How To Use A Step Sequencer
TRAKTOR 2.11 introduces a Step Sequencer mode for the Remix Decks. The Step Sequencer can be controlled natively with the TRAKTOR KONTROL S8 / D2 / F1 controllers and can be mapped to any third-party MIDI controller. This article explains the Step Sequencer workflow for the TRAKTOR KONTROL F1 controller.
Step-time sequencing is the backbone of electronic-music production and a great way to create exciting keyboard lines. Take your first steps with Mark CousinsThe humble step sequencer has proved itself to be an integral part of the world of electronic music, from the chugging modular Moogs of Tangerine Dream in the 1970s, through to the squelchy TB-303 sequencer lines that are still popular today. At its heart, of course, a step sequencer negates the need to be a proficient keyboard player – simply enter the pitch of each step, press play and enjoy a fast-moving, mechanically precise synth line! In Logic Pro X, you’ll find many ways to explore step sequencing, fusing synthesis and music creation in an exciting and dynamic way.We’re going to explore the process of step sequencing by recreating the sound and performance of a TB-303. For the uninitiated, the Roland TB-303 was originally designed as a ‘budget’ combination of step sequencer and synthesiser, with a relatively simple control set that lent the unit an instantly recognisable sound. Replicating the classic TB-303 sound, therefore, requires both an understanding of its synthesis architecture and the unique features of its step sequencer.
Step by stepReplicating the sound of a TB-303 using Retro Synth requires little more than a few tweaks to the basic preset. The sound uses just a single oscillator, set to either a Square or Sawtooth waveform, which is shaped by a resonant low-pass filter. The envelopes are also straightforward, with a Gate for the amplifier, and a simple A/D setting for the filter. The most important element is to ensure Retro Synth is set to monophonic legato mode (also disabling any unison voicing) with a small amount of Glide. This will help create the distinctive glide effect that’s intrinsic to a TB-303 sequence.Logic’s step-time sequencing is found as part of the Piano Roll editor. Clicking on the MIDI In icon will engage a step-time sequence.
Once engaged, press a key on your MIDI keyboard to assign a pitch for each step, or press down on a sustain pedal (if you have one attached) to enter a silent step. If you want to change the rate from the default 1/8th setting, open the Step Input Keyboard and vary the note setting accordingly.
For a basic 303-type sequence, enter a 16-step 1/16 sequence, with a succession of notes that would form a typical bassline sequence – octaves, fifths, minor thirds and so on.The next steps are vital to a real 303-like authenticity and involve understanding both the Slide and Accent controls. On the TB-303, pressing the Slide button would join two steps together – ignoring the filter trigger on the second step and also applying a small amount of portamento between the notes. We can approximate Slide by extending the length of some of the notes in the sequence, which in turn, work with the legato and glide settings established on Retro Synth.Next to consider is Accent, which would raise both the amplitude and amount of filter modulation applied for ‘Accented’ steps.
To achieve this, we first need to flatten the MIDI velocities, which is probably quickest done using the MIDI Transform Window using the Fixed Velocity present. Once the notes are flattened, select three or four notes in the sequence (possibly the notes you’ve applied the Slide to) and raise their velocity to 127. To achieve the right audible response from Retro Synth, you need to balance Cutoff with the amount of Velocity-tracked filter modulation, set using the Velo fader in the filter section.It’s well worth exploring other parts of Logic Pro X that exploit machine-driven music creation. The Arpeggiator MIDI Effect Plug-in, for example, works as a hybrid Arpeggiator and Step Sequencer, assuming the Grid function is engaged. In this example, the Arpeggiator’s Grid works like a CV Sequencer, with each step having its own Velocity setting.
Map the Velocity dynamically to the synth that’s receiving it, and you can recreate the distinctive effects created by CV sequencers.Another neat feature of the Arpeggiator Grid mode is the ability to specify whether each step is set to single note, or the full chord. With this, the chords can define the main rhythmic focus and the remaining single-note steps appear to leap around the keyboard, especially when you use some of the larger octave ranges. From a relatively simple chord sequence, you can create complex machine-like synth lines that sound like full step sequencers.Using techniques like Step Sequencing can open new ways of writing music that take you away from needing to ‘play’ each musical part.
Although we’ve looked specifically at the TB-303, you don’t need to restrict yourself to its design limitations – add additional oscillators, for example, or different step rates, to expand on the basic sound that it offers.Step-time Sequencing: Step-by-step1. Before we delve into step sequencing, let’s take a look at the 303-like Retro Synth Synth sound on Track 1.
