Midibox SEQ right for me?

[cartesia]

OK so I was just trawling the internet searching for my 'perfect' sequencer..

step-style, with an endless encoder for each step, and a button... and look what I  found haha!

I'm just wondering. . the specs are a little confusing - with the "4 patterns" thing. . or "4 tracks or whatever"..

erm..yeah this might help explain my question:

Lets just say I want 64 steps per track, and at least say. . 4 tracks running simultaneously each with 3 (or 4 perhaps?) parameters sequenced

Is that too much for the midibox seq to handle? (I suppose I could just build 2 units if it was a problem?)

Also, Is there some kind of. . .direct parts list and . . instruction guide to building everything? I know a bit (should be enough) about electronics and have done some soldering but nothing on this scale before (and never done any MIDI electronics before)

Also if i wanted to add another couple rows of 16 encoders & buttons. . would it be easy to assign them to control what i want (like have 32 encoders, and have each assigned to control 16 steps of 2 different tracks) - thats the one thing about midibox seq that doesnt quite fit my idea of the perfect sequencer - I would have a set of encoders & buttons for every track in front of me.

[stryd_one]

Welcome aboard cartesia :)

I might suggest that you keep reading around the forum and wiki and ucapps.de, I'm sure you can find the answers to all of these questions and more :)

[TK.]

Lets just say I want 64 steps per track, and at least say. . 4 tracks running simultaneously each with 3 (or 4 perhaps?) parameters sequenced

This means that you have to chain two 32 step tracks. By doing so, each pattern can store 2 * 64 step tracks, means that you need to run two patterns in parallel. Up to four patterns can be played.

In general there are 16 32step tracks which can run in parallel, there are different event modes which allow you to play a single note from a track, or multiple notes, or note+CC, or multiple CCs, etc.... this is explained in the user manual.

like have 32 encoders, and have each assigned to control 16 steps of 2 different tracks

More than 16 encoders cannot be used.

And it isn't easy to realize different hardware layouts. Mostly some PIC assembly programming experience is required.

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[cartesia]

Oh well. . thanks anyhow. :-[

The search continues...

doepfer schaltwerk

doepfer regelwerk

fr mobius

midibox seq

running out of possibilities here... maybe I'll buy a cheap laptop that I dont mind pumping nasty humid club smoke/sweat through and do it in software

[stryd_one]

Argh not software anything but that! :o

Have you considered a custom application? I don't know if you've programmed in C before...

[cartesia]

I can program. . but I've just taken a year of from university specifically to get busy with writing music.. not to spend modifying/programming.

Anyhow further developments - I've just decided to minimalise my setup and produce with that. I think all this GAS, the mess of wires everywhere, the wishes for a magic sequencer...has been severely hampering my creativity.

I'm sellling everything I own besides my sp-404 sampler, axiom keyboard, and cheap analogue mixer (so: emu command station px-7, an expansion rom for it, kaoss pad 3, yamaha an200)

With this money I'm going to buy an elektron monomachine. . I think theres alot of value in a minimised setup..

I just want to get down and make music, and this seems like a very simple, yet capable, way to do that (without succumbing to mucking around with custom software/midi controllers)

Maybe later on down the track I'll come and develop my own midibox. . but for now, the monomachine + sp-404 + mixer + keyboard combo is more than enough for the kinds of sounds I'm trying to produce - and if I can't do it with the simplest of setups, I dont face much chance with a more complex one.

[nebula]

Perhaps if you want to realize 32 encoders, you could do it in a more roundabout way.  Rather than do extensive mods to the MB SEQ application, maybe you could build a separate MIDIbox 16E (it's a MIDI controller with support for endless encoders), each programmed to send a different controller or SysEx message to the SEQ.

I am not terribly familiar with the MIDI implementation of the SEQ, so I don't know if it would need enhancements to be able to modify the currently playing sequence in real-time via MIDI input.  Such an enhancement would likely require much less work than making it read an additional 16 encoders though!

The 16E could be built in the same enclosure as the SEQ, so it could look just like a 32-encoder sequencer to the user.

All that notwithstanding...

I've just taken a year of from university specifically to get busy with writing music.. not to spend modifying/programming.

If you have no experience in DIY electronics, then building a MIDIbox SEQ will take quite a bit of work.  If you want to be creative with music now, you might do well to put this on the back burner.

But if you're the type of person who seeks a 32-encoder analog-style sequencer, and who lusts after a Monomachine, then the MIDIbox community probably has a lot to offer you!  So ... see you around ;)