Squarp Instruments Hapax Polychronic Performance Sequencer

[thetechnobear]

funny my experience on this has been a bit variable with hardware…

so with computers using usb its very true, as they do not prioritise USB midi data (due to protocol they use) whereas audio is prioritised (different ‘usb class’)

but once you moved to embedded hardware, that bet is off the table.
sequencers won’t be running at ‘audio rate’, and so have ‘sample accuracy’ they will be running at the resolution of the events … so Hapaxx is 192 ppqn.
so the audio and midi clock is going to have that accuracy.

(I think this is why some old gear has a reputation of being very tight, even over midi)

a midi serial link can be fast enough to support it…
I guess one ‘issue’ is , with midi you are dependent on both the sender (e.g. hapax) and the receiver (in my case hermod)… if both are fast, you are ok… (*)

whereas with CV, you just get the signal and use it.

so yeah, its a bit mixed…

also something else to consider … I recently did a test on a computer (Mac) of midi latency vs cv latency… and generally midi is less latent (due to no audio buffer) BUT is more susceptible to jitter.
but susceptible is key here… on a well setup system, I don’t get that much jitter either.

so I don’t really know
whilst my heart say, cv clock is best… in practice I usually end up using midi

---

(*) that said, I’ll point out that hermod and many other sequencers basically use external clocks to determine tempo, so its often more down to how fast they react to clock changes than accuracy of clock

(**) I should say the above is ‘simplified’… as its going a bit off topic… and there are so many variables , eg. things like the ADC converters used by modules/sequencers etc… and we don’t really know ‘polling rates’ , irq priorities, and a whole host of other variables.

[Smapti]

@thetechnobear

whilst my heart say, cv clock is best… in practice I usually end up using midi

Well said! I fear getting too far off topic here since we’re now getting into the theory of clocking and I could talk about this for days…

In practice I agree that you can cut the Gordian knot and just go with midi, apart from one big caveat. I use my modular to process daw audio, and for that I do not want midi sync out of the daw since midi sync isn’t latency adjusted. However, analog clock out from a daw audio track is latency adjusted. This makes a big difference. If you don’t care about processing tracks from your daw, though, midi works just fine.

(Sometimes I wonder if the big appeal of modular ambient – or harsh noise! – is that you just don’t have to care about clocking. I’ve spent so much time tearing my hair out over clocking that I’m tempted to say fuck it, now I’m just a Music for Airports cover band)

[Starscream]

Any demonstration videos? It’s already shipping right.

[thetechnobear]

indeed, I used to really ‘pixel peek’ at timing, but found it so frustrating…

I know things like phasing can be an issue for some music. but really I tried to avoid this these days, as its just frustration and headaches… with no perfect solution.

not totally related but a bit interesting/related from squarp forum on hapax

Regardless of the ‘destination’ (CC, CV, etc.), you can store 1 data point each clock tick.
At 192ppqn (192 ticks per quarter note), you’re looking at a sampling time of 2.6ms at 120BPM, so about 384Hz sampling frequency, which according the Nyquist Sampling Theorem means a maximum frequency of 192Hz can be captured.

TL;DR: It goes easily in audio-rate territory. Also, it’s 16bit CV I/O

---

@Starscream

Any demonstration videos? It’s already shipping right.

not yet, Red Means Recording will be releasing one soon… (from his twitter feed) , that I believe will be the first ‘YouTuber’ one.
I will releasing shortly after, which will be ‘comprehensive’

of course, some are getting theirs now, so may be a few demos … perhaps over the weekend.

but as above, they are now out of stock , so pre-orders for June
probably wise to pre-order before RMRs video release , esp. given Jeremy’s twitter comment, it seems he likes it quite a bit.

[RhythmDroid]

The sequencer I’ve been waiting years for and now they’re backordered.

Must sell gear ASAP and be ready to grab a used one.

[Soarer]

It was announced Nov 2020 so that’s 16 months. Maybe you’re right it is just very similar so that’s why I’m wondering about it. I love my Oxi One, it is fantastic so no doubt Hapax will be great too. Probably they will still have some noteworthy differences and attract different customers. Oxi One is smaller and lighter so much easier to take with you along with other gear so that is a big advantage for traveling musicians.

[thetechnobear]

I think @metalfalcon point was you were being a bit ‘ungenerous’ calling Hapax a rip-off of the Oxi One.