It’s a simple one-Osc patch, using a resonant 24dB Fat Filter alongside straightforward Amp and Filter Envelopes.2. Another crucial part of the sound is its monophonic behaviour – with Voices set to Legato and the unison feature turned off. It’s also important to activate Glide, so that the synth applies a soft portamento between notes.3. Now let’s create a basic step-time sequencer.
Open the Piano Roll editor and engage the MIDI In at the top of the window. Playing notes on your MIDI keyboard will now enter notes sequentially on 1/8th steps.Retro Controller Retro Synth’s Controller section (found under the Settings page) is useful for using the Arpeggiator’s Velocity Grid as a dynamic sound modifier. Possible destinations include Wave Shape, which sounds great when using Retro Synth’s Wavetable (Table) synthesis mode.4. You can vary the step rate away from the default 1/8th setting by opening the Step Input Keyboard (Window Show Step Input Keyboard).
Try creating a 303-like 1/16th sequence by changing the note value to semiquavers.5. ‘Slide’ was an important part of a TB-303 sequence. We can imitate this by stretching notes over into the next step.
Note how the envelope isn’t retriggered, with the pitch gliding between the two note pitches.6. Another important part of a TB-303 sequence is the Accent feature. To recreate this, we first need to flatten the current velocity settings (to around 40) using the Fixed Velocity preset as part of the MIDI Transform window.
See also:, andThe advent of (MIDI) and the home computer in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. This software also improved on the quality of the earlier sequencers which tended to be mechanical sounding and were only able to play back notes of exactly equal duration. Software-based sequencers allowed musicians to program performances that were more expressive and more human. These new sequencers could also be used to control external, especially, and it was no longer necessary for each synthesizer to have its own devoted keyboard.As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record. Sequencers used for audio recording are called (or DAWs).Many modern sequencers can be used to control implemented as software. This allows musicians to replace expensive and cumbersome standalone synthesizers with their software equivalents.Today the term 'sequencer' is often used to describe software. However, hardware sequencers still exist.
Have their own proprietary built-in MIDI sequencers. And some older synthesizers have their own step sequencer built in. There are still also, although the market demand for those has diminished greatly due to the greater feature set of their software counterparts.Types of music sequencer Music sequencers can be categorized by handling data types, such as:. data on the MIDI sequencers (implemented as or ). data on the and possibly others (via CV/Gate interfaces). data for on the, and the / on the.
data on the including DAW, etc.; or, the including, etc.Alternative subsets of audio sequencers include. — a class of for -based music compositions and remix, emerging since late 1990s. Typical software included (1998), (2001), (2004), etc. And now, several of them are referred as, resulting of the expansions and/or integrations.Its core feature, allows user to handle audio samples (loops) with the analogy of data, in several aspects; user can designate and independently on short music samples, as on MIDI notes, to a song.This type of software really controls sequences of audio samples; thus, possibly, we can call it an ' audio sequencer'. See also:, andRealtime sequencers record the musical notes in as on, and play back musical notes with designated,.
For editing, usually ' features originated in the are provided, although it requires sufficient skills to obtain the desired result. For detailed editing, possibly another visual editing mode under may be more suitable. Anyway, this mode provides usability similar to audio recorders already familiar to musicians, and it is widely supported on software sequencers, DAWs, and built-in hardware sequencers.Analog sequencer.
See also:, andare typically implemented with, and play the musical notes designated by a series of knobs or sliders corresponding to each musical note (step). It is designed for both and; users can change the musical notes at any time without regarding recording mode. And also possibly, the time-interval between each musical note (length of each step) can be independently adjustable.
Typically, analog sequencers are used to generate the repeated which may be reminiscent of, or.Step sequencer (step recording mode). On barrel organThe early music sequencers were sound producing devices such as,. Player pianos, for example, had much in common with contemporary sequencers. Composers or arrangers transmitted music to which were subsequently edited by technicians who prepared the rolls for mass duplication. Eventually consumers were able to purchase these rolls and play them back on their own player pianos.The origin of automatic musical instruments seems remarkably old. As early as the 9th century, inventors brothers invented a using exchangeable cylinders with pins, and also an playing machine using, as described in their.In the 14th century, rotating cylinders with pins were used to play a (steam organ) in Flandersand at least in the 15th century, were seen in the Netherlands.
