The Covert Operators: The Covert Seq

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:23 pm

Meef Chaloin wrote:this looks immense. Im not quite sure what I would do with it though, although for that price im tempted to go for it anyway. Is it much quicker than adding notes to a midi clip or is that not the point?
It's not totally unlike the MIDI roll. But it's a different way of composing with it.
With the MIDI roll, you just draw your sequence or play it with a keyboard.

With the step sequencer, you usually end up with results that are very different.
Each step has it's own chain of MIDI effects. Which means that this thing is very modular (you could add unsynced arps to each step for example).
It's also a good way to have some control over various random factors like velocity and pitch.

I just got the idea to look into a note length randomizer too.
That should come in handy to make glides/slides for mono basses and leads.

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:28 pm

Meef Chaloin wrote:haha i must be a dumbass but where's the tricks & tips bit in the manual?!
Page 3 "The Covert Seq: Tips & Tricks"

I thought the manual was pretty clear. But it will be updated.
As will the sequencer. There will be more pattern modes, presets and various sequencer layouts.

And i'm currently looking to make a (auto)map that moves most of the automapping stuff to the encoder groups on the BCR.
Though that feature is still in the alpha stages...

Cheers

- B

Meef Chaloin
Posts: 2164
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:09 pm

Post by Meef Chaloin » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:32 pm

apologies, I thought you were talking about the Live manual :oops:

Do i need to buy it to get the manual?

b0unce
Posts: 5379
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:16 pm

Post by b0unce » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:34 pm

you mean you have it, without the manual ?
spreader of butter

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:41 pm

Meef Chaloin wrote:apologies, I thought you were talking about the Live manual :oops:

Do i need to buy it to get the manual?
Most of the manual is already up on our site.
If you buy the Covert Seq. You get get an additional page with tips and tricks.
And a section on how to make your own patterns for this sequencer.
It's part of the package and wont be posted separately.

Cheers

- Bjorn

Meef Chaloin
Posts: 2164
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:09 pm

Post by Meef Chaloin » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:44 pm

Thanks hoffman.

b0unce wrote:you mean you have it, without the manual ?
no i mean the other way around, i wanted to see the manual without 'having' the seq. (just wanted to read a bit more about it before buying)

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:47 pm

Meef Chaloin wrote:Thanks hoffman.

b0unce wrote:you mean you have it, without the manual ?
no i mean the other way around, i wanted to see the manual without 'having' the seq. (just wanted to read a bit more about it before buying)
I'm always open to answer questions. There's more in my head then in the manual. Eventually that ratio will change though :wink:

eisnein
Posts: 828
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: undisclosed
Contact:

Post by eisnein » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:49 pm

badasss
second class robot

peeddrroo
Posts: 4774
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:25 pm
Location: France

Post by peeddrroo » Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:51 pm

well, it seems cool for such a small amount of money :D

itook4lefts
Posts: 434
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:55 pm
Location: exeter, uk

Post by itook4lefts » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:31 pm

this is excellent... for the princely sum of 3 pounds. thanks guys. no idea what i'm going to do with it though.

i love the way racks make Live into almost a new program: it looks the same on the outside but it makes you work in a whole new way. which is why i bought Live in the first place.

cheers

DeadlyKungFu
Posts: 3603
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:26 pm

Post by DeadlyKungFu » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:52 pm

hoffman2k wrote:Check the manual for tips on automapping. You can control this whole sequencer with 8 knobs and the arrow keys.

You can feed it with an arp or even live input..

The tutorial on this thing is actually more work then the thing itself.
Mostly because the current sequencer is just version 1 of a long line off mad devices.
Yeah, that ALL worked, had a blast with it last night. I went the BCR midi assign way because it's nice to see all that parameters represented in the LEDs, which are on, off, driven hard, and what the notes basically are.

I REALLY want to make/get/beg for a drum version of this. I haven't had the (sober and/or awake) time to consider the best way to pull it off. The desire for layered drum notes would necessitate multiple instances of this puppy.

Cheers and thanks!!

The Abes gotta contract you guys out, or get you on staff, I couldn't even imagine the shit you'd come up with if you didn't have school and whatnot distracting you.

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:57 pm

I guess a drum unit could be done with a few mods.
But what would make it different from the current sequencer?

If you can tell me what you are exactly trying to do, it'll be easier to find a solution.

DeadlyKungFu
Posts: 3603
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:26 pm

Post by DeadlyKungFu » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:15 pm

8)

Basically take what you made and add another dimension to it, multiple notes for each step. For example laying down a hi hat over a kick pattern, some steps will have two notes, or making a kick fatter by putting more than 1 kick on step #1. I could see this going further to be able to produce chords and layered sounds for pads, or crazy arps, or...

<thinking out loud>
populate your big ass 128 drum rack with sounds, kicks on the lower end, then snares, hats, percussion, pretty evenly spread out. this drum rack receives the seq rack output.

Drop in at least 4 instances of the seq rack (drummers only have 4 limbs, but layered drum sounds would mean more instances than 4).

How I'd assign knobs isn't that important, but I'd have 3 rows of 16 knobs in front of me, volume, note and note length set the notes to the kick drum region of the drum rack and activate notes where the kick sounds. On the BCR for example, the kicks would be the LEDs in the 7-9 Oclock position, snares from 9-12, hats from 12-3, percussion from 3-5, something like that.

then go to another instance of the seq rack and introduce more drum sounds, either layer more kicks or add hi hats. With a second seq rack instantiation I can add more notes to the same steps.

hoffman2k
Posts: 14718
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:40 pm
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by hoffman2k » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:18 pm

Did you check out the chord shift parameters on each step? Thats exactly what they're for. That and chords....

DeadlyKungFu
Posts: 3603
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:26 pm

Post by DeadlyKungFu » Thu Nov 02, 2006 7:23 pm

very cool. I was playing with synth sounds so it wasn't apparent.

Damn, if it does THAT, I'd be STOKED!!

Thanks for the tip!

Post Reply