Nxt Level sequencing? Feature request for all Elektron sequencers!

Elektron Gear
#1

I was thinking today about the ‘next level sequencing’ idea and how it has somewhat stagnated, aside from trig conditions not much progress has been made, IMHO.

When using my boutiques or even back when I was cutting my teeth with a TR-606 and SH-101 a massive source of inspiration and interesting accidents can occur when the sequencer of the slave device gets advanced by triggers, I think most people who have used this method would agree that it is simply awesome, not to mention a great way of breaking out of ‘teh grid’ via unusual meters etc.

Then I started thinking about how awesome the Octatrack sequencer is, with its fairly comprehensive scale/page setup, plays free and so on, slide trigs, record trigs, swing trigs, etc.

But then I thought, wouldn’t it be great if in the trig menu we could have in addition to all the other types of trig, a ‘step advance trig’ so you can have a track set to step advance, and have it only advance to the next step when a ‘step advance’ trig is placed. Here is an example:

Track 1 is set to ‘step advance’ it is a 16 step track, trigs laid out on all 16 steps to keep things simple for now, then in the trig menu (where slide, swing etc reside) you lay out trigs on only steps 1, 7, 10, 14, when you press play the sequence on track 1 only plays the first 4 steps (1-4) according to the ‘step advance’ trigs on 1, 7, 10, 14 then on the second pass it plays the next 4 steps (5-8), 3rd pass the next 4 (9-12), 4th pass the next four(13-16) 5th pass the first 4 (1-4) again and so on.

Now this is purposely a simple example to give the idea, but imagine having 7 ‘step advance trigs’ on a 13 step track, then bring into the mix trig conditions which could also be updated to make use of the feature, micro timing and retrigs - anyway I think you get the idea.

I imagine it should be possible to implement it since ‘plays free’ tracks can be tapped out manually in any manner, so the idea is simply replacing the finger tap with a new trig type and keeping track of the last trig played. It would also be cool to allow a manual tap to be set to ‘step advance’ for live improv.

@Elektron what say you?

Edited for clarity.

Link to basic idea for those unfamiliar with this type of sequencing.

22 Likes
Suggestion: beeing able to choose start step and end step of a sequence
Feature ideas for future elektron products/updates
#2

X - pimp my Elektron

9D27F28F-F6E8-4AE7-B61D-AA9409EE95D2
9D27F28F-F6E8-4AE7-B61D-AA9409EE95D2.jpeg866×568 99 KB

3 Likes
#3

to be sure I understand: you mean on the second pass it then plays 2, 8, 11, 15 or it plays 7,10,14, 1?

#4

No, the ‘step advance’ trigs simply increment the track trigs, so the track trigs are disconnected from the transport like a plays free track, however the ‘step advance’ increments the steps.

To explain it better lets assume only 1 ‘step advance’ trig placed on step 1, on the track trigs there are trigs on every step 1-16’ so it would take 16 bars to play through the sequence then loop around again - so exactly how a sh-101 sequencer works when being triggered externally by say a trigger from a TR-606.

#5

I could see it working more like an alternative to the arp builder, where either the track sequencer steps the arp or the arp steps the track sequencer

#6

first i thought: wtf is he talkin´ about ? trig track trig track tick tack…but now i understand. really loved to sequence the sh 101 with the 606. but with the possibilities of an elektron sequencer that would be absolutely awsome !!!
but i´m not sure if my OT mk1 could handle all that data…
imagine using that on every track audio/midi with max pattern length. using 64 chords etc…
nonetheless: great idea darenager !

1 Like
#7

…otherwise, when i think about it: OT can handle so much data already. maybe it´s not that much extra data ? @elektron ???

#8

I think it is possible, I originally requested slices to be mapped to scenes/crossfader, and also what came to be known as trig conditions back in the OT beta days, I was unsure if they were possible but the wizards at @Elektron proved it was possible :wink:

4 Likes
#9

I reckon @Ess would know for sure :rofl:

2 Likes
#10

Sorry, I am not really getting it…I know I would love it but never used (look at my sad face…) an SH101 nor 606…so not really into this kind of sequencing.
But do you mean that steps 1-4 gets triggered every bar? first bar-first trig ; second bar-second trig and so on?
If so I do not understand how that step-advance trigs (1,7,10,14) relate to the track trigs…

#11

not the steps in the sequence trig the trigs but the “advance trigs” (as darenager named them) trig the trigs you have placed in a pattern, lol. example: you program 16 different chords on every step. if you don´t place a advance trig you hear nothing. if you place a advance trig on step one you hear a different chord everytime when the pattern repeats.

