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

[Funk Dracula]

I kind of miss the "vibe" of sitting down at a good step sequencer as an alternative environment to writing a track. I haven't sat down with one seriously tho since I did a stint with Numerology on Mac over a decade ago now.

I love the step sequencers in some drum synth plugins and use them all the time still. Tremor finds it's way in basically most of my tracks, and I do all of it's programing in it's excellent step sequencer.

Recently I went seeking out and demoing a bunch of sequencer plug-ins, and I really liked the HY stuff. The thing about them tho, is as a Bitwig user, I kind of came to the conclusion while demoing them that most of this stuff just isn't as good as what I can do natively in Bitwig, so I ended up purchasing none of them. But I do like the "vibe" of it all being neatly tied in one window that only a proper dedicated step sequencer plugin can provide. My favorite that I tried out of the HY stuff was the RPE2, but again trying that out just gave me the motivation to make a much more powerful multi-track Euclidian sequencer setup in Bitwig natively with it's Euclidian repeaters.

To me step sequencers are all about presenting a "vibe" to work with that sticks you outside of the live playing or piano roll inputting state of mind, and that HY stuff offers alot of different flavors of sequencing to choose from, and they have some proper modulation options to keep your sequences evolving.

The rest of the stuff I tried out was too limited. They were good, had a vibe, but they were all basically monophonic, single instrument acid style step sequencers. The HY stuff was definitely a step above IMO. I'd say if you weren't using Bitwig, or don't have access to something wonderful like I remember Numerology being (I don't have access to it anymore as I switched to Windows), that HY stuff seemed top notch.

I emailed Bitwig and showed them a bunch of the sequencers I made and basically said "Wouldn't it be great if this were all tied together in a single window as a native device, instead of all patched together in Note FX layers the user had to navigate to and click on etc" and they seemed very open to the idea. Everything is already there, it just needs a dedicated GUI and UX to tie it together in the way these sequencer plugins do. There are already a few Bitwig devices that operate off of this principle (Polymer and Sweep are actually just Grid patches packaged into a GUI/UX as a device.)

Cheers

[grabauf]

Here's a new arp by Ravey Stabs ... H-Arp:
https://raveystabs.co.uk/

[Stirner]

I'm searching for a sequencer, that plays melodic sequences in euclidean rhythms. So for note length/clock speed you don't select 1/8 or 1/16 or triplets, but the usual euclidean parameters - hits/pulses, steps and phase offsets - for example 3 hits over 15 steps.
The closest plugin I have found is HY-RPE2. It's aimed on drums, so per default you have one fixed pitch in one euclidean lane. But you also can use so called "step mode" and use different pitches for steps. Unfortunately for steps only and not for hits/pulses. So you can't use a predefined melodic sequence and try different rhythms. If the number of hits and steps are changed, the melodic shape changes too.

Is there a plugin out there, that have this functionality - predefined pitch sequence and euclidean rhythms?

If not, maybe it's possible to chain two sequencers. One HY-RPE2 that functions as an rhythmic gate generator and another sequencer where the pitch sequence is stored and that reacts to gate signal from HY-RPE? Would it work?

[pekbro]

I'm searching for a sequencer, that plays melodic sequences in euclidean rhythms. So for note length/clock speed you don't select 1/8 or 1/16 or triplets, but the usual euclidean parameters - hits/pulses, steps and phase offsets - for example 3 hits over 15 steps.
The closest plugin I have found is HY-RPE2. It's aimed on drums, so per default you have one fixed pitch in one euclidean lane. But you also can use so called "step mode" and use different pitches for steps. Unfortunately for steps only and not for hits/pulses. So you can't use a predefined melodic sequence and try different rhythms. If the number of hits and steps are changed, the melodic shape changes too.

Is there a plugin out there, that have this functionality - predefined pitch sequence and euclidean rhythms?

If not, maybe it's possible to chain two sequencers. One HY-RPE2 that functions as an rhythmic gate generator and another sequencer where the pitch sequence is stored and that reacts to gate signal from HY-RPE? Would it work?

Likely you could make something like that in
one of the modular midi systems. Some seqs
will let u define a pitch range, but thats about afaik.

My OXI One can come pretty close to that,
$700 ish for one of those, no doubt other
HW seqs might work as well.

[ere2learn]

Is there a plugin out there, that have this functionality - predefined pitch sequence and euclidean rhythms?

with vcvrack and a little knowledge you can throw together something like that easily

Screenshot 2024-07-23 200501.png

[Stirner]

Thank you, it was a great idea. I don't have VCV Rack, but I have Reaktor Blocks and it works there too.

Screenshot 2024-07-24 140004.png

[kraster]

I'm searching for a sequencer, that plays melodic sequences in euclidean rhythms. So for note length/clock speed you don't select 1/8 or 1/16 or triplets, but the usual euclidean parameters - hits/pulses, steps and phase offsets - for example 3 hits over 15 steps.
The closest plugin I have found is HY-RPE2. It's aimed on drums, so per default you have one fixed pitch in one euclidean lane. But you also can use so called "step mode" and use different pitches for steps. Unfortunately for steps only and not for hits/pulses. So you can't use a predefined melodic sequence and try different rhythms. If the number of hits and steps are changed, the melodic shape changes too.

Is there a plugin out there, that have this functionality - predefined pitch sequence and euclidean rhythms?

If not, maybe it's possible to chain two sequencers. One HY-RPE2 that functions as an rhythmic gate generator and another sequencer where the pitch sequence is stored and that reacts to gate signal from HY-RPE? Would it work?

Hy Seqcollection has a euclidean sequencer that can do this.

You have four individual lanes. Each lane's pitch can be modulated with a control sequencer to create melodies.

