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Author: dach on February 22 2007 Viewed 3174 times. 16 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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Hey all,
I've been working on the sequencer in the picture for a while now, and now I am stuck and need your help and suggestions.
When I started working on this, I wanted a reasonably straightforward midi sequencer. I intended to hook it up to computer, and use it for drum programming, controlling ableton live, and some max/msp experiments. But since I started working on it, my requirements have changed. I don't want a computer on stage with me. I want to sequence a lot of circuit bent gear instead!
This thing has been sitting on my desk, untouched and unloved for a LONG time. So I am asking you guys now for some suggestions and perhaps some motivation. Hopefully I will get enthusiastic enough to complete it...
A quick tour of the interface:
Each panel is made of a transparent plexiglass, and if you look closely, there is a hole in each. This is where the RGB LED goes. When the LED is on, the edges of the plexiglass light up quite brightly. As they are RGB; I can fade and blend the colours of each panel. This is a really sexy touch, and can be used for showing modes, controller values, or just Bling factor. It's possible to control the leds by internal functions, or incoming midi data.
On the top left are 6 knobs, 6 leds and 6 switches. On the top right are 8 endless rotary encoders. Below that is a green 3 digit display, 8 buttons and LEDs (red), and two holes where I can put two big buttons or two knobs, and two more leds. On the mid left, are the two 'main' buttons, useful for alternative function s(like a shift key) or something else. Then there are 4 more smaller buttons, each with a led, and a knob.
Along the bottom are 16 step switches. Each has a red led above the button, and a while led linked via a fibre optic cable into a tiny pinhole spot directly on the button itself. This is also really sexy.
It's got 32k of ram, which is enough for several patterns of drum info, some melody and some controller data.
The hardware is pretty much done (couple of bugs, a few missing leds) and the program code is there to drive all the features. I just need to finalise some things and create the circuit board. The big problem i have is that I have no fucking clue what all the buttons and knobs should do!! I am completely at a loss as to how the damn thing can be used, and especially in a live context, and controlling circuit bent gear. If i started off from scratch, I'd create a totally different type of thing for the bent gear.
One idea I am entertaining is to continue with the midi drum type orientation, and send only midi signals out of it, perhaps into a computer, but perhaps into a future device that controls the circuit bent gear...
I'd totally love it if some of you creative folk can look at the picture for a bit and imagine _playing it as an instrument_, and then suggesting what sort of functionality I could assign to the different things. I need this info so I can proceed with making the circuit board permanent.
Please help and KICK MY ASS into finishing this thing!!
thanks a lot 
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Comments
02/22/07
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crabster
Whoa, looks fucking awesome!
02/22/07
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dach
heheh thanks Maybe this weekend I can put up a youtube video showing all the lights blinking and the panels changing colors
02/22/07
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jarvis
this looks ripe for ripping off the machinedrum interface. hold down a step button and turn a knob, and the value for whatever that knob controls is now saved for that step. and you can do it for each step with every knob (though i believe the MD had a limit of 64 of these 'parameter locks' as they call them).
02/22/07
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crabster
dach: please do
02/22/07
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dach
I did study a machinedrum for some time :-)
02/22/07
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Squeal
You've probably seen this. If not it might spark your creativity.
link
It's some software for controlling bent gear or whatever through a computer's parallel port.
If I had made a sequencer for bent gear, I would want it to turn things on and off, and output control voltages (or control resistances) synchronously. That seems pretty obvious, though. It seems what you are asking is about the interface for doing such a thing. Jarvis' idea seems right on for the CV sequencing.
02/22/07
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dach
Since I don't have the pushy knobs like the machinedrum, I will use one of the two 'shift keys' on the left to toggle between coarse and fine parameter adjustments. The shift keys can also be used for muting/unmuting instruments, or selecting command features on each key, such as copy, paste, set loop length, etc.
Not sure what to dowith the 4 buttons tho, some kind of editing submodes? one where time extends to the right, and you toggle the instrument on and off on each step. another submode can be for playing live, first button is kick, second is snare, etc, I would need record buttons for that too.. hmm
I could play midi on a keyboard, and record it in loops, and assign it to the different buttons. That's just occured to me
02/22/07
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dach
squeak: mikmo's sequencer is totally cool very innovative idea!
I think control resistances would be awesome to have, but I'm not sure how to go about it. All the voltage control devices seem really complicated analog electronics :/ it would certainly be cool to have. perhaps vactrols.
02/22/07
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ignatius
is there a way to select pitch per step? pressa button turn the knob release button and then you have pitch for that step.
parameter locks are a good idea but w/o some kind of display it's easy to get lost. having the abiity to set all parameters to '0' or just being able to turn parameter locks off would be good too.
02/22/07
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Squeal
Here's doepfer on vactrols:
link
I've never done anything with vactrols, but it seems like it would be very doable.
02/22/07
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lowercase
Looks really cool
I would definitely use something like the top right section to control some sort of dub delay. But that's just me.
02/22/07
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adcBicycle
Wow, that looks amazing. Can't wait to hear it in action!
Mildly unrelated but I built a something link with plexiglass like this, and I was having trouble drill holes because it kept breaking, so I went a place that manufactures plexiglass with my plan of where to put holes and it ended up costing me less for the drilled piece then buying the plexiglass at the hardware store.
02/22/07
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utofbu
controlling circuit bent gear? yeah!! this thing is great!!!
02/23/07
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Tripnik
wow! That's hot! Unfortunately I can't help you out since I'm an idiot when it comes to circuits. Whatever happened to em978? He'd be all over this conversation.
02/23/07
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datathinner
yea that's pretty crazy. way beyond my head right now, too. big ups for doing that though. you now have teh power, and when you get the power you get the money, and when you get the money, you get the women.
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