Future Features

soundwave

HI Dan,

thank you for this great sequencer...The best early B-day present....

Playing with it, I thought that 1 or 2 small features would be nice;-)

When you push (Random) Values, you get wild range of notes...Would it be possible to have a little window with a note on each side of Values showing minimum/maximum note? This way you could trim down the range? Is the Values button tied to the % dial?

Also a 'reset' button of the sequencer, all cleared and set to C-4?

But these features would be active only if you made it active, I really like the idea of the random surprise...

Anyway, it is a great and very musical sequencer...
Varèse meets John Cage?:-)

Best, Karel

dnigrin

soundwave said:
When you push (Random) Values, you get wild range of notes...Would it be possible to have a little window with a note on each side of Values showing minimum/maximum note? This way you could trim down the range?

Funny, you and I often think of the same ideas... This is already on my personal list of things to consider for the future.

soundwave said:
Is the Values button tied to the % dial?

No - just the On/Off Statuses.

soundwave said:
Also a 'reset' button of the sequencer, all cleared and set to C-4?

Good idea, on the list it goes.

soundwave said:
But these features would be active only if you made it active, I really like the idea of the random surprise...
Anyway, it is a great and very musical sequencer...
Varèse meets John Cage?:-)

Yeah!

omaroo

Hi all

I've been trying out Cyclic with my studio setup for a brief while now. I like it, I think it is good right out of the box. I haven't had time to figure out how the presets are meant to work yet, but I'll get there this weekend.

One thing I'd like it to do is not to start currently muted layers until the lead layer makes it back to the beginning of its own cycle. I'd like to select a layer, un-mute it and then see it initialise when the main cycle starts another loop again.

Great stuff all the same :)

dnigrin

That's a good idea - but the implementation will be a little trickier than you describe, as there is no "main cycle" per se. Would you want to trigger the unmuting to always be the when the first subsequence restarts, or would you want to be able to select which sequence's restart triggers the unmuting?

soundwave

Hi Dan,

Some observations...This sequencer is really fascinating, now that I "cooled off" a bit I started to examine the cycling functions in more detail and discovered some interesting stuff, like when you use Length=32, Stride=3, Offset=0, (being an odd number), it will go in sequence 0,3,6,9,...30 and then 1,4,7,10...31 and then 2,5,8,12...32...and over to 0,3....

What I wonder is why Cyclic plays notes that are NOT highlighted (in its own circle) or not lit?

Cyclic plays ALL notes that are active, regardless. In other words, why does the sequencer play notes that are not lit in the group circle but are active in "exterior" circle? Is it on purpose? I can appreciate both situations, but I wonder why is there the offset/stride when notes get played anyway?

Is it meant to be this way?

Anyway, things get more interesting when you start using offsets and lenghts...Love this CycliC:-)

Best, Karel

dnigrin

Each subsequence should only play notes that are active both in the subsequence ring AND in the note ring. Are you saying that's not the case? If so, do you have a simple example I can try?

omaroo

dnigrin said:
That's a good idea - but the implementation will be a little trickier than you describe, as there is no "main cycle" per se. Would you want to trigger the unmuting to always be the when the first subsequence restarts, or would you want to be able to select which sequence's restart triggers the unmuting?

Thanks for taking the time Dan

I guess the the best way to describe it would be that I'd love it to act as Ableton Live does when starting a clip, which waits to start your selected clip until the cycle starts again in the adjacent clips - and again stopping a clip waits until the cycle has finished. It doesn't just start up in the middle. Isn't top, centre treated as the main sequence start reference point?

dnigrin

Top center represents the first note in the note array - but that doesn't necessarily represent "the beginning" of any subsequence. The note array is fixed, and has nothing to do really with the subsequence starts. Think of the six subsequences as individual little loops, that can start/end anywhere along the 1-32 note continuum. So that's what I meant about knowing *which* of those little loops you would want to reference as the "starting" point... I hope that makes sense!

omaroo

Maybe you could optionally tie them to that start point - a per-sequence pref? Did my Ableton metaphor describe it?

soundwave

Each subsequence should only play notes that are active both in the subsequence ring AND in the note ring. Are you saying that's not the case? If so, do you have a simple example I can try?

