Squarp Pyramid [compilation topic]

The Lounge Other Gear
#61

I might’ve gone and done something stupid here.

But I found a second hand Pyramid Sequencer just where I live, and bought it. It was part of the first batch of 100. To fund it, I’m gonna have to sell the Octatrack.

But I figured, maybe it’s about time. 64 tracks with 384 bars in each appeals to me somehow. And obviously, as a sequencer, the Pyramid is a beast.

But with no proper multitimbral audio source, I borrowed my daughter’s Volca Sample and hooked it up, just to see where I’d go from here.

I realised you can get pretty far with a hardcore sequencer and 4mb of samples tainted with the Volca Sample’s character :slight_smile:

For anyone looking for a hardware sequencer, I can now say from experience (brief, but still) that it’s definitely worth your consideration.

#62

now be honest, how drunk did your reface get you?

will be curious to see & hear what you eventually pair it with. hope you’re able to maintain peace with your daughter in the meantime. :joy:

#63

Yes. No idea what that would be. For now, I’m enjoying just learning it, it’s very powerful.

I’m thinking perhaps pairing it with an iPad see where that takes me. Imagine if it would run Samplr and something else at the same time. Could be pretty powerful.

#64

Oh my… Would be powerfull with an ipad indeed… Imagine that you take an old sampler like an akai (had an S950 in the early days, nowadays very cheap but sounds still nice) sample some snippets of your reface and put some drums in it… Hook up the pyramide…

Last week I traded my Push2 for an octatrack… I had to think a couple of days over it, but I’m happy I did. I like the octa, together with my rytm.

Hmmm, I think you gonna miss your octa (all in one box) though… Eventually

#65

Yes. No idea what that would be. For now, I’m enjoying just learning it, it’s very powerful.

I’m thinking perhaps pairing it with an iPad see where that takes me. Imagine if it would run Samplr and something else at the same time. Could be pretty powerful.[/quote]
How do you compare it with the midi sequencing on the Octatrack .

#66

Yes. No idea what that would be. For now, I’m enjoying just learning it, it’s very powerful.

I’m thinking perhaps pairing it with an iPad see where that takes me. Imagine if it would run Samplr and something else at the same time. Could be pretty powerful.[/quote]
Yeah, but Samplr doesn’t really have any midi control to speak of, and while it isn’t technically abandoned, the developer is now working for Apple and Samplr hasn’t had any attention in a loooooong time.
However, if you want to go that route, I strongly recommend looking at Grain Science and/or Mitosynth from Wooji Juice.

#67

Please mess around with the humanize feature asap and share your experiences. That feature is so cool.

#68

Dear Andrea Romania,
don’t sell your OT. The Pyramid is a clever sequencer, I’ve one, but it has nothing to be compared to OT wich is a really cool standalone machin
Even the creator of Pyramid has bought an OT and he certainly use it with Pyramid !

One of the best synth to be used with Pyramid is the Virus c. You can have one for about 480/500 euros max.
16 parts to be used in polyphonie, nice combo.

To finished, Pyramid is still under development so the best is coming, really nice sequencer.

But don’t sell your OT. Beter sell lot of little machines you don’t use.

#69

It’s for sequencing what the Octatrack is for sampling. With 64 tracks and 384 bars in each track, with full polyphony and unique effects for each track, it just blows the Octatrack’s MIDI features out of the water. Even if you’re heavily into pattern-oriented music, you can easily just use the Pyramid’s tools for how to structure tracks into sequences, to get that effect.
It reminds me more of old Yamaha sequencers, the QY series and the RS ones, than anything else. And the granularity of each track is pretty high. I can easily just by triggering notes at different rates, create weird and interesting rythms, without even reaching for the Euclidian features.
As a sequencer, it is a beast. And it’s easy to operate, too.
But as some point out before and after in this thread, the Octatrack’s flexibility as a more complete production tool, becomes more obvious when put side by side with the Pyramid. It’s gonna be a tough choice.
But the way it’s designed and the way you work with tracks, it appeals to me much more. I’m actually quite traditional in how I approach and build music, and prefer to work like the Pyramid thinks, when building songs.

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#70

Yes. No idea what that would be. For now, I’m enjoying just learning it, it’s very powerful.

I’m thinking perhaps pairing it with an iPad see where that takes me. Imagine if it would run Samplr and something else at the same time. Could be pretty powerful.[/quote]
Yeah, but Samplr doesn’t really have any midi control to speak of, and while it isn’t technically abandoned, the developer is now working for Apple and Samplr hasn’t had any attention in a loooooong time.
However, if you want to go that route, I strongly recommend looking at Grain Science and/or Mitosynth from Wooji Juice.[/quote]
Thanks. I won’t, though. I found out, the Pyramid isn’t USB class compliant (is that the right word for it?), so it needs some kind of interface - like a computah - to operate with an iPad. So there goes that option.
Well, of course, a traditional midi interface does the job too, of course. Still, it would’ve been cool if it just ran on USB power from an iPad and worked as a MIDI interface at the same time.

1 Like
#71

I tried that out today, but came out the noob - couldn’t quite get it to be anything else than a very nice quantize feature. But I’ll give it a go again in the week.

#72

Thanks for the heads-up! I can’t keep both, I’m afraid, can’t afford it. And I love the way I can build songs with the Pyramid. So we’ll see. But I’m sample heavy, so I’d have to have something else to hook up the Pyramid too, where I can mess with samples through its many midi effects and ways to build patterns. Even if you took away the sequencer from the Octatrack, it’s still extremely powerful. So a small box version of that, with the Pyramid, would make for an outstanding combo.

