Sequencer 1 User’s Guide Audio Damage, Inc. For Firmware Version 1.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Audio Damage, Inc. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Audio Damage, Inc. © 2014 Audio Damage, Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 2. If You Don’t Like Reading Manuals, At Least Read This ...................................................... 6 3. Terminology ........................................................................................................................ 6 3.1. 4. 5. What’s New in Version 1.1 ...........................................................................
7.3.3. 8. Other Pattern Commands ..................................................................................................24 8.1. 9. Creating Accents..................................................................................................23 Copy & Paste ..............................................................................................................24 8.1.1. Copying Entire Patterns .......................................................................................
1. Introduction Sequencer 1 is a pattern-oriented control-voltage step sequencer with the Eurorack form factor. Inspired by the control-voltage sequencers from the dawn of modular synthesizers and the pattern sequencers of more recent drum machines and tabletop groove boxes, Sequencer 1 provides a flexible and powerful control center for generating melodic and rhythmic patterns with your Eurorack system.
numerous step and pattern settings enable you to craft intricate, evolving patterns. We hope you’ll enjoy using Sequencer 1 as much as we enjoyed creating it. 2. If You Don’t Like Reading Manuals, At Least Read This If you’d rather dive in and explore Sequencer 1 without reading a boring manual, we completely understand. We’ve designed Sequencer 1 to be as easy and immediate to use as possible, but it’s a powerful module, and the price of that power is complexity—there’s no getting around that.
4. What’s New in Version 1.1 If you’re familiar with the first version of Sequencer 1’s system software, here’s a list of what was added with version 1.1, released in December 2014: 4.1. Scales, Modes, and Keys Each pattern can now have its own scale or mode and root pitch (tonic). There are over 40 preset scales to choose from, and eight user scales for programming your own. 4.2.
5. Tour of the Panel We’ll start by looking at the knobs, buttons, and stuff on the panel. Here’s a drawing of the panel for your reference if you happen to be reading this manual while away from your equipment: 5.1. Jacks All of Sequencer 1’s jacks lie in a row across the bottom of the panel. The jacks in the group on the left, circled with grey, are inputs; those in the group on the right are outputs. 5.1.1.
5.1.2. Outputs PITCH This is the output that you’ll use to control the pitch of one or more voltage-controlled oscillators. It supplies a voltage from zero to five volts, proportionate to the note and octave you program for each step. You can choose either of two scaling systems for this output: the 1V/octave convention used by most analog synthesizers and modules, or the Hz/V convention used by Korg and Yamaha synthesizers.
time of the step. The Reset output emits a short +5V pulse when you press the Stop button. The Run output is zero when the sequencer is not running, and +5V when it’s running. If you connect these three outputs to the corresponding inputs on a second Sequencer 1, the two sequencers will start, stop, and play in sync. Yes, having two Sequencer 1s is more than twice as fun as having one. 5.2. Knobs The three knobs on the top right area of the panel are endless encoders for editing parameters.
select patterns. When editing patterns, the Step buttons are used to select steps within the pattern; selecting a step lets you alter its parameters such as setting which note it plays. Step buttons 01 through 10 have additional functions, labeled in red on the panel. To use these functions, press and hold the button, then press one of the Step buttons.
Repeats can also be activated with one of the two control-voltage inputs, so you can use voltage sources like LFOs to trigger repeats in predictable or random ways. 5.5.2. Ratchet Buttons Step buttons 15 and 16 also have a second performance-oriented function: ratcheting. Pressing or while the sequencer plays causes the Gate output to fire twice or four times per step, rather than once. 5.6.
that we’d explain everything so that you don’t have to figure out how to use Sequencer 1 all by yourself. The three edit modes you’ll use most are Tempo, Step, and Seq. We’ll look at each in turn, but first we’ll describe some features which apply to all three modes. 6.1. Entering Notes, Gates, Etc. When Sequencer 1 is in any of the three pattern-editing modes (Tempo, Step, or Seq), you can do several things with the Note, Step, and Bank buttons.
6.1.1. Tempo Mode This mode, as you can almost certainly guess, access parameters related to how fast Sequencer 1 plays. There is only one page of parameters in this mode, which are: Tempo Swing Slid 133.7 12% 5 Oct:2 +Ξ-_ Tempo Determines how fast the sequencer moves from one step to the next. This value is expressed in beats per minute, and ranges from 10 to 240.
Symbol Meaning ---> The sequencer moves from left to right, one step at a time. After it plays the Nth step, it jumps back to step 1. <--- The sequencer moves from right to left, one step at a time, starting with the Nth step. After it plays step 1, it jumps back to the Nth step. The sequencer starts with step 1, moves from left to right until it reaches step N, <---> then moves from right to left back to step 1. On each cycle, it plays steps 1 and N once.
CV1, CV2, CV3 Output Modes The Pitch CV output always generates voltages based on the note values programmed for each step in the sequence. The other three CV outputs can each operate in one of several different modes, as follows: CV Output Modes CV1 CV2 CV3 Lin LFO+ LFO Lin (short for Linear) – The CV output voltage depends on the corresponding CV values for the steps in the sequence. What you set is what you get. LFO – The CV output voltage comes directly from the corresponding LFO.
