Re: rackmount midi sequencer

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 10:39 AM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> 
wrote:
> Ages ago there used to be a box, forget the manufacturer, which could be 
>a
> hardware PLAYER of midi sequences, so you would program things on your 
>midi
> seq of chice, and then transfer them (via floppy disk I think, how 
>quaint)

Roland Micro Composer?

> and then this box just had play stop on it.

...well, obviously not. ;-)  Wasn't the name of that box something
self describing as "MIDI File Player"?


> Im imagining  a device that sould have a UI not unlike the mobius er..
> "timeline"... divided into quantised divisions, and that commands (or 
>notes)
> could be queued up in advance. one could save "midi loops", and name them
> dependant of their function.

Well, I did that in Ableton Live. Cuing up MIDI loops and clips
containing series of "looper command events" for my EDP in the rack
and Augustus Loop on the same laptop. You may label the Live Clips
accordingly like:
- "Reverse and overdub for three bars"
- "Tremolo Feedback sweeps, square wave, 16T during Overdub - 8 bars"
- "Record two new parallel 4 bars loops and then time shift them by 1/32"

...etc, etc... whatever you might need.



> Question #2
>
> I havent tried to do this yet, and I could, but maybe Per remembers, or 
>Andy
> knows.... but one clever thing I thought of wopuld be to program the
> settings of the edp via a drum machine. So instead of changing premade
> "presets", one uses the midi command for the PARAMETER button, and then 
>the
> midi command to select the parameter, then the command to change the
> parameter. Now if I did this... how FAST would EDP accept these changes?
> could I program each command one 64th apart, faster?
>
> I know this seems very laborious, but it has 2 advantages, one... it 
>would
> become quite quick to use once you had a few sequences worked out (if you
> can cut n paste a number of notes at a time) and 2 you could leave your 
>EDP
> at home, and just bring this one box... borrow an edp, and not care if 
>their
> settings were the same as yours, cos your sequencer would set the setting
> for you...
>
> who has done this... and why is it a bad idea?

Michael Schiefel. At the loopfest in Zürich 2005 he showed us how he
is using MIDI SySex like that.
http://www.michaelschiefel.com/



> PS Im still looking for a loopable midi sequencer too... with VERY chunky
> quantise (like 16th) so I can play on my guitar synth, its recorded and 
>then
> looped (till I play notes that occur on the same beat as a previous 
>note, in
> which case they are replaced... was this what you did on the Alesis 
>Per?)...
> do i have to mention... not software???

No, I used the Alesis for LFO style pitch shifting of Repeater tracks.
David Torn hinted about that. Then the rubber buttons of my Alesis
clogged up... until the grade that I needed to put the sequencer on
the floor, place one leg of a chair on the play button and then get up
on the chair and jump until it entered Play Mode. I could never figure
out a trick to pull out that clogged button to stop playback, so I
archived the Alesis with power chord disconnected ;-))

What you are describing is more a MPC work flow, the classical drum
machine approach.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com