Hi Dan, I guess that is not the case. See the 3 gif images and set your cyclic to same sequence and slow time so you can follow the Dot going around.

If Cyclic should play only notes that are active in subsequence ring = green (in my case), it doesn't. It plays notes that or "ON" in note ring...

I thought it was curious, in sequence #1, notes are played all the time, regardless of subsequence and i thought that they maybe should not? They basically jump 3 steps (in stride of 3), but still play, if note ring has an active note.

I hope this makes sense? I was not sure if this is on purpose, but then I thought it should play only active subsequence?

dnigrin

@omaroo - I think I generally understand what you are after - will have to think about it a bit, and see if I can implement something in the future. Thanks again for the idea!

@soundwave - It's working as designed. What I think is confusing you is the way active steps are displayed in the subsequence when Length is not evenly divisible by Stride. See the documentation, bottom of page 16 and top of page 17. Reproduce that simple sequence (active notes on steps 1 and 4, with subsequence Length 4, Stride 3, Offset 0), and then move slowly through that to understand what's going on.

For a note be triggered, the note position (white dots in outer ring) has to be active, AND the position in the subsequence ring (green dot in your example) has to be active too. But understand that the "unfilled" green dots (the green rings) represent an active step too, not just the filled green dots. The unfilled green rings will appear when you have a subsequence where Length is not evenly divisible by Stride.

soundwave

Well I (thought) I understood it, until I started to examine the sequencer in slow motion and started to wonder if it is supposed to be this way, because I was trying to make variations to a sequence, where I didn't want notes to be played and I thought that Stride would play only visible notes which would create interesting variations, because it would have to go 3x around (in case of 32x3x0) to start playing active notes in outer ring...

My apology, should have read the manual better;-)

PS It kind of works like it, when you start to play with odd Strides<>even Length or even Stride<> odd Length, because of the odd numbers, it creates interesting rhythms in One sequence.

Cheers, and thanx for support, K.

dnigrin

soundwave said:
PS It kind of works like it, when you start to play with odd Strides<>even Length or even Stride<> odd Length, because of the odd numbers, it creates interesting rhythms in One sequence.

Exactly!!

soundwave

Hi Dan,

playing a lot with Cyclic, I new that there was something missing, but I could not put my finger on it... until I discovered that one feature, that would make this great sequencer even better;-)

Imagine, that you could MUTE active dots, one or any number, with a click on the dot....What it means, is that you can choose which notes are playing/muted, and have certain notes muted, so they do not play in unison with same tracks. It is really useful, when you use more devices like bass synth and drum synth. When they overlap, all active notes are played resulting in unwanted notes...

Now, the only way to get around that, was to offset a beginning of a track and have the sequence start on offset 8 for example...This way, you would get a 32 step pattern, playing only notes that you want.

In the attached picture muted notes are circled in white, purple=bass, blue=drums. It is for illustration only...

What do you think?

USER TIPs:

1) in windows OS, when you start the Cyclic sequencer, you get (besides available midi devices) also microsoft GS wavetable synth.

So if you don't want that piano, go on midi channel 10, from D#1 to D#6 you get the GM drum set.

2) to have a quick reset to default, copy the default setting of your choice to #20 (1-19 are empty) and save it as a Default preset. When you load it and start to mess around, it is easy to click on preset #20 to clear everything;-)

this is useful when you did a lot of changes and saved a patch to start with a default or "clean slate"

....until there is a master default reset button added....

dnigrin

Re: the feature request - I'll consider it. The way the app is built, it will not be easy to do, at least as I think about it now...

