Why do we even bother with Elektron boxes when an MC-50 would sequence just fine? Because they have a very specific take on sequencing that feels different enough to be rewarding.
The Pyramid, to me, feels built around polymeters. Pretty much every tool it offers is designed to support or enhance this primary conceit. Patterns need to zoom because you donât know how long a bar will be. Notes need to scale because there are no assumptions around the ratio of a beat. Euclidean rhythms are just a way of automatically laying out a fill when you donât know the time signature ahead of time. The way it manages âsequencesâ as saved sets of mute states for tracks is one of the few ways to build a song when track can play and loop at different times and speeds with respect to each other, etc.
And then there were some unrelated dumb things, like the accelerometer. And some unrelated brilliant things like midi FX. But a lot of its features feel dedicated to this one concept.
The Hapax concept is, I suppose, the grid? But every other feature makes that harder to use instead of easier. Switching between live and step is disorienting. Zoom is a great way to lose all sense of where you are in your song. Scrolling feels inconsistent when using scales. Things like selecting areas of the grid or copy and paste feel inconsistent between different modes (will select work? Do i hold copy then press the pad or hold the pad and then press copy?)
Then there are the unrelated things. Like having two projects. Thatâs a pretty big deal. The put two processors in the Hapax, presumably to support this. Why? What ways am I supposed to be using this? Is it a performance thing? If so, how does it work with anything else? Looping in step mode feels pretty performance oriented. And launching clips. But neither of these take particular advantage of having two simultaneous projects open side-by-side.
Fx are cool. Algorithms are cool. Chance, roll, and âmathâ are cool. But theyâre all unrelated things in different parts of the UI for doing kind of the same stuff?
The Hapax feels like a kitchen sink of cool sequencing ideas collected over the last decade and thrown together in a box. Again, I donât want to come across as being down on it. I use it daily. Having all the cool ideas of the last decade in one box at my fingertips is pretty cool.
But what would be cooler is all those ideas united by a thread that tied them together and gave them some commonality. Like polymeters to the Pyramid or tracker-in-a-groove-box to Elektron. Maybe thatâs not possible with something as ambitious as the Hapax. But I still hope itâs there and Iâm just missing it or it will become more refined and evident after updates.
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