(1957),controlled via wide punched paper rollIn the late-18th or early-19th century, with technological advances of the various automatic musical instruments were invented. Some examples:, and consisting of a barrel or cylinder with pins or a flat metal disc with punched holes; or, and using / with punched holes, etc. These instruments were disseminated widely as popular entertainment devices prior to the inventions of, and which eventually eclipsed all such home music production devices.Of them all, punched-paper-tape media had been used until the mid-20th century. The earliest programmable including the in 1957, and the Siemens Synthesizer in 1959, were also controlled via similar to.Additional inventions grew out of audio technology.
The technique which appeared in the late 1920s, is notable as a precursor of today's intuitive. In this technique, notes and various sound parameters are trigggered by hand-drawn black ink waveforms directly upon the film substrate, hence they resemble piano rolls (or the 'strip charts' of the modern sequencers/DAWs). Drawn soundtrack was often used in early experimental electronic music, including the developed by in 1930, and the designed by in 1957, and so forth.Analog sequencers. This section needs expansion. You can help. ( April 2017)During the 1940s–1960s, an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions.
The 'Wall of Sound', once covered on the wall of his studio in New York during the 1940s–1950s, was an sequencer to produce rhythmic patterns, consisting of stepping (used on ), control switches, and tone circuits with 16 individual. Later, would explain it in such terms as 'the whole room would go 'clack - clack - clack', and the sounds would come out all over the place'.The Circle Machine, developed in 1959, had bulbs arranged in a ring, and a rotating arm with scanning over the ring, to generate an arbitrary waveform. Also, the rotating speed of the arm was controlled via the brightness of lights, and as a result, arbitrary rhythms were generated., developed since 1952, was a kind of keyboard synthesizer with sequencer. On its prototype, a manufactured by young Robert Moog was utilized to enable over 3-octave range, and on later version, it was replaced by a pair of and photocell for controlling the pitch by.In 1968 and had a polyphonic synthesizer with sequencer called built for them. Step sequencers. This section may be to readers.
( October 2011) The step sequencers played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of a. These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions.
Sequencers of this kind are still in use, mostly built into. They are monophonic by nature, although some are, meaning that they can control several different sounds but only play one note on each of those sounds. Early computers. Played the earliest in 1951On the other hand, software sequencers were continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context of, including computer- played music (software sequencer), computer- composed music , and computer sound generation. In June 1951, the first computer music Colonel Bogey was played on, Australia's first digital computer. In 1956, at the wrote one of the earliest programs for on, and collaborated on the first piece, for String Quartet, with. In 1957 at wrote, the first widely used program for sound generation, and a 17-second composition was performed by the computer.
Subsequently, computer music was mainly researched on the expensive in computer centers, until the 1970s when and then became available in this field.In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when professor Sekine and engineer Hayashi experimented with the computer. This resulted in a piece entitled TOSBAC Suite.
DDP-24 S Block (expansion card rack unit) that is assumed the used for GROOVE (1970) by Max Mathews.In 1965, Mathews and L. Rosler developed, an interactive system (that implies sequencer) on which one could draw figures using a light-pen that would be converted into sound, simplifying the process of. It used minicomputer for data input, and mainframe computer for rendering sound. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. Moore developed the (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Equipment) system, a first fully developed system for interactive composition (that implies sequencer) and realtime performance, using 3C/ (or DDP-224 ) minicomputers.
It used a CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12bit for realtime sound playback, an interface for analog devices, and even several controllers including a musical keyboard, knobs, and rotating to capture realtime performance. See also:In 1975, (NED) released ABLE computer (microcomputer) as a dedicated data processing unit for Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer (1973), and based on it, later Synclavier series were developed.The, released in September 1977, was one of the earliest digital product with multitrack sequencer.
Synclavier series evolved throughout the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, and they also established integration of and music-sequencer, on their Direct-to-Disk option in 1984, and later Tapeless Studio system. Page R on FairlightIn 1982, renewed the Series II and added new sequencer software 'Page R', which combined with playback.' S GS-1, their first, was released in 1980. To program the synthesizer, Yamaha built a custom computer workstation designed to be used as a sequencer for the GS-1. It was only available at Yamaha's headquarters in Japan and the United States.
Standalone CV/Gate sequencers While there were earlier microprocessor-based sequencers for digital polyphonic synthesizers, their early products tended to prefer the newer internal digital buses than the old-style analogue CV/Gate interface once used on their prototype system. Then in the early-1980s, they also re-recognized the needs of CV/Gate interface,. (1977)In 1977, released the, also called composer by Roland.
