MOTM

On Jun 3, 2007, at 8:02 PM, Stephen Drake wrote:
> I don't know of anything that's anything close to the milton, unless
> you go into the realm of software sequencers - numerology is pretty
> nice.

Numerology happened because Jim Coker (Mr Five12 Dot Com) and i were  
outgrowing the arpeggiators in our Z1s and ER-1s. we wanted to make  
the leap into modular-land, and started investigating sequencing.

he asked me, and this was now five years ago (we should throw a  
party) ... around this time of year, "is it possible for me to  
modulate the number of steps in a sequence in an analogue sequencer  
with a voltage?" and i racked my brain thinking about what was out  
there and said "no. not that i'm aware of."  he said "okay well then  
i'm going to write my own MIDI sequencer." a few months later i  
recorded a track with it an a bit after that i started gigging with  
it. even early on it never screwed me at a gig, but the Apple Store  
did screw my Pismo before one once .... that was a very ambient show.

Numerology is a software sequencer, but it is also the only thing  
that makes me want to take a computer to a gig. i've used it  
alongside a TR-909 and other drum machines, it plays nice with other  
sequencers. being able to edit _anything_ without stopping the  
sequencer is another positive attribute.

it's also no replacement for a 960 or a Milton or whatever other kind  
of analogue uberseq you're into. even though aspects of Numerology  
(step skipping) are there specifically because i had no 960 (or in  
the case of Gate Divide, because i have no Projekt Elektronik 960  
Assist Units), it really is it's own unique "thing" that allows you  
to explore the paradigm of analogue sequencing, abstracting it into  
modules in a way that is just not possible without infinite money and  
privately-engaged hardware engineers.

i realise this may be redundant as a latecomer to the thread, but i  
just wanted to chime in about Numerology in the context of a  
discussion of hardware sequencers. i _love_ analogue hardware, i love  
analogue sequencers, but everything has its place and IMHO having  
both is really probably quite incredibly synergistic.
---
Suit & Tie Guy
suitandtieguy.com
stgsoundlabs.com