#73

I almost got an OT, but I went with a preorder for Pyramid batch 2. Pyramid has more of what “I want” in a sequencer. Realtime MIDI recording + quantizing alongside step sequencing, full polyphony with long decay (all Elektron cuts voices with the next step), being able to humanize each track separately, all the ARP and midi fx stuff … it just appeals to me more.

The BIGGEST PLUSSES FOR ME:

  1. The Pyramid can trigger all sequences separately, like ableton clips. The OT forces you to change all 8 available sequences per pattern

  2. You can quickly rearrange your MIDI files on a computer to switch between projects. This way, you can use several projects as “sketch pads”, pick the files you want, and add them into a new project. File management is still the best on a computer

I am excited for it to arrive :slight_smile:

#74

I think that we cannot try to compare Pyramid midi sequencer with OT, it’s irrelevant.

One is a sampler/groovemachine/with midi tracks, the other is a dedicated midi instrument so easily far more efficient in midi function.

Maybe, we could stated that the linear abilities of Pyramid are more adapted to specific kind of work, but that’s the same problem, we cannot compare a 4BAR groovemachine, made for 64 step loop with 384 ability bars. Of course, the Pyramid is hable to make short loop as well as long one, but it’s his specific nature.

So we can understand that Andreas exchange his OT for a Pyramid in view to have a real and efficient midi sequencer more adapted to his work, but this thread must not become, IMHO, the comparison thread between the two different machines.

2 Likes
#75

Dear Andrea, you won’t regret the acquisition of Pyramid, I have a lot of fun with it.

It permit me to really improve and discovered the solphege part of music in wich I was really ignorant.

Then it permit to make things, as stated above, like long midi tails.

I often use it like a cc general mixer for my other synth (MnM or A4), very relevant.

It permit things like those invented by contemporary musicians (Philip Glass, Debussy, Tery riley or Pendereky or others). Very powerful abilities.

#76

This is more powerful than I imagined. At first, I just looked at it as a possibility to maintain 64 different tracks. Which of course it’s absolutely appropriate for.
But it’s also a way to dramatically change behaviour or even part structures of a song without making a complete switch, as you say. I remembered when I briefly owned the three first Volcas, and never switched patterns on them simultaneously, but just mixed and match and made sure that whatever worked with whatever. It was a treat. The Pyramid is kind of the same, due to its sheer amount of tracks available.
Apparently, the software update contains some kind of loop feature as well, where you can loop sequences (which essentialy is a sequence of tracks with mutes and unmutes and such things recorded), so in that respect, you also have a version of a pattern mode.

#77

Yes, very true, and I agree with your last point, this is not about comparing with the Octatrack - they’re so different, the one doesn’t compete with the other.
It’s taken me a few days to break free from the mindset of pattern-based creation. I use the Pyramid with a Volca Sample only now, and at first, I was just trying to replicate the workflow of the VSample but with more of a song structure in mind. That worked, but wasn’t all that interesting.
Now, I’m doing all kinds of things, playing a lot with the zoom to create granular stuff, heavily employing parameter locks for the midi messages to create longer evolving sweeps and decays, using polyrythms quite extensively - my shortest track being one bar, my longest sixteen, and stuff in between - and mixing with different swing and quantize functions to get a different groove.
It’s like retaining the characteristics of the Volca Sample, but pushing it in entirely new directions. And it works so damn well.

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#78

Could somebody clarify the following for me:

How would you go about creating a song on the Pyramid?

Let’s say I want to have an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro. All of these need two different variations. So in a sense, I’m looking at 5*2=10 different “patterns”.

I somehow got the idea from somewhere that the Pyramid isn’t great for making many variations – The sequences are nothing but “mute states”, saved as a snapshot. Is this correct? If it is, and I’m not missing anything huge, it makes this impossible for me.

Seems like such a great box, I’d really like to know how composing actually works on it.

#79

There’s a few ways to accomplish this on the Pyramid. It’s definitely not a problem and quite easy.
You could go about it the old fashion way. With 384 bars in each track, you can just compose your song in a linear fashion, like a piece of sheet music or a more classic DAW. 384 bars would be enough for most creations.
But perhaps it’s not. You can then divide the 64 tracks into different sections, assigning them to handle multiple versions of the same sources - say track1 and 9 and 16 all address your lead synth on Midi channel 1, but you mute and unmute them, depending on where you are in the song.
You can then group your tracks into different states and position them in an order of your choice in a so-called sequence (kind of like an Elektron arranger mode), and further change each track’s state there.
So it’s very easy and quite possible to do in a number of different ways.
I started out with workstations from the late 80’s and early 90’s, so looking at a hardware sequencer in a completely linear fashion feels right at home for me. That’s one of the reasons the Pyramid suits me perfectly. But even if you’re more Ableton-oriented, there’s plenty of options to go about building a song that way, too.
I’d say that you might run into trouble if most of your tracks actually addressed unique sources of sound (that’d be 64 of them), and you’d want a combination of long linear sequences as well as defined loop points within your song (as in actual technical loops, repeating bar 8-12 over and over until you’re satisfied). Don’t know if it’s an edge case or not, but it does seem to me that one complete working environment, with tracks, sequences and whatnot, needs to be switched for another by loading it from the card, if what’s in a project isn’t enough and you need to switch to a new batch of unique settings and compositions for your tracks and sequences.
It’s a bit like the Tempest - you got your patterns and your sounds and their settings on each pattern. So if 16 patterns times 32 sounds on each pattern with 8 bars in each pattern isn’t enough, you have to load a new project.

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#80

Thanks Andreas, that clarifies things up by quite a bit!

One more thing – how does the Pyramid work with Elektrons? can you easily set up pattern changes using the Pyramid, or would you have to change patterns separately on the Elektrons?

I understand you don’t have any Elektrons left, Andreas, but maybe Elena can shed some light on this :slight_smile: