@josker I saw your Octatrack instrument definition file in the squarp forum. While waiting for Hapax to arrive I’m thinking at all the possible configuration of my setup. I’m really curious to know how you’re using your Octatrack with Hapax. I’ve limited space and my options are:
Hapax+rytm+hydrasynth+vsts
Hapax+rytm+hydrasynth+octatrack (which would be my bass/lead synth sequenced by Hapax and fx mixer)
Hey @DoverBeach that was me, yeah To be completely honest, I haven’t tried it all that much yet. The Hapax has a bug where instrument definitions crash the Hapax. Already spoke to Squarp and they said they’ll fix it, so I’ve been holding off a bit.
But I do see that the possibilities are going to be pretty cool. Even just getting nice automation lanes that are mapped to settings, as well as Hapax sequencing features to run the OT with.
That being said, I’m not sure how I’m going to go – I think that the Octa sequencer is going to be taking care of the majority of its tracks, and if I need something more complex, that’s going to be sequenced from the Hapax. I can’t sequence all tracks of all my gear with Hapax and its 16 tracks, but that’s okay.
I have a similarish setup – Octa, Syntakt, A4 and M (and a bit of modular) with the Hapax. To be fair, that’s almost too much for me, there’s just so much possibilities there.
But if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer – I’ve been waiting for the Hapax to iron out the bugs, but have been thinking about Hapax+other gear a bit already
Sounds like they’re close to releasing a firmware update. So far I’ve only run into two or so crashes, even though I’ve been using instrument defs extensively. But then again, I’ve mostly been testing how things work in general and how Hapax interacts with my other stuff as it required/invited a rethinking of my whole routing setup. I find its 16 tracks seriously limiting, considering one of them is potentially reserved for transpose, and another for sending program changes to Elektron gear. So I’m planning to keep on using the OT/A4/etc sequencers. I’m usually working with one or two tracks/ideas per Elektron bank and I’m not terribly prolific so it’s not like I need to switch projects all the time.
That’s curious – for me, it’s been more of a rule that the Hapax crashes at some stage. Seems like a memory leak problem of some kind, not that I know much at all about those things.
I’m on the fence about the track count. Definitely, if you consider that a Machinedrum has 16 tracks, that’s your entire track count gone. But I’ve tried approaching the Hapax a bit like:
Syntakt – 2–3 tracks (1 drum sequencer for digi voices, 1 for analog, 1 melodic sequencer for possibly playing a melodic track)
A4 – 4 tracks
Octa – 2–3 tracks (Things like launching one-shots done on the OT, more complex stuff on Hapax)
M – currently 1 track, may use more w/ multitimbrality
Modular – 3–4 tracks
So at least right now I’m thinking that Hapax takes care of the arrangement, program changes, more complex sequencing. Other machines can still do sequencing stuff. Of course the challenge is keeping everything organized to the point where I’m not clueless about where the sound is coming from
I’ve been using inst defs (20+ of them) for the last few months and had zero crashes … I wonder what’s giving rise to your crashes (maybe a wonky card?)
Hmm! Interesting. Out of curiosity – have you found that instrument defs load slowly for you?
Squarp did mention that they found something that was iffy about the definitions, so I’m pretty confident it’ll be fixed, but I wasn’t prepared to hear I’m alone with this
My definitions mainly define a few note rows (drums), and there’s a bunch of named CC tracks, but that’s pretty much it…
That does sound odd! My defs load in about 0.2s (I.e. essentially instantaneous) so it could well be your card? Maybe try another card with the squarp preset as an example def and see how long it takes to load.
Definition load times very much depend on their content. Simple defs with only name and ports load in an instant. Long lists of CCs and especially PCs can slow things down significantly into the multi-second region. Plus, comments appear to take just as much time to process as a line with “real” data. So I’ve started to scrub my defs from comments as much as possible.
I HAS HAPAX. so stoked right now. by the grace of the music gods, i found someone selling one locally, and swooped it up with the quickness. only scratched the surface as to what it can do an i’m already impressed.
Congrats! It‘s is super impressive indeed! I’m also just getting started with it and I’ve had it for a couple months now. Definitely a monster of a sequencer and so good for live sequencing also.
New firmware looks really good, excited for the things I can do with the envelope FX with a CV output to my eurorack. Got mine arriving beginning of next week according to DHL: just in case anybody finds the information useful, the import duty/tax getting in the UK came to £198. All together quite an expensive sequencer… but I think it’s going to be worth it.