Anything and everything about MIDI - arp, mapper, mangler, generator, chorder, controller, utility, fx etc.

[UncleAge]

Quick update on Instachord2. In the latest version of BWS I am having huge dsp spikes and interrupted audio when the plugin is in use (ver. 2.0.1.b_220730). In addition the plugin when running alone shows about 30% in the dsp graph. I have emailed the developer with the issues. I will update here when issue is fixed. fwiw, I also have Instacomposer from the same developer and it does not exhibit these issues (one Instacomposer shows about 2% on my system). As always, ymmv...

[hotmitts]

Orb producer on sale again with discount code

Use Code: SUMMER

https://www.orbplugins.com/shop?fbclid= ... L4O57EVH9M

New to this stuff so don't know how it compares to others

[hotmitts]

Would anyone care to review and compare Captain Plugins and Orb Producer?

Sure.

Captain Plugins works perfectly fine on my Mac (OSX Mojave) and up-to-date Logic.

When I tried Orb Producer last night, on the other hand, I immediately ran into a significant bug in both the AU instrument version and the VST version, which I ran through Blue Cat's Patchwork MidiFX plugin. (NOTE: there is no Orb Composer MidiFX AU. The AU is a regular instrument, which plays a built-in synth.)

I could set up the OrbChords plugin OK, but when I then added the OrbBass plugin, it caused the OrbChords to run in quarter time. In other words, although the whole point of the plugins is supposed to be coordination between the four, there are timing coordination issues the render them unusable.

I'm not such a bitter, jaded person that I'm swearing them off forever; I'll give the OrbProducer Suite demo another try when (if?) they fix this fundamental bug. But it certainly did not make a good first impression that they released it with such a fundamental issue.

Too bad it has this bug.
Hope when it is fixed it would be great to get a feature and workflow or whatever comparison or review.

OrbProducer was so buggy that it was unusable (in Logic on my system at least) when it first came out. Now there's an update that purports to fix the issue... but the promotional launch discount has expired. In other words, the launch discount was only good until they came out with a version (and demo) that might work (I haven't tried it so can't say).

In the current climate, I haven't bought any music software for a month (unusually for me), and it doesn't take much at all to convince me to simply move on from even demoing / considering a product. This developer behavior makes this an easy skip altogether.

Wondering if it has it improved since then now it's on sale?

[Musical Gym]

Orb producer on sale again with discount code

Use Code: SUMMER

https://www.orbplugins.com/shop?fbclid= ... L4O57EVH9M

New to this stuff so don't know how it compares to others

I got a refund after continued frustration with it. Their chord naming is not standard, other thing(s) weren't accurate, general operation was weird (for me). I would take them up on their satisfaction guaranteed policy and see if it works for you.

[SHall1000]

Anyone familiar with this? Looks interesting as now available as a VST.

https://www.congburn.co.uk/strokes

[fairlyclose]

between Audiomodern and Hyakken I am not seeing a lot of sequencers that offer anything compelling. I can see tho that another set of sequencers would make Audiomodern and Hyakken redundant for me. The new strokes and Beat Scholar look pretty good, but nothing that really says must buy for someone with a bunch of stuff already

[Zoopy]

Anyone familiar with this? Looks interesting as now available as a VST.

https://www.congburn.co.uk/strokes

I got it and I really don't like it, the interface is kind of a pain to use and it feels a little dated in terms of workflow.

There's a max4live euclidean pro sequencer I like alot more, and HY RPE as well.

[WatchTheGuitar]

between Audiomodern and Hyakken I am not seeing a lot of sequencers that offer anything compelling. I can see tho that another set of sequencers would make Audiomodern and Hyakken redundant for me. The new strokes and Beat Scholar look pretty good, but nothing that really says must buy for someone with a bunch of stuff already

If you have the time and patience you can get a lot more control over sequencing if you delve into software modular whether it be VCV Rack, Cherry Voltage Modular, MAX or even Bitwig’s grid, but it takes time to set things up.

[fairlyclose]

between Audiomodern and Hyakken I am not seeing a lot of sequencers that offer anything compelling. I can see tho that another set of sequencers would make Audiomodern and Hyakken redundant for me. The new strokes and Beat Scholar look pretty good, but nothing that really says must buy for someone with a bunch of stuff already

If you have the time and patience you can get a lot more control over sequencing if you delve into software modular whether it be VCV Rack, Cherry Voltage Modular, MAX or even Bitwig’s grid, but it takes time to set things up.

