[sdiy] Gerts Galactic P3 is ungainly and difficult to use

[Jay Vaughan]

... okay, i brought gerts p3 back from cambridge to the continent for 
him last night (we drove back, he flew, we had ... 'space' ... for 
his gear in our boot) and its now sitting here with me at at the 
office hooked up to a spare redback i had laying around ... i've got 
it for 48 hours before i take it to its new home to the galactic 
emporer gert, and i'm trying my best to play with it, but it has 
seriously defeated me.

try as i might, i simply Can Not Grok The Interface.  god, does 
'intuitive' just have no bearing with you diy types at all?  yes, 
i've 'read' the manual.pdf i downloaded for it, but no, even the 
manual makes no sense ... i can't even work out how to get it in a 
basic pattern/play mode.  i gotta hold FUNC-REC and a #-Track to 
record?  eh?  that takes TWO HANDS, dude!!!  nonsense!  REC does 
nothing, neither does "REC+RUN" (isn't that the 'standard' way of 
getting a sequencer to record something?), but i sure can hit FUNC a 
lot and make my own segmented light show.  defeated!  mister maddox 
made it look so easy!

so... gaaarrrrghhh, i know i'm setting myself up for a mobbery here, 
but ... could one of you p3 anoraks please give me a simple, basic, 
"turn-it-on" -> "press these buttons" -> "turn knobs to tweak the 
pattern" walk-through for how to set things up?  i've got it midi'ed 
directly to my redback, its sending midi fine, but nothing i do to 
the interface has any direct effect whatsoever on the sound.

its only because i saw 'how easy it is' to use in the hands of You 
True Experts that i'm giving it another chance before i put it back 
in its bubble-wrap and leave it for the emperor to get a headache 
over ...  but if only someone can give me a simple walk-through for 
setting it up to play in 'normal pattern sequencer' mode on channel 
1, part 1, a simple loop, i'd be very happy...

(it is fun to look at the 7 little jay's in the knobs, though. 
mirror knobs rock.)

-- 

;

Jay Vaughan