The control sequencer can even run on a different time base to Euclidean sequencer if you want. You have four of them as well as normal LFOs. Each step of the sequencer can be a different shape to create pitch/cc slides etc.

The other lanes in the Euclid can be relative to the first pitch lane or have their own independent values/sequences. So you can have an individual melody sequence per lane that can be relative or independent of the first sequence! Crazy stuff.

You can apply internal midi fx to the entire sequence It has two pitch scalers, transposition, probability, harmonizers and a bunch of other stuff like midi cc output.

As well as having a step sequencer modulator you also have normal LFOs, an LFO mixer with a bunch of shapes the can run concurrently, an MPE modulator and a S&H modulator.

It also has twelve pattern snapshots and a pattern chainer!

You can also transpose the entire thing via midi to make it an incredibly complex euclidean arp.

All of this is without mentioning that the seqcollection has 5 other sequencer types including a really cool Hex sequencer and four flavours of traditional step sequencer.

The seqcollection is worth it for its euclidean sequencer alone. It's ridiculously deep and flexible.

It's a bit of a hidden gem, imho.

[sokoleski]

I bought the ORB Producer Suite....but im NOT really getting along with it.

....any one else using this , successfully !?

https://www.orbplugins.com/orb-producer-suite/

[Stirner]

Hy Seqcollection has a euclidean sequencer that can do this.

You have four individual lanes. Each lane's pitch can be modulated with a control sequencer to create melodies.

The control sequencer can even run on a different time base to Euclidean sequencer if you want. You have four of them as well as normal LFOs. Each step of the sequencer can be a different shape to create pitch/cc slides etc.

I have downloaded the demo and it seems that using the step LFO works, but it's hard to program as it's not quantized in semitones and you don't have the visual support. It slows you down. But yes it seems to be a very powerful sequencer.

Screenshot 2024-07-25 081729.png

[DrGonzo]

After the new MIDI functions in Live 12 I have stopped using all other 3rd party plugins for messing with MIDI. Recombine and Connect are the two functions that can take anything and turn it into similar sounding ideas.

[Stirner]

I have downloaded the demo and it seems that using the step LFO works, but it's hard to program as it's not quantized in semitones and you don't have the visual support. It slows you down. But yes it seems to be a very powerful sequencer.

I'm sorry to misuse this thread, but it's the last message from me here

The best solution for my problem is HY-SeqCollection2 (I bought it today, it is on sale on PB right now). It has MIDI Trigger Modes and in the Mode 3 the clock is not synced to the DAW clock, but is increased by note input - this was exactly what I needed. I chain two instances of the HY plugin. First one generates the Euclidean rhytmic clock signals and in the second instance the melodic sequence can be edited - with all the functionality of the HY-SeqCollection.

I think this plugin is functionally the most complete MIDI plugin I have ever seen. It can do almost everything and is very user friendly and easy to understand.

[ThomasHelzle]

The last couple of days I finally got Tidal Cycles installed and running.
https://tidalcycles.org
The automatic install never worked here, but the manual path went without a hitch.
It uses Supercollider as the audio backend and Haskell as the programming language.
There are really good video tutorials available:


And once you have it all set up and start getting it, it feels like I can throw out 200 sequencers, arpeggiators, manglers and whatnot and still get 100 times more options and much better results.
It synchronises via Ableton Link, so it's very easy to integrate, very light on the CPU and has a thriving community.

Needs a certain mindset/brain to enjoy it being code based, but man the return is massive joy

Alternatively, there is a version that runs in the browser:
https://strudel.cc

Sonic-PI is an easier install and more contained, otherwise similar:
https://sonic-pi.net

So if you feel like trying something different from the old DAW, I can highly recommend it.

Here I use it with Tooll3 (https://tooll.io) a realtime graphics application that also supports Ableton Link:


Cheers,

Tom

P.S. all of this is open source...

[gentleclockdivider]

The last couple of days I finally got Tidal Cycles installed and running.
https://tidalcycles.org
The automatic install never worked here, but the manual path went without a hitch.
It uses Supercollider as the audio backend and Haskell as the programming language.
There are really good video tutorials available:


And once you have it all set up and start getting it, it feels like I can throw out 200 sequencers, arpeggiators, manglers and whatnot and still get 100 times more options and much better results.
It synchronises via Ableton Link, so it's very easy to integrate, very light on the CPU and has a thriving community.

Needs a certain mindset/brain to enjoy it being code based, but man the return is massive joy

Alternatively, there is a version that runs in the browser:
https://strudel.cc

Sonic-PI is an easier install and more contained, otherwise similar:
https://sonic-pi.net

So if you feel like trying something different from the old DAW, I can highly recommend it.

Here I use it with Tooll3 (https://tooll.io) a realtime graphics application that also supports Ableton Link:


Cheers,

Tom

P.S. all of this is open source...

I never understood why someone would choose tidal over supercolllider , yes sclang is more complex but also a lot deeper .
Either way , supercollider engine still sounds fantastic after nearly 3 decades

[ians]

https://midinous.com

Came across this a while ago & finally bought it the other day as a replacement for Nodal, which no longer works & has been abandoned, it would seem. Unfortunately it needs Steam platform & is only standalone but it can do some amazing things once you get your head around it. I've got it to trigger 3rd party synths & record into Bitwig. It can send & respond to MIDI clock as well & is still being developed , so I thought I would give it a heads up

[Kalamata Kid]

Hello to all the Midi lovers here and everywhere:
Today I renamed this thread to:
"Anything and everything about MIDI - arp, mapper, mangler, generator, chorder, controller, utility, fx etc."
Previous title was:
"Your fave MIDI fx, arp, mapper, mangler, generator, chorder, controller, utility. VST or MFX"
This was done to more reflect the nature of the posts being made.