so, continuing from another thread, Seq++ and 4x4 will get more of my time. First opinion: underrated, these very usable modules, but need some improvements, also I have to adjust my own workflow.
Two things at first glance (edit: coming from FL studio, I’m spoiled)
Seq++ needs a “zoom out” function. You can zoom the plugin nearly to fullscreen via VCV’s zoom, so there’s much room for more than two bars, makes sense for me to have a bird’s-eye view of the whole pattern.
The settings for clock-rate and polyphony should be hidden in the context-menu, this would save valuable screen space, e.g. for more often used editing functions or options or so
I’m glad you think so. There are over 25 Squinky labs modules, with probably 2/3 of the code is for Seq++. An odd beast, but for sure a work of love. I do wish more people would try 4X4. It’s pretty powerful, but afaik almost never used. oh well
Isn’t 4X4 something to do with using MIDI hardware? Because I don’t have any otherwise I would have given it a go. I’m too locked into the “generative scuplting” method of music production to try a timeline. Maybe if I’d started on a DAW rather than VCV.
It’s a great sequencer, but it takes some time to understand. Especially the clock division and the sequence length can be confusing. . Because it looks like a DAW (in a way), you sort of expect DAW behaviour.
But it’s the easiest way to record a melody or a chord sequence in Rack. Playing, instead of programming. Although it’s a bit hard to start recording on the first beat.
No, although the manual probably talks about that use-case too much. It’s just a 4 X 4 grid of Sequences (typically from Seq++). basically four tracks of four sections each. You can move between the sections in various ways.
For sure, it’s not for everyone (or even most VCV users). Irrelevant historic note: The sequencer it’s based on (Sequencer Plus) came out in 1984, thus predating daws by… maybe 10 years. Before Seqeuncer Plus all MIDI Sequencers used a “note list” for editing (kind of like a spreadsheet). Seq+ was the first commercial sequencer to use “piano roll” editing. Of course it quickly became a standard and the others switched to that.
One thing that might help people use Seq4x4 is to point the manualURL to the right web page. I wasted some time determining that I need to go to the 4x4.md page, rather than the sq2.md page that your plugin.json is currently pointing to.
what?? point to the right page? That’s crazy talk!! Seriously, though, thanks for pointing that out. And in Rack V2, they say, pointing to the manual will be a VCV feature that works for everyone
In fact, the plugin.json links are completely ignored until Rack 2.0. The actual links are compiled into the code. But, yes, the one for 4X4 is not only wrong, it current seems to point to a dead link.
Usually while modules are in development I point to temporary docs for testers, but then I often forget to set the to the real ones.
They may be currently ignored by the Rack executable, but they’re used to generate the User Manual link on each module’s Library page. That’s how I was trying to get to the manual.
Bruce, If you like, we could set up a discussion about how to improve the love for Seq++. I think there might be ways to make it a bit less, let’s say daunting.
