Recording in AU Sequencer?

YZJustDatGuy

Are there any AU sequencers or sequencers that can be used in AUM that let you record the notes you want to be sequenced? I’m very new to AUM but wanted to give a try. I come from a sequencing background starting from the MPC. I use BM3 as my main daw on iOS but I’m having a lot of AU issues lately. Any help would be appreciated

Edit: I'm not trying to take the traditional DAW approach when using AUM. I want to use it for something more ambient, free flowing but there are certain notes I want to play and keep on sequence.

ageezz

My suggestion would be StepPolyArpUnit. Newly released as an AU and ticks 99% of the boxes for me. And it integrates well into AUM although have not tried it with other hosts.

wim

SPA Unit is great, but it doesn’t record notes in the way I think you’re wanting to do.

BeatHawk can do it, but it’s not ideal in some ways. Rozeta Cells can do it in step-edit, but it’s very limited as a note recorder (though very cool for other uses).

It’s a big huge gaping hole begging to be filled. I hope someone like @brambos gets inspired to create something like this.

YZJustDatGuy

@wim said:
SPA Unit is great, but it doesn’t record notes in the way I think you’re wanting to do.

BeatHawk can do it, but it’s not ideal in some ways. Rozeta Cells can do it in step-edit, but it’s very limited as a note recorder (though very cool for other uses).

It’s a big huge gaping hole begging to be filled. I hope someone like @brambos gets inspired to create something like this.

What kind of way does it let you input the notes? I definitely had my eye on it but wasn't sure how it worked. I have the rozeta suite already as well.

wim

BeatHawk? Or Rozeta?

You send midi notes to BeatHawk and record them into and edit them in a piano roll. Or, you can play / record notes on the BeatHawk pads or built-in keyboard. In a lot of ways it’s like a recording notes in a bank in BM3. The piano roll takes a bit of getting used to but is pretty good once you do. You have to disable the BeatHawk metronome when recording or you get a buzzing noise.

For Rozeta Cells, you touch the cell you want to record into, then play a note or notes. Whatever you play is stored in that cell, and then it advances to the next cell. It’s not a real-time midi recorder, it’s step step recording only. You can set cells to play nothing (rests) and set the gate length for the cells either globally or individually. You can set accents on cells, but there’s only two velocities - accented or not. Also, there’s no visual indication of the notes recorded in each cell - a big downside IMO. Rozeta Cells’ strength lies in the way you can set it to move around in the patterns of cells in interesting ways, not as a midi recorder.

BeatHawk comes the closest to being a midi record and playback AU IMO. But by the time I hassle with the setup etc, I find it easier to just use Cubasis until BM3 sorts itself out hopefully some time.

YZJustDatGuy

@wim said:
BeatHawk? Or Rozeta?

You send midi notes to BeatHawk and record them into and edit them in a piano roll. Or, you can play / record notes on the BeatHawk pads or built-in keyboard. In a lot of ways it’s like a recording notes in a bank in BM3. The piano roll takes a bit of getting used to but is pretty good once you do. You have to disable the BeatHawk metronome when recording or you get a buzzing noise.

For Rozeta Cells, you touch the cell you want to record into, then play a note or notes. Whatever you play is stored in that cell, and then it advances to the next cell. It’s not a real-time midi recorder, it’s step step recording only. You can set cells to play nothing (rests) and set the gate length for the cells either globally or individually. You can set accents on cells, but there’s only two velocities - accented or not. Also, there’s no visual indication of the notes recorded in each cell - a big downside IMO. Rozeta Cells’ strength lies in the way you can set it to move around in the patterns of cells in interesting ways, not as a midi recorder.

BeatHawk comes the closest to being a midi record and playback AU IMO. But by the time I hassle with the setup etc, I find it easier to just use Cubasis until BM3 sorts itself out hopefully some time.

I was referring to StepPolyArp actually. I'm familiar with Beathawk and its sequencer.

wim

Oh. I dunno then. I’ve only ever used SPA Unit as an arp or to set the notes up in sequences (not recording). To set specific notes, you put it in sequence mode, then set each row to an absolute note. What you end up with is something that looks like a piano roll, and then you just poke in the cells. The great thing about it as a sequencer is the ability to set probability and and some other perameters on a per-note basis. The bad thing compared to a regular piano roll is velocity, pan, etc are per step, not per note.

Others can probably do a better job of answering that question than I can. I mostly use it as an arp.

YZJustDatGuy

@wim said:
Oh. I dunno then. I’ve only ever used SPA Unit as an arp or to set the notes up in sequences (not recording). To set specific notes, you put it in sequence mode, then set each row to an absolute note. What you end up with is something that looks like a piano roll, and then you just poke in the cells. The great thing about it as a sequencer is the ability to set probability and and some other perameters on a per-note basis. The bad thing compared to a regular piano roll is velocity, pan, etc are per step, not per note.

Others can probably do a better job of answering that question than I can. I mostly use it as an arp.

Ah ok I see. Thank you for the info. Might give it a shot

wim

It might not be what you’re looking for, but you simply can’t lose with SPA in any case.

Sygma

Modstep should be a good option, if the UI is ok for you

YZJustDatGuy

@Sygma said:
Modstep should be a good option, if the UI is ok for you

The UI looks overwhelming lol and I’m sure there’s a steep learning curve. It also hasn’t been updated in almost a year. I’m sure it’s great tho

senhorlampada

I still don't have it, but from what I understood, what you need is Xequence

ageezz

@senhorlampada said:
I still don't have it, but from what I understood, what you need is Xequence

Xequence is great but it does not run as an AU and cannot be controlled (start/stop) by the host. I do seem to remember the dev saying that he had some updates in the pipeline - not sure if this will impact.

eross

Rosetta cells or step poly arp would be my suggestions. i’d send a screen capture of cells in action, but i do t know how to load a video up on here.

YZJustDatGuy

@eross said:
Rosetta cells or step poly arp would be my suggestions. i’d send a screen capture of cells in action, but i do t know how to load a video up on here.

I have Rozeta so I’ll have to look into it more. I’ll also pick up StepPolyArp as well and dig in.