My first sequencer was code that I wrote that ran on a PAiA 8700 uC.  It has merit, and you can do a
lot with a uC based sequencer.  On the other hand, a Moog 960 type sequencer, or any other analog sequencer
has it's uses as well, and I would not say that one could nessesarily substitute for the other 100% of the
time.  First time I played with a Moog 960, I thought it was pretty cool.  I never got around to building
my own analog.  Soon, maybe.....

    -Jim

Gene Zumchak wrote:

> tomg,
>
>     It seems to me (who in another lifetime designed something called a Moog 960 sequencer using RTL
> because TTL was still too expensive and CMOS wouldn't exist for another decade) that the ONLY was to
> make a sequencer is with a micro.  The 960 had eight events, although you could skip any event for
> fewer events.  There were three rows of pots for three control voltages out.  The third row could be
> switched into the LFVCO that  ran the sequence to control rhythm.  There were buttons for manually
> selecting each event and triggers for envelopes.  Considering that nobody knew what a sequence was or
> what it should do and the fact that I had never designed anything in my life, it probably wasn't so bad
> a design.
>
>     Today, I would use far fewer pots, and D/A's and A/D's.  Your sequence could be from 2 to
> whatever.  You could arithmetically add sequences so that you could create an arpegio with sequence 1
> and then move that sequence up and down with another sequence.  The sky is the limit.  Your imagination
> is the limit.  The board is small.  The number of parts are small.
>
>     In the future I plan to have an HC12 development board available for prototyping such projects.  It
> will have two serial channels so that one can serve as midi.  A MIDI to CV module would be a typical
> application.  But you could also have a MIDI controlled sequencer, a SUPER LFVCO, etc.
>
>     What you are describing using descrete logic seems a little simple and very limiting.  I did the
> 960 thirty years ago.  The world has changed a lot since then.  I have not lost my love for analog, but
> I started as a digital guy (which is why I made the 960 and not Bob) and I'm still a digital guy except
> PLD's and micros is the way to implement digital these days.
>
>     Probably you should go ahead and make your sequencer as you envision it.  Maybe some day in the
> future I'll collaborate and a digital one.
>
> Gene Z.
>