Husserl Metasequencer, Sapphire Edition
16 sequencers that can intermodulate each other
DESCRIPTION
Sapphire has been widely acknowledged as the single most powerful step sequencer ever created. Many people have heard it create different musical phrases on the TV series '30 Something,' thinking it was a 'real musician.' Well, the composer simply set Sapphire up to generate different theme variations depending when he played only two notes.
* The instrument's A panel controls all 16 sequencer channels. Each channel has a 16-step sequencer with 8 repeatable bars. Each step has separate pitch, velocity, and duration controls. Each channel's step filter lets it play rhythms. Each channel's bar sequencer can modulate pitch, velocity, and duration over single or multiple step cycles. The pattern editors have single-click buttons to shift values up/down and rotate them over selectable ranges.
* In addition, each sequencer channel can play notes and/or intermodulate each other's note pitch, note velocity, clock rate, and/or bar patterns, at different tempos. Each channel has layered, fugued, recursive, and 1-shot modes. Notes from midi or another sequencer channel can be filtered, so that only notes of particular pitch or velocity ranges act as triggers. Triggers can clock or single-step other channels, or just change note pitch, velocity, and/or duration. Each channel's clock can optionally sync itself with new triggers from other sources. Two channels can intermodulate each other. The current step and trigger for all 16 sequences is displayed on all channels, highlighting triggers from other channels for the current channel.
* The A panel further provides pitch remapping, chord generation, note transformers, note clipping, and input recording for each of the 16 channels. With the pitch remapper, you can click and drag across the note display and the resulting sequence will still sound in key. Each channel's chord generator can add up to two notes to it, either before or after pitch remapping. If larger note chords are wanted, channels can be cloned and shifted relative to each other. Notes can be wrapped or mirrored into a selected range. To make it easier to see how it is configured, subpanels hide themselves when turned off. Selected parts of any channel can be copy/pasted to specific channels, all channels, and/or other snapshots, with an UNDO just in case.
* Snapshots may auto-advance themselves to the next snapshot after a settable number of sequencer repeats on any channel. Individual channels may be soloed or muted. When snapshots change, or a channel is turned off, playing notes can continue for their previously set duration, or clipped off. Timing may be from an internal clock or external MIDI clock, with sample-accurate, medium, and low-CPU settings. The instrument can optionally send MIDI clock, SongPos, channel volume, and program change messages. The I/O buffer latency is configurable. You can store your own description with each snapshot.
* On the B panel, the instrument provides global controls, including customizable local and global note remapping, a full 16-channel MIDI crossbar for mapping any MIDI channel I/O to/from any sequencer channel, and real-time jitter control. Jitter can not only change the start of a note, but also slightly modify the durations and velocity of each note in generated chords, providing a more human feel to the music.
This instrument was reviewed in Sound on Sound Magazine, Audiofanzine, and MatrixSynth. The download contains built-in interactive help, a 74-page PDF user manual, and some simple demo synth instruments you can replace with your own. A basic set of 100 snapshots is included, each demonstrating a slightly different way to set the instrument up, as fully described in the documentation.
I haven't ever had a complaint about Sapphire, ever since I first starting selling it for $200 fourteen years ago, except that it was a bit expensive. Now it is free. Some time ago I was asked to save it in Reaktor 6 format, which required no changes to the design. I had a stroke and am now totally deaf, so I am closing down my website for it and putting it in the user library for posterity. Merry Christmas :)
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