Hermod+ & Hermod, Eurorack sequencers from Squarp Instruments

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The Hermod has caught my attention of late , because of the price, connectivity and sequencing options but I have concerns re the screen size and it’s ability to be used live .

I guess you can hook up controllers though to send CC’ s so in theory it can be overcome , right?

Any users out there who have it either in the studio or have used it live ?
Thanks

I like mine…

for sure the screen size/encoder are a compromise to have a compact (26hp) unit in Eurorack.

I use it most for midi 2 cv & cv 2midi , and also the fx.
its also good for recording loops, and I think programming simple sequences.

I do not think I would want to manually program in lots of steps - if you wanted to do that, you’d want it in a case close to you - to make it comfortable.
for programming sequences - I tend to use the Pyramid or Octatrack , and then use Hermod for midi2cv - since these sit nicely on the desktop.

I think the key to the Hermod is this concept of doing a few different things - rather than just being a sequencer.

yeah it integrates well with midi, its quite ‘midi focused’ for a eurorack sequencer.

have a look at the squarp forum, theres a ton of posts about the hermod - so you can see what people not only like, but also find difficult for thier needs.

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I’m interested in this bad boy.

I too worry about the screen. I don’t intend to program a lot; I like playing my sequences. Is it always necessary to have to look at the screen when recording one’s keyboard playing? Or is it a simple button hit? How is real-time recording of midi keyboard playing? The OT drives me absolutely nuts with this, especially the abysmal polyphonic note capture.

One can send multiple CCs to one midi track, right? And one can route cv ins to modulate those CCs? I took a quick gander at the manual and that seemed to be the case…

a bit late but one bar can have 64 steps of precision and it handles polyphony just fine. Plug a MIDI cable into it and record away! The screen is not a problem for me but I use mostly FXs or record sequences live into it or generate random sequences and put a scale FX to quantize. I will enter notes (instead of gates so that I can use the velocity to set a percentage of probability via the Chance FX) directly for drum sequences(when I don’t use the Euclidean FX). the zoom x3 makes it easy to create triplets too. I also like to extend my Elektron boxes with it (swing PER track, Euclidean FX, arpeggiator, chaining LFOs…).

You can modulate the FX values via the CV in, record CV too(use your keyboard wheel to record modulation and loop them as an LFO…).

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Awww yeah:

There’s a page for it up on squarp.net, too.

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It’s a real leap forward imho … the display is much better and the 16 pads are much better too.
The use of TRS midi has been great for me, and also the track buttons I find much more useful that before.

Overall, I’ve found it’s a huge upgrade from the original Hermod … whilst still being very familiar.
Top job by squarp, I’d highly recommend it :slight_smile:

Note: I was sent a pre production version for testing, so been using it for quite a while.
So if you have any questions, feel free to ping me.

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So how does “drawing” automation work on this? It seems like you hold a pad and then adjust the percent value (or whatever) and then it interpolates?

Hey there! couple questions:

  1. One workflow I had in mind was to record sequences from metropolix into hermod+, is that possible?

  2. Also looking for a general breakdown of the workflow, would watching vids on the original hermod give me an approximation? Or has the workflow completely changed?

Thanks!

Mr Bear,
Does it do different track time divisions? I can see you can set individual pattern lengths and also a variety of sync settings for sequence (pattern) changes but it appears they all run at the same speed. Also no mention of polyrythm’s etc.

ok, this is an important point.

workflow, and functionality of the H+ is pretty much the same as the original Hermod.

the main differences are the hardware, and having midi tracks that are separate from the ‘cv’ tracks.

of course, there are other differences like FX available, which you can find in the manual, and general improvements…
but if you are familiar with , or watch videos on the Hermod, then 90% this transfers to the H+.

note: the firmware has been re-written/improved… so its just the user experience that is the same/similar.

as before with Hermod, you can record from CV inputs (or midi) , assuming thats what you want from metropolix.

currently its step values, Ive asked that they make Glide FX into a slew for MOD (currently it only slews for notes… which you could use instead as a workaround)

