Xequence 2.3 Public Beta (MPE)

SevenSystems

Dear forum members and (soon-to-be) MIDI sequencing enthusiasts!

It's been a long time since the last major update to Xequence 2, but finally, we're almost there!

Xequence 2.3 introduces, among other goodies, full support for MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) -- including recording, playback and full editing of recorded notes and expression data.

And this is also precisely why I'm going with a public beta this time: I'm not an MPE expert, but I know many forum users are enthusiastic about MPE support on iOS and have the necessary hardware and experience.

So, here's the TestFlight link:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/0BHeU8z7

Here's the preliminary 2.3 manual:

http://seven.systems/xequence2/en/manual-2.3/

...which has an entire section on MPE (please read if you want to test MPE support!)

http://seven.systems/xequence2/en/manual-2.3/#section-12

Here's the official webpage on the 2.3 beta, including the full changelog:

http://seven.systems/xequence2/en/2.3/

Feel free to use this thread for any suggestions, questions or general feedback and discussion, which would be much appreciated! Also, report any issues you may find here.

I'm especially interested in suggestions for improving MPE editing workflow (no extremely major changes can be made anymore, but small tweaks that might have a big impact are definitely possible still!)

Thanks and happy testing!

SevenSystems

Oh, and here's the full Changelog in case you're too lazy to click on the link above!

MPE (MIDI POLYPHONIC EXPRESSION) SUPPORT:

• Per-note controller data can be recorded, played back AND edited, including selecting individual notes and using all regular controller editor tools to edit only that note's expression data.

• The Pianoroll Editor is fully aware of MPE data attached to notes and all edits to notes (movement, length changes, deletion, duplication etc.) will be applied to any attached MPE controller data automatically. When selecting notes, their respective controller data is visible on the note.

• The quantization engine is also fully MPE data aware and will map MPE data as appropriate when quantizing notes.

• Lower or upper MPE zones can be selected per instrument, including the number of member channels.

• Extensive features for automatic (re-)assignment of channels to notes and controller data, configurable separately for recording, drawing, depending on zone membership, per instrument, etc.

CONTROLLER / NOTE EDITING IMPROVEMENTS:

• GHOST NOTES / CONTROLLERS: In all editors, any controllers or notes from other clips / tracks (highly configurable) can be shown greyed out in the background as an editing reference.

• VERTICAL SCALE: Each controller can now be assigned a custom "Display as" range (say, 0 to 20000 for when it is controlling a filter cutoff, or -48 to 48 for Pitch) which will be shown in all sliders, in the new vertical grid, and so on (of course, the actual values sent out are still in the usual MIDI range of 0-127 or 0-16383).

• VERTICAL ZOOMING: The Controller / Velocity Editor can now be zoomed and/or panned vertically as well, to enable more precise editing.

• The minimum and maximum MIDI values (or single value) of currently selected controller or velocity data are visualized, for more precise editing.

• INTERACTIVE SCALING: Controller data can now be scaled upwards/downwards (instead of only moved) interactively with two new vertical handles, superseding the "Range" tool in the "Process" menu.

• DIRECT VALUE ENTRY: Precise controller values can be entered directly to set or scale the selection. For 14-bit values, entry can be either as the full value, or as LSB and/or MSB (the other 7-bit are automatically kept intact).

• FULL, ROBUST (N)RPN SUPPORT: 7 or 14 bit (N)RPNs can be set up, recorded, edited transparently, played back, sent live, and imported / exported via MIDI files. Highly configurable for maximum flexibility and compatibility.

• PITCH BEND is now handled at FULL 14 BIT resolution (used to be limited to MSB / 7 bit).

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Ability to SAVE and LOAD instruments, including MIDI destination & channel, sync settings, color, controller setup, MPE settings, and drum map.
• Grid: Grid snapping can now be toggled independently of grid display in all editors.
• Pianoroll / Controller Editor: The mode / data type dropdown now shows entries in color when the clip contains data of the corresponding type, making it easier to see at a glance what controller data / notes are contained in a clip.
• Xequence's behaviour on launch can now be configured ("Restore last session", "New project", "Ask").
• Pianoroll Editor: Do not send unnecessary Note Offs when editing controllers.
• Automatic clearing of existing controller data when touching controller sliders while recording into the Controller editor can now be turned off in Settings -> MIDI / Recording -> Recording. Likewise, automatic clearing can now also be used (and is enabled by default) for incoming MIDI controllers (from first event till end of recording, as there is no mechanism in MIDI to determine when a controller has been touched).
• Arranger: Smart automatic track names for untitled tracks that contain only controller data.
• PolyHymnia: Bring back the "X-Ray" toggle from Xequence 1.
• Control Change numbers 0 and 120-127 can now be used as well (used to be limited to 1-119).
• Various optimizations and user interface refinements throughout the app.
• MIDI Thru now supports PolyPressure messages (Polyphonic AfterTouch).
• Ableton Link: More accurate sync with large audio buffer sizes.
• Various cosmetic tweaks and usability improvements.

