Hi Jerry,
I use the step sequencer for a few songs, mostly to add a pulse behind the beat, or to add a short riff that needs to happen while I'm busy doing something else. Sometimes, I use it to control another module -- usually, my Alesis S4 -- to add a rhythmic feel to a song on shaker, triangle, claves, etc. (An example of this is the rhythmic part behind Peter Gabriel's voice in the song "In Your Eyes." In this case, I program a very small (1-3 notes) split part, then set the volume of the smaller end of the split to zero, and just use that part of the split as a MIDI controller and clock.
I wish steps could be polyphonic; that would increase the usefulness of the feature. Vintage sequencers only did one note at a time, though, so I suppose the AN1x is remaining true to form.
>Do you make your own seq programs?
Yes, although I've kept a couple of the basic and/or UK patches to use as inspiration. (I'm going to figure out a musical use for "Alan" someday -- it sounds so huge!)
>Which parameters are your favorites to morph (so far, mine are filter
>cutoff, sync pitch, noise, and filter envelope decay)?
Those are good. Filter resonance is also useful, sometimes in conjunction with cutoff and high pass.
>Do you use the knobs to "tune" the sequence? How in heaven's name do
>you get any accurate results in real time?
Yes, I do use them from time to time, and it's a painful process! It cannot be done in anything close to real time. Most of the time, it's kind of like sculpting: If you cannot focus on the end result, the "noise" factor -- be it wrong notes, or extra bits of stone -- can be overwhelming, and it takes at least 50% of the process before there seems to be any purpose to the work, then it just suddenly seems to leap out of the mess. I wish the AN1x would allow notes to be played on the keyboard, rather than knob-induced. It wouldn't have to be all that complex an interface; maybe, press Knob 1, then play a note, and the note value would be added. The same could work for velocity.
>Do you have any advice for a step sequencer newbie?
Just keep plugging away at it until the process becomes second nature, or something like that. Programming a step sequencer is not really intuitive, but like any skill, it can be acquired.
Also, programming a "null" sequence that has all of the note volumes set to zero, can be handy to quickly stop the sequence. This is especially useful if you are using Select Mode and have the pattern set to Mode 2, which allows sequences to be queued up until the start of the next pattern.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
http://consult.ashbysolutions.comCloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
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