Any sequencer recommendations ?

[Din Of Win]

Hey TB,

I've been listening to a TON of Atom and His Package lately and I've been inspired. I have some synthy pop songs that have been floating around my head for a while now and listening to all this AHIP has motivated me to attempt to take it to the next level.

I have VERY little synth oriented back ground apart from a Korg Synth and Electroplankton for my Nintendo DS.

After some research, i thing a sequencer is what i'm looking for. However, specifics seem daunting.

Does anyone have any sequencer experience that they might feel like sharing with me?

 

[bassteban]

Bumpage. I have a couple of vintage synths* & want to know more about these dealios.

*One is an Ensoniq ESQ-1, which has a sequencer but I'm not having much success in figuring the durn thing out. I need moron-level ease of use, if that's not too much to ask. The other synth is a Roland JXP-8; any suggestions for a non-computer-based unit that would play nicely w/these would be awesome.

 

[bassteban]

Nothin'?

 

[Snarf]

Reason. It's the best. It's also really simple. And it's rewireable if you need to overdub audio.

 

[bassteban]

I should also add that I'm not computer-based; I'm looking mostly at separate units for now. Reason's software, correct?
I do appreciate any input.

Edit: I'm also considering dumping my ESQ-1 & replacing it w/something newer(SH-201, JP-8000, Miniak, etc)- I'm not sure, but don't some of these guys have onboard sequencers?

 

[bassteban]

Somebody here has to know more than me on these things.

 

[koobie]

Try to find one of the discontinued Alesis MMT-8 sequencers, they're very, very easy to use. Editing is a chore though and they have extremely limited storage space, but they're great for simple stuff. Should be able to find one second-hand for $50 tops.

 

[Bobbo 77"]

Órale Din,
I've been using both Roland and Ensoniq gear for LIVE sequence back-up (mainly for drum's, perc, and Horn's) since 1995. On my budget, the Roland XP-50 & 60, and the Ensoniq EPS(?...memory) are what we've used. Are you just writing or thinking for live performance?
Since I'm in a small town, and we are from a R&B, Funk, Latin background, and, drummer's in this vein are NOT here, I've relied on sequencing to able to play our style of music. Been working like this since 95'...with great result's! Good luck

 

[bassteban]

Writing mostly, but my thoughts are if it's easy enough & quickly-editable for live use it would be easy enough for me.
I'll look into the Alesis and Roland stuff- any other specific models I might try?

 

[Hoover]

Bumpage. I have a couple of vintage synths* & want to know more about these dealios.

*One is an Ensoniq ESQ-1, which has a sequencer but I'm not having much success in figuring the durn thing out. I need moron-level ease of use, if that's not too much to ask.

At the risk of offending you (for which I apologize in advance), programming an ESQ-1 sequencer is moron-level ease of use.

Once you understand the paradigm of MIDI sequencing in general -- or MIDI drum machine programming, same concept -- the ESQ-1 allows you to access all that capability in a suprisingly user-friendly interface. It's also a wicked cool sounding tone generator; hang on to that puppy, they sound great imho.

However, if concepts such as "virtual tracks", "step entry", "quantization", or "voice allocation" are totally foreign to you, it's not the ESQ-1 that's holding you back. You can apparently download the owner's manual for free -- at least, the guy I sold my ESQ-1 to a month ago told me he did (I still have an ESQ-M module, so I still have access to the aforementioned wicked cool sounds, I just use it with a Mac-based DAW/sequencer) -- so maybe reading through the Ensoniq manual will give you a better grasp on how to use the capabilities of your fine machine.

 

[Bobbo 77"]

Órale bassteban,
Both the Ensoniq and Roland are easy to use, and for LIVE purposes, the Roland work's great. I can store about 13-15 song's, 1 and 1/2 set's worth of live material on one 3.5 disc. I'm sure there's more updated gear out there, but for our live and studio purposes, the Roland work's grooovy!

 

[Plissken]

I would recommend Reason as well. It is software. It's basically a virtual rack of synthesizers and you also get a drum machine and quite a few effects. It's really a great piece of software if you know how to use it.

 

[D.A.R.K.]

for software sequencing i greatly prefer ableton live over reason...
i run audio and video off of sequencing with it live,
plus with the clip matrix you can easily improvise and return to arrangements on the fly. not to mention the max/msp native partnership so you can roll your own.... for older hardware you can get a midi/ cv converter to work easily with software, as long as you correctly adjust latency..