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Subject: Re: OT: Akai arpeggiator+ sequencer ideas

From: "k9k9dog" <domgoold@...>
Date: 2010-12-31

well, it isn't like a keyboard arp, like on a juno.
I REMEMBER(...correct if wrong please), you bash in
your notes in a step-rest fashion, like on the ex800,
and then you have a arp speed knob, and a velocity amount
knob...so it'd be quite similar to what already on the
korg if you had ...i wrote some notes/wishlist this morning:
(sorry about this folks, bit long, just the once...

EX800 DEC31 2010

hold on a minute...sorry, mind has been on other things,
and i get the usergroup digest in my mail so...

here are the infos i have about those arpeggiators:
<link>(another time...)
manuals in there, plus photos, etc.

sequencer:i can't remember if it sends out MIDI,
and i think it programs
in a note-rest,etc. fashion, ?

so, if it could be MIDI-sync/unsync, and have a velocity
amount analog pot, well, there you have a akai me20a,
i think. it just needs to be key-transposable, is all that
is lacking. (this last must be quite simple to implement?)

now, if you consider note input to this, and remember
the roland 'note-stack' sequencers, where you enter
notes in a serial/sequential manner, and can then enter
the timing values (eg: when gates and rests occur, and
length of the note), with a ppqn of around 96, should do
(same as a MC202?), then you have quite an interesting
single memory arpeggiator.

you could really imitate 303/202 features, with a portamento
on/off, octave jumping, and also velocity levels.

all of this might be possible with existing hawk eeprom...

what you could then do, is have a memory chip, for different
arp/seq patterns, with a switch somewhere. this would give
you something approximating a cyclone.

(can't belive a cyclone fetches that much...they were going for
complete peanuts (like 40quid) a few years ago. like i said, a pain
to program, but sat very nicely between keyboard and atari,
and would crash just at the point the atari might, so you could
recover sometimes when it locked up (true). but then i realised
how much easier the interactive phrase synthesiser was (IPS),
in cubase, so i let it go. no regrets.(except i didn't get 300bucks)

so, to sum up, making the most of the sequencer (even having a
polyphonic mode for it), and with this idiosyncratic note entry
method (dual mode, eg: one 'as is', and one where you stack notes,
and then enter gates/rests/etc. :) ) should be a priority.
---------
in my view, the main interest in modding the poly is to get easy
realtime access to sound parameters, and to have a nice compact
vintage analog that does most things the synths of that era do,
so you have a nice vintage sound and action(and the screaming
atomahawk mod too). oh, so i suppose an increase in memory
locations/extra banks would eventually be good too (16,000, lol)

if some translation from midi cc to sysex/rpn-nrpn could come into
play-and if the hardware can handle it-then it could use any usb-midi
prog'ger to control it.

is there still plenty of room on the eeprom for further developments?



--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, Gordon JC Pearce <gordon@...> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2010-12-28 at 21:22 +0000, k9k9dog wrote:
> > i agree..better to devise some software for an arduino MIDI
> > self build thing. the akai arp IS not the ultimate arp, and
>
> That wouldn't be hard to do, really. I've got a couple of other AVR
> projects on the bench at the moment, but maybe by 2011 I'll have time to
> look at an arpeggiator. Or maybe 2012...
>
> I know I asked this before but I can't remember if anyone replied - can
> someone give me a good functional description of the Akai arpeggiator?
> Does it work - as I suspect - a bit like the normal arpeggiators, with a
> transposable sequencer similar to the Poly-800 thrown in as well?
>
> Gordon MM0YEQ
>