simult sequence idea

one of the things i always disliked about the mpc sequencer (as opposed to something like cubase or even the yamaha rm1x) was the inability to have sequences of different lengths superimposed on one another. i.e. 3 against 4, 7 against 8, or any other kind of rhythmic cross-cutting that is at the root of all african-derived music. not only does this technique create rhythmic complexity and tension, but it can also result in a "generative" music, as postulated by Brian Eno. you simply set up various loops of different lengths and the music composes itself.

anyway, the simultaneous sequence feature of the jj os solves all of this. by overlapping, say, sequences of 12 and 16 bar lengths you can create quite a lot of variation out of simple materials. this is the key to "minimal" music, and a way to make the listener a part of the process. i love that moment when i am hearing the accent of the beat one way, and then something flips in my brain and i'm hearing it another way. did the beat change, or is it just my imagination?

and if you mix odd and even numbers, you will get even more variation over time.

This is a very cool idea, one thing I really wish(I know this is probably impossible) would be to make the track mute options for each sequence independant. As it stands now, if you're playing 2 sequences at once and try to mute a track, it will mute the track on both sequences. The best bet from here(if you know that a sequence you're making will be used as an overlap w/another sequence), is to make sure that you don't use the same tracks on both sequences. That kinda sucks, though...

Soothsayer wrote:The best bet from here(if you know that a sequence you're making will be used as an overlap w/another sequence), is to make sure that you don't use the same tracks on both sequences. That kinda sucks, though...

That's a good workaround though. I rarely use more than 16 tracks per sequence so it'd be easy to have one sequence as the A Bank of the Track Mute page and the other as the B Bank. And it would just take a minute to copy tracks 1-16 to 17-32 if you needed to. I'll definitely be trying out this technique.