Analogue-sequencer

Relevant entries from Buchla's catalogue are here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buchla_modular/files/Buchla_200_Catalog/buc
hla_200_21.gif

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buchla_modular/files/Buchla_200_Catalog/buc
hla_200_22.gif

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This thing has always fascinated me, I must confess.  The documentation 
I have read is quite confusing in isolation (I suspect it might be 
clearer if I had one of the things in front of me - fat chance of that 
har har) but at the very least, it appears that it could be programmed 
to operate as either a sequencer or a complex envelope generator 
(possibly one row for levels and one for transition times?  I'm not 
sure) i read something about being able to set various functions to 
occur at each step, that you had to program using a shift register. 
Anyway, I'm wondering if some such features could be included in the 
sequencer's firmware, because at the very least, a secondary function of 
a midi-triggered complex envelope generator would be a wonderful thing 
indeed!

Thx!!
-- 
Norman Fay

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Yep ;-)

> This thing has always fascinated me, I must confess.

> Anyway, I'm wondering if some such features could be included in 
the 
> sequencer's firmware, because at the very least, a secondary 
function of 
> a midi-triggered complex envelope generator would be a wonderful 
thing 
> indeed!

It's the sort of thing that can be done easily enough in the 
software.
The question is whether it's appropriate - if it can be added 
without increasing the complexity of the user interface to a point 
that it gets too difficult to keep track of what's going on.
The principle design goal of my sequencer is to make it easy to use, 
simply because I'm a lazy sod who doesn't like to think too hard 
when he's making music.
Allowing patterns to be triggered at any time by incoming midi notes 
might be fun, and would give potentially similar results using CC 
patterns without active notes.

I've thought about doing a dedicated 'transient sequencer' module 
before, probably much the same as the MAFG, in a synth module 
format, probably using a small AVR cpu, with a voltage controlled 
shape and rate slew limiter to allow linear or expo stages, and 
smooth voltage outputs.
This is, of course, scheduled for some time in the future...

Cheers,
Colin f