Analogue-sequencer

> Can you tell me what actually happens when I apply a % of 
> randomisation to a
> value in an aux?

The randomisation events for numeric values just set the range of a random
amount that will be added to the original value.
So if you have a velocity of 60, and you set a randomise velocity value of
40 on the same step, the velocity value will be somewhere between 60 and
100.
The percentages of randomisation are for the masking events.

> I understand that it affects the likelihood of the
> programmed value being produced but does it in any way affect 
> the likelihood
> of any other value being produced?

The distribution of the random numbers is uniform - any value is equally
likely to appear (unless the stored value plus maximum random range exceed
the limit for the value being randomised, in which case out-of-range values
all get limited to the maximum value).
I have considered adding lookup tables to give other types of distribution,
but they would take up a lot of ROM.
Calculating weighted distributions on the fly would be too CPU hungry.
And in any case, there is an alternative way to achieve the same effect...
You can use 'grab' events to take values from a pattern on another track.
Then set up the other pattern with a 'random' direction, and fill the
pattern with the set of possible values you'd like to have appear at random.
If you want one value to appear more often than others, put that value on
more than one step in the pattern.
Working with randomisation in this way gives you more of the "melodic"
randomness you're looking for.

> A way of temporarily overriding programmed values with random 
> modes (and the
> existing sculpt mode) would also be an interesting feature for live
> playing: when a button is pressed the programmed values of 
> the selected
> track are temporarily replaced in real time, when it is released the
> preprogrammed values are reverted to.

You can do that with knobs rather than buttons - use knob masking events to
control the auxes doing the randomisation.
The you can 'fade in' the degree of randomisation from play mode.
If you're using one pattern as a source of random values for another, you
could always add some knob controlled randomness to that pattern too.
I think there are a lot of possibilies to explore already in P3, that you
may just not have thought of yet since they are a little less direct than
just being able to choose a distribution curve for direct randomisation of
values.

> Another thing I would appreciate is basic templates for LFO 
> shapes and a
> range of different arpeggios and interval patterns, so for 
> example if I want
> an aux to function like a clocked LFO I could just dial up 
> whatever wave
> shape I wanted to use rather than painstakingly programming 
> the values step
> by step. Using these I
> could, for example, dial up a template of perfectly divided 
> values for all
> 16 steps. I could then, say, use a tempo synced sine wave pattern to
> modulate the distribution biases
> within the randomisation being applied to all the values in a pattern.

There was a suggestion of adding some preset values for auxes to the 'quick
config' page.
I suppose there could be some 'waveshapes' in there, that would apply to the
current 'UPPER' value.
So if you selected AUX C for edit, for example, then did a 'quick config'
and selected 'rising ramp > UPPER', it would write evenly space values from
0 to 127 into AUX C, or whatever else was selected. That could be fun.

Best regards,
Colin Fraser
Sequentix Music Systems Ltd
http://www.sequentix.com