I am imagining a step sequencer that only moves forward one step when you depress a footswitch (or whatever other controller.)
My use case is to preprogram a bass line (and some simple drums) to act as a backing track, except that I am in control of the tempo and can introduces pauses when I like.
Eg.
hit the pedal => 1st step of the sequence plays
hit the pedal again => 2nd step of the sequence plays
I am close to finishing my Bachelors in CS (woohoo!) and at this point I have a little bit of exposure to C++, as well as Java and Python.
But I donāt know anything about midi/plugins except as a user. My impression is that my idea could be problematic because on Mod (like in most cases) the loop is either playing or not playing, and doing so according to a set tempo.
Is my idea possible on the mod? Does anyone have any advice on getting started?
@dylanious If I understand your idea correctly, this should definitely be possible.
For me it always works well to look at plugins that already do something similar to the thing I want to achieve.The stepseq plugin could be a useful reference to get started and get an idea on how to implement a MIDI-sequencer:
This plugin does sequence the notes based on a clock, but you could replace this mechanism with a trigger control so that, if the control is triggered the sequencers moves to the next step. The following plugin uses a trigger control to generate a new random value, so you could have a look at this for reference:
Al the examples above are in C. If you would prefer to do it C++, I would advice you to have a look at https://github.com/DISTRHO/DPF . In the README is a link to the documentation of this framework and there is also a list to source code of plugins created using DPF. Especially the https://github.com/SpotlightKid/midiomatic could be a good reference on how to set up some kind of MIDI plugin.
There is also of course the https://lv2plug.in/ site for general information and documentation regarding LV2 plugins.
Hoping to trigger step sequencer steps with midi notes, to change effects or routing for each successive note, modular style.
Iām surprised thereās not been more interest in manual/CV/Midi triggering of clock, but Iām guessing thatās more a āmodular synthā way of thinking than a āguitar pedalā audience.
Itās still Day 1, but Iām tremendously stoked on the possibilities of the platform!
Iāll probably be all synth through this thing to begin with!
Just for reference, Owen Biddle and Zach Danzinger demonstrate a similar midi implementation in this video - thereās a whole ton of fun stuff here to add to the wishlist
The clock side of things may be the one that Iām having fewer ideas about.
I assume that you are using a MIDI keyboard or pads to trigger the notes.
On the plugin to trigger the sequencer, sorry, I mistake the name. Perhaps the MIDI Note to CC.
If I understood well what you want, you can use this plugin to convert the MIDI Note into CC and then use this CC message to map on On/Off. Thatās what was on my mind.
Ah, I see. Not what I was inquiring about, but thank you.
The use of a trigger to progress through a series of settings/steps in a sequence is common in modular land. Iirc, some of the Eventide harmonizer programs used similar mechanics. This concept has also recently begun to show up in guitar pedals like the Chase Bliss Thermae and Strymonās Night Sky.
This is the kind of āmanually-triggered clock/steps in a sequenceā setup Iām thinking about, fyi.
Maybe Iām just not getting right what you exactly want to do (can you find a video example or so? maybe it would help). But I would say with 60/70% sure that if itās something applicable on the guitar or modular synth world, you probably can do it somehow with the MOD platform.
EDIT: Is any other user reading this that can understand something that Iām not? Maybe is just one of my neurons kind of off
@six_wax is the following what you are describing?
You create a sequence in a step sequencer.
Rather than āplayingā the sequence start to finish it moves through one step at a time.
Each step happens on a pedal press (or other discrete input).
1 press = 1 step.
Thank you so much for the assistance @danmh! Sorry for my āmelted brainā @six_wax
I think what you want to do can be achieved by loading a Step Sequencer and assigning the sync on/off switch to a momentary switch. Iām not sure why, but the Step Sequencer doesnāt have the new momentary mode feature (maybe @falkTX or @jesse can give me a bit of help on this). You can use some sort of MIDI controller with a momentary switch.
Any success stories here? My use case is exactly the same! I use a Zoia sequencer to do this atm but would love to get the same functionality from the Dwarf without hooking them up.
