Danbury Area Computer Society

Technology and music are intertwined for me. So much so, that sometimes I cannot think about one without thinking about the other. This month I'm writing about a key piece of music technology that enables me to create and produce music – the software sequencer.

A “sequencer” is a device or program whose minimum capability might be thought of as a digital version of a player-piano roll - a technology circa the 1920s. Only now instead of just playing a piano, it can create and play any number of electronically generated sounds, and also control internal and external devices that understand a protocol called MIDI (http://www.midi.org).

REWIND

Around the 80s (that's 1980s for some of you DACS members) used to be primarily hardware-based, usually a table-top unit, and made no sounds and had to be connected via a MIDI jack, which is a 5-pin DIN plug to other sound-making devices such as synthesizers and drum machines.

All this equipment was pretty expensive for regular musicians, usually hovering around $1,500 - $2,500 in early 80s dollars for each piece. My first piece of MIDI gear was around 1984 when I got a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600. (http://www.synthmuseum.com/sequ/seqpro60001.html) Soon after I got two Roland units – a TR-909 drum machine (http://www.synthtopia.com/synth_review/RolandTR-909.html) and a MSQ-700 hardware sequencer (http://www.synthony.com/vintage/msq700.html). This equipment could play a couple parts of a music piece – up to about 6,500 notes which got exhausted pretty easily. The Prophet-600 played a synthesizer baseline, and the TR-909 covered the drums. The performances were pretty meager, especially with only 6-note polyphony and only one patch (preset) at a time (mono-timbrel). I was far away from my goal of being the next HoJo, Thomas Dolby or Jean-Michel Jarre.

FAST FORWARD

Today, there are software-based sequencers, whose features are so rich and capabilities so great that comparing them to their 80s-based hardware cousins seems comic. Sequencers became a software program run on a personal computer, and they no longer just play and record MIDI events, but near-unlimited tracks of audio and controller information. They also “sequence” small sections of audio, called “loops” or – more generically - “samples”. One of the first programs to do loop sequencing was Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro (now marketed by Sony). Today, most sequencers with any horsepower work with “loops”.

Connecting to external MIDI instruments isn't done so much any longer since there are software plug-in instruments, called VST instruments. Today's modern sequencers can have several VST instruments and other types of plug-ins such as effect processors, drum machines and virtual instrumentalists.

The term sequencer has come to mean everything involved in MIDI and audio production. There's even some strong branding. You may have heard someone mention that something was made with “Pro Tools”. Pro Tools is the industry standard sequencer/recording platform of today, and just as Kleenex(TM) generically refers to all facial tissues, so does Pro Tools(TM) refer to any software sequencer.

SEQUENCER USAGE

How much music or how much of a musician does one need to be to use a sequencer? That depends on the software, and the industriousness of the user. So programs, such as Band-In-A-Box merely require the user to type in the chords in popular notation (E.g., G7), and pick a style, such as “Bossanova”, and viola – instant arrangement. These types of sequencers are typically thought of as “arrangers”, not sequencers. In general, the more style presets, hand-holding, and (yes) artificial intelligence a sequencer has, the more it is considered an arranger. Arrangers are used more for hobbyists and demos, less typically for final production or in performance.

Basic loop sequencing requires very little music knowledge, but is pretty time consuming in terms of auditioning bits of music (“loops”) that might go together. Obviously more musical knowledge helps. Using a loop-sequencer product like Acid Pro, even a novice could put together something nifty. There are also countless volumes of loops and samples available for sale on-line and at music instrument stores, and yes, real artists use these things. The better artists tweak them in some ways, but many just use the loops, phrases, and so on, as-is. Hip-hop artists in particular seem to be keen on loops. But, I bet groups like Godsmack and some other seemingly live-sounding bands use them as well.

What I call regular sequencing involves specifying the notes, their individual velocity and loudness, and to which specific instruments they are to be played. It's old school, but the music created sounds more like me and less like someone else. Since I play most of all the instruments I sequence (drums, keyboards, piano, guitar, bass, trumpet, etc) I'm pretty particular about the music sounding like something I would play. Not to say that its better than the loops (its not), or more time efficient (debatable), just more personal.

