Analogue-sequencer

--- In analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com, <Paul.Maddox@s...> wrote:
> I just want something I can bash drum patterns into, in much the 
same way
> as the P3 but for drums, I don't want anything really fancy, but I 
would
> like the 'delay' parameter on the drum pattern thingy (colin?)
> 
I pretty much agree with everything Julian said :)  Basically if you 
like the TR-606, just imagine one on steroids.

You do get selectable kits for each pattern, also selectable accent 
levels for each pattern, so you're not stuck to 100/127 (or 
whatever) for everything.  Those can all be changed while it's 
playing too.  If you use a delay-style accent you can make it repeat 
that drum sound X times, with Y steps between each "echo", fading 
out, fading in, or in-then-out.  This is actually a way cool 
feature, because if you switch to a pattern with delay-style 
accents, then back to a pattern with "normal" accents any delays 
created in the previous pattern will keep on playing, which can make 
two or three patterns sound like ten different ones.

"Rotate" is the other touted feature.  I usually end up turning it 
on by accident, then creating something cool which i can never 
recreate.  At its very simplest, you can set a single track in the 
pattern to "move up" one step on every loop.  So you might have an 8-
step pattern with a hihat on 1, 4, 7: first loop it's on 1, 4, 7 - 
next loop it's on 2, 5, 8 - next loop it's on 1, 3, 6 etc.  You can 
set when it should loop and also how many steps it should rotate by 
on each loop.  That's just a basic example, but you could also 
say "every 3 steps, advance the data in this track by 2 steps" - 
triggering every 2nd step in that track on every 3rd step in the 
actual sequence.  And you can turn that on and off as you want 
aswell.  It can get very hectic when you apply that to a melody 
track, similar to what i'm guessing the P3 does in random mode, but 
with a little bit more predictability.  You could also use this 
together with the track reset function to make a 6 or 12 step 
sequence play polyrhythms against a regular 4/4.

The interface is the usual 16 step buttons (TR-style) and then a 
whole bunch of extra buttons to set the mode.  For example the "play 
mode" will change the 16 step buttons to be pattern-change 
buttons, "inst/note mode" will change the 16 step buttons to be the 
track mute buttons, "inst step mode" will change the 16 step buttons 
to be the trigger on/off for an instrument in the sequence etc.  
Like Julian said - there's only one "menu" of depth because there's 
a seperate button for each mode.

Colin, the "rotate" stuff might be a bit difficult to do on your R3, 
but i'd definitely take a look at doing interesting things with 
accent.  It saves quite a bit of programming if you want all 
your "accents" to do the same thing, but something a little more 
interesting than just "play louder".  Another thing that might be 
nice is having accent trigger another note altogether, so a really 
loud rim cymbal would create a crash or something.  Granted, i can 
do that sort of thing already on the synth side, but i'd imagine 
people with analog-style or "simple" drum modules would appreciate 
it.  Maybe even crossfading between two layers of drum depending on 
velocity - though again that's something i personally would be more 
inclined to do on the synth side.

Alison