It’s true that there isn’t much to say, because it’s that good…weird but somehow true.
I have a few points on my wish list for the HAPAX (which I’ve posted earlier in this thread), but focusing on those wouldn’t do the device justice, as it already is the best hardware sequencer I’ve ever used (for my purposes).
Mine arrives next week just in time to sequence many parts hopefully from my Virus TI2 and other synths in my studio as a central brain. I did get back the 3 year wait list again for a Cirklon so that will be great for my needs.
Happy New Year all!
I’ve posted on the Squarp Forum, but am copying here as responses are sometimes faster.
I’ve finally focused on preparing definition files for my hardware. I kinda get the idea and have prepared a file for the Vermona DRM. I’ve started with this as it’s possibly the easiest piece of kit to map given it has extremely limited midi implementation functionality.
I have a quick question 
DRM only has 8 voices to trigger, and so only has 8 notes to program, which is simple and convenient given HAPAX has 8 drum lanes. The only complication is that if you want to trigger an open hat (HIHAT1 and HIHAT2 have this function, see below), the open hats are triggered via different note numbers - please see extract from DRM manual below :
So I’ve mapped the basic note numbers below, but not sure how to map the two open hi hat triggers. Can this be done by adding CC’s to the CC section or would I have to set up another definition file with just the open hats programmed, and then open this on another drum track within HAPAX? Hopefully someone knows of a workaround!
Thanks so much!
P.S. I’m working on the following instrument definitions, so hopefully they will be of use to someone : MODOR DR-2, Akai MPC ONE, Abstrakt Avalon, Sequential REV2, Sherman Filterbank V2 and the Eventide H90.
Arguably this gives you 10 voices rather than 8, so you’re out of drum lanes. If you have some kind of midi processor you could do your idea by translating some MIDI CC messages to the remaining MIDI notes then put your open hats on the automation lanes instead, but that’s a pretty big if. I think the drum lanes part of Hapax is a little unnecessarily restricted with it only having 8 lanes (and also that all lanes have to be the same length, but I can imagine this is forced by the sequencer architecture).
If I was in your position, I would assign the voices on your DRM to some sequential MIDI notes and then just use the poly sequencer mode of Hapax instead so you can access all voices. It’s still a little unclear to me what advantages drum mode gives you over poly, beyond being able to set lanes to different MIDI channels, which I don’t think is a requirement for this instrument (correct me if I’m wrong though).
Thanks very much, I think I understand what you’re saying. I’ll give this a try with a Poly track.
I’m hoping the drum lanes will get extended - perhaps using a page 1 and 2 approach, giving 16 total lanes. I’m sure this has been requested by others before now.
Cheers!
Yeah same, it feels pretty underbaked right now - pretty much the only purpose is to have a track with can send to multiple channels, and tbh I think they need to rethink this more general restriction of the other kind of tracks only being able to transmit on a specific port and channel, which I can’t quite understand the rationale behind.
Agreed.
I’ve submitted something similar as a feature request for further updates - specifically I’d like to be able to P-lock different midi note msgs within individual drum lanes, in my case I want this to trigger different slices on each track of my Octatrack without sacrificing one track per OT audio track on the Hapax.
Alternatively, a second page (so 16 lanes rather than 8 lanes in drum tracks) would be nice too, but still wouldn’t allow for the functionality / use cases that p-locking midi note msgs would.
I’d say submit your use case and feature request to Squarp, if enough of us wish for something like this, I can see them implement it down the line.
It allows for TR-8 style sequencing of drum machines on a single page/view. So mutes, alternative patterns, variations & p-locks can be added quickly and on the fly across all eight lanes. Plus there’s some neat functionality there: eg if you mute a drum lane and then add/remove trigs from it, you have now set up an alternative pattern of that lane to the drum pattern as a whole…so whenever you mute that lane, the alternative pattern will play. That’s really cool for adding variation and movement in live situations.