1 Like
#12

on the sh 101 you can program a series of notes. when you trigger the sh 101 with the 606 (toms it was i think) the sequence of the sh101 jumps to the next note everytime the 606 plays the tom…

1 Like
#13

Yeah, would be nice.

And when they’ll start working on the sequencer of all machines, please add retrigs and separate track length multipliers to all the machines. Thx.

(sorry for the offtopic rant, couldn’t resist)

1 Like
#14

it’d be cool if these step advance trigs could also step advance another tracks sequence so all the tracks sequencers can interact. (not sure if you meant that too).

ive also mentioned before it would be cool if p-locks were detachable from the note trigs so you could shift all p-locks forward or backwards while the note trigs stay where they are. then you could have p-lock position as a modulation destination. type thing.

aaaand… track length as lfo destination would be amazing.

3 Likes
#15

Ok, so another example:

Set track 1 as having different pitches laid out on steps 1 thru 8, track 1 is disconnected from the trigs, so all the trig information p-locks, pitch etc act like snapshots but in sequence.

Open up the trig window (where slide, rec trig, swing etc reside) and there would be another trig type ‘step advance’ or whatever it is called, now lay out 8 trigs on every other step, and the track will play according to this rhythm, not the one set in the regular trigs page, then you could move the ‘step advance’ trigs around to get a different rhythm but with the same pitch, p-locks etc. It gets interesting when you have a different number of steps, for example just have 6 ‘step advance’ trigs laid out, and so on. This would give the same type of experience with the SH-101 type sequencing.

BUT of course Elektron could take it even further, since we are dealing with digital data rather than actual ‘dumb triggers’ so for example it could be expanded to have addressed and logical trigger types, imagine that a ‘step advance’ trig could also be set to change direction, or trigger a specified step, or only trig a step with a certain value or parameter, or repeat the last played step etc.

In all honesty though I’d be happy with the basic initial concept :smile:

It is a very quick and intuitive way of coming up with variations and interesting sequences.

1 Like
#16

yep some logic and so forth would be dope.
i must say I’d be happy if all their sequencers just got individual track speed ala the OT. that’s my main update request sequencer wise.

#17

I can see that from implementation terms, this would kinda break the step sequencer core workings.

With the step sequencer you have a play-head, playback pointer, whatever it’s called; the thing which advances through the steps, when it hits a step with an event, that event is triggered. Even with conditional trigs, trigs that could potentially reset the sequence, jump around in the sequence, etc, there is only one play-head (per track) and events are only ever triggered when that play-head hits a particular step.

With your suggestion (which I really like BTW), there would have to be two play-heads for one track; one to travel at the normal rate, and read the step advance trigs, then another that would only move when the “step advance” trigs have been hit. Obviously it could be done, but it kinda break the step sequencer thang, I think.

I think it’s already been suggested earlier, but the midi arp could probably be given an SH101 mode without too much trouble that would allow this.

2 Likes
#18

i think i understand what you mean. but there is no “play-head” in the digital world. considering all that p-lock stuff and trig conditions that has been implemented in the OT it does not seem that unrealistic to step through a pre-programmed sequence.
the one problem i can see now is that this might get into conflict with a regular machine/pattern as they are now in the OT.
maybe it would require an additional machine to make sense ?
i´m not sure again if i understand darenagers idea 100%
for example: if i take a regular sequence with trigs on 1 5 9 13 and maybe put trigless trigs on 3 7 11 15. what should the step advance trigs trig ? the actual trig, the no trigs at all, the trigless trigs…?
don´t wanna break my head anymore for today about that topic, but the basic idea of darenager is pure genious ! (sorry for my bad english, if it´s bad, i can´t know - haha)

#19

Well at the most basic concept it would act exactly as if the track was a normal track, but the ‘step advance’ would set the rhythm so each step would play in sequence order regardless of if it was a regular trig or a trigless trig, but it would be cool to be able to specify the behaviour.

#20

yes, but it’s just a number from 1 to N, where N is the pattern length. I was just saying that the suggested idea would need two of these, which is of course possible but kinda breaks the step sequencer basics in my mind. Using the arp to implement this, or allowing one track to trigger another track, would allow this to be implemented more neatly.