expander trigger outputs: stage gates, end of sequence, start of sequence

[mdoudoroff]

Currently, we’ve got three expander trigger output options per regular part: RSx, STx and GTx.

RSx is great: it’s a reset trigger co-incident with the Start of Sequence (SOS). Very useful. In my cursory testing it even seems to be compensated to fire slightly ahead of the gate! Yay!

STx is great, too: you get a trigger at the beginning of every stage whether a gate is programmed or not, so you can (for example) clock another device such as a sequential switch or sample & hold even when the stage lengths vary in the Vector part. This, too, seems to be compensated to fire slightly ahead of any gate! Yay!

GTx... seems to be just a verbatim copy of whatever gate is programmed for the stage. Like a mult. Unless I am missing something, this is not so interesting.

A great feature of many classic modular sequencers is a gate output jack at each stage that goes high when that stage is active and remains high for the duration of that stage. Very useful: it allows you to hang external events (including duration) off of a sequence that are independent of the sequence’s regular gate stream.



A proposal for new GTx functionality:

- if the CC1 value for the stage is 0, the trigger output is low
- If the CC1 value for the stage is above 0, the trigger output is high

In this manner, the musician can extract a stage-length gate from zero or more stages in a sequence with little-to-no expansion of the user interface or memory footprint.

[mdoudoroff]

I have completely reworked my original feature request, above. I think it makes more sense now.

[davidjames]

+1 on this. I'm not utilizing the MIDI CC functionality so repurposing them to generate interesting gate patterns out of the trigger expanders sounds like a great idea. If multiple tracks had the same trigger output assigned to various stages, there would be some interesting interplay with pattern and stage length if they were OR'd together.

[pbzoot]

+1 could be an issue for anyone using MIDI tracks that uses GTx to duplicate MIDI gates into CV world, but not an issue for me. Perhaps could program another gate output type instead if current version is broadly used by MIDI users

[mdoudoroff]

Interesting! I hadn’t thought about emitting gates in parallel with MIDI notes, but I can see why some folks might want that.

A fourth option (SGx?) in addition to RSx, STx and GTx would work around that. It would add more items to the list of assignment options, but patching opportunities are what modular synths are all about!

These gates could be useful for so many things, such as…

• advance a sequential switch or utility sequencer
• “hold” a track-and-hold for the duration of the stage
• open an ASR that, in turn, opens up an effects send for duration of stage
• trigger an AR that, in turn, opens up an effects send for duration of envelope
• open a VCA to let through some trigger stream for some other part of the patch for duration of stage
• input to a binary logic module for further downstream conditional processing
• input to a gate skipper module to add probability to a subsequent effect

… and they’d “just work” with the chance ops like jump and skip, or other sequence manipulations, such as start step, length, etc.

[pbzoot]

Would be great! Adding one more output type not that big of a deal to workflow as shift-twist works well to jump through. I think it’s a great way to get 8 more independent (or are they ... see below) gate outputs without using up more tracks. I end up using 2x drum tracks for this purpose ... if I didn’t have to, maybe I’d start to use MIDI tracks!! Drum tracks would have the advantage if you want to play with 4 at a time on the launchpad. But choice is always good!.

one thing ... do cc’s fire only if there is a gate on for that step? I actually have no idea. That would allow you to piggyback on chance ops, but I guess it’s a bit limiting for the concept, would make it more of a gate mute for a second gate stream than an independent gate selector

[mdoudoroff]

I would hope that the stage gate(s) I am proposing be unaffected by mute or chance (other than how chance affects the playhead). To me, this is a ‘low level’ feature—a way to export select chunk(s) of time currently locked up inside Vector out to the modular environment. Once I have the gate(s), I’ll take it from there with patching through other modules.

[pbzoot]

Got it. I misread your last post. Definite +1 here

[jim]

Hi guys, apologies for missing this earlier. It's definitely a worthwhile option, but I'd prefer to not hide it in the CC area. Adding Trigger Output options for say the first 16 steps of a sequence would be pretty easy, but the option to mark which steps output gates is intriguing. I'll make some notes and mull it over....

[pbzoot]

Jim is #1!

[doverbeach]

[/LIST]… and they’d “just work” with the chance ops like jump and skip, or other sequence manipulations, such as start step, length, etc.

+1 wonderful idea, I could sell marbles .

[mdoudoroff]

+1 wonderful idea, I could sell marbles .

Replacing Marbles is not the idea at all. The idea is to be able to export markers in your Vector sequence for the rest of your modular to react to. For example, you could set an output to create a gate for the duration of stage 7, whenever stage 7 happens (normally immediately after stage 6, but not necessarily).