favorite midi sequencer?

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pneuman
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by pneuman »

I tend to think of Qtractor as my sequencer of choice, but it's seq24 I use most often -- it's a lot of fun, and you can bring a song together very quickly with it. It seems quite odd at first, but it's really quite simple once you get in to it; I'm currently working on some tutorial videos that'll hopefully get people over that initial hump.

The current development code from bzr has been 100% solid for me, but it does require a minor patch to build on current systems, so I might have to look at putting together a seq24 PPA as well.
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zwenny
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by zwenny »

Pablo wrote:I have used tuxguitar as a sequencer in a jack enviroment. No need for this workaround just for this.
Now i remmeber why i couldn't use tuxguitar, because i didn't find a transport option (like it is in Hydrogen) for syncing the played notes from it with ardour. I also raise to question if the RealTime
Sequenzer of TuxGuitar is really "realtime". Sometimes it lags during playing. Maybe this is because
it's running inside the java virtual runtime...
Looking forward to look back what happens now

Listen to my music at:
https://www.jamendo.com/artist/373939/zwenny
laba170
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by laba170 »

Hands down Seq24. It's simple, but it's quick to work with and the piano roll is very nice when you get used to it. A more modern version of seq24 would kick ass, with synth hosting, and improved pattern view (zoomable? :D ), piano roll and song editor. Well, in short, seq24 has potential.
tnovelli
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by tnovelli »

I'm liking Seq24 and maybe Qtractor, with synth sounds from Aeolus, Yoshimi, etc. Bear in mind, I only seriously got into this stuff last week, although I've messed with it here and there, and I had fun with ScreamTracker etc back in the 1990s under DOS. I like the modular JACK/Unix-y approach though. I don't care for those big monolithic apps like RoseGarden and MuseScore, not even for scoring classical music -- I'd rather use midi2abc+abcm2ps. Being a programmer, I actually *like* editing text files. :twisted: So what works for me is gonna be too arcane for most musicians.

Yeah, most Linux distros have broken Seq24 packages, so you have to compile it from scratch -- I'm using 9.2 from https://launchpad.net/seq24/+download. Build with ./configure --disable-lash, or apply Guido Scholz's patch for x86-64 if you actually use LASH.

I might have overlooked Seq24 if not for pneuman's screencasts (http://wootangent.net/tag/seq24/) -- thanks for doing that! Thanks to AutoStatic too.. I've picked up a bunch of good tips from you.
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by autostatic »

Thanks tnovelli! seq24 just works for me too as a step sequencer even though it has some minor drawbacks. For other sequencing stuff I use Qtractor. No more Hydrogen as a sequencer, it just doesn't work (weird JACK transport issues, unworkable piano roll, too short max pattern length, got tired of patching Hydrogen all the time to be able to queue patterns with MIDI etc.)

Best,

Jeremy
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by hellalive »

I'm a guitarist and formerly a bass player and writing in violin notation is annoying for me so i usually write stuff with tuxguitar when i need midi, then i import the midi file in rosegarden eventually...not having jack transport in TG is a big problem. i didn't like seq 24 too much and i'm starting to learn some LMMS..it's nice.
He had a lot of nithing to say, we'll miss him
devilock76
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by devilock76 »

I like LMMS as a great way to quick compose. I just wish there was a way I could export audio segments more piece meal from it for importation to a DAW/audio sequencer. Basically export individual patterns as audio segments/loops. Still LMMS keeping all my setting for a song together and simple to manage is worth the over head of when it is time to get it out of LMMS.

Ken
tnovelli
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by tnovelli »

+1 for Qtractor, now that I've had a few weeks to play with a decent interface and keyboard. I like being able to record audio and midi with the same program. Pattern-based sequencers like Seq24 and Hydrogen are too limiting for me, anyway. I usually don't want metronomic tempo, for one thing... I don't want to sound like a midi sequencer. :)
Really depends what you're doing though... Hydrogen is fun - not too intimidating for Linux music newbs.