@mongrol, like Hermod, you cannot change rate per track
however, you do have polymeters.
you also have Euclid FX which are very flexible, as they use the notes gate… also you can program notes at various zoom levels and have triplets etc… so you can program polyrhythms.
(again its all like Hermod)

btw: I should say one thing about first impression thats hard to overstate about Hermod+

Squarp really listened to the what people said about the Hermod (as they did with pyramid -> hapax).

when I first got the Hermod+ my impression was…

wow,
we have the screen we wanted, oled thats big enough to read, and is clear and bright…
better feeling pads, and finally the 16 pads (I really didnt like 8!)…
oh, dedicated track buttons… and some dedicated clock outputs!

then I suddenly thought… how did they do ALL of this in the same 26 hp footprint?

obviously, the answer was… by using TRS midi rather than midi din, replacing track leds with rgb buttons… and some general, shifting of things around.
but, as I say, first impression was… wow, so much better, in such a compact form factor.

Hermod was always exceptional with its IO considering form factor, but not its just so much more enjoyable to use with the new pads and screen.

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seems like a nice upgrade.

  1. bigger screen (didn’t have much problems with the original screen but many complained about it so let’s hope, this will help them sell more)
  2. 16 tracks instead of 8: 8 cv/gate/midi tracks + 8 midi tracks
  3. dedicated clock/reset out (very much welcome!)
  4. 16 pads instead of 8 (easier to create beats)
  5. 1 track = 1 pattern is now 1 track = 16 patterns (No idea how you manage them, the manual didn’t contain much info about that)
  6. 64 sequences in song mode vs 8 sequences but here again, couldn’t really tell what you can do, how it works from the manual (with the patterns per track and all)
  7. EG effect
  8. better CPU so I hope it means better clocking (Hermod used to drift and be really out compared to say the OT) and well, new features possible
  9. the arp effect has new features (humanize being the one I think could be great!)
  10. Recording resolution: 96ppqn instead of 24
  11. automation lane within a pattern (not sure about this one)
  12. hot project loading (load the next project while playing the active one and start the new project) but not sure how it works in real life, not much explanation in the manual either
  13. 20mm vs 30mm can’t be a bad thing!

I’m certainly missing things. I don’t understand the “dedicated track button” thing. I never had a problem with the way you could switch tracks but I need to see it in action I guess.

With 8CV/gates and 8 MIDI tracks, If I put this in a 4ms Pod, this could be a mini-Hapax and could solve 2 “problems” I had with Hapax: size and only 4cv/gates. I know Hermod+ will not be as powerful as the Hapax but for my use, it should be more than enough!

@thetechnobear It seems you have an early version, could you answer a few questions?

a) how works the 5. (patterns per track) and the 6. (sequencer, song mode)?

b) how works the 12. (hot loading a project)? How do you decide what to play once the project is loaded? the sequence saved within the project starts playing automatically? virtually, the sequence could be longer than 64 sequences (not sure I will ever need that much anyway haha)

c) can you use an external gate for the EG effect with the modulation (a,b,c,d) inputs?

d) is the clock better now (8.) compared to say the OT? I can create a project in OT and drop the result in a DAW, it will align perfectly but with Hermod I had 2 problems: the clock was off (if I set 95bpm, it would be something like 96bpm) and the clock was drifting. Well, I was having better result by clocking Hermod externally so it’s not a deal breaker at all but if Hermod+ is tighter and now that it has a dedicated clock out, would be nice to use it as the master.

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@moderators can we merge this topic with the original one
https://www.elektronauts.com/t/hermod-eurorack-sequencer-from-squarp-instruments

the H+ is an improved version, and most of what has been said about H is valid for H+.
Ive got a pre-release, and don’t want to monitoring two separate topics for essentially same module.

perhaps just amend the title of the original to make it clear?

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I’ll answer here for now, so when its transferred we have the right ‘flow’ of posts.

same as original hermod, so any videos showing will be applicable.

theres a bit of confusion in terminology of ‘sequences’ and ‘patterns’ , as they are basically the same thing.
so you can program 16 sequences (aka patterns), and then the song is a flow of these sequences.

so, this is NOT the same as hapax.

see above…

yes, as you can have cv input (a-d) as input on any track.
the only ‘drawback’ here, is you’d have to use a v/oct & gate pair (I believe), as Im not sure it’d trig off a mod input.

