I haven’t done this myself yet (why is there so little time…) but there are also the Evolutionaries presets to explore:
Evolutionaries_2003_rev1.pdf (2.6 MB) Evolutionaries_2003_rev1.syx (85.5 KB)
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thank you for sharing, been looking for this for years after seeing it mentioned elsewhere but not posted. anyone interested in collaborating and making a 2021 version?
I feel it’s close to an act of crime that I got a fully served mono evolver in my basement that I’m not using. But in Sweden, these kind of close to-vintage kits are hard to shift. As a crowd, we’re as vanilla with most things as the chart bangers we put out across the world. And I mean that in the best possible sense - vanilla is great. Love it. But it is flavour 1a. For a reason, though. Still. It is flavour 1a.
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One day I’ll have a mono evolver. Not enough money space just now, desktop fills in.
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Anyone know of a decent stand for a desktop Evo?
I want to make it the same height/tilt as Access Virus Ti.
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it’s me again 
i just recorded this mini session with the evolver and the octatrack, 
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That’s excellent! Love the kinda linear FM sounding rhythmic sound.
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thx I broke a pot on my MEK. Sequential is sending me a free board to fix mah broken synth. To a dude who bought used. That is customer service!
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A belated thanks for putting this up. Really like it!
Been lurking elektronauts for years. Finally made an account so I could start posting in this thread specifically. I have been really getting into the evolver more over the past year, making lots of patches. The evolver is so dope!
I want to share some things I have discovered. There are some things in “The definitive guide” that are incorrect and surprisingly to me nobody has every pointed it out in anytime it gets recommended in a thread like this one. I’m sure some people out there figured these things out or some of them at least on their own. But it would appear that nobody has shared it publicly on any forum.
Beginning on page 78 when they’re talking about the sequencer, it is in bold and also underlined that values are not transmitted when there is an off on sequencer 1. This is NOT true. Yes, it is true that the envelopes don’t fire but values for sequences 2,3 and 4 are still transmitted. An easy way to hear this is just to turn the vca up, so you can still hear something when the vca envelope isn’t triggered. Have sequencer 2 set to any random values for each step then route to osc freq. You will still hear those pitch changes. You can have all 16 steps of seq 1 be “off” and you will still hear sequences 2,3, or 4 changing pitch or whatever parameter they are set to.
I would say that’s not a small thing and untill I figured that out on my own probably didnt really use “off” that much in my own patches.
Also when you use the sequences to control digital osc shape, what you actually get is N+1. There is no shape 0, a value of 0 on any step gives you value of 1 which is a sine wave. I have never used the evolver to sequence other gear externally. But what is strange to me is in anu kirks guide they discover and point out that it’s N+1 I think when using midi note out but they don’t come to the same conclusion with regards to shape sequence.
How you know forsure is shape 95 is the blank wave. If you set seq 2 every step to the value of 95, then use seq2 for shape seq, you still hear sound. That is because you are actually getting shape 96. If you want a blank step in shape sequence you need the seq step to be 94.
I don’t wanna bash them or discredit them or their work making the guide. No doubt it was very helpful to anyone that read it but I’m just saying with all due respect it is not “the definitive guide”
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The author “Anu Kirk” has publicly stated that there are mistakes in the Guide and sections (like the FM section) that they would thoroughly rewrite if they had the time.
I think that you are inferring the wrong thing from the text here. When I read it it was clear to me that it was only talking about the transmission of values from sequencer 1.
Agreed fully; it was the intention of the author to make it a definitive guide, not an independent assessment of the result.
Notably, it even repeats some of the errors about MIDI note messages that are in the official DSI manual.
Have you sent your list of improvements to the author?
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I mean, quoting from the text here
“ It sets that step to be silent, meaning Evolver just “skips” that step – the envelopes do not fire, and values are not transmitted.” <—— bold and underlined
And at the bottom of page 78 continuing to the top of 79…
“Note that Sequence 1 is the “master” for oFFs. Whenever they occur in Sequence 1, they’ll occur in all the other sequences.”
So I don’t know how I am inferring the wrong thing here. And I don’t know how it was clear to you or anyone that it’s just talking about seq1 here. Since you know, it says that offs will occur in all the other sequences when they occur in sequence 1. Further, if it was clear to you or anyone, why has NOBODY added this. That’s my thing. I have literally read every post of every evolver thread I could find going back to like ex5tech and electro-music forum posts from 2003 when the evolver was new. Looking for tips, patches, and better understanding.There is this thread obviously, a couple on modwiggler, Reddit, and gearspsce. Everyone recommends the guide but nobody is saying “by the way the sequencer……”.
I did not send any corrections to the author. I am just going to make my own guide either written or more likely in the form YouTube videos.
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Until something better comes along it really is the definitive guide.
Also, judging by the tone of the writing in the guide, I don’t think the author was being entirely straight faced using the word definitive.
It’s a great guide, really helped me to figure out I was too stupid to operate an Evolver. A couple of little errors hardly seems worth worrying about. Nobody’s perfect.
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I would love to see YouTube videos on the subject of programming the evolver.
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I corresponded with Anu Kirk years ago over his Definitive Guide. It was a labor of love and he was a decent and humble fellow.
I can’t speak to any mistakes in the guide since I used it more as a quick reference and idea sparker. In that sense it succeeds as a piece. My opinion that it is one of the most readable and enjoyable synth manuals stands firm.
Regarding any errors: this was also in the mid- '00’s which are are the medieval years of the internet. 
I’m not sure that there really was the kind of community that would have beta tested and galley read the guide.
I think the “definitive” part was a friendly poke at the official Evolver manual which left quite a bit up in the air. I don’t know if that was intentional but Dave Smith clearly loved a bit of chaos in his little blue box.
@sid6581: There are some tutorials here and there. Check out the how to on Pink Floyd’s “On The Run”. It’s fun. While they don’t do any tutorials, I love watching GhostRadioShow’s videos where they tweak a single sequence and come up with an entire piece. You can sort of figure out what they are doing and get some ideas.
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Early last September I bought an Evolver Desktop, only to notice upon receipt it had a 1.0 firmware and needed an updated chip… so I bought one in mid September but customs returned it to sender three (!) times. With each journey taking around two months. Finally one made it across the pond to Germany in March. A week before it arrived though, I had a power outage which destroyed the Evolver. 
Nothing else apparently (and luckily). Thanks to an incredibly friendly repair policy I only had to pay a modest amount + one way shipping and now two months later it’s back. They even installed the latest firmware. (Anyone in the EU in need of the upgrade chip?) Thank you so much, dear folks at Sequential!
Looking forward to finally really having some fun with this fascinating instrument.
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That’s not the first super-positive story I’ve heard about Sequential/DSI customer service.
Evolver really is unique. Just wish I could afford/have space for the keyboard version!
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I have a desktop Evolver I bought on the cheap a couple years ago. I haven’t touched the thing much at all because of laziness and turned off by the UI. Anyways, I didn’t see a general topic on this device when I searched and wanted to seek consul from those who own and actively use it before I dig it out of storage. A big part of the reason I bought it was to process external audio and was wondering what members’ general opinion on the effects and such are, is anyone using it exclusively for this purpose? I gotta watch some tutorials I guess because I haven’t a clue how difficult it is to navigate the effects and such with that tiny screen so any tips or whatnot would be greatly appreciated. I do love the sound of the thing from the demos I watched over the years.
edit: thx for moving the topic, guess I didn’t scroll through the search long enough 