I’ve gotten really into the “motion sequencing” capabilities on the korg volcas and minilogue. I’d like to be able to extend this kind of capabiity to my Prophet 08, or another external synth. I’d also like to be able to do this with effects (same as on the minilogue)
Is there an external sequencer you can recommend that would do this? Could I use a minilogue to sequence the Prophet (maybe running the prophet through the minilogue? Can’t quite get my head around it. I know I could use push to do this kind of thing, but I’d prefer hardware.
Ideas:
MPC Live
Toraiz
Roland TR-8s (not sure if this even does that)
Digitakt (“Trigless Locks” tend to get a bit “steppy” though… lack smooth motion at times)
Anyway, I’m not sure if this is possible, or if I’m even wording this correctly.
The midi tracks on the Octatrack, Monomachine (and the Machinedrum, in a slightly more limited way) can sequence notes (up to four notes per step, with note length and velocity) and also control several midi CCs. You can P-lock and apply LFOs to those midi CCs (and live record changes to them by turning the value knob, so e.g. you can manually record in a filter sweep - on the Monomachine you can add slide trigs to get a smooth manual sweep and avoid the stepping - LFOs will always be smooth though, and you can most likely use P-locks on the LFO to achieve the motion you want on the OT). Find the appropriate midi CC value for the parameter you want to control and assign it to a CC parameter in the midi track/machine.
As @finalform mentioned, OT is limited, and need lfos for continuous CCs. Unfortunately no slide for midi tracks.
In the above example it is a one bar loop played live, especially cut off, that has also MM’s random lfos. More an example of midi control than motion midi control in fact.
I think most parameters except cut off can be recorded in live recording, then you modulate by hand cut of and / or add an lfo.
I have a cheap MPC500 for continuous CC, but I don’t use it.
or squarp pyramid - if you’d want a truly polyphonic sequencer anyway with up to 64 tracks (i think)… all CCs are available within one track (as opposed to the 16 limit on the OT). you’ll even get CV out (gate/env), midi fx and many more nifty features . possible overkill for what you’re trying to achieve =)
edit: you even have a little touchpad to assign CC to and modulate with X/Y motion. and yes, i really like that box
The pyramid is a very nice and easy to use hardware sequencer, I sequence a DN, DT, Blofeld and Pulse 2 as well sometimes a Mbase01 with it and it works flawless. I spread the midi signals with an iconnectivity midi 4 plus, got no problems at all, clock and sync from squarp runs rock solid!
Both the Electribe EMX-1 or ESX-1 do a good job of sequencing external synths over MIDI - there’s five synth tracks on the EMX, a couple on the ESX and both have nine drum tracks (some shared between sounds, it’s true). Each track can have up to 128 steps, and everything can be motion controlled reasonably smoothly using user-definable CCs.
(I don’t have any hands-on experience with the older or newer Electribes, but I imagine they can do similar things).