Having trouble integrating the Zaquencer into my live set

[RichParticipant]

Hi, I really want to be using the Zaquencer more but I am finding some limitations with how I normally play and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for how I can replicate my usual live playing with the Zaquencer.
I usually operate a loop individually on each device either through Ableton Live or the internal sequencer of the device (ex bass) and then bring in the audio from the device using the mixer. I then will bring in another loop on another device (ex synth) and then slowly fade that in and play with it and then fade out the bass loop and cue up another loop and then fade that in, etc.
I really want to be able to do this with the Zaquencer but I don’t see a way to cue up individual loops with it, only songs. So with the Zaquencer, if I have one song playing and then I want to jump to another song, all the loops will cut out and then the loops of the new song will start up. Any suggestions how I can cue up separate midi loops? I hope my description of what I’m trying to do was ok. Thanks in advance.

[ChristianKeymaster]

Hi Rich,
thanks for posting your question!
I think I understand what you mean and I have a couple of ideas.

First of all, what you describe as “song” I think is a “pattern” in Zaquencer-manual-terms, so basically a collection of 4 tracks.
So, when you load a pattern, all 4 tracks change at once, which is apparently not ideal for you.

I have two suggestions:
- you could prepare the patterns, so that they only differ in one loop, so that when loading a pattern only one of the 4 tracks will be different to the pattern before
- you could use the “copy track” function in the load menu to load individual tracks from different patterns. this works immediately and some people already reported to like that function when jamming/playing live on the Zaquencer. Please see the manual P.23 for the track copying description. Also note that this will not immediately change the Flash content, so to make it permanent after track loading you´d have to store the pattern again. This seems to be good as well for playing live, as you won´t be overwriting your patterns by doing that, just playing them back.

Please let me know if you have additional questions or if this works out for you!

[alien_brainParticipant]

you could always buy another zaquencer

[RichParticipant]

Lol, @alien_brain yes that’s a good suggestion. I guess then I would have to buy double the amount of equipment (which I wouldn’t mind but my wife might). Is there a way to have two Zaquencers and have them control the same midi instrument?

@zaq, thanks for your suggestion. I will check the manual and give that a try.

[Author]

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