Realtime MIDI sequencing

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

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Kubouch
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Realtime MIDI sequencing

Post by Kubouch »

Hi,
this is my first post on this forum so please excue me if I'm posting it in the wrong place.

I've been tinkering with some audio softwares on my Arch Linux setup with the aim to create a platform suitable for beat/backing track creation and live looping. I set up Hydrogen for beats, Phasex for my MIDI controller and routed it into SooperLooper. This is working fine but it has one disatvantage - I cannot setup the parameters of the recorded loops. Once the sound is recodred, it's done and playing in a loop. If I need to change a cutoff frequency of a Phasex's filter, for example, I'd have to record the loop again.

Basically, what I'm looking for is a looper which loops the MIDI signals (not the sound itself) from a drum machine and my MIDI controller. The signal will be then sent from the looper to a particular software (such as Hydrogen or Phasex). That way I can actually control the sound of the loops while it's playing. Also the looper needs to be controlable by an external MIDI controller - this is a must. I need to activate/deactivate loops in realtime.

From what I searched maybe HarmonySEQ could do that but I haven't tried it yet. Also I found a link to Shuriken Beat Slicer which might be helpful as well (http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php ... di+looping). Right now I'm sick and can't try new things so I thought I'd ask here at least.

I'd be glad for any setup recommendations you might have.

Cheers,
Kubouch
Last edited by Kubouch on Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tatch
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by tatch »

try seq24, it's not perfect but it's alright
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evlsht
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by evlsht »

you can aslo have a look on qmidiarp and giada, if you haven"t already
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sysrqer
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by sysrqer »

HarmonySEQ is good fun and quite powerful in its potential. Giada also looks promising but I had a couple if issues when I tried it a while ago.
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Kubouch
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by Kubouch »

Thanks for the replies!

I tried Giada and quite liked it but I'm not sure whether it is capable of what I'm trying to achieve. I'll check the others, too.

What I need is to move the looper at the very beginning of my sound chain. The looper needs to have per-loop MIDI output which can be sent either to drum machine (Hydrogen), synthesizer (Phasex) or something else.

EDIT: As I found out, it is not possible for Giada to do live MIDI looping: http://www.giadamusic.com/documentation ... ng-actions. I thought maybe I could send different loops to MIDI different channels.
dsreyes1014
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by dsreyes1014 »

Luppp is another option.
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Kubouch
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by Kubouch »

dsreyes1014 wrote:Luppp is another option.
Luppp is nice but it is an audio looper. It doesn't support MIDI sequencing. As soon as I have time I'll try HarmonySEQ and seq24 and see what happens.
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by dsreyes1014 »

Kubouch wrote:Luppp is nice but it is an audio looper. It doesn't support MIDI sequencing. As soon as I have time I'll try HarmonySEQ and seq24 and see what happens.
You're right. Sorry about that. For MIDI, Non Sequencer was pretty good. I've worked with it with some success.
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Kubouch
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by Kubouch »

All right, I tried seq24 and Non-sequencer.

seq24 is easy to use but the interface feels a bit clumsy and it doesn't support my MIDI controller to trigger the loops.
Non-sequencer is almost what I need but it also doesn't support MIDI controlling.

Is there any other grid-based MIDI sequencer which is fully controllable by an external MIDI controller? I'm dreaming of a MIDI sequencer with the interface of Luppp. My goal is to have a comfortable interface for live performing.

Thanks for the replies so far!

EDIT: I just stumbled across QMidiArp and it looks very promissing. It is primarily an arpeggiator but it has a built-in sequencer which should be MIDI-controllable. I'm done for today but I'll try it later.
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Re: Realtime MIDI looping

Post by akiz »

Softwerk is also very nice and can be controlled via midi.
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Re: Realtime MIDI sequencing

Post by gimmeapill »

Hi everyone,

Newcomer here, just bumping this thread as I embarked on to the same quest: the search for a midi sequencer suitable for live use (looper/pattern based, with remote control).

Not much to add, except that out of curiosity I asked the OpenAV developer about his plans for Luppp - this resulted in the discussion below:
https://github.com/harryhaaren/openAV-Luppp/issues/98

Cheers,

LX
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Re: Realtime MIDI sequencing

Post by briandc »

Hydrogen can do midi sequencing. All you need to do is make a blank audio file and use that as your sound library. Then put in the notes and send it to the synth you want to control. I'm not sure how much realtime control is possible, but I think it has good potential.

I've also come across this sequencer I had never heard of before:

http://ags.sourceforge.net/

Anyone try it yet?


brian
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My sound synthesis biome: http://www.linuxsynths.com
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