Dear User,
thanks for purchasing StepSequencer!
This is the first standalone step
sequencer available for the Scope platform from Creamware Audio. Also it is
the 1st one, which features 32 steps. The sequencer circuit itself is done with
basic low level atoms like deviders, adders, multipliers and the like. The used
ones are sync atoms only, which means, all signals are synced to the sample
frequency. This leads to a rocksolid timing.
Standalone in this case means, you can connect the StepSequencer to any other
gear, which is able to receive midi notes.
Features :
Installation:
The StepSequencer (B).dev you can
load from anywhere, but for your convinience and grabbing it from inside scope,
you can put it into the devices midi folder (located at /scope/devices/midi
or /sfp/devices/midi/ ). The presets belong into the preset folder.
Description:
There are two versions available, StepSequencer.dev needs about a half dsp
more than StepSequencer B.dev.
With StepSequencer B.dev it is not recommended to change the main presets while
pressing a key or have it running.
Always release the key or stop it, if there are note changes from one preset
to another.
Most controls should be obvious,
if you are confident with a step sequencer.
However there is some stuff not really obvious, so here's some general description
followed by special functions.
All steps can be set within a note range from C-2 up to C8. For all steps there is a big velocity slider as well as a gate slider available (below the velocity slider).
Following settings are only saved
with the project:
midi in/out channel, bpm, int/ext sync switch, automatic reset, view, bypass,
gate preset lock switch, all settings in the step settings connector
The lower area of the surface contains from the left to the right
some words to not that obvious functions :
Midi Reset:
Hitting on the manual button will reset all midi notes of the connected midi device within a second. Activating the smaller automatic reset button will do this everytime you release a key without having hit another key before (e.g. if you play legato, there won't be any reset until you leave all keys).
Swing:
As you can see on the right of the
swing sliders, these affect only special steps of the timeline.
The lowest one affects the most steps (2-6-10-14-18-22-26-30), the middle one
affects step 4-12-20-28,
the uppest one affects step 8-16-24-32.
This kind of subdivison lets you apply very different kind of grooves.
Just play around with it and you'll see the advantage of it very fast.
With the small buttuns beside the sliders you can connect each slider with another one (two active ones are enough to connect all).
Reload the preset, if you think,
the swing slider values weren't restored correctly.
Sometimes this does happen due the asynchronous and therefor later switching
connect buttons.
LFO:
The LFO gives your groove experience
even more sophistication and live performance feeling,
because it can change the swing amount over time.
With shape you select the waveform
(sinus, square, up/down triangle).
With phase you can adjust, where in the waveform it starts (e.g. setting it
to -180° with a square will always start at zero on key down).
The sync selector lets you adjust, how often on a 32 step runthrough the waveform
should change.
Amount set to zero unloads the LFO section from dsp and sets the amount, how
heavy the swing should be.
Finally with the destination selector you can choose, which of the three swing
parameters to control (you can still activate the connect buttons to additionally
control anyone of the others as well).
View Options:
Button for changing the view of the step division. There are three different views available.
Composition Tools:
By clicking on this button a separate surface called "Step Setting Connector"
with much more buttons will open, which will (hopefully) help to speed up your
composition of the single steps.
You can connect every 8th or 16th note, velocity or gate lenght setting, so
you just have to change one setting to get the other ones changed as well. This
is possible for any step up to the 8th one for the connect-eight-steps setting.
With the connect-16-steps setting this works similar, but instead of selecting
the e.g. 2nd step to connect it with the 18th step only, the 10th step is connected
to the 26th as well. This behavour is indicated by the numbers 1/9, 2/10, etc.
The composition tools are mainly thought to get a nice line in a fast ways. If you are using these tools later, take care that you don'tchange some already finished settings accidently.
Local Gate Presets:
With the blue LED beside the preset button on the right of the gate sliders you can lock the gate settings to the gate preset list. This means, the gate settings are unaffected from changes of the main preset list.
Bypass Button :
This one bypasses the step sequencer,
so you can check the settings of the connected device. Keep in mind that in
case of bypass the outgoing channel will always be the one set at the midi input
selector.
Last but not least ..
Midi Note Hangers:
Although there are already many fixes integrated to avoid this situation in most cases, you might experience midi note hangers (well, it's midi after all). This especially can happen while changing the main presets, so take care with that.
Nonetheless here are some ways to circumstance situations, where midi note hangers still happen :
I hope you'll have much fun with
this device !!
If there are any questions left, don't hesitate to mail
me
Wolfgang Rüter
---
wolf audio design
legal shit:
this manual is subject of change, especially if an update of the device is released.
no response for damaging your gear or making you happy. of course you aren't
allowed to deliver this device to anyone else, but you can use it on as many
scope cards as you like.