#41

Yeah, I was kind of surprised that Squarp Pyramid hadn’t been suggested earlier. It figured largely in this thread:

#42

Late to the party, but I have a Roland TR-09 that works great for odd time signatures, or even changing time signatures. By using various beat divisions, pattern lengths, and pattern chaining, you can cover just about any time signature scenario. You also get two velocity levels per step, plus a third based on the overall pattern accent steps and level. Plus easy access to 32nd notes or triplets. Don’t like the 909 sounds? It makes a great sequencer with midi (and audio) via usb. Fun!

#43

It also has a gate out, and you can independently turn the pattern steps on and off for the sync “track,” which saves with the pattern! So, for example, you can have a 12-step pattern running with a 3/4 feel, and send a sync pulse out every other step for a 6/4 clock out, if that makes sense…

#44

These are pretty great. I had one for a while when I was still using lots of midi gear. Incredibly flexible, if not always the most intuitive. The track lengths, time signatures, and speeds are all independent and it can run 64 tracks at once. Talk about polyrhythmic/polyphasic! Also great midi effects.

Unfortunately, with only one CV/gate out once I got heavily into modular it just wasn’t right. I replaced it with Ansible, WW, and Earthsea to use with the recent grid that I already had and couldn’t be happier.

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#45

I succumbed… Preordered!

#46

I had the chance to check it out at Superbooth yesterday. The demos / photos don’t really do it justice, it’s way cooler in person.

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#47

Related question: On which sequencers can you edit one pattern while a different one is playing?

2 Likes
#48

This looks great. If i was in the market for a modular sequencer this would be on my radar!

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#49

Would love to know this also.

#50

If I remember correctly, you can do this with the Stepper Acid.

edit: This is called the Detach Mode.

#51

Hi. I’m looking at the Tempest, right now. I have a Vermona DRM-1 mkIII for analogue sounds and I need something that can work with samples, too (I know Tempest can do this with its own library). I also need to be able to use it to play the DRM-1… Can beats be set up to play intermal and external (midi) sounds via the 16 pads? If so, I’m in.

#52

Hey there, I had to sell mine about a year ago for financial reasons and I think there may have been one final update since then. As far as I know, the samples you’re able to import are very very limited… I don’t think you can import your own samples at all, and it’s just the packs they post online. This is all due to memory limitations. I never used its midi functionality, unfortunately, but I know that was a source of frustration for many people, which led to the aforementioned updates, of which there were many over the course of 3-4 years. It’s probably best to go and have a look at the most recent manual addendum and see if its capable of the things you want to do with it.

#53

Tempest only does it’s built-in samples, can’t use your own. That together with no preset/program change support (how this is even possible from the person/company who created MIDI is beyond me) unfortunately made it useless to me. All other features seemed rather nice.

@lloydcole you’re probably better off with a sampler, maybe check out the Digitakt, though there are obviously more options.

#54

It’s been a while but I was wondering if you could set up pattern pages on the LXR or if the maximum is effectively 16 steps per pattern.

#55

this topic is super relevant to my interests, as i typically utilize four polymetric percussion tracks, plus a vanilla 4/4 bass drum. i’ve been limited to software for this (using Reason) for a long time, but have been looking for hardware to manage this.

i haven’t seen ANYthing that isn’t built around a 16-step sequencer (i haven’t checked all the recs in this thread yet, so apologies if there’s an exception i’ve missed). i’m not…super concerned for my own work, because i tend to pre-program, but it would be incredibly rad to see hardware built within another framework.

my original plans were to get a TR-8S, but i’m honestly probably just going to go the sampling/looping route.

#56

This Digitakt (and perhaps all of the Elektron gear) will happily do this. Each of the 16 tracks (8 sample based, 8 MIDI) can be set to any number of steps from 1 to 64 (you can have up to 4 pages of 16 steps). And each can be further scaled 1/8x, 1/4x, 1/2x, 3/4x, 1x, 3/2x, 2x. And the pattern has a master reset point (like 256 steps - or any number between 1 and 1024) - or just infinite if you prefer.

So, yes, you can have your 4/4 and then several tracks of polymetric percussion on a Digitakt.

#57

thank you for the rec!

apologies, but i think my language wasn’t super clear. the OP’s complaint was about having to carry over the remainders when live-sequencing polymetrics, due to the hardware being built around 4/4 time & 16 steps (despite capabilities of changing pattern length on “pages” of the sequencer, etc) which i can totally relate to, b/c i mostly use 5-beat measures.

this is thread is great for me, though, b/c it’s giving me more options to compare, if i end up in the market for one of these beasts (i tend NOT to live-sequence). :blush:

#58

Ah - yes - indeed, sorry - I didn;t reread all the way back. Yes, when you set a length, the DT does force you into pages of 16…

If you want something in 13/16 it is easy. (Which, incidentally, I do a lot!) If you want something in 5/4 it isn’t… though on the DT, if you only need 8ths resolution for that, you could program it in 10/16, and drop the speed of that track to 1/2x.

2 Likes
#59

One month ago I bought DSI Tempest with its odd time signature capabilities in mind. Positive opinions in this thread contributed to my decision to choose the Tempest.

I have quickly found out that there is a bug inhibiting the use of “loop screen” function in every time signature, except 4/4. Using the function caues the sound to disappear or even the machine to freeze totally. And the “loop screen” is vital when step programming lenghty beats. The bug is even present in some of the factory preset beats.

Such an disappointment… I have immediately happened to like the Tempest’s sound and interface. However, it turned out to be useless to me in order to realise my musical ideas in a pleasant way.
Today I have sent the Tempest back to the shop.

1 Like
#60

That’s awful; I don’t recall encountering that while I owned a Tempest.