FW: [motm] Big Dave's DIY Design again
2001-09-03 by Tkacs, Ken
The only thing that you might be missing is in understimating the joy of
spinning a knob here or there while the sequencer is running. Again, not to
make "Tangerine Dream" the 'sequencer poster child,' but they used to do
these trancy things where they get a loop going and then mutate the
individual CVs during the performance. Suddenly the duration of one stage
starts to get longer... the pitch of the third note starts to drop... the
filter cutoffs start to move...
If you aren't going to fiddle with it during a perfomance, you're right:
there's absolutely no need for all those knobs. But then, why not just use a
PC with some MIDI sequencer software running on it and have no stage limits?
I just always felt that fooling with the thing while it was running was 100%
of the fun. I don't think I EVER sat down at an analog sequencer with sheet
music and tried to input a pre-conceived idea. I always let the thing rip
and then start playing, and I was always pleasantly surprised with what I
came up with, and how much fun it was.
-----Original Message-----
spinning a knob here or there while the sequencer is running. Again, not to
make "Tangerine Dream" the 'sequencer poster child,' but they used to do
these trancy things where they get a loop going and then mutate the
individual CVs during the performance. Suddenly the duration of one stage
starts to get longer... the pitch of the third note starts to drop... the
filter cutoffs start to move...
If you aren't going to fiddle with it during a perfomance, you're right:
there's absolutely no need for all those knobs. But then, why not just use a
PC with some MIDI sequencer software running on it and have no stage limits?
I just always felt that fooling with the thing while it was running was 100%
of the fun. I don't think I EVER sat down at an analog sequencer with sheet
music and tried to input a pre-conceived idea. I always let the thing rip
and then start playing, and I was always pleasantly surprised with what I
came up with, and how much fun it was.
-----Original Message-----
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From: Scott Juskiw
To: motm@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 09/02/2001 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [motm] Big Dave's DIY Design again
I've always questioned the need to have pots/knobs for every stage
and row of a sequence. All those knobs and LEDs sure look great, but
are they really necessary?
It would be much cheaper to build a digital/analogue hybrid with a
single programmer pot/knob to dial in (or sample from an external
source) the voltage at each sequence stage. The voltage is then A/D
converted and stored in memory for later playback via D/A conversion.
This affords programmability and virtually unlimited sequence length.
The stored sequence can be easily modified at runtime using a CV
mixer to add or subtract a performance voltage. Naturally, you'd want
multiple output rows as well, and the ability to program the note
length at each stage for each row. This is all easily done with a
digital controller.
I'm not saying that multi-knob fixed-length all-analogue sequencers
are bad, I just haven't had any use for them since I started using
digitally controlled sequencers (around 20 years ago). Am I missing
something?
To: motm@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 09/02/2001 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [motm] Big Dave's DIY Design again
I've always questioned the need to have pots/knobs for every stage
and row of a sequence. All those knobs and LEDs sure look great, but
are they really necessary?
It would be much cheaper to build a digital/analogue hybrid with a
single programmer pot/knob to dial in (or sample from an external
source) the voltage at each sequence stage. The voltage is then A/D
converted and stored in memory for later playback via D/A conversion.
This affords programmability and virtually unlimited sequence length.
The stored sequence can be easily modified at runtime using a CV
mixer to add or subtract a performance voltage. Naturally, you'd want
multiple output rows as well, and the ability to program the note
length at each stage for each row. This is all easily done with a
digital controller.
I'm not saying that multi-knob fixed-length all-analogue sequencers
are bad, I just haven't had any use for them since I started using
digitally controlled sequencers (around 20 years ago). Am I missing
something?