SEQ

SEQ is a step sequencer with a pattern of up to 64 steps for every track. Write steps from the keys, one note or a whole chord per step, give each step its own length, ratchet, gate, chance, transpose, accent and slide, and the pattern plays in lock with the tape on its track's sound. Several tracks can run their patterns at once; 16 stored patterns, shared by all tracks, keep the versions you want to come back to, and a chain plays them in turn. When a pattern is right, print it onto the tape with SAVE.

Turning SEQ on and off

SEQ works on the selected track's pattern. Patterns on other tracks keep playing whatever you do with it.

• The SEQ light and the SEQ header badge are on while any track's pattern is on, even on another track.
• Turning a pattern off keeps its steps and settings and everything already on the tape. It does not stop the transport.
• A pattern turns on and off at once: it does not wait for the launch line.
• A pattern only plays while the tape plays. Stopped, it waits.

Pro tip: To edit a pattern while it plays, come back with SHIFT + SEQ: a plain SEQ would turn it off.

One generator per track

A track is driven by its pattern or by the arpeggiator, never both.

The arp can play the selected track while patterns run on the others. See ARP.

The screen

On an empty pattern the roll says PLAY KEYS TO WRITE STEPS (with chord input on: PLAY THE CHORD PADS), HOLD SEQ + KEY: REST and SHIFT + SEL: CHORD PADS (chord input on or off).

Moving the cursor

Playing a key always puts the cursor back on the steps.

Pattern settings

With the cursor on the pattern row:

Defaults: 16 steps, 1/16, swing OFF, gate 50%.

While the pattern plays, LENGTH and RATE wait for the pattern's end (see Changes while playing); the knob shows the new value at once. Stopped, they change at once.

Locked to the tape

Step 1 lands on the loop's bar line, and the pattern starts over at the top of the loop. A 12-step pattern in a 2-bar loop at 1/16 plays 12 + 12 + 8 steps, the same on every pass: what you record is what you heard.

Writing steps

1. Press SEQ. The cursor is on step 1.
2. Play a key. The note goes into the cursor step, you hear it, and the cursor steps on.
3. Keep playing. After the last step the cursor wraps to step 1.

• Keys pass through SCALE first: in SNAP or EASY a step gets the mapped note. See SCALE.
• Step entry works stopped or playing. Previews sound on the track but are never recorded.
• The key LEDs show the steps on the white keys: lit = a note, dark = a rest. While stopped, the cursor step blinks; while playing, the playhead runs along them.

Step settings

With the cursor on a step:

ACCENT (full velocity) and SLIDE (legato into the next note) are on the step level.

Moving steps

1. Put the cursor on the step.
2. Hold SEL and turn ALGORITHM. The step is picked up: the status line says MOVE 3>9, the step's pad keeps a grey outline, the cursor shows where it goes.
3. Let go of SEL. The step lands: on an empty step it moves (STEP 3 > 9); on a filled one the two swap (STEP 3 <> 9 SWAPPED). Nothing is lost.

The step takes its notes and all its settings along. Released on its own place, nothing happens (MOVE: SAME STEP). With the cursor on the pattern row, SEL + ALGORITHM only jumps.

To copy a step instead, use COPY STEP and PASTE STEP on the step level.

The step level (SEQ > STEP)

SEL on a step opens its own level, SEQ > STEP n. ALGORITHM scrolls; a bar on the right shows where you are.

On this level the keys rewrite this step and the cursor stays: one key replaces it, keys held together make its chord. The step keeps its settings. HOME goes back.

Pattern actions (SEQ > PATTERN)

SEL on the pattern row opens the pattern's actions, a list that scrolls with ALGORITHM. The top row, PATTERN, shows whether the pattern is ON or OFF (or what waits for the pattern end) and keeps the pattern settings on K1-K4. A row that can't act now is dimmed with the reason on the right; SEL on it says why (STRETCH: OVER 32). The line at the bottom reads SEL: DO IT HOME: BACK, or LENGTH CHANGES WAIT FOR THE END while the pattern plays.

Stored patterns

A project holds 16 stored patterns, shared by every track. Each track plays a working copy of one of them: edit it freely, and STORE TEMPLATE when you want to keep the version.

• Switching replaces the working copy with the stored one. If the working copy has changes not stored yet (P1*), the first turn only says UNSTORED EDITS: TURN AGAIN; turn again while it shows to switch anyway. Store first to keep them.
• Every track has its own working copy: two tracks can play the same stored pattern and change it differently.
• The stored patterns share 3 KB. A pattern takes only what it holds: 16 simple 16-step patterns use under 1 KB; a full 64-step pattern of 4-note chords with every setting about 1 KB.
• The stored patterns, each track's pattern number and chain are saved with the project.