MISCELLANEOUS:

• Ableton Link settings have moved to the Tempo dropdown in the transport toolbar.
• MIDI Sync now sends "Continue" instead of "Start" when Play is pressed.
• Controller backtracing: Do not backtrace controller values on "Play" (they will already have been set by any previous song position change; if they have been changed manually in between, that is probably on purpose and should not be overridden).
• Added Factory Drum Maps for: Reason Compact (Rytmik), DigiStix, sEGments.
• The "Multitrack Recording Source" section of the track menu is now only shown when MT Recording is actually enabled in the top toolbar.
• Removed flashing of the "Draw" toggles as some users found it distracting.
• Record quantization is now turned off by default in new projects.
• More robust project recovery in case of a crash.
• Do not list "Audiobus" as a MIDI In or Multitrack Recording source when not connected.
• Removed optimization for controller recording over MIDI that could sometimes cause incoming controller data to be erroneously seen as redundant and not recorded.
• Updated Audiobus library for improved stability in Audiobus.

FIXES:

• Fix controller ribbons of newly duplicated instruments sometimes defaulting to -64.
• Fix arranger handles sometimes missing after "Use this take".
• Fix Ableton Link sometimes not being in the correct state on app launch.
• Fix for Ableton Link session tempo sometimes being changed by Xequence on launch.
• Fix repeating "Wrong scale" error in rare situations when trying to edit certain clips.
• Fix "Delete" button in the bottom toolbar sometimes getting triggered when tapping exactly between it and the horizontal handles.
• Arranger: Do not follow song position during playback while selecting a split point.
• Instrument editor: Fix controllers reverting to page 1 when editing some aspects of an instrument or controller.
• Instrument editor: Update the MIDI queue when changing controller options.
• MIDI Sync: Fix SPP (Song Position) sometimes being off by a factor of 4.
• MIDI Import: Fix potential import errors with rare combinations of import settings.
• MIDI Import: Discard empty track names or names that consist entirely of whitespace.
• Fix occassional corruption of MIDI Thru or Input data.
• Fix sometimes incorrect / corrupt bank changes sent when moving the song pointer.
• Fix right-most Controller Editor toolbar buttons sometimes disappearing when very long controller titles were used.
• Arranger: Fix spurious "Set Track Swing Grid" entries in Undo history.
• Keyboard: Fix erroneous MIDI output in edge cases when sliding rapidly with multiple fingers.
• Fix wrong number of MIDI sources shown in "Sources:" button when Audiobus source is enabled but Audiobus is not running.
• Fix grid options (dotted, triplets etc.) being disabled when switching grid from "Off" to "Auto".
• Better handling of "out of memory" situations.

[Deleted User]

Impressive!

Synthi

Great!!! 😍

Foleslaw

WOW!!!

senhorlampada

Daaaamn. Thanks brother
That's good news
I'm an MPE noob
But maybe I can test it

senhorlampada

But the (N)PRN update will be great to use with some of my older gear

waka_x

fantastic update this will be !!!!!!
big thanks

timelining

Ghost notes! Noice!

SevenSystems

@senhorlampada said:
But the (N)PRN update will be great to use with some of my older gear

That would be great! I still remember my old trusty AN1x and the fact that Cubase couldn't handle the "brown" knobs back in 1998 or so... damn I'm old!

Poppadocrock

I highly recommend people try this out. This is a great app for all your midi needs.

@SevenSystems Quick Question before I beta, are there any known issues with going from the app to jumping on the beta ? I don’t wanna lose all my saved songs or anything… just making sure.

Poppadocrock

Wow, lots of features & improvements in this update. Awesome.

audiblevideo

@SevenSystems i hope this means you are feeling or doing marginally better than your past remarks have intimated my friend.

michael_m

Damn, that’s a long list!

[Deleted User]

For some time now my experience using the Xequence 2/AUM/Audiobus combination seems to have become less fluid.
Sometimes the combination/interaction seems to ‘break’: for instance suddenly Xequence needs to be restarted/relaunched in Audiobus to make things work again.
Also the saving process seems to have become much less reliable: AUM and Xequence states don’t get saved in Audiobus which I sometimes only realize on reopening the project.

For now with the new beta Xequence does not seem to open the project associated Audiobus preset (which it normally does with Xeq/AUM/Audiobus projects) and only asks me if I want to restore the last session…

Of course I don’t now where the possible hiccup might lie. Maybe it’s something in Audiobus or AUM?

edit: of course right after posting this everything worked fine, the process does seem more hiccupy (from before the update), I don’t know why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t and why I sometimes need to tap Xequence to launch from Audiobus and sometimes not.. I really like working with this combination though..

note: Air 2020 IOS 15.2

Zerozerozero

@prtr_jan said:
For some time now my experience using the Xequence 2/AUM/Audiobus combination seems to have become less fluid.
Sometimes the combination/interaction seems to ‘break’: for instance suddenly Xequence needs to be restarted/relaunched in Audiobus to make things work again.
Also the saving process seems to have become much less reliable: AUM and Xequence states don’t get saved in Audiobus which I sometimes only realize on reopening the project.

