(the product formerly known as) Epoch

[lnikj]

Come on Colin - if you don't get it out by Black Friday and sell it for 70% off there will be a riot on KVR

[colin@loomer]

Best I get coding and stop forum browsing then!

[ThomasHelzle]

Thanks a lot for keeping us updated. This sound so well thought out, I can hardly wait. Let's see who's first, Bitwig Studio 1.1 or Non-Epoch

Cheers,

Tom

[woggle]

That awkward moment when you release that your clever swing algorithm and your MIDI beat clock generator do not play nicely together. Which meant, unfortunately, back to the drawing board on the swing; but to be honest, it works so much the better now. Previously, we only had a single global swing - a glaring oversight really, although there are per sequencer step groove settings to take one off the rigid metre - whereas now each sequencer can have it's own swing. Metric bass + slightly swung drums = huge funk.

... and the to-do list grows shorter every day.

Nice - keeps sounding more interesting as you keep on refining

[colin@loomer]

When trying to document exactly how scene changes work, I realised that the scene system was just too complicated for its own good: if I couldn't even explain it clearly, how could anyone else understand it?

(A scene basically being a sequencer pattern, along with various settings such as play direction, rate, etc. The way I work, I generally have one sequencer per instrument, and then multiple scenes for each different melodic part: intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. You don't have to work this way - you could have multiple sequencers per instrument, or indeed none if you'd prefer to generate MIDI with some lower level modules - but for people used to the Ableton Live way of working, one sequencer per instrument fits well. Generally when jamming, I'll have one scene playing, whilst be composing on another.)

So I streamlined it, and whilst it'll still do everything it could before, it's now a lot more understandable. Essentially, a sequencer can control its scenes using one of four different modes: Auto, Play, Arrange, and Modulate.

The default is Auto. When you create a new sequencer, it'll be set to Auto, and will automatically play its only scene in sync with the current beat. If you just want a single riff, or you don't care about scenes, Auto is for you. (Probably worth adding here that a module will only activate when wired into another activated module. You can create a new sequencer, work on it in isolation whilst the arrangement is playing, and then only wire it up to an output when you've actually composed your pattern.)

Changing to Play introduces the play and stop controls for each scene, allowing for realtime live control. Switching the playing scene can also be quantised, so one can trigger a new scene to start playing at the end of the current bar, for example.

In Arrange mode, the scenes are arranged along a standard linear timeline. Note that because each sequencer is independent, you can have some Arrange'd, whilst be playing others live in Play mode. I'll often have a static backing arrangement, and then live-code some modular algorithmic goodness over the top.

Finally, with Modulate selected, one gets to control the playing scene via the modulation input on the sequencer. With this mode, the sky is the limit. You can write your own arrangement algorithms, use a CV sequencer to arrange patterns; anything really. One nice patch I created earlier today which uses this mode, along with an Unpack Note module (which converts a MIDI stream to discrete CV streams for pitch, gate, velocity, channel), to start a mono note sequencer, gated so it'll continue playing whilst the gate modulation input is held high, and transposed by the pitch of the midi note. Which I then macro'd, cloned, slowed down, and then fed the clone's input into the original. After about six clones, each slowed down, each feeding into the next, I had a wonderful evolving pattern, driven from the first sequencer playing notes 32 bars long, up to the last, which was playing swung 16th notes into a Berlin-style Aspect preset. Despite each individual sequencer pattern having 16 steps, it created a melodic contour which, as far as my ears can tell, constantly evolved over the fifteen minutes of which I listened to.

So unless I have missed something in this method, this is how scenes now work!

[woggle]

damn that sounds good

[toothnclaw]

Price?

[VariKusBrainZ]

Sounds like a similar scheme to RaxnTrax, though each module is limited to 16 Scenes, but each of these scenes can be dragged onto a linear time arrangement too.

There are then modules that let you modulate the sequencer scenes, like Non Epoch.

So you can go the predictable linear route or hell bent for leather algorithmic.

Sounds like Non Epoch has much more flexibility in its low level modules, similar to the good old Building Blocks.

Windows seems to have the best collection of music software over history than the other OSs and of course many of them still run on current Wondows versions, gotta love the backwards compatibility

[woggle]

S gotta love the backwards compatibility

something that doesn't get enough appreciation

[? ? ?]

if I couldn't even explain it clearly, how could anyone else understand it?

By releasing it at it's current state and allow users to give their input and turn this beast into the program they actually want to use and spend money on. Both in user ability and cosmetically
It looks good in text but seems that you could use a bit of assistance with user feedback.
Otherwise video tutorials sure beat text.

From what's been explained though, this program sounds very promising. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[colin@loomer]

Price?

I've not settled on an exact figure, but it'll be in the ballpark of (ie, not more than) Numerology, which seems to be its closest 'rival'.

By releasing it at it's current state and allow users to give their input

I am getting plenty of internal feedback from various close friend musicians who are testing it, but it's just not ready to leave the nest yet. The main issue being compatibility: when it's all kept internal, I'm free to change things at will with little regard to making sure previous projects open; very handy as I refine and tweak. Once it's out, things are to an extent 'locked-down'. I just want to be convinced that things are right when the lock-down occurs.

On saying that, there will be a public beta stage, and your chance to give feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated during that period.

[ThomasHelzle]

[jowen]

Collin wrote:
it'll be in the ballpark of (ie, not more than) Numerology

the question is not more than
Numerology 4 Pro — $199.00
or
Numerology 4 Standard Edition — $129.00
or
between

[colin@loomer]

Somewhere between, but closer to N4Pro.

And today's distraction: I've just built a MIDI looper module with about 20 lines of Lua script. I will tidy up and include it in the beta library. It has a pair of MIDI input and output ports, and a single CV input port which will be set to 0 for play, and 1 for record. Which was all well and good, until I started having several instances, one looper feeding into another, and another, and switching play and record modes for each with a little toggle button dashboard which I built. And then I added a few pitch transposers and harmonizers, started routing it to a few synths and ... well, this is a perfect example of how easy it is to get carried away.

(I was supposed to be fixing a bug with force to scale, I really don't know how this happened. Concentrate, Colin!)

[? ? ?]

there will be a public beta stage, and your chance to give feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated during that period.

I'm with everybody else in wanting to help out and use this app. I should be able to figure out Epoch considering I'm very familiar with Numerology. I mess with it using 2 launchpads and like, but don't love it, because the sequencing is too stiff...no groove or feel (the way i like it) no matter how much adjustment is made with the quantize module-or whatever it's called. So it's good to hear you have some "funkiness" to your app. Cheers!