OK guys.........
Tonight is my forum dedicated night so I'll continue with sequencer basics.
First off , most of you have used a form of sequencing and didn't really realize it. If you have edited , deleted , moved audio tracks around on yer projects , then you have actually performed audio sequencing.
My first sequencer was homemade from a Radio Shack project book 30 years ago. It consisted of ten variable tone oscillators each controlled by a single pitch (frequency) knob. These were "stepped" in sequence by an old school 7490 decade counter (like the kind used in ancient frequency counters) and each step was controlled in turn by a master LFO by another knob. Although quite crude , I used it on stage with my synths (before midi sequencers were invented) to generate random or preprogrammed notes consisting of a 10 note "song" before it repeated itself. The only other control was a reset button that started the sequence from the beginning upon each press no matter where in the sequence it was playing. Nobody else had one to my knowledge at the time and it seemed to entertain the drunks at the bar OK.
Modern sequencers come in many forms. They can be hardware , software or even a combination of both.
Most people think MIDI when sequencers are mentioned and rightfully so, I will cover these first.
If you are a MIDI challenged then read up on MIDI messages if things aftermentioned are cloudy. The most common use of a sequencer is the note on/off MIDI message sequencer. It can record your MIDI keyboard as faithfully as any audio recorder. The neat thing is that the resultant sequence (here meaning the recording of midi note messages) can be played back on any other instrument with a midi in jack. This sequence of notes can be changed in pitch , time , quantized , and even played back thru special midi effects. It can be merged with other midi instruments (to play more than one at time. ) When you download a midi song and play it back , Windows media player takes the midi sequence bitstream and feeds it to the general midi soft synth hosted in the player or sound card. The first mid message of the sequence tells the synth which wavetable (voice) to use and then the note number (pitch) , note on/off , velocity and aftertouch messages follow describing the nuances of the performer.
So far we have described sequences that only describe a small spectrum of what midi is able to do. There are 128 different messages that can sent. Not only can note messages be sent but also messages can be recorded to the sequencer of pedal changes , synth bank or patch changes, tempo , volume , tone , device on /off commands , filters , external effects (with midi jacks) or even other sequencers can be controlled.
Software sequencers are most commonly used in the piano roll view format. (PRV) This is pretty much standard for most all note sequencers. With editing tools provided it is actually possible to hand program a symphony and not be able to play a single actual instrument. However it will take even the most seasoned programmer years to so so. Is your keyboard playing a little sloppy ? You can use midi quantizing tools to tighten it up to unrealistic mechanical to a loose style. Wrong note ?
Just go back to the PRV and erase or move the bad note to it's correct timing or pitch without disturbing the rest of the sequence. Try that with audio editing. Once the sequence sounds good then simply either play the synths audio outs to your recorder or use a program like Sonar to bounce midi tracks direct to audio. ( This is so powerful)
Hardware sequencers work the same as the software brethren with some interesting differences. If you have ever heard a step sequencer (remember my homemade one?) from the 80's then almost all of these were hardware based. They almost exclusively had 16 steps in which pitch info was "stepped" from one note to the next then repeated after step 16. They could also be programmed to one shot then stop until the note was repressed. Dave Smith still uses this old technology in his Evolver series synths. He takes it a little deeper in that there are actually 4 - 16 step sequencers that can be programmed to produce a 64 note "song". Even deeper is the Poly Evolver which is actually 4 Evolvers in one. Now we get up to 256 notes. Pretty cool for a hardware step sequencer. What makes Dave Smith's Evolvers evolve is not so much the note sequencers but that some of the sequencers are changing filter settings , patches etc. in the background as the note sequencer plays. Very powerful.
Hope this sparks some interest. I'll be glad to answer any questions that I have the answer to.
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.