Lifeforms Micro Sequencer: 8 step sequencer with quantizing and scales
Pittsburgh Modular have announced details of a cool little 10hp sequencer. The Lifeforms Micro Sequence is a performance-focused 8-step sequencer programmed with those fabulous LED sliders we see on a lot of modules these days.
Lifeforms Micro Sequence
It’s all about the 8’s. The Micro Sequence has 8 steps controlled by 8 LED sliders. There are 8 quantized scale options and 8 direction modes. And there are 8 external gate or trigger clock divider options. They say that the sliders have integrated mute functions which I thought might be some physical button on the end, but it just means they mute when pulled fully down.
The direction, length and scale modes are assessed via the buttons on the right which then use the LEDs on the sliders to indicate which mode or parameter is active. All the sliders are labelled with the scale and direction modes. Pressing the button once with light the slider showing the current mode, and then you can cycle through the modes by pressing the button again. It’s very simple and effective interface.
The scales include Micro, which gives 250 note intervals per octave; Chromatic, 12 steps per octave; Major, 7 steps; Minor, 7 steps; Blues, 6 steps; Phrygian, 7 steps; Lydian, 7 steps and Dorian, 7 steps. In the “Direction” department we get the self-explanatory Forward/Reverse/Pendulum. But there are also some more interesting modes like Stagger which puts in some probability on whether it will drop back one step to jump forward 2. “Skip” misses out a subsequent channel every cycle, so missing step 1 and then step 2 on the next cycle and so on. Transpose uses the first 4 channels to transpose a 4-step sequence running in the last 4 channels. And finally, two modes of Random bring some well-needed chaos.
The “Gate In” modes give some cool possibilities. “Reset” is the expected return to step 1, whereas “Hold” pauses on the active step. “Reverse” reverses the sequence direction and “Rachet” causes each output to trigger 4 times.
My mind is already working on how much fun this is going to be. It has similarities to the Malekko Varigate 4+ that we saw last week. The Lifeforms Micro Sequence is simpler than the Variagate 4+, less channels but I quite like the orientation of the sliders and that the lights will be blue. It’s also cheaper at $199. It should be available from next week and hopefully some videos will emerge soon.
More information
- Pittsburg Modular Lifeforms Micro Sequence webpage.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Default. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
This might also interest you