Thank you, I’ll submit the request. I’d also find the p-lock function to be useful, especially if it could trigger fx on a different sequencer lane, like program changing an effect on my Eventide H90 - a la Elektron sequencer. Not sure this would be possible though.
Calling all NRPN Guru’s!
Has anyone successfully interpreted NRPN info from Sequential synths into HAPAX? I’ve done the standard CC’s without issue, but want more finer control using NRPN’s.
Here’s a screen shot from the Sequential REV2 manual showing NRPN numbers:
I may be stupid here, but how the hell do I interpret this into the HAPAX’s syntax i.e.
I’ve tried to reverse engineer their Novation Circuit Tracks example with the Novation Circuit Tracks manual, but that doesn’t give me any clues whatsoever.
How can, say NRPN 0 (Osc 1 Freq), from the screen shot be interpreted by HAPAX? I’ve tried:
0:120:7 Osc1 Freq
But I guess this is wrong as HAPAX doesn’t list it under MRPN’s within the definition file.
Here’s what the REV2 manual says about using NRPN’s:
I’m lost. Is this some special kind of witchcraft, or is the Sequential manual just very unhelpful.
Thanks to anyone that can help!
You need to convert the NRPN numbers to their MSB LSB representation. It’s fairly simple (if you google someone might have made a gadget to do it automatically) but can be fairly tedious - I’ll try to explain what’s going on, and then give you a shortcut for working it out.
Basically, if you convert the number to binary (padded with 0s on the left to make it 14 digits if necessary), the MSB = the number represented by the first 7 digits, and the LSB will be the number represented by the last 7 digits.
So, for NRPN 2, this is 10 in binary, and padded with enough 0s we get 00000000000010. So the MSB is 0000000 in binary, which is 0 in decimal, and the LSB in binary is 0000010 = 10, which is 2 in decimal. This reveals something that’ll make it less tedious for you: 127 in binary is 111111 - eg. the highest binary number with 7 digits (this is significant because CCs go up to 127, and you send an NRPN by sending a sequence of CC messages).
So for NRPN x, where x is between 0 and 127, your MSB is 0 and your LSB is x. You can use this fact to work it out without the binary conversion: your MSB is how many times you can divide the NRPN number by 128 (with some remainder x) with your LSB being x modulo 128 (if you don’t know what modulo is, google’s built in calculator will compute it for you if you type the expression into the search bar, but x modulo y is equal to the remainder you have when you divide x by y).
So in the NRPN 2 example, 2 is divided 0 times by 128, with remainder 2: your MSB is 0. 2 modulo 128 = 2, so your LSB is 2. For NRPN 300, 300 modulo 128 is 44 (this is your remainder). 300 - 44 = 256, which can be divided 2 times by 128 (2 is your MSB). 44 modulo 128 is 44. So NRPN 300 is MSB 2, LSB 44.
The pattern you’ll see is
NRPN between 0 and 127: MSB = 0, LSB = the NRPN number
NRPN between 128 and 255: MSB = 1, LSB = the NRPN number modulo 128
NRPN between 256 and 383: MSB = 2, LSB = the NRPN number modulo 128
NRPN between 384 and 511: MSB = 3, LSB = the NRPN number modulo 128
…
and this continues up to the maximum NRPN number. Looking at the. Rev 2 manual, you only really need to go up to NRPN 187, so most of this doesn’t need to be worked out, and up to NRPN 127 there isn’t anything to work out.
Oh and important extra note: what you tried to put in is the range of that NRPN number, not the NRPN number itself. The important number to use is the one in the left side column. You may find if many NRPNs have a limited range (eg. 0-200, out of a possible 16384), it’ll actually be kinda hard to use the Hapax grid to put in modulation, because basically the addresssable range of that parameter is all going to be contained on the bottom row of the grid - I asked them about adding range to instrument definitions, and scaling the grid appropriately, and I really hope it happens.
