SQ-909 (or whatever)
April 3, 2006
Not having a TR-808 or TR-909 or whatever, I’m having a hard time coming up with the concept for a control panel for my step sequencer. The first step is figuring out exactly what buttons and LEDs are wanted / needed. Thus far I’ve got a run button/LED, 16 buttons/LEDs for the various steps, a 16-position BANK knob, a 16-position MODE knob, a 16-position INSTRUMENT knob, and a detented rotary encoder for TEMPO.
Maybe a three-digit seven-segment LED display so tempo can be shown numerically?
If you’d like, I could give you hi-res pics of my 909 and 808 in action.
The 808 is strictly analog tempo control, just a knob. The 909 is digital, has the three digit LED display that will show tempo in the right mode… but on the other hand, it adds complexity, and I don’t know how many people use drum sequencers as master clocks for the rest of the rig anyhow.
Thanks, I’m able to get some of those… I guess what I don’t understand is how lots of the other buttons on the sequencer portions work.
Would just a simple patterns stored in banks and linkable into songs mode work, the way it does in the x0xb0x?
I’m not sure how much harder it would be to do the tempo stuff. Or would simple x0xb0x-like tempo stuffs (turn the knob to speed up or slow down) be sufficient?
Yes, simple patterns stored in banks and chainable as knobs would work. 808s and 909s both have a way to set time division, though, and that’s a little more important for a drum box than the x0x. I’d forgotten about that bit.
And, admittedly, I’m quite fond of the 808s dual pattern method. On the 808, every pattern actually has two patterns of 16 steps, pattern A and pattern B. There’s a hardware 3-position switch for playing A, A then B, or B. Makes it easier to get longer patterns with the faster time divisions, and for realtime pattern variation.
I thought you were deferring to the mulletbox project, given how far along that one appears to be?
Eh, I… Got bored today and started playing in Illustrator. ;)
I don’t think an A/B switch would be difficult to do either.
Hmm, and time division… Let me think about that…