It was an early stand-alone, -based, digital sequencer, and an early sequencer. It equipped a to enter as numeric codes, 16 of for a maximum of 5200 notes (large for the time), and a function which allocated multiple pitch to a single. It was capable of eight-channel polyphony, allowing the creation of sequences. The MC-8 had a significant impact on popular, with the MC-8 and its descendants (such as the ) impacting popular electronic music production in the 1970s and 1980s more than any other family of sequencers. The MC-8's earliest known users were in 1978.
MIDI sequencers. See also:, andIn June 1981, founder proposed the concept of standardization between different manufacturers' instruments as well as computers, to founder and president. In October 1981, Kakehashi, Oberheim and Smith discussed the concept with representatives from,. In 1983, the was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith. The first MIDI sequencer was the Roland MSQ-700, released in 1983.It was not until the advent of MIDI that started to play a role as sequencers. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI sequencers were developed.
MIDI-to- converters were then used to enable to be controlled by a MIDI sequencer. Since its introduction, MIDI has remained the musical instrument industry standard interface through to the present day. Personal computers. Moog Song Producer (1983) MIDI & CV/Gate interface on SynAmpIt was not until the advent of, introduced to the public in 1983, that really started to play a role as software sequencers. 's personal computers, the and, added support for sequencing with MML programming in 1982. In 1983, for the featured music production capabilities, real-time with sequencing, MIDI sequencing, and a for the software sequencer.
Also in 1983, 's CMU-800 introduced music synthesis and sequencing to the PC, and.The spread of MIDI on personal computers was facilitated by Roland's, released in 1984. It was the first MIDI-equipped PC, capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing. After Roland sold MPU to other sound card manufacturers, it established a universal standard MIDI-to-PC interface. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based were developed.On WhatIs.com of TechTarget (whatis.techtarget.com), an author seems to define a term 'Sequencer' as an abbreviation of 'MIDI sequencer'.
(April 2005). WhatIs.com (whatis.techtarget.com). From the original on 2015-06-27. In digital audio recording, a sequencer is a program in a computer or stand-alone keyboard unit that puts together a sound sequence from a series (or sequence) of Musical Instrument Digital Interface ( ) events (operations). The MIDI sequencer allows the user to record and edit a musical performance without using an audio-based input source.on the are often interoperable with (Control Changes (CC) or (SysEx); in that case, it can be controlled in via pre-assigned MIDI messages generated by or, etc.
And even more, on the several DAWs, automation parameters are explicitly recorded as MIDI messages on their embedded MIDI sequencers. (See ).The term ' ' seems to be relatively new expression and seems to be not clearly defined, yet.
For example, 'DAW integrated with MIDI sequencer' is often referred as 'Audio and MIDI sequencer'. However, in this usage, the term 'audio sequencer' is just a synonym for the 'DAW', and beyond the scope of this article. In that case, please check.In 1974-1975, Australian computer music engineer Tony Furse developed the MC6800-based with a software sequencer, with a minimum price of $8,000. In 1976, it was licensed to, and eventually Fairlight CMI was released in 1979. (For details, see )Also in 1975, released original microprocessor-based (utilizing mini-computer architecture) as a future migration target of Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer. Their commercial version of digital synthesizer, was first shipped in 1977. (For details, see )References.
How To Use A Step Sequencer Diagram
Pejrolo, Andrea (2011). '1.7.1 The Primary Goals You Want to Achieve with Your Audio Sequencer'. Taylor & Francis. Note: an example of section title containing ' Audio Sequencer'.
Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. From the original on 2011-11-09. Rothstein, Joseph (1995). MIDI: A Comprehensive Introduction. Computer Music and Digital Audio Series. A-R Editions, Inc. Pp.,.
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Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (reprint ed.). Harvard University Press. ' Subotnick suggested that using a light source to control sound might be promising. Later he Buchla turned this into an electro mechanical sequencer by introducing step relays and a dial. Buchla, like Moog, realized that voltage control. But Buchla was after something different. Buchla was led to the electronic sequencer—a device that later was used to make much influential pop, rock, and dance music.
A sequencer produces predetermined control voltages in a cycle or sequence and can endlessly recylce.' Note: for a sequencer using a light source, see 'Circle Machine' on and. Price, Simon.
Technique: Reason Notes. Sound On Sound. No. September 2006.
From the original on 2016-03-10.