Non-linear sequencer (possible groovebox alternative)...

["Jesse Ray Lucas" <jlucas@neoprimitive.net>]

For those of you considering a groovebox, who don't intend to use the built
in sounds, or anyone who would like to make your sequences less linear, 
read
on...

Currently I am using a software sequencer called MIDI Maestro
(www.midimaestro.com) to de-linearize my sequences for a live setting.  
It's
actually intended to be used for musicals, which as anyone knows who has
ever played in a pit orchestra, have a lot of "vamp" sections where the
musicians just loop four bars or whatever, waiting for the actors to move 
on
to the rest of the song, and sections where the conductor cues hits in time
with the actors' dialog and actions.  MIDI Maestro provides for this kind 
of
semi-non-linearity in a really amazingly smooth way.  I don't actually
sequence in MIDI Maestro, I like Sonar much better, but when I'm done I 
dump
it into MIDI Maestro and start setting up loops and realtime control stuff.

Here's some cool features:

- You can adjust tempos of sequences on the fly +/-200% using a slider in
the program, or by mapping a pitchbend wheel (or other controller) to the
tempo control.

- It sends and receives MIDI clock, so you can use an EDP with it.  Not 
sure
what happens when you have an EDP synced and you start changing the tempo
during a sequence...haven't tried that yet.

- You can map the sequencer transport controls to MIDI notes and use MIDI
footpedals to signal the sequencer to start, or stop, or move on from 
within
a loop, etc. etc..

- It will also play back digital audio with your MIDI sequences.  Don't 
know
if it records (I use Sonar for that stuff).

- It has a built in MIDI click track that you can send to any
device/channel/note number.

I just wrote Ken Pletzer with my first batch of questions about MIDI 
Maestro
and received a reply from him within 12 hours.  He seems like a great guy,
and loves hearing that people are using his software.  I suggested
implementing the ability to move between sections of a song by mapping keys
on the keyboard, or MIDI notes to each section and having a flag for 
whether
that section was to loop indefinitely, move on, jump in a quantized way, or
an unquantized way, etc. etc.  He may implement that stuff, or may not.  It
doesn't really fit in with his design purpose.

I would be interested in learning about any other sequencer, hardware or
software, out there that provides for such non-linear sequence 
manipulation.

Yes, every email I write is long and detailed.  I type very fast, and I 
like
my gear and would like to share knowledge with others.

-J