Turtlerock Forum

What's the pros of using a step sequencer for old mono's apart from the obvious one of them not having midi?
Are there things you can achieve with one as opposed to using a midi to cv converter?

It'a usually that old step sequencers are fun to write on and you tend to make quite a different kind of sequence on them than you would make on a real-time sequencer.

There is a difference between a Step Sequencer and an Analog sequencer. Unless I'm mistaken, Step Sequencers are not as common.
I find Step Sequencers a bit more tedious to use, whereas an Analog Sequencer is a little more immediate and intuitive (for me).
The main advantage of an Analog Sequencer (again- for me) is that it helps me to think outside the square.
I have a very well tutored, standardized view of melody and harmony. I want to break out of it, but subconsciously it's hard for me. The brilliant thing about an Analog Sequencer is that you can set it going and randomly twiddle knobs or push sliders around until you get the desired pattern. By trying not to think too musically, I can find more left field melodies just by randomly changing the slider/knob values in real time.
Step sequencers push me more back into a thinking process, which I don't like. Of course midi is the worst for conventionality, unless you have a random software sequencer (like Numerology).

Yeah, good points, I think I'm actually talking about an analog sequencer. I've been looking at building one from some PCB's I've seen on the net.

Analog sequencers can be a real pain if they don't have a quantizer if you want to keep to a musical scale, you need a tuner to set up every step which really slows down creativity as you have to stop the sequencer every time you want to change a note. I rarely used the sequencer on my .Com system until I bought a quantizer.

Analog sequencers are fantastic if you are using them to step CV's for non pitched modules like VCF's, then they come into their own as you don't have to worry about trimming each pot to an exact frequency.

There are analogue style sequencers that are brilliant that do Midi.. So it's not necessarily a choice between them.

The Midibox V4 is a killer. Nice flat menu architecture and as it's DIY, you can choose the form / layout.

Sequentrix P3 is another..

I love my Octopus. It is just x0x plus tweakable anything. The new software done for it by the user group is
excellent. It has fixed all the timing and sync issues.
I use the Octopus to drive "control tracks" that trigger the step sequencer or arpeggiator gate pulses.
In my case, thsi incudes a Roland 104, an SH-101, Polysix arpeggiator and various drum triggers. It's a nice hybrid setup that only uses the computer for MIDI routing and not for audio or MIDI sync - that comes from the Octopus.

I have not done much music lately as a result. Had major illnesses and job upheavals. I am just starting to get back into it, so it feels good to write something here again....!


rachel

Good to see you back on the boards Rachel.
Cheers.

Not sure this is 100% relevant but have you guys seen the kmi qunexus?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kmi ... controller

Purports to do osc / midi and cv out (with a breakout) and can run as a step sequencer.