Chains

A chain plays stored patterns one after another, for example 1>2>2>3, on this track.

1. SEQ > PATTERN > CHAIN, SEL.
2. SEL on ADD PATTERN adds an entry: the first one is the pattern the track plays, each next one repeats the last one's. The cursor moves onto it; K1 picks its pattern. The message says ADD ONE MORE after the first and CHAIN ON once there are two.
3. Press PLAY. The chain starts at its first pattern; each one plays to its end, then the next starts, and after the last it starts over. The entry playing says PLAYING; the SEQ page says P2 CHAIN 3/4.

• A pattern follows its stored copy: when the chain moves on, the working copy's changes go (the same pattern twice in a row keeps playing as it is). Store changes you want to keep.
• If the pattern on screen has unstored changes when you press PLAY, it plays first, then the chain goes on: changes are never dropped unasked at the start.
• A switch lands where the old and the next pattern both start again, at the latest at the top of the loop: patterns as long as the loop (or dividing it) switch at every end.
• PRINT TO TAPE prints the pattern on screen, not the chain; record the chain with REC instead.

Changes while playing

What changes a playing pattern's length or grid waits for the pattern end, so no pass plays half old, half new: LENGTH, RATE, STRETCH, SQUEEZE, 2X, 1/2X, PASTE PATTERN, LOAD TEMPLATE, COPY REPEATER and a switch to another stored pattern (see Stored patterns).

• The message says what and when, outlined until it lands: STRETCH @ PATTERN END. The status line blinks STRETCH NEXT; the row says NEXT.
• It lands on the first line where the old and the new pattern both start from step 1, at the latest at the top of the loop. Then the message says what happened (T1 STRETCHED: 32 STEPS).
• SEL on the same row again cancels it (SQUEEZE CANCELLED).
• Stopping the tape applies it at once. Stopped, or with the pattern off, everything happens at once.

Swing, gate, the step settings, moves and new notes change at once.

Chord steps

With chord input on (SHIFT + SEL, or SEL on CHORD), the keybed is the chord pad layout of CHORD, with its key, COLOUR, VOICING, SPREAD and performance keys.

1. Turn chord input on. On an empty pattern the SEQ page says PLAY THE CHORD PADS, and the key LEDs show the pads.
2. Press a pad. Its chord goes into the cursor step, previewed, and the cursor steps on.
3. Press the next pad before letting go of the last one to tie the previous step into it.
4. Hold SEQ + a key for a rest.

• A step holds up to four notes. Bigger chords lose the perfect 5th first, then the 9th, 11th, 13th and 6th; root, 3rd and 7th stay.
• The performance keys shape what is written. With SPLIT held, one press writes the bass, the next the chord.
• The pad shows the chord's name, worked out from the notes it keeps (Cmaj7, G7sus4).
• Keys held together with chord input off also make a chord step. Its pad shows the lowest note, with a dot per note.

Patterns on several tracks

Every track has its own pattern, and all enabled patterns play at once, each on its own track with that track's sound. The SEQ page always shows the selected track's pattern.

1. Press SEQ and write a pattern on, say, T4. Press PLAY.
2. Select T3 with SHIFT + ALGORITHM. The page now shows T3's pattern, OFF; T4 keeps playing.
3. Write T3's steps. You hear the previews over T4.
4. Press PLAY to stop, then PLAY again: T3's pattern turns on and both play.

On TAPE, each track whose pattern is on shows SEQ at the end of its lane.

Pro tip: Draft on SEQ, keep on TAPE. Once a pattern is printed, turn SEQ off: the tape keeps it, and the track is free for the arp or for playing live.

Recording patterns

Patterns are recorded at their exact grid time, never moved by the input quantizer.

• REC records the selected track's running pattern onto that track.
• While REC records, the running patterns on the other tracks are recorded too, each onto its own track as a take of its own.
• Notes the tape already plays on a track are not doubled, so a pattern can keep running over its own recording.

Careful: Before you press REC, check the SEQ labels on TAPE. Every running pattern goes onto its track while you record.

Printing to tape (SAVE)

SAVE on the SEQ page (or any of its levels), or PRINT TO TAPE, prints the selected track's pattern: the pattern over the track's whole length, onto the track at once as one take, exactly where a recording would put it. No pass, no waiting; it works stopped or playing, with or without REC.

1. Write the pattern.
2. Press SAVE. The message says PRINTED 2 BARS -> T1 and the SAVE light flashes.
3. Tap SHIFT + REC to undo it.

The print covers the track's length: a 16-step 1/16 pattern printed on a 2-bar track fills both bars.

Troubleshooting