Hey there. A new version of steppa has been released. Here’s what’s new in v0.35:

• added the "from steppa" midi output port
• added the "current beat" indicators under the play button
• added the "pitchout" senders so you can pick up the sequenced data from elsewhere in a max patch
• added senders for the three midi CC banks
• added a label for the "midi port" drop down selector

steppa035.zip

Statistics: Posted by stevecooley – Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:22 pm – Replies 0 – Views 49

our band Haptic Synapses did a live show using 3 beatseqrs at Radio Integrated in alameda on january 29th, 2010. Our friend Donald Bell stopped by for a test drive and took some nice photos, which are here:

Please send me an email (steve at 3rl dot us) if you are interested in purchasing this beatseqr.

1. this is beatseqr serial number 6.
2. It is the 4th instance out of 5 in the version 3 series.
3. $299. Shippable today.

Or click here to fill out the web form

This version of Roxor is largely cosmetic in that it’s visually smaller on screen. This became an obvious improvement when we started using the previous version in performance situations. We found it helpful to verify what roxor and steppa were doing, but not at the expense of too much screen real estate. So they’ve been made smaller to do their job and be useful without being a live performance workflow problem.

The other recent updates are that the radio buttons in the serial device list are now functional if you need to disconnect from your beatseqr hardware for any reason. Also, the random circle drawing effect has been replaced with a more functional tempo and swing value readout from the hardware. When you are connected to the hardware, turn a knob to verify that Roxor is reading values. The tempo and/or swing values will mirror what the hardware says on the LCD panel.

roxor2_1.app.zip

Statistics: Posted by stevecooley — Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:59 pm

Derek has released steppa 032. This feature enables on-board handling of the Midi CC modes for sliders and voice select buttons. This was previously possible by using the awesome and extremely useful Osculator. However, we’d always planned on bringing the functionality into our own toolchain, and now we have.

steppa032.zip

Statistics: Posted by stevecooley — Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:50 pm

You may have questions. We may have answers. It’s a little minimal so far, but we have a forum available now.

http://beatseqr.com/forum/

the new new stuff is “four pattern mode” where all 4 patterns will run in a row for an effective 64 step length sequence, and being able to clear a voice sequence or a whole pattern sequence.

Three down, two more to build. $399, interested?

Here’s an early and very simple example of how you can take the midi loop transmitted from Steppa to drive some visuals. Every sound you hear in this video is doing something to the visuals. Some are obvious like making the main shape jump around and spin, and then there are some other effects that are more subtle, like the crystallize filter that appears later. The way I did this was through Quartz Composer via the midi note receiver… it’s a really cool effect!

Programmatic visuals from a midi loop from stevecooley on Vimeo.

What I like about this is that unlike a “music visualizer”, it’s not reacting to bands of the audio spectrum, it’s reacting directly to the midi loop, so there’s absolutely no question about what instrument is driving what visual element. More to come soon!

This isn’t quite ready yet, but… Check out this one-shot recording of the new 64 step length capability