Re: General MIDI synth on Windows - that was a mistake that I left it in there! ;-)

Re: default preset - good idea!

soundwave

The mute feature was an idea, not a request really, because I can appreciate the complexity it would add...

but you must agree that it would be great;-)

I personally don't care for adding VST plugin library, because it adds more complexity and there are plenty of DAWs or free or low cost hosts that can be used..

Does Cyclic have multi-core support?

soundwave

dnigrin said:
Re: General MIDI synth on Windows - that was a mistake that I left it in there! ;-)

The GM synth is out of time with normal VSTs, thought I tell you...

dnigrin

Re: multi-core support - it has whatever features in this area that Max offers in version 6. So yes is the answer I think.

Re: GM synth "out of time" with VST synths - you mean it lags on playback? If so, that's a function of inherent Windows latency....

soundwave

dnigrin said:
Re: multi-core support - it has whatever features in this area that Max offers in version 6. So yes is the answer I think.

Re: GM synth "out of time" with VST synths - you mean it lags on playback? If so, that's a function of inherent Windows latency....

Yes a noticeable lag on playback

soundwave

Any idea on 'update' and for MIDI?.....Just asking...work in progress...

cheers

dnigrin

Been buried by day job recently, so not much as much time for updates as usual I'm afraid. Also, know that a few of the my other apps are due for updates ahead of CycliC (Audio Plugin Player, M185, Klee), so it may be a bit of time before releasing the next version (unless there's a major bug or something). Thanks for understanding!

soundwave

Hi Dan,

could you check please if it is a "bug" in Cyclic? MIDI clock from external devices does not work, when I activate clock from midi, the > play button "locks", no transport. It does not show time value from external device like your other sequencers do either.

Best, K.

dnigrin

Karel - first, please make a new thread for different topics!

Second - I can't reproduce here, it's working fine when I try to send CycliC MIDI clock from Ableton for example. Can you describe your exact steps to reproduce?

lfupdij

Hi Dan -- Is an update for Cyclic on the horizon? MIDI control would be great (because mousing is such a drag, pun intended), along with anything else you can add. Thanks!

dnigrin

Hi lfupdij,

Yes, CC control is one of the things on the next "to do" list. I just can't say exactly when that will happen... but it will come at some point!

soundwave

dnigrin said:
Yes, CC control is one of the things on the next "to do" list. I just can't say exactly when that will happen... but it will come at some point!

If you ask yourself what comes more often: Christmas or Cyclic updates...the answer is Christmas...dream on...like I said, BC Manager that is free gets updated 3-4 times a year;-)
I gave up and moved on...
Badly functioning M185, no update for nearly a year for Cyclic, way to go.. lol

dnigrin

Maybe you should list "BC Manager" in your sig then? ;-)

Jokes aside, I do the best that I can, juggling my family, my day job, and all these apps. I rarely charge for any of my app updates, and feel that my apps more than justify their cost for version 1.0 of each of them, not to mention all the incremental functionality that I end up adding for free. Clearly you saw the same value, otherwise you wouldn't have bought them!

So please be patient and good things will come.

soundwave

It is in my sig: BCR2000...
Too many apps?....probably...not enough time to juggle them all...+ family, job etc...
You're a bit wrong about me buying value, I bought uniqueness, because there is no one, that makes sequencers like you, you know that...;-)...and I am obsessed with sequencers...
Bug fix, standard midi and control for notes etc on a sequencer is not exactly an update is is? If you added some extra stuff after it's done, then yes, it could be a paying option...
Please don't take my post badly, I only wanted to let you know, that I really don't expect you to hurry up with updates...

dnigrin

Bug fixes - of course. But beyond that, all additional things I consider new features - including CC control.

Anyway, I know you're a strong supporter, and I don't take the post the wrong way. It has taken me a long time to get updates out recently - but this is not by choice, and just based on competing things for my time. Like I said, I will continue to do my best!

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