Polyphonic Sequencers?

So now that I don’t have an Octatrack or Machinedrum, i’m without a polyphonic sequencer and have pretty much stopped making music. Does anyone have any hardware suggestions? I’m not interested in using a computer or an iPad…

I’ve looked at the Cirklon and it sounds incredible, but is way too expensive for me at the moment…

I should never have taken midi sequencing for granted… It’s a shame that the A4 or Rytm will emit such a feature that have made their previous boxes so great.

Alesis MMT8
Yamaha QY300 / QY700 / RM1X / RS7000
Akai MPC - 500 / 100/ 2000 / 2500
Roland MC

All good places to start.

emu xl7, mp7, px7

1 Like

Monomachine.
Monomachine.
Monomachine.

That is all. :slight_smile:

One of these kind chaps made me aware of the MIDIbox SEQ4. it’s a build it yourself jobby but there are quite a few for sale on the website.
Looks interesting and definately an alternative to the Cirklon with very similar features.
Check out the GAS conundrum thread in General discussion.
Apologies for not linking but my phone won’t allow me to copy and paste for some annoying reason.

for sure the MIDIbox SEQ4 is supposed to be the chiznik.
http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq.html
Loads of good feature demos of it on youtubes and vimeos
well worth a look

While a computer, i went for the Atari … just recently got a good soldering iron so now i can solder the mouse port back on the board … nothing easy going that route!

While i don’t know why you sold your gear, but a md mk1 should be able to sequence stuff and it’s pretty cheap!

How much do they go for? Looks very good. The demo video 1 sounds fantastic <3

The MIDIbox forum woud be a good place to start looking. I think I remember reading that a built MIDIbox SEQ was about €300-400 mark (that may have been the SEQ 3). You would either need to order the parts and DIY or pay someone to build for you. Either way the forum is the place to go for all that info.

http://midibox.org/forums/

EDIT; here’s a component list with pricing

http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_seq_manual_hw.html

Thanks for all the suggestions - Seems there is bit of older gear that does the trick. The midi box seq looks fantastic! This might be the route I go if I can find someone to build, or buy one completed…

Can recommend MidiTemp (Multiplayer/Multistation) as well. Discontinued, but you may be able to find some used at a decent price. Although, they are old units with quite an non-informative display (in a remote) in regard to what is possible with them (potentially very complex stuff).

I´ve got an Multiplayer MP88W (1u rack), which got:
8 MIDI input ports
8 MIDI output ports

My unit came with no HDD, but I´ve installed an CF-SCSI adapter PCB inside instead of an HDD. Which seems to function properly so far.
It can function as an patchbay, filter/processor, router, song sequencer etc. An very neat feature is that you´re able to have 8 “matrix structure” banks active at the same time, and one song bank (plus one wave bank, if you´re using normal wav-files in it too).

8 matrix banks at once, means that you´re able to setup specific functions that overlays each others. Each bank that lies in a higher numbered group has a higher priority than the lower numbered.

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[li]So you could setup bank one to be a specific port/channel router which you don´t switch normally (the main IN/OUT routing structure).[/li]
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[li]A second bank could then be an bank where you have specific filters (NN, CC# and PC# etc) setup for each and every port/channel. As well as having specific program change transmissions for other gears (on each port * 16 channels). This bank and its possible 128 presets, could then itself be controlled via program changes.[/li]
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[li]Then you would still have 6 matrix banks more to go, for whatever more you may need. You can have them controlling each other if you want to as well (= very complex net structure).[/li]
[li]The song bank can also be controlled via program changes, and each song can even be paired with an specific matrix preset if you want. Or be setup so it will automatically select different ones within the song itself (i e as the abovementioned second bank).[/li]
[/ul]

Given that you have an HDD installed, it will ALWAYS record everything incoming at ALL INPUTs (that you´ve set as armed). Which you may or may not choose to save for later use as an specific MID-file (which you then choose to reside at the song preset number you want). You will have to press a few buttons everytime you want to keep anything. If not and you press play again, it will dis-regard whatever you did prior to pressing play. But you can record many minutes or even hours perhaps (depending on HDD size), tweaking and playing away, and you don´t even have to worry about remembering pressing record each time. Downside, as said, is that you´ll have to decide after each time (you´ve pressed stop) if it worth saving.

I´ve barely scratched the surface of the surface here. But I guess you could think of it as being an 1u computer loaded with Midi-OX (except for its hex code monitor feature). Where its only task is dealing with MIDI with minimum risk of any (computer) OS malfunction in the heat of action.