Wowza, thanks for the response! I need to read and digest this properly, so will have a go this evening. I’ll report back on the results 
I’m starting to understand this now and using the Windows calculator in scientific mode is helping. You’re correct in that there’s not much point in setting up many of the NRPN’s for REV2 as most parameters don’t need much range requirement beyond 127. There are lots of LFO and Env parameters that I’m going to have a go at setting up though as they’re not available via the standard CC’s - I just hope that they implement range scaling in definition files as you quite rightly say.
Thanks very much for your valued guidance!
I finally caved and ordered one of these to test it against the Oxi One. I’m not going to say whether one is better than the other because they have different strengths and weaknesses and they are both great tools.
I’m finding that some things I was worried about the Hapax missing have been non issues. For example, a really cool feature of the Oxi One is being able to have mod lanes at different speeds and different lengths modifying your core sequence parameters such as transposition, rate, etc. (this is similar to the Dirtywave M8’s concept of tables). While this is not possible in the exact same way, I’m discovering that the Hapax can modify any parameter of a MIDI effect via automation lanes and LFOs which can result in some really cool generative possibilities that stay super musical. For example, adding an arpeggiator effect, modifying the rate with an LFO, and then using another sample and half LFO to randomly turn it on and off.
While I’d still love to be able to modify internal parameters with the sequencer track (and change the length of the automation lane) for the sake of flexibility, I’m finding that the Hapax MIDI FX are taking me in different directions that I’m generally liking better. And ultimately the results are more important than the feature set.
Tbh I returned my unit due to crashes (save and load stops working after a an hour or so) I couldn’t put my finger on what caused and thought I figured it out but it literally just happens and I know another user having the same issue. I said to squarp I’d document a video and send that in so they can backtrack but after use it almost every weekend for the past 2 months I can’t pinpoint what causes the issue. Just that it happens. It’s a solid bit of hardware so I don’t think your issue would be hardware related I.e sending it back would solve it. As that’s what I also thought.
The best you can do is document step by step what you’re doing along with stripping back each element of your set up to try pin point the issue. That way the engineers can try actually work out what’s going on.
Hence why I haven’t send my unit back again as I’m committed to try helping finding a solution as currently I cannot use this for a live set it’s not solid at all if it stops me loading a project
So I figured it out back back then and have been crash free since. Well, figured it out might be a bit strong - basically it happened without fail when I had this eurorack module IOLabs Flux connected to the USB Host port. Not clear to me whether it was something nasty Flux was doing (it can send an extremely high density of midi messages which might have upset Hapax) or if there’s something buggy with the USB Host port, but either way I haven’t plugged anything into that port since and I’m (fairly) happy.
I have stuff plugged into that port and had no stability issues at all, it’s been rock solid for me. So could possibly be the module?
Ordered a Hapax 🫣😈
In anticipation of the Hapax coming:
I will set it up to sequence approx two full synths (Roland SH-01a; Quadrantid Swarm), Syntakt but only approx 4 melodic tracks, máybe I’ll try to sequence the rest of the ST (drums) from one drum track.
And then - most importantly - I’ll set Hapax up to sequence three Eurorack voices via FH-2 midi to cv module: (1) Loquelic Iteritas Percido, (2) Erica Synths Bassline, and (3) Intellijel Plonk.
For these three modules, I’ll only need Gates, Pitch, Accent/Velocity, and one modulation lane. What would be best for these - should I still create instrument definitions for them; or can I use Hapax as midi sequencer for them without a full instrument definition?
instrument definitions are completely optional… they really are just used to label things, rather than see raw midi values (e.g. cc numbers)
frankly, I’ve never bothered with instrument definitions…
(they also existed on the pyramid)
imho, the main use for instrument definitions is if you want to program automation lanes manually, and don’t want to have to remember the CC numbers.
(but I tend to do live recording, so I don’t care about this 
)