I've also tried Ardour3. Pretty nice, but it's got some heavy dependencies compared to Qtractor.
Musix
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by Musix »

well, my favorite is rosegarden because i compose mostly for piano or chamber music. so, rosegarden is very good for it. good notation software, i miss nearly nothing!
(formerly Markus3000)

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channelite
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by channelite »

Bumping this old thread. I’ve been searching for the best midi sequencer. I had a DAWless setup with a Digitakt as the midi sequencer and think I was most creative with it. I recorded those jam sessions to AudioShare on iOS. I’ve since gotten into Linux and been using Bitwig which is great for audio, but isn’t great for sequencing midi hardware. I’ve been using midi tracker called Tutka which pretty fun. I tried seq24, but I wish there was a way to increase the view, everything is so small. I’ve been recording these jam sessions to audacity. I like exporting a selection in audacity as wav files. So I’m building a loop library that I eventually use again in Bitwig.
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by Basslint »

channelite wrote: Sat May 09, 2020 3:33 pm Bumping this old thread. I’ve been searching for the best midi sequencer. I had a DAWless setup with a Digitakt as the midi sequencer and think I was most creative with it. I recorded those jam sessions to AudioShare on iOS. I’ve since gotten into Linux and been using Bitwig which is great for audio, but isn’t great for sequencing midi hardware. I’ve been using midi tracker called Tutka which pretty fun. I tried seq24, but I wish there was a way to increase the view, everything is so small. I’ve been recording these jam sessions to audacity. I like exporting a selection in audacity as wav files. So I’m building a loop library that I eventually use again in Bitwig.
Try sequencer64 (an improved fork of seq24) or non-sequencer.
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by TheYke »

Tested Qtractor once. But I get nasty distortion when "previewing" notes on the pianoroll (sliding/pressing the piano-keys with the mouse). Annoys me too hard. Testing radium at the moment, and I like the sequencing-capabilities. Not decided which I like the most in the end, got more software to test first.
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by bluebell »

TheYke wrote: Sun May 10, 2020 6:13 am Tested Qtractor once. But I get nasty distortion when "previewing" notes on the pianoroll (sliding/pressing the piano-keys with the mouse). Annoys me too hard. Testing radium at the moment, and I like the sequencing-capabilities. Not decided which I like the most in the end, got more software to test first.
Never encountered this. Do you control synth plugins, standalone synth programs or external hardware via midi?

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by TheYke »

Maybe something is configured wrong on my side but I have no problems with other DAWs/sequencers, to be honest. Distortion maybe is the wrong expression, more like many clicks in short sequence.
Hm, I just tested adding a midi track, added yoshimi onto it and swiped with pressed mouse-button over the keyboard inside the piano roll. I didn't investigate it further for now, as I'm quite stressed at the moment and have not much time left for creating music, so I try to use the time I have more for making music, less troubleshooting.
It's a pity, because in fact I like the clean layout of qtractor and more importantly the native lv2 support without the need of carla in between...

EDIT: If I just press one key on the piano in the piano-roll all is fine. Problem occurs when I cross the borders between two keys with mouse pressed.
EDIT2: I guess it's just retriggering the MIDI-Note over and over again, with each new mouse-position causing note-off-note-on....
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Re: favorite midi sequencer?

Post by reteo »

MusE is generally my go-to sequencer these days; they both handle all the major needs for sequencing, although each has its advantages.

As for MusE, I really like the ability to name and save MIDI clips for later loading; essentially, you can take a sequence clip, save it in a folder as a MIDI file, and add it later on, or in a different project. This helps when you want to reuse patterns for different songs, especially when it comes to standard drum patterns... for example, maybe grab a standard double-time swing pattern, make some changes to the rides on the first and third measures, perhaps throw in a snare and kick embellishment at the end of the second and fourth measures, and save it as the base drum pattern for the project. It's also nice to be able to make any kind of input or output connection I need, including Jack MIDI, ALSA MIDI (both without the need for a MIDI bridge), and Jack audio.
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