Hey everyone, I've been searching for a while now for a simple explanation/patch that demonstrates how to implement a 16 step sequencer. As it stands, I have made a patch that can trigger different notes/drum hits according to BPM but I don't know how to logically extend that to include notes/drum sounds being triggered on a certain step.

I've seen numerous step sequences that implement an 808 style sequencer, whereby you can select what step the beat is triggered, but I am unable to do it myself.

I've downloaded a number of patches that can do this, but they're awash with shit I don't know about. I know I'd have to use vradio or hradio bars to select the active steps but again I dont know how to implement the kind of delay necessary to do that. On top of that it seems that some people have got the radio bars to be able to take multiple steps.

Anyway, I was hoping someone could help. Hopefully I was clear enough in expressing my issue!

Cheers in advance for your help!

@Mdns Hello there.......
This tutorial is fairly good............

If you don't understand it (at all) then you need to read this (up to but not including chapter 2.9).....
http://puredata.info/docs/manuals/pd/x2.htm
and this.......
http://en.flossmanuals.net/pure-data/audio-tutorials/step-sequencer/
David.

@whale-av

Hi David,

Thanks you for the links. I should have mentioned, the sequencer you linked I have already made. It works well for osc~ and mtof functions, but I was unsure how to extend it to enable selecting individual steps ala an 808 style sequencer (short of rewiring each output).

Perhaps I need to go away and think about it more, which I will. Just struggling to bridge the gap between what's here and what I need.

How would I turn steps on and off? Using toggles?

If someone could hold my hand through this I'd be super grateful.

Here are some abstractions to use.. my solution was to separate the on/off from the sliders, so the on/off part can be used to trigger other stuff (or multiple banks of sliders).
seqstuffs.zip
you can also use this more fully-featured sequencer i made awhile ago to drive it, instead of cycle count (scroll down to the version 3 one
http://forum.pdpatchrepo.info/topic/4543/yet-another-sequencer-buchla-style-not-including-randomizer
(see mseq-help for an example of how to combine tseq and mseq)

since you wanted to understand how they work, i'll try a brief description:
the values for the toggles and sliders are stored in tables internal to the abstraction. This way, when you want to know the value for a certain step, a simple table lookup is all that is required, rather than selecting the correct number from a list. this is more computationally efficient. The tabread in each patch is the table lookup

whenever values are changed in the abstractions, the value of the table at that index is changed as well. (this is the lower tab write part)

[tabdump] from zexy dumps the values of the sequence at the right outlet

The route stuff at the top is just to be able to intercept the messages to the abstractions.

and cycle count works by counting up until a limit is reached, then resetting cup

in mseq, the receives for setboxes are to link the sliders and the number boxes, but to use the "set" message on the number boxes so that there won't be an infinite loop when changing the sliders (because the value would go from slider to # box to slider to #box to slider etc)

and the way that they are combined to turn steps off in the mseq helpfile:
the step from cycle count is stored in a float object, and then sent to tseq. if the step is toggled on, tseq will put out a bang, sending the step value from the float object into mseq, which gets the value

Here i simple concept attached : sequencer_concept.pd

Also take a look at VisualTracker (http://pdpatchrepo.info/patches/patch/192)

aleš

@seb-harmonik.ar

that's amazing, thanks so much for your help. basic-ass question, but I was wondering, how did you set the toggles within the mseq and tseq box (what are those boxes? are they a canvas?

@Mdns the red box? yeah it's called "graph on parent" and allows you to display a canvas for an abstraction

@seb-harmonik.ar

hectic. dude I can't thank you enough. This is seriously brilliant. I couldn't have done this without the help.

It's probably going to take me a couple of days to properly digest, but this is defintely what I was after,

Thanks again mate. Peace!