Squarp released the Pyramid and Hermod , long before the Oxi One existed… and the Hapax clearly has been built on those successes and feedback from a pretty large user base.
also, Squarp have said for while now that the Pyramid was mature, but had reached its capacity on RAM/CPU … so its not that surprising they had something up their sleeves for the future.

as for the 16x8, thats been a bit of a trend of late… (again not oxi-one) obviously monome grid, but probably the success of the Deluge is the biggest influence on that… though Polyend have been in this area too.

none of that’s against Oxi One, I think its a really cool product offered at a great price, and I think the Pipe was a really good idea… but to start saying anyone else that produces a sequencer is a ‘rip off’ is a bit far fetched - its not even that similar frankly.

besides, I for one, want companies looking around at the market, and being inspired by good ideas from everyone … thats just good practice.

[Hamuel]

Getting to Know the Squarp Hapax Polychronic Sequencer

[thetechnobear]

oh wow… RMR was saying this was ‘next week’ on twitter … I guess he pulled out an all-nighter to get it done.
damn… means I need to finish my video now !

but cool none the less, I love Jeremy’s videos !

[HBIII]

I ordered mine the evening of 3/1 when they were showing in stock and shipping. I hope I got in in time, I haven’t received a shipping update or anything yet but they are probably slammed. Anyone order one and get confirmation of shipping?

Usually I am not so excited for a new piece of gear, but I pretty much ordered this as soon as I got home, looked at my phone, and saw that squarp released a new sequencer. Wouldn’t have ordered if it was any other company lol.

Edit: Well, 2hr after posting this I got a shipping update on the Hapax, wow I am really excited!

[Zijnvelt]

Seriously… almost no time spent on the dual projects. Shame as it’s one of the real stand outs.

[VibKo]

I wonder what the playability of the pads feel like. Couldn’t find him mentioning it while I scanned through the video. Maybe I missed it though

[griotspeak]

My solution to this problem has been to generally only have two types of cable with USB C ends. Thunderbolt and USB-C Data. (my computer power adapters use the ‘power only’ cables but that doesn’t really factor in)

I can see how that might not be ideal for other folks but it works well enough for me.

[Octagonist]

@griotspeak

My solution to this problem has been to generally only have two types of cable with USB C ends. Thunderbolt and USB-C Data. (my computer power adapters use the ‘power only’ cables but that doesn’t really factor in)

This just backs up my assertion, that USB-C has let us down, has failed to deliver on its promises. And now the entire computer industry and its customers have the “technical debt” of a botched specification to live with for 30 years.

[thetechnobear]

@Zijnvelt

Seriously… almost no time spent on the dual projects. Shame as it’s one of the real stand outs.

honestly… Jeremy did a fantastic job on this…
there is so much too cover, it’s really impossible to do it in all one video and keep people engaged.
( though Im sure Loopop will at some point !)

I thought it was funny listening to Jeremy every now and then taking a sharp intake of breath, I think thinking “ok, what else? where shall I start?”
I say this simply, because I was filming yesterday , and felt the same.
every time, I thought ok covered that … my brain went, 'but what about…"

anyway, I think great overview, and Im sure we will get lots of others over days/weeks going into more details.

one interesting area is the musical implications of some of the functions … this I think will be fun to watch as peoples experience grows with Hapax.

@VibKo

I wonder what the playability of the pads feel like. Couldn’t find him mentioning it while I scanned through the video. Maybe I missed it though

they have a nice feel… they soft enough to play melodic lines, but not ‘squishy’
(they are not velocity/pressure sensitive)

one interesting thing Ive not mentioned, but is a nice design detail.
the playing pads have a different feel to the ‘buttons’, so other buttons have a nice positive click (not too hard).
nice since you want that tactile feedback for ‘functions’, but you don’t want it on a playing surface.

[Zijnvelt]

Am I understanding correctly that Hapax only has 8 patterns per track that only go to 32 steps?

[Ryan]

I believe it was 32 bars, not steps

[thetechnobear]

16 tracks / 8 patterns / 32 bars per project

32 bars: bare in mind you can zoom in/out at high resolution, and then halve the speed (with track elasticity)

also, as projects can be run simultaneously, you could use this as 32 tracks.

(of course, no idea if this could change in the future… e.g. could Squarp add more patterns?)

[therockfrog]

Thought it was 32 bars per pattern?

So, 8 patterns up to 32 bars that you can chain.

[thetechnobear]

yeah, many of the ‘track parameters’ are actually per pattern.

and indeed, you can sequence patterns freely, either manually or using song mode/sections.