Analogue-sequencer

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:30:47 EDT, ferrograph@aol.com wrote:

>but frankly, for all that I can see the usefulness of having RT midi 
>controllers available on the p3, as soon as you can adjust one or two things per 
>track, you'll want to do more.

Plus if you go into pattern or playlist edit, turn the knobs then
return to play mode, you will then have jumps in the CC value as soon
as you start turning. Sharing controls for such things as track level
is not a good idea without a pass-thru mode. I just bought a Novation
Remote 25 for banging in sequences, controlling levels, sending CCs.
Cost me £130 and is dedicated to the task and very versatile. 
 
>there are (surely) more interesting things that the p3's hardware could be 
>made to do /to the p3 itself/ instead of tying it up doing things to other midi 
>boxes like this.
>for instance, I would like to be able to use the knobs to transpose a track 
>on-the-fly. or change the length of the current pattern. or alter it's global 
>velocity (a la notron). or gate time (ditto). or scale the randomness of the 
>auxes.... or shift a pattern sideways....

Yes, I like the cut of your gib sir! This is the kind of thing I'd
most prefer which is why I originally wanted the Aux controls to be
knobbable. However the current implementation uses up auxes, takes
time, needs to be done per pattern etc. It can do cool things but
slowly.. and I'm a fast kinda guy.

>now, what I really want to be able to do is make edits to a pattern while 
>it's running, & exit the edit mode without saving the changes. the pattern would 
>only revert to it's original state on a part change or bank change, or if I go 
>back into edit mode & undo whatever I've changed.... (notron again!) 
>so, for example, I have a pattern in there that starts off as 16 steps & then 
>gets shortened to 8 steps for a while, but in the meantime I want to edit 
>something in another pattern. next time we start the same piece, it should be 
>back at 16 steps. I'm sure there's a way to do this already but I haven't smoked 
>enough to discover it. th'other half doesn't like me burning the 'erb trumpet.

The P3 is a kinda organic creature that is constantly edited. It's
both a strength and a weakness. My musical other half is forever
wanting tracks to start off the same but I'm forever changing stuff. 

I guess I can do sysex backups and I can also transmit the output of
one P3 to another <g> as workaround. However I don't think it will be
possible to keep everything in an edit buffer in this incarnation -
like the Polymorph - naturally I've asked. 

Some things that are cool and may help - although they use up tracks -
are redirecting events from one track to another. You turn those
tracks on and the changes kick in. It's all realtime modification too
so you can turn the tracks off to revert to normality. I aim to
exploit this a whole lot at my gig next month - especially as it looks
like I may be a solo artist on this one. So the P3 will get a lot more
pre-programming than I usually do to make it interesting...

Paul
---
Paul Nagle / Soft Room Music
Email: paul@softroom.co.uk www.softroom.co.uk
                           www.BogusFocus.com