Euclidean Sequencing

Home Forums Feature Wishlist Euclidean Sequencing

This topic contains 33 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by Avatar of alien_brain alien_brain 7 years, 9 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 34 total)
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  • #3208
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    If there is any room in the memory to cram more features in, one that I would be thrilled to see is a Euclidean sequencing mode. There have been some really cool eurorack modules that feature this operation and I love the results they give. Here’s a website that does a good job of demonstrating how this kind of sequencing works: http://www.hisschemoller.com/blog/2011/euclidean-rhythms/

    Speaking of eurorack modules, one that seems to be well received is the ALM Pamela’s workout – it uses a secondary firmware to operate in euclidean mode. If current memory is the limiting issue, is this something you would ever consider, Christian? Making a second Euclidean firmware? To my knowledge, that would make the Zaquencer the only midi based hardware euclidean sequencer in existence.

    #3215
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Zaq may already be able to do this. Use ‘mute by waveshape’ on a drumtrack. Rectangle wave, something like that.

    I may have this upside down. Be wary.

    #3216
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    ah interesting, will try

    #3217
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Ahem. No I’ve got this wrong. I’d need to check but manual says (p24) that drum notes can only be inserted randomly.

    However! A way of implementing this would be to add control of step muting to the waveshaper. Mute is a value less than 63, unmute is a value above or equal to 63 – modulated by waveshape settings as standard. Make this available to chord and drumtracks and you are go!

    In the meantime do it by hand, sorry

    #3218
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Although that depends on how zaq defines the mute value. If 1-127 then great, if 0-1 then not great.

    #3221
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    thats a cool idea, but the math wont work out to euclidean patterns if its just applying an lfo.

    a tresillo rhythm (one of the most common rhythms that can be generated w/ the euclidean algorithm) is [x..x..x.]

    Over 16 bars, that looks like this:

    x..x..x.x..x..x.

    which you couldn’t generate from regular oscillation.

    and ideally a fully functional sequencing architecture would allow way more control than just an lfo would allow, e.g., you have a sequence that distributes 3 hits over 8 steps, and you turn a knob to increase or decrease the number of hits being distributed – so if you turned the knob between 3 and 4, you’d alternate between a tresillo and 4-to-the-floor

    #3222
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Aha! Not so fast..
    The waveshaper allows additive input. Sure you are not getting true Euclidean but if you apply a triangle lfo to the mute value then an inverted sawtooth (or whatever – I am stabbing wildly in the dark here) to tip you over the required value of 63 you might get something interesting and or similar.

    The option to distribute x number of mutes over y number of steps would be very nice too. My gut is telling me the zaq is doing something similar with the waveshaper. Could be all those tomatoes I ate though…

    #3228
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    The additive waveshaper is cool and all, I just don’t think it would represent much of an improvement over conventional sequencing – in terms of legwork/number crunching – when it comes to working with euclidean rhythms. What you’re describing does sound fun though

    #3229
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    And Christian, FWIW, this functionality would be something I’d definitely be willing to pay $$ for. like i said, it’d be the only option on the market

    #3237
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Not wanting to separate Christian from $$ but the LXR drum machine’s pattern generator uses the Euclidean algorithm.

    Zaq clocked by LXR = ripe fruit.

    #3251
    Avatar of Christian
    Christian
    Keymaster

    Hi guys,
    thanks for the suggestion!
    I´ve just played around with the little Flash software from the link and it´s really fun.

    To be honest though, I don´t see a way that this can be realized with the Zaquencer´s parameters and I think it is out of the scope of the current firmware.
    The biggest thing is that the number of steps that the individual drum instrument plays versus the other drum instruments can´t be adjusted. Sequence length is a per track parameter and that´s the place where the limited flash memory comes into play. I can´t make it a per-instrument parameter because of that. Also I´m not sure how it could be crammed into the existing user interface.

    I could imagine that it would make a nice separate project. I´ll think about how the BCRs UI could support that. But don´t hold your breath, there is already so much to do atm.

    #3255
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Is there any chance of being able to able to apply waveshapes other than random to step mutes? To drum tracks as well?

    a bit like Euclidean but more … Zaquential!

    #3256
    Avatar of Tommy Down
    Tommy Down
    Participant

    Oh dear now I’ve started to think about how a BCR could would as an 8 track (columns) Euclidean sequencer too. Or a 8 x 4 track? 4 encoders per track …. better than counting sheep I guess.

    Rrrrrrr

    #3258
    Avatar of bg
    bg
    Participant

    Thanks for the follow up Christian, I totally get that it would be out of scope, but thanks for fielding the FR. If you ever do it as a separate project, I’ll be in line for #001!

    And thanks Tommy for the tip on the LXR, looks cool

    #3321
    Avatar of Majonymus
    Majonymus
    Participant

    i think this can be really easy to add, you can use mutable instruments GRIDS code cause is open source, the files are here https://github.com/pichenettes/eurorack/tree/master/grids

    you can download the port for ableton Max
    here http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/2518/grids

    this for drum tracks it can be AWESOME

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Avatar of Majonymus Majonymus.
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