Petajaja

I feel you 100% on this, I had a Pyramid as my main sequencer for a while after using a QY700 / RS700 before that (which were better in some ways) I too just found the Pyramid a pain for making complex music.. The song mode is way too rigid and its too difficult to keep track of all your ccs and the one off notes you have in a song. I eventually gave up on it because it's just too limiting for the things I wanted to do and I've actually found that going ITB for my sequencing (currently using loomer architect) is actually easier for me in pretty much every regard other than me missing the tactility of it which isn't a hard problem to solve with a controller or something. The funniest thing about my move to ITB is that my midi timing is actually so much better, for example if I need to send a sample start point message, I need it to arrive before the note on, With the pyramid I was getting irregular results which made this a technique I pretty much couldn't use where as with Architect I can have a sequence where each triggered sample has a different start point and I can then play this back at 999bpm and the results are always the same. I think there's probably very few hardware sequencers that truly offer better timing than using a computer and despite being such an advocate for hardware sequencing for years, I actually can't really say that much good about them over good software.

I really liked this idea for posting a track a week but I decided against join because I'm so new here and also I feel like my music would've been so out of place compared to everything else on that page so I'd thought that I'd maybe set up something similar with a few people I know. Funny thing is that I'd thought exactly the above, that it'd be nice to have very little limitation on what has to be done, so long as you're doing something that's new for you in some way each week. I've got a long list of things that I've been meaning to get around to trying / learning and this weekly output thing seems like a really good extra little push! I've also spent most of last year focusing more on quantity than quality, I'd developed a habit of being too perfectionist about everything and it was sucking the fun out of music making and was also sucking the soul out of my music. Most of the music I ended up making was nothing special but I was able to get it down to being able to finish something in a day and some of it was actually alright. The most valuable thing I gained from it is breaking that old habit and I feel much more excited for spending longer amounts of time on tracks this year.

I think Architect is actually pretty great even without diving to deep, as well as having all the building blocks to build pretty much whatever you want (and a lua scripting module to do anything not possible with those blocks) you also have plenty of finished objects like the mono / poly step or aux sequencers, these don't take too much effort to learn and the possibilities with them are pretty exciting to explore. I can imagine it being easier to be productive with something like Bitwig though, currently most of my time spent with Loomer is just me learning and experimenting with ideas. Never heard of Plogue Bidule, I'll be sure to take a look at it! Hah, I feel you on wanting to say away from the computer. I work from home and spend all day at my computer, it can be kind of hard to transition to the mindset for music sometimes. I had the Pyramid before I start using Architect and only ever worked with hardware sequencers prior to that, there's definitely things I miss about having a dedicated unit for this kind of stuff but I also was getting frustrated at pretty much every hardware sequencer having some annoying limitation that another doesn't, I also didn't like the interface of the pyramid too much. With my aversion to using a computer for making music in mind, I only use it for sequencing and generally try and just do a stereo recording of whatever I make (honestly can be a bit of a pain, I do see the appeal of a DAW!) I used to own a mio10 which I sold to fund two of those Blokas midihubs, they're really great and I've got nothing but good things to say of the company. I think in time they'll expand the utility of it a lot and it's already one of the most feature packed devices of its kind. Since I started using Architect though, I mainly use it for routing as it's generally faster for me to set up things in Architect while I have that window open. Yeah I'm happy to see interest growing in this area, there's so much amazing stuff to come from it, much of it I've not really heard in much music so I feel like there's a lot of unchartered territory here. Thanks for the welcome! Haha, shows how much I know, I didn't even know there was two versions. I wonder how Architect and Max compare, I saw some talk about why Architect has some advantages over max when it comes to MIDI but I can't remember what it was, there's a lot of good info from users on the loomer forum at kvr though!

Anyone a user of this program here? I bought it a few months back and have completely fallen in love with it. I'm pretty new to using software for sequencing but people describe it as being like Max but devoted entirely to MIDI. I've already got a ton of really nice results from it and even more inspiration but would love to have other people to chat with about patch designing and such. Here's the site if anyone's interested in having a look: https://www.loomer.co.uk/architect.htm The demo version is free and the only limitation is that you can't save a project. You can however save your patches as 'fragments' which can then be loaded so not being able to save projects really isn't a huge limitation, I pretty much only bought it to support the developer as I think he's done a real great job with it. Again, I'm really new to this kind of approach to music but I've so far made an editor for my Volca sample which adds a bunch of utilities that they don't currently have (such as being able to store a kit with a project rather than using the internal storage of the volca) I've also made a sequencer for my Motas-6 that allows it to be sequenced like a 303 with slides and accents and also a sequencer that turns the Motas-6 into a drum machine with up to 9 independent voices (at a stretch). It's also of course amazing at mathematic / algorithmic / generative sequencing and even just straight forward sequencing, the preset sequencers it comes with are already much deeper than anything you'll find in hardware. Finally, I've not done extensive testing but I've experimented with some time critical stuff at like 999bpm and the timing has always been very tight which was a nice surprise after hearing so many people complain about timing issues when using a computer for their sequencing. Also.. I never really introduced myself here despite having lurked here for some years now so.. hello!