Sequencers have various “screens”, some of which can be displayed or accessed in combination. The basic screens include a “piano-roll” view, an arranger view of the various tracks, a list view of the specific MIDI events, and some graphic views of continuous type data such as pitch-wheel usage. Optionally, there will be a “score” view which looks like actual sheet music, and constructs for managing VST plug-ins and “pools” (directories) of loops (samples). There may also be an integrated sample-editing screen. Many times, samples that are edited are left untouched in the pool, and the edits themselves are stored and the edited sample is constructed on the fly as the sequencer needs it. This is called non-destructive sample editing.

Inputing a performance into a sequencer can be done by capturing a live performance from a MIDI enabled instrument such as a keyboard or electronic drum kit. This is a key use of a sequencer since it allows the user to go back and edit specific notes of a performance for timing, pitch, and loudness with surgical precision. Other ways to input a performance is to simple mouse them into the “piano-roll” view, or type them into the sequencer in the list view. Some sequencers more associated with academia can use various music scripting languages to generate music in a programmatic or algorithmic way.

PLATFORM REQUIREMENTS

Some of the same techniques in tuning a machine for high-performance gaming can be applied to tuning a home computer for music production.

SEAN'S HOME STUDIO

So what do I use? On my “test box”, I have Steinberg Software's Nuendo 1.6 (N1.6) running on Windows 98SE. (http://www.steinbergusa.net) My all-time favorite software is Music-X (http://www.amigau.com/c-music/musicx.htm) on the Amiga 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga). To this day, I still compare any sequencer package against Music-X. I would still be using Music-X if I could port it to my laptop. Version 2.0 of Music-X added ARexx support, which allowed more compositional type scripting abilities.

On the laptop, there's no way to use N1.6 for lack of a DB25F (printer) jack for the copy-protection dongle. Even a USB-to-DB25F cable won't work. I took this as a reason to explore other sequencing software.

I was looking at a copy of Computer Musician (December 05 issue) and it came with a complete self-contained sequencer package, called Computer Muzys 1.5. After using Muzys on-and-off since about the middle of 2006, its turning out to be too troublesome and may have to upgrade to something like Pro Tools LE (as low as $300 when purchased with the Mbox 2 Mini audio interface) or Sonar SX3, which is in the $400+ price range. Supposedly, there's a 3.0 version of Muzys, but I haven't found it. Maybe it's in a current issue of Computer Music.

What to I compose or write with a sequencer? Good question. Recently, I wrote a song for Where's Jane, a rock band based out of Westport, CT. The song is called “Chrome Girl” and based on a character from a William Gibson novel. Sound-wise, I was trying to capture a sort of mid-tempo progressive-rock (prog) sound similar to a track off of King's X's first album.

Currently, I'm enrolled in the RPM Challenge (http://www.rpmchallenge.com) where songwriters have 1 month to complete an album. My current genre I'm exploring is something I call “Klezmer”, which comes from both a Jewish and Eastern-European tradition. I'm neither, but I still like learning about new styles, so we'll see how much of this makes it to the challenge.

Previously, I had an entire night's show of cover songs sequenced for the group Dogs Will Hunt – a duo of myself on bass and Brian Snyder on guitar. From a performers perspective, playing against a sequencer is definitely more live feeling than playing against pre-recorded tracks. Especially since I could vary the tempo on the fly without changing the pitch, and adjust the various instrument levels on the fly as well.

As of this writing, I'm still porting my Sean And The Time Travelers set from 2000 across the various sequencers looking for the right software package. The next packages I'm looking at testing will be Jazz++ and more probably some version of Cubase.

ROUNDUP

Here's some newbie and not-so-newbie software choices to investigate if interested.

Apple/Mac:

Garage Band

Steinberg Software Cubase SE1VAP/SE3/SX3/SX4

Apple Logic Express/Pro

Windows PC:

Cakewalk SONAR Home/Studio/Producer

Steinberg Software Cubase SE1VAP/SE3/SX3/SX4

Jazz++ (http://jazzpluplus.sourceforge.net)

Cubase SX3 (SX4 is out as of this writing)

Linux/UNIX: