I’m a drummer so I tend to lean heavily on rhythms and usually start from there and then start making adjustments to the notes until it somewhat reflects how I’m feeling.
A melody is quite simple so it doesnt really matter. Just play in live using a metronome as timing is the only thing you need.
I feel like a lot of people hate it but I really enjoy the different ways the old Roland boxes (101, 202, 303) separate rhythm, notes, and expression. I tend to start by creating a simple one note rhythm, then input in notes, and then add accents, transpositions etc. When your rhythm, note, and expression sequences are different lengths you end up with some really cool evolving patterns. If you’ve got ableton, Fors’ Roulette is a really wonderful sequencer (that I’d pay infinite money to have a hardware version of).
Another fun approach is sending multiple simple sequences into a single synth. For example laying down a simple bass line, and then overdubbing some melodic flourishes on top. Here’s a good demonstration by Max Ravitz of Moog. Similar to the first approach, when those sequences are different lengths the results get very interesting.
Recently I’ve gotten really into sequencers sequencing other sequencers , if that makes sense. When you sequence things like direction, transposition, and resets you can get some cool stuff going, as demonstrated here.
1 Like
I’m sure for infinite money, @ess will build you one. Hell, I’ll build you one. Half up front, though.
3 Likes
my hacky solution rn is to run an SQ64 into a Darktime, but an all in one solution would be much more fun!
Great topic! On DT and ST I tend to live play longer melodies, and Step-Jump (the record-plus-stop mode, to enter notes one at a time) to type in arpeggios or fast parts of lines.
One thing I do a lot: I often like a 16-bar melody where repetitions 1,2, and 4 are similar, and the 3rd very different. For that I’ll add in those trigs manually on the sequencer after working them out, all with 3:4 condition and the all-left or all-right microtiming trick.
Chords and chord samples on those monophonic machines are another thing I’ve been working at—but that gets complicated quickly…
1 Like