Electronic Music 411 - hardware sequencers whats good?

03/26/08 + Horizons

I am not really interested in yamaha, roland, akai stuff etc . . .

can anyone tell me about experiences with:

the future retro mobius
the spectral audio cyclus 3
the mfb step 64

anyother hardware sequencer i might not be aware of that is of a reasonable price.

Recent Blog: wow what happened to bt!

03/28/08 + SeanShea

I like the Sequencer in the DSI evolver .
you get a great synth to boot for the cost of just a sequencer from others.

Recent blogs: Abba drummer found dead in Spain, BENT MODULAR KIT FOR SALE (well........sorta), I AM the MUFFIN MAN !!!

03/29/08 + cartesia

anyone mention e-mu command station yet?

Recent blogs: counter-intuitive ftw!, non-random use of random numbers?, My first max dabblings

03/30/08 + egypt

Sorry if you don't want to hear, but...

mpc 2500 w/ JJ

otherwise:

MD
evolver
Plan b milton venti
that serge touch pad thingie (keeps me awake at night).

03/30/08 + egypt

Also, on the topic of Elektron:

Never have been fortunate to use the monomachine, but my machinedrum sps-1 has been a very surprising and innovative tool. The perfect variable for percussion/ beats.

03/30/08 + egypt

Also hardware arpeggiators like the mam and oberhiem can make a dull piece of kit do some magical shit.

03/30/08 + egypt

I think I'm done now.

05/02/08 + Robespierre

I'd have to ask why you're "not really interested in yamaha, roland, akai stuff etc . . ." since they are rightly regarded as the best sequencer manufacturers. The ones on your list are fairly limited and gimmicky "specialty" items trading more on obscurity and personality than usefulness. If you like collecting objects, get them. If you like making music, get the tools that are best for making music.

05/02/08 + license

That's pretty arrogant, Robespierre. Yamaha, Roland, and Akai are huge companies that have big markets. That means that their products are designed for a larger audience and so have a feature set and design concept that's made for mass consumption. And there are always people who will feel dissatisfied with products for this market.

I've owned a fair amount Yamaha gear over the years and I certainly wouldn't call them the best. In fact the TX81Z is the only piece of equipment that they manufactured that I plan on keeping. Oh yeah and if I can find a CS-01 in Akihabara this summer I might get one.
And you want to talk about gimmicky? Uh, hello Tenori-On??

What's wrong with indulging yourself with some gear that does EXACTLY what you want? Nothing gimmicky about that. That's called satisfaction. Do your research.

Recent blogs: Friends' computer troubles, Milkytracker now open source, Cheap, Portable Fun?

05/02/08 + sohcahtoa

I know you said you're not interested, but the Yamaha RS-7000 is really a fantastic and versatile hardware sequencer. They can be had for under $500 nowadays.

The design of the hardware won't let it function like a Cyclus or MAQ16/3 (i.e. you don't have a pot dedicated to entering a control value for each step), but it will work in the same fashion as the Mobius in that you can select a pitch and then enter trigger events on a grid for that pitch.

The step entry and edit modes are superb. The MIDI delay and the arpeggiator are fun and useful. The "realtime loop remix" is a really useful tool for rearranging MIDI data, despite the corny name. Having dedicated front panel controls for swing, clock shift and clock division per track is a treat as well.

Recent blogs: Happy 606 day!, Bunchastuff, Radiophonic Workshop - Alchemists of Sound

05/02/08 + PYVND

It's funny how everyone is sitting around arguing and Horizons is GONE.

05/02/08 + license

lol

Recent blogs: Friends' computer troubles, Milkytracker now open source, Cheap, Portable Fun?

05/02/08 + dpmtl

sohcahtoa said: "I know you said you're not interested, but the Yamaha RS-7000 is really a fantastic and versatile hardware sequencer. They can be had for under $500 nowadays.

The design of the hardware won't let it function like a Cyclus or MAQ16/3 (i.e. you don't have a pot dedicated to entering a control value for each step), but it will work in the same fashion as the Mobius in that you can select a pitch and then enter trigger events on a grid for that pitch.

The step entry and edit modes are superb. The MIDI delay and the arpeggiator are fun and useful. The "realtime loop remix" is a really useful tool for rearranging MIDI data, despite the corny name. Having dedicated front panel controls for swing, clock shift and clock division per track is a treat as well."

Yeah one of the things i really like about the RS is the realtime control.Grid record is excellent for drums.The pitch mode in grid is really powerful like you say,i normally assign bass drum kit to track 1,hihat kit to track two etc and it's so easy to switch kicks or hats on th fly by changing the pitch in grid record mode.Love it!

05/03/08 + Robespierre

Depends on "EXACTLY what you want." If you want limited results, get limited gear. The MC-80 crushes and humiliates everything else that's been mentioned without even blinking.

05/03/08 + license

That's true. It depends. I understand the MC-80 is a beefed up version of the MC50mkII. Being an owner of the latter, I would agree that it's a great sequencer, and is fairly hard to beat coming from the keyboard-controller -> sequencer -> modules paradigm. However I certainly wouldn't say that it crushes and annihilates everything else, there are areas where it flat out sucks. Working with CCs for example.
Also it does blink. And I like its blinking ;)

Recent blogs: Friends' computer troubles, Milkytracker now open source, Cheap, Portable Fun?

05/04/08 + lilt

loosely related to this topic:
im after a 'sequencer' to play back through my qy10
all im really after is a midi file player because i will do all my sequencing on the puter

4 tracks of midi played back simultaineously would be sweet!

but the thing is that it wont be loop based as its gonna be kinda like 'the locust' or 'dillinger escape plan' styles
shit loads of really small parts that dont get repeated... so its gotta have lots of midi memory

any thoughts?

Recent blogs: jungulator - live perforamnce tool (mac & pc), always back up your work..., rtfm