The default scale is the chromatic scale, which contains all 12 notes in the octave. If you use this scale, the notes of each step in the pattern will play exactly as you entered them. Any transposition you apply will move the notes by half steps. You can see the notes in the scale by looking at Note buttons. If a note is present in the scale, its Note button is illuminated. The lighted buttons also reflect the setting of the Tonic parameter.
Pitch CV Mode The Pitch CV operates in one of two modes which determine what happens when the sequencer plays steps whose gate is off. The two modes are: Pitch CV Hold Hold – The Pitch CV output retains the voltage it generated the last time it played a step whose gate was on. This is the default mode, and usually the one you’ll use.
7. Low-Frequency Oscillators (LFOs) Lurking within Sequencer 1 are three low-frequency oscillators. Like other LFOs, these oscillators generate periodic voltage signals which can be used to control other modules. Sequencer 1’s LFOs have a wide variety of wave shapes and are synchronized with the pattern, regardless of whether you’re using internal or external clocking.
There are some randomly generated shapes which don’t lend themselves to drawings. They are: Shape Behavior Random Step At the beginning of each cycle, the LFO’s output jumps to a randomly chosen value and stays there for the duration of its cycle. Random Ramp At the beginning of each cycle, the LFO chooses a new value at random and moves to that value in a linear manner over the duration of its cycle. Random +/- Same as Random Step but the value is always either MIN or MAX.
Phase The Phase parameter determines where the LFO starts within its cycle when the pattern starts playing. Thanks to the LFO's roots in mathematical functions, the phase value is expressed in degrees, where a complete cycle consists of 360 degrees. The following diagram shows how the phase parameter controls where the LFO's cycle starts, for several different shapes: 7.3. Using LFOs Now that we’ve described the LFO parameters, we’ll point out some subtleties which may help you make the most of the LFOs.
modules is predictable and repeatable. However, once started, the LFOs can cycle independently of the pattern. For instance, if the pattern is 16 steps long and an LFO’s Length setting is 64, the pattern will play four times before the LFO completes one cycle. Conversely, if the pattern’s length is 64 and the LFO’s is 16, the LFO will complete four cycles while the pattern plays once. This can become more interesting if the pattern length and LFO length aren’t simple multiples of each other.
8. Other Pattern Commands There are a few utility commands for working with patterns. You can duplicate entire patterns, or individual measures within a pattern, with copy and paste commands. You can also erase entire patterns and save them to the Micro SD card. 8.1. Copy & Paste You can copy patterns from one place to another, so that you can create patterns similar to one another without creating each one entirely from scratch.
Copying and pasting measures affects only the information in the steps of the measure. Information which affects the whole pattern (such as the scale, LFO settings, etc.) is unchanged. 8.2. Saving Patterns Patterns exist in RAM as you create and play them. RAM is a quaintly imprecise acronym, but what it means in practical terms is that anything stored there is lost when the power goes off.
A rising edge on the Reset jack will make Sequencer 1 reset the step index back to the first step of the pattern (where the first step is determined by the pattern’s cycle mode). The index changes in sync with the incoming clock signal; that is, the pattern will jump to the first step upon receiving a rising edge at the Clock jack after receiving a rising edge on the Reset jack. The Run jack makes Sequencer 1 play or stop. A positive input voltage makes it play, zero volts or less makes it stop.
Repeats The control voltage triggers step repeats in the same manner as the step buttons, as described under Repeat Buttons. Positive voltage inputs activate repeats, negative voltages are ignored. There is a dead zone near zero so that a small voltage won’t park Sequencer 1 in an endless series of repetitions. A voltage of 1V to 2V causes one step to be repeated, 2V to 3V repeats the last two steps, 3V to 4V repeats the last four steps, and above 4V repeats the last eight steps.
Symbol Meaning _ Empty measure - Non-empty measure Ξ Visible measure + Playing measure Since a pattern has up to four measures of 16 steps, the display always shows four of the above symbols. Here’s an example of how the symbols might appear on the LCD: Audio Damage Sequencer 1 A03 +Ξ-_ This tells you several things: The + indicates that the sequencer is playing a step in the first measure The Ξ indicates that the second measure is displayed on the LEDs.
Ext (short for External) - On the other hand, if you want the sequencer to play in time with some other sequencer, or you want to do something exotic like controlling the sequencer’s tempo with an LFO, use this setting. This option determines whether pattern changes happen at the ends of patterns or between steps. It applies to pattern changes either in response to you pressing the Bank and Step buttons or in response to a CV input.
12.3. Display Contrast Adjust this setting to make the display most legible from your current seated, standing, or lying position. 12.4. System Information This page shows the version number of the software installed in your sequencer. If this number is less than the version number of the software available at Audio Damage's website, you may want to update your sequencer. 30 Display Contrast 12 System Info Version 1.1.5.
13. Updating the Firmware Audio Damage will occasionally make available new versions of the Sequencer 1 software in order to add new features and correct defects. You can obtain these updates from our website here: http://www.audiodamage.com/hardware/product.php?pid=ADM06 Installing the new firmware is a simple process, as follows: Turn off the power to your Eurorack system.
14. And Finally… Thank you for purchasing Sequencer 1. We make every effort to ensure your satisfaction with our products, and want you to be happy with your purchase. Please write to us at info@audiodamage.com if you have any questions or comments.
