Xequence Overview First look | TheAudioDabbler

TheAudioDabbler

hellquist

Thanks @gmslayton. Good stuff. I'm now convinced I can put it to good use.

skiphunt

That was helpful. Dang it! I didn't really think I needed this one but I agree it's a well designed interface that I'd get some use out of. I don't necessarily like it more than Modstep, but for more focussed editing and being able to use it on the iPhone as well... I might have to indulge.

I like the way @gmslayton sometimes figures stuff out on the fly if it isn't understood completely. Although, did you figure out with the crossed arrows icon on the keyboard is for?

Also, I read that automation counts as another track, but in this demo is looks like the added automation on the piano track is embedded in that same track and not a separate track altogether. Is that so?

Thanks!

thesoundtestroom

I'm so pleased you made this

SevenSystems

@gmslayton, congrats on being the first one to make a Xequence video, it's turned out great.

Maybe I can drop a few comments / hints here, so people get an even more detailed idea about some stuff:

• 3:16 - You're probably aware, but just for completeness sake: when you use an instrument for drums, it's best to set the scale (bottom left menu) to "C Chromatic", as this will show ALL available notes (drums).
• 6:06 - For filling a part with notes, there's also the "Fill" option in the "Magic Wand" menu. In this case, you could either have drawn one 2th note, and then just hit "Fill", OR, if you actually want the notes to be 4th notes, but with a 4th note gap between them, you could have kept the quarter note, selected "2" for the grid, and then Fill (Fill respects the grid settings when filling the part).
• 8:16 - Yeah, we'll build in a basic audio metronome
• 11:07 - The "Single Tap selects none" option affects how you deselect notes or parts, i.e. when tapping in an empty area. We made the default "double tap to deselect" because when in "Add" select mode, you will often tap multiple notes in succession, but if you just barely "miss" a note, your whole selection will be gone IF a single tap is enough to deselect all. So, we made it that a DOUBLE tap is required to deselect all. This can be changed to single tap (the way most other apps do it) with this setting. There's also another selection option which is right in the Pianoroll / Arranger, in the "Little boxes" menu: "Add" / "Replace". There, you can select if tapping something actually adds to the selection, or replaces the selection entirely.
• 12:10 - While drawing a note, you can also drag up/down to instantly transpose / hear which note you actually wanted to draw.
• 13:10 - There's various ways to edit velocities or controllers: Either like you did (using the Draw tool), or you can also drag the vertical handle at the right screen edge. You can also scale (make the differences bigger / smaller) by using the "Range" options in the "Magic Wand" menu. On another note: If you want to edit the velocities of only certain notes (for example, when you have a chord and all notes overlap), you could, while still in "Notes" mode, select the top-most note of the chord, then enter "Velocity" mode, and only the velocity of the selected (top-most) note of the chord will be edited.
• 13:42 - A quick way to select (or deselect) all is to double-tap in an empty area.
• 13:55 - To select any number of objects, without them being in a rectangle, you could also set the "Boxes" menu to "Add", and then just tap several parts / notes etc. in succession.
• 14:30 - "Split" always splits all selected parts at the current song position. I should probably add a warning message there if no selected parts are affected, so people don't think it's not working.
• 20:02 - The Pianoroll modes: Leftmost is "Glide" (move your finger across the keys horizontally and it will trigger them when dragging over them), middle is "Scroll", rightmost is "Lock" (you can't scroll neither glide... for the clumsy among us! )

So, my only complaint is the musical quality of the demo song, that really needs some work

Great stuff, thanks again!

SevenSystems

@skiphunt said:
Also, I read that automation counts as another track, but in this demo is looks like the added automation on the piano track is embedded in that same track and not a separate track altogether. Is that so?

Automation is always stored in the parts ("clips"), and so you can in theory add all 3 automation parameters (those defined on the target instrument) in one part, on one track. However, it's best to separate both notes and each controller to their separate tracks to keep everything tidy. No sales pitch!

[Deleted User]

Awesome video bro!!! This has really made me see things i had no idea i could do in this amazing sequencer! I’m so glad we now have a truly pro simple to use sequencer on both the iPhone and iPad.

Was laughing at the point when you loaded iSEM, LOL!!! “You can do it” !!! LOL!

Yeah, that synth is super nice but it needs loading at tweaking by the dev. But it is really nice though.

I hope everyone jumps on this sequencer now after this video, it’s going to be get a lot of folks off the fence!

The prices is really fair and the IAP is currently at a special low price of $5.99 so jump on it before it goes up!

@gmslayton said:

ExAsperis99

Excellent primer, as usual. You always answer questions that arise as I watch. Thank you especially for the quick AUM set up. This looks really, really useful.

TheAudioDabbler

@SevenSystems thanks for the clarifications. Really enjoying this app. Super fluid. I think we have gotten caught up into this all in one app solutions and your app is refreshing in that its pretty specific. A midi sequencer that is really well designed. Also I am not know for the musical quality in my videos. I am working on that though. I am usually to focused on how it works to make anything useful.

SevenSystems

@gmslayton: The "Musical quality" thing was a bit tongue-in-cheek as well I'm glad you like it and give people the opportunity to get a closer look.