Yeah I can understand the choice, The Motas wouldn't be my #1 pick with performance in mind although it is also fine in this regard, especially if you had some external controllers to use in conjunction with it. The Pro-3 looks really great and I'm sure you'll love it, seen lots of people really fall in love with theirs ?

It's £1250, signal sounds is probably the best place to get them from in the UK, it may be that they're out of stock currently though, the designer assembles them by hand in the UK so stock tends to come in waves. I actually wanted to say a lot more about it than I did earlier but was away from my computer and cba to type out my thoughts on it on my phone haha.. So, since owning one (I now own two and am selling a bunch of gear to fund a third) I've started regularly emailing the designer (Jon) and have really come to see that this synth is a project of passion rather than one that's financially motivated.. I don't want to go too much into detail but the sales of the Motas-6 definitely aren't what's earning his living. The reason I've started communicating with him regularly is that I was suggesting new features so often that it eventually just formed into a regular dialogue but yeah.. this has been one area that's REALLY impressed me in owning one of these, I can't off the top of my head remember everything but since owning it, the following features have been added on my request: [ Microtuning, polymetric sequencing, LFOs can track pitch and go well into audio rate (allowing all sorts of audio rate mod options) envelopes can be LOG / LIN with 128 steps in between the two extremes, VCOs are now optimized to allow waveshaping effects with the PM circuit and a ton of other features that I and other users suggested. ] Anyway, Jon continues to update it very regularly and I'm sure will continue to do so for as long as the memory in the Motas allows, we've been talking about some ideas that'll most likely make it onto the unit in the next firmware (no guarantees here) which'll allow it to be used as a multi voiced drum machine along with many other things. I've owned quite a few synths in my time and have played a bunch more, it's definitely my favorite sounding synth I've had the chance to play so far, I've spoken with several owners of Moog / DSI gear who sold their matriarch / pro3 to fund a Motas and were much happier with the Motas in terms of sound and features. While the analogue features (the core of the synth) are many and very impressive, it's the digital control over all of it that truly makes it special imo, there's tons that could be done nowhere else than a giant modular system and that's just when using it stand alone, when using it together with a good sequencer or computer, the possibilities that all that digital control opens up are mind boggling.. Anyway.. I'm going to stop hyping this thing as I'll probably end up coming across as someone paid to sell this thing (something I'm sure Jon wishes he could afford to do haha) my only affiliation with this product is being a very happy / enthusiastic owner of one and that I've had a small role in some of the features that're found on there (purely by suggesting them, can't take credit for the hard work of actually implementing those ideas!) Where as I could endlessly go on about it.. I won't but I'll be more than happy to chat about it if anyone does end up taking an interest in it. Here's my soundcloud which exclusively has either demos I've made for the Motas or little song sketches that I've done heavily utilizing the Motas:

I've held my tongue on this so far while being a member of this forum but seeing as you're in the market for it, I really Really recommend you take a look at the Motas-6 if you're looking for a fancy mono. It doesn't have keys but it also costs quite a bit less tan your other two options and also offers (imo) quite a lot more (like simultaneous access to 3 filters) I have a bunch of demos of it up on Soundcloud if you want demos.

I've had mine for a while now, It's a good piece of kit but it does have bugs.. I've been reporting them to Polyend and they've been very receptive to the feedback and have fixed most of what I'd spotted so far. Also in speaking with them I've got some little hints towards their approach to support for the Tracker and it seems that there'll be a lot of features being added as time goes on, Custom microtune scales was one they mentioned which I thought was pretty interesting to have on a sampler. These are my first posts here btw because even though I've been lurking here for some years now, I was under the impression that I couldn't post for some reason haha..

I've had the exact same thing happen with Thomann before, I never shop with them any more as a result. Keep an eye out on Reverb, I saw some being sold on there the other day.