For now with the new beta Xequence does not seem to open the project associated Audiobus preset (which it normally does with Xeq/AUM/Audiobus projects) and only asks me if I want to restore the last session…

Of course I don’t now where the possible hiccup might lie. Maybe it’s something in Audiobus or AUM?

edit: of course right after posting this everything worked fine, the process does seem more hiccupy (from before the update), I don’t know why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t and why I sometimes need to tap Xequence to launch from Audiobus and sometimes not.. I really like working with this combination though..

note: Air 2020 IOS 15.2

Agree with this. Working out which hiccup applies to which app seems fairly impossible though. As well as state saving issues I also have tempos not being saved. Been having major problems with audiobus in other areas too so suspect that may be at least partly where the fault is.
Then there’s the tempo differences when running a drum app (hammerhead for instance) in AUM with other stuff being run from Xequence.
Also like the combo too much to give it up though

jonmoore

Looking forward to getting stuck into this. Xequence has always been my favorite pure-play MIDI sequencer on iOS (especially when working with external hardware). I’m particularly interested to see how it works in concert with Loopy Pro, especially with the new MPE implementation.

SevenSystems

@prtr_jan said:
For some time now my experience using the Xequence 2/AUM/Audiobus combination seems to have become less fluid.

>

edit: of course right after posting this everything worked fine

Exactly my experience 😬 The problem seems impossible to reliably reproduce, and trust me, I've spent literally days on it. It's just lost development time that's not very well spent, unfortunately.

I have one more final weapon up my sleeve to try to tackle this, and I'll do it soon. If that doesn't improve things, I'll flat out have to give up on trying to fix it. As other apps also seem to be affected, the truth is I'm not sure if it's a Xequence problem (that doesn't make it less frustrating for users of course.)

@audiblevideo said:
@SevenSystems i hope this means you are feeling or doing marginally better than your past remarks have intimated my friend.

Thanks, still a work in progress but maybe going in the right trajectory 🙏

SevenSystems

@Poppadocrock said:
I highly recommend people try this out. This is a great app for all your midi needs.

@SevenSystems Quick Question before I beta, are there any known issues with going from the app to jumping on the beta ? I don’t wanna lose all my saved songs or anything… just making sure.

Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm pretty sure you won't lose your projects. The Apple-generated warning ("You might lose your data") also made me nervous at first, but it seems to be unfounded (talk about faith in your own product -- TestFlight 😄). What might be a problem is if you save a project in the beta, and then try to open it with the old App Store version (Xequence will warn you about this if you try). If you have important projects that absolutely have to work, then I recommend not overwriting them using the beta.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

SevenSystems

@tja said:
That's a sheer unbelievable changelog
I'm totally impressed, @SevenSystems

Don't be! I literally put every single fart into the Changelog!

Carnbot

This is great thanks
Works well importing mpe recordings from Midi Tape recorder so far. Will be useful in making edits....

Poppadocrock

@SevenSystems said:

@Poppadocrock said:
I highly recommend people try this out. This is a great app for all your midi needs.

@SevenSystems Quick Question before I beta, are there any known issues with going from the app to jumping on the beta ? I don’t wanna lose all my saved songs or anything… just making sure.

Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm pretty sure you won't lose your projects. The Apple-generated warning ("You might lose your data") also made me nervous at first, but it seems to be unfounded (talk about faith in your own product -- TestFlight 😄). What might be a problem is if you save a project in the beta, and then try to open it with the old App Store version (Xequence will warn you about this if you try). If you have important projects that absolutely have to work, then I recommend not overwriting them using the beta.

Awesome. Great to know. Cheers.

senhorlampada

@SevenSystems
I decided to try it and it shows my device isn't compatible

Are you changing the OS version?

Edit: Nevermind... Forgot to check [App Details] in testflight. It shows iOS 13.2 as requirement

SevenSystems

Just a heads up: the current Beta (2.3.18) features a new Audiobus state saving implementation -- I'd be interested to know if this improves on the long-standing issues with Xequence state randomly missing in Audiobus presets.

Cheers!

jonmoore

Now that Cubasis has Ableton Link, I'm thinking 2.3 could make for a very useful MPE partner.

SevenSystems

@jonmoore said:
Now that Cubasis has Ableton Link, I'm thinking 2.3 could make for a very useful MPE partner.

Definitely do report how that goes too

jonmoore

@SevenSystems said:

@jonmoore said:
Now that Cubasis has Ableton Link, I'm thinking 2.3 could make for a very useful MPE partner.

Definitely do report how that goes too

Sure will.

espiegel123

Has anyone checked this out with Animoog Z?

senhorlampada

@SevenSystems will it be only iOS 13+?

MrBlaschke

Thanks @SevenSystems ... Really appreciated. Love me some good Xequences