Editing 16 steps at once is very doable, thanks to elektron-style conditional trigs, probability, and so on. Yet it’s not as intuitive to have to page between the 16 steps constantly; I want to view and edit an entire 64 steps at once.
In theory, pretty much any grid sequencer should be able to provide this functionality-from polyend play to hapax to oxi one to even the Push. The idea is simple: just let us focus on a single track’s steps and use 64 pads to edit said steps. Yet all of these units insist on making you edit multiple tracks at once, thus limiting the steps you edit to 16 even though there are at least 4 times as many available pads.
The Play is a great example…really awesome generative features, but then you have to page around back and forth since you’re limited to just 16 steps. Please, sequencer manufacturers, give us both views!
To my knowledge, the only sequencer that lets you drill down on a per-track basis and edit all 64 steps is the WMD Metron. So at least that’s an option, although I don’t believe it offers 1:2, 1:4, etc. trigs like Elektron. (The Korg 64-step unit might have it…not sure, as I’m not crazy about the form factor).
It seems like it would be very doable for any of these feature-rich grid sequencers to add this functionality. Like Hapax and Oxi - these have all sorts of advanced sequencing options, but leave out the very intuitive option of editing an entire track at once using the available buttons. I am I missing one that actually has it? Here’s hoping that this is a thing some day, or perhaps even some enterprising max-for-live builder adds this functionality to Push.
I really love the Perkons sequencer, but it’s actually a great example of the predominant paradigm I described above: it lets you edit all 4 tracks of 16 steps at once, but you can’t drill down and edit on a per-track basis where you can use all 64 buttons to edit just one specific voice. (This would be an amazing firmware update from Erica!)
I didn’t see this in the Oxi manual, but perhaps overlooked it?
Oh wow. I just invented a false memory of doing this on Perkons. I didn’t have it very long though, so maybe I just remember wishing it worked that way.
The step buttons would be so perfect for that use case.
E: not sarcasm in the slightest. Tone is hard to convey in text. I’m just very accepting of how fallible memory actually is
I gather you haven’t tried the DT2…? likely the DN2 and maybe other Elektron boxes will also be 128 steps, moving forward. more pages!
surprised the grid devices you mentioned don’t do this. maybe try a monome grid? and then if none of the sequencing patches do what you’re after, write it yourself.
I was thinking about buying the DT2 for just that reason…if you’re gonna go the 16-step page route, all those extra pages are super useful.
But for the grid controllers, there’s such a lost opportunity. All 64 steps for editing on a single track, PLUS Elektron-style conditional trigs; one could build a ton of variety without having to page around, and also be able to easily visualize where things are hitting.
Monome is an interesting choice…will have to see if anyone’s written anything along these lines in that world.
I think the reason grid sequencers like the Oxi don’t offer that is because they give you a much more visual and intuitive piano roll view. Most people would probably choose piano roll over being able to see 128 steps with unknown notes any day.
That said, check out the Launchpad Pro mk3. It gives you 32 steps at ones, but at a cost of having quite a basic, albeit fun, sequencer.
I can see that logic - although they’re not mutually exclusive; it should be possible to switch between those types of views. Holding down a pad and then switching its note value via a knob (like Elektron) is a pretty intuitive workflow. But yeah this sort of thing would be a bit more intuitive, I think, for rhythmic sequencing (where you don’t care about the note) rather than melodic.
I think a sequencer with 64 visual steps would be fun and intuitive. That is what Ilke about my Push 3, that 32 are visible at a time, and the visual feedback of all those steps is very helpful.
Akai Force can do all 64 steps on the pads when in mono mode on the step sequencer and you’ve got a pattern with enough steps for the currently selected time division resolution.
Alas it doesn’t have easy-p-locking which is such a shame. Just being able to hold a step and move a pot to set that parameter for the step would make it soooo much better!!
Yeah that would be a super powerful combination. Imagine if the grid buttons turned a different color when p-locked…then you could easily see what has conditional trigs and what doesn’t.
Yeah that’s a good idea! So many missed opportunities with the Force but we can hope future updates might give us a few improvements to the sequencer (page follow at least please!)
The SQ-64 does indeed do this, and with conditional triggers, probability, ratcheting etc. It also allows for arbitrary looping (with ping-pong, reverse, time divisions and more) across all 64 steps too.
There’s a multitude of sequencers and so on for Norns that use the Monome Grid, though not all of them work in the way that might be expected; many do not use one note per step for instance, but do things that few others might be able to. There’s a handy list of Norns scripts here which can be filtered by type such as sequencers.
