[sdiy] Novel Sequencer?

[Martin Klang]

We're about to put out a new Eurorack module which I think might be a
new type of sequencer. Before I make any such bold claims in public,
perhaps some of you on this list can tell me if/why I'm wrong!

The module will be called Tonic, and I describe it tentatively as an
additive interval sequencer.


The idea is simple: there are a number of fixed pitch intervals which
can be triggered either manually by a pushbutton or by an incoming
trigger. So each interval has a button and a trigger input. There's a CV
output which sums all the active intervals. The trick here is the
summing: if you have two intervals of e.g. +2 semitones and +3 semitones
active, then the CV output represents +5 semitones (on 1v/oct scale).

You might recognise this as a variation on something you can easily do
with a CV mixer: feed in a set of triggers, 'tune' the level for each
one, and out you get a pitch sequence. The advantage here being that a)
the output doesn't depend on the level of the trigger and b) the
intervals are in tune.


If with our scheme you have four intervals tuned to 1, 2, 4 and 8
semitones then you have of course 2^4 binary combinations and you can
produce all semitones from 0 to +15.


Our module has five fixed and one adjustable interval, and adds a
trigger output which goes high when any of the inputs are active.


You could argue perhaps that it's not really a sequencer, since the
triggers must be generated elsewhere. But it turns triggers into
melodies, which is nice. And the rest, as far as I'm concerned, is
semantics.


so... prior art?

Martin