Ive never really experienced this issue… so cannot really comment on this.
probably since I always use external sync if Im trying to match tempos etc.

you cannot guarantee MCU speeds, one reason, why sync is necessary… (or RTCs etc)
given its a new MCU, it’s very likely to be ‘different’ but that does not mean better or worst :wink:

note:
also as mentioned before… in other topics, I dont tend to program sequences in more than one location…
so if Im using a DAW, typically, Id program the (notes) sequence for the eurorack there, and then typically the H+ is used as a midi <-> cv interface. so really the clock is not that important.
similarly in a hardware setup (e.g. hapax/octatrack) , Id tend to do the programming there.

really, I tend to only program sequences on the H+ when its just eurorack, and Im not using another sequencer… and if Im using the OT, then Im using really only for audio recording/fx etc.

I get others have different use-cases, but for me external sync has been fine for my purposes.

note: with respect to song modes etc… you can see from above, thats its unusual for me to use H+ for this (in practice, other than testing ;))… as Id tend to defer this ‘song’ mode to Live or Hapax, as thats where the patterns often live.

Thanks for the answer!

I’m confused indeed… On their website:

Patterns : 16 per track

So I thought that you could have different patterns per track.

And:

Song chain length : 64 sequences

But perhaps, I’ve been using the Hermod wrong haha.
I always thought that for Hermod sequence = pattern.

In the manual they indeed write something a bit different:

In Hermod+, a sequence represents a collection of 16 patterns (P1 to P16). These patterns are variations of the same track.
For example, SEQ1 holds all the P1 of the 16 tracks.

and on the site:

Build your song structures using up to 16 sequences per project.

so, well, anyway, it’s not different from Hermod this time then?

Then here again, this is on their website:

Double project architecture : yes

I know you can’t play 2 projects at the same time but it seems you can load a 2nd project while playing the first one and the 2nd project will start automatically:

After loading a project, the project you were working on will continue to play, without interrupting your performance. A popup will appear, asking you to swap the project in sync (at the end of the bar). You can choose to update the BPM of Hermod+ with the loaded project (press Y ) or to keep the previous BPM (press X ).

I see. Using an external clock was fine but I’ve been used to the Elektron boxes being so tight with my DAW. Will see by myself when I get my hands on the Hermod+ :grinning:

exactly… this is how it is… and as I said, same as original Hermod.

which is why using the two different words for the same thing is a bit daft :wink:

basically
a sequence (/pattern) is the collection of notes/moduation for all tracks.
a song then chains these sequences.

yeah this was not something I heard about prior to release…

I think the idea here is, its the changing of projects can be done much better due to the new MCU being able to have two projects simultaneously…
i.e. the original hermod (and pyramid) both tried to do this ‘on the fly’ project change, but it had alot of limitations, due to memory constraints (etc)
so I think this an ‘under the hood’ improvement on the Hermod+.

as far as Ive seen though, the Hermod+ does not give the user access to both projects (unlike the Hapax), so you cannot do transitions you can with Hapax.

of course, thats not to say, they could not add this later… as obviously the fact they have both loaded at once means it technically feasible. (though no dedicated button, like the Hapax)

note: I should say I need to update my H+ firmware, with release version, just in case of some last minute additions … that Im unaware of !
( I was busy just before, and right after Superbooth, so fell a bit behind)

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ok, well, that’s indeed confusing. The QuickStart architecture image with the “Patterns: 16 per track” sentence really made me believe you could use different patterns per track (a la Hapax?).

all is good anyway, I find the Hermod way being closer to the Elektron way helps my limited brain.

Yeah, that’s why I wondered what it meant in use so would love to hear a bit more about it if you can try with the released firmware!

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So I had to contact squarp to get the 1.0 firmware, and took opportunity to double check my understanding re dual projects etc

And can confirm, what I said was correct.
It’s done ‘behind the scenes’ to get a smoother transition, and have a synchronized change.
but you don’t have same control as on hapax, due to smaller form factor.

And yeah, sequence = pattern, as before.
They are aware of some confusion, partly due to how some other sequencers label things, terminology is not consistent in this space … so hard to be clear for everyone :slight_smile:

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