Thanks, but in what way? Can you give a concrete example?
In some ways I am not so much into greater control as into greater productivity - a mixture of control and opportunity

[WatchTheGuitar]

between Audiomodern and Hyakken I am not seeing a lot of sequencers that offer anything compelling. I can see tho that another set of sequencers would make Audiomodern and Hyakken redundant for me. The new strokes and Beat Scholar look pretty good, but nothing that really says must buy for someone with a bunch of stuff already

If you have the time and patience you can get a lot more control over sequencing if you delve into software modular whether it be VCV Rack, Cherry Voltage Modular, MAX or even Bitwig’s grid, but it takes time to set things up.

Thanks, but in what way? Can you give a concrete example?

Each step of a sequence you can link to different modules so you could use something akin to MI Branches which sets a probability of a note firing then you could link that to another module that randomly determines whether or not that note fires off a bunch of notes in a burst.
You could use a quantiser to set a scale, but you could also set a random against that so that it flits between different related scales e.g. A minor and A minor pentatonic.

You can chain sequencers (tbf you can do this to an extent with HY-SEQ32 too) so that a sequence plays through in one octave and then in another, or plays notes from one sequencer some of the time and a different sequencer or signals from a sample-and-held LFO another time.

Probably the most important difference between the modular style sequencers and MIDI effect style plugin ones is that you can completely separate the note gate sequencing from note pitch sequencing leading to all kinds of interesting things.

Obviously if you aren't interested in anything generative or pseudo-random and just want to be able to program in your notes then none of this is particularly compelling.

[fairlyclose]

Obviously if you aren't interested in anything generative or pseudo-random and just want to be able to program in your notes then none of this is particularly compelling.

I've been making generative music for almost 50 years in the old days it was writing scores/instruction sets for people to perform.

A lot of what you mention is actually doable in Riffer and HY_ Different workflow of course, but people seem to have missed what Riffer can do with automation. The main thing missing from the HY_ systems for me is automatable playback rate in Hz or BPM - but you can enter individual rates by hand which is excellent
I will add in Stochas here as well - possibly the DAW you use influences some of this, in Reaper it is easy to set up and organise complex systems. One of the reasons I did not like Studio One is that it was not great for that, or at least it did not suit me for that

[WatchTheGuitar]

Well maybe Riffer can do just what I described, but it can't do everything you can do with software modular because you can pipe together as many bunches of logic and processing modules as you desire so it is literally limited to an extent by your imagination, the CPU overhead for MIDI/note/gate processing is so minimal you could probably use hundreds of those modules on a normal PC and not hit any processing issues.

For an example, just in VCV Rack under the 'sequencer' tag there are nearly 300 results
https://library.vcvrack.com/?query=&bra ... r&license=

The ones I've just started using are from a creator named Path Set and some of them are pretty bonkers

[fairlyclose]

Well maybe Riffer can do just what I described, but it can't do everything you can do with software modular because you can pipe together as many bunches of logic and processing modules as you desire so it is literally limited to an extent by your imagination, the CPU overhead for MIDI/note/gate processing is so minimal you could probably use hundreds of those modules on a normal PC and not hit any processing issues.

For an example, just in VCV Rack under the 'sequencer' tag there are nearly 300 results
https://library.vcvrack.com/?query=&bra ... r&license=

Thanks for that link. Glass Panes looks lots of fun, maybe I will have a look at VCV again I dont think Riffer can do everything you mention, nor can any individual module you link to but in combination with the HY_ system, Stochas and a DAW like Reaper a powerful system can be built very quickly.
But of course if you like working in modular systems then that is better. In the end productive workflow will be the major determinant.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Yeah actually tbf Stochas is almost getting there in terms of what it offers, but I don't think you can ever beat having the full power of modular and being able to swap different units in and out. Obviously as everything is treated as a voltage level it's particularly suited to playing around with non Western scales and things like that.

[fairlyclose]

Yeah actually tbf Stochas is almost getting there in terms of what it offers, but I don't think you can ever beat having the full power of modular and being able to swap different units in and out. Obviously as everything is treated as a voltage level it's particularly suited to playing around with non Western scales and things like that.

Stochas is pretty good - I asked a while back for midi CC sequencing but has not appeared yet I dont think (and may never of course). But with midi cc sequencing it would be much better again