What do you consider to be the best free trigger sequencer module to handle a 10-11 (channel) piece drum kit with an accent channel? I have this working using six Count Modula 12 STEP TRIGGER SEQUENCERs. I would like a similar trigger sequencer that only has a check designation per enabled beat and channel. The above sequencer is great, but it has gate and trigger switches and outputs which I do not need, and it is difficult to see the switch positions in either light or dark panel themes.
I need 16 trigger beats per measure and 12 channels. I currently have a separate sequence set up for the last measure turnaround., so it takes me 6 instances of the CM trigger sequencer and some relatively complex clock switching between sequencers to do what I am successfully doing.
I have enough free drum voice modules working to enable the 11 piece kit, but one of those pieces is a “rim shot” and one a “clap” which really are not “kit pieces”, so I am really doing a 9+2 piece kit made up of kick, snare, lo-tom, mid-tom, hi-tom, rim-shot, clap, c-hat, o-hat, crash, and ride. The results sound outstanding if I may say so myself
You might wonder why I am doing such a specific approach. Meander for Windows has quite a few capabilities that are not present in Meander for Rack, the idea being to not duplicate functionality available in other plugins’ modules. Meander for Windows had a very sophisticated drum sequencer and drum pattern file manager with about 90 patterns I created, mostly emulating the style of well known drummers and/or ethnic drum styles. Those patterns are just text files arranged in an array format so it it easy for me to look at the text file (or load it into Meander for Windows and look at the pattern there) and then just manually “copy” the enabled triggers per piece track into a VCV sequencer one step at a time, especially one that just requires me to click on a box to enable a trigger step. I usually limit my drumming to 4/4 time even though Meander for Windows also handled 3/4 time.
So, this is about me making music with Meander, which is why I developed Meander in the first place.
Thanks if anyone has some suggestions from experience.
I should clarify that my reason for using free modules is so that I can share my patches more easily. I usually only use free modules in patches I intend to share. Thanks.
The paid Entrain sequencers (including drummer) have free “player” versions for just such purpose:
When someone with Entrian Sequencers uses those sequencers to build a patch, they can save their patch for use with the Entrian Player modules instead. That lets people with the Entrian Free plugin play those patches without needing to buy Entrian Sequencers.
I’ve had a lot of fun using Shapemaster for drum sequencing - 8 channels and up to 128 steps in each. Built-in drum patterns. Easy to edit for not-quite-on-the-beat funkiness and volume/accent expression with a curve. Sometimes I even use two Shapemasters.
Not sure if it’s the best but KRTPluginA has a gate pattern sequencer. I made it myself. A bit weird to learn, but does have some performance 64 step stuff.
Based on your and others’ suggestions, I will take a look and using Entrian Drummer paid (which I have) to create the drum kit sequence. It may come down to how easy it is to just click to insert a trigger and how easy it is to see the sequence in one view.
Thanks. It already sounds great to me. I think others might like the patch, so I will plan to publish the patch when I get it all working as well as it can.
Thanks. I will take a look at this to see how it works as a drum sequencer. In the back of my mind, I’m considering writing a text file to JSON converter applet where I could publish my ~90 Meander for Windows drum sequencer files.
I’m enjoying all of the suggestions. Keep 'em coming and I will continue exploring. This is complex enough that it takes me about a day to implement an existing Meander sequence in a new sequencer and get it all working and see how it sounds and determine how easy it is to use.
I will give it a look.