How to dynamically mute (skip) specific rows in a pattern?

[sarukas]

Hi, 

I want to emulate a playable sequencer where I can mute any step (row in a pattern) at will by clicking a button to mute it, like keystep pro.

Lets say the sequence is relatively short, 8 steps. 

The options I see are: 
- dynamically shorten length using mappings and pattern length - ok, usable but a bit limiting
- add jump effect to 4 chosen steps in the middle, and dynamically set effect probability to 100% or 0% using mappings - also usable and a bit better control, but only limited to 4 rows (or 4 combinations of rows).
- havent't tried but perhaps combining PROW effect with a specific random range 1-18 and then dynamically adjusting the random range via mapping? - this could work up to 18 rows
- delete row (... not really practical)

I know nerdseq is insanely powerful. Is there a good way to dynamically mute (skip) specific rows in a pattern during performance that I am overlooking?

[XORadmin]

Hmm... do you mean just 'disable' steps so it would always skip them? (So a 8 step pattern would play 6 steps only if 2 random steps are 'disabled')

If that then I can't really think of an option to do that currently.

[sarukas]

Yes, precisely - skipping specific rows in a playable way. This is often available in basic modular sequencers where a step can be "disabled" with a toggle switch or a button, and enabled again, during performance, to nondestructively alter the middle of a sequence. The performer or CV modulation takes out some specific notes (rows) and brings them back.

[XORadmin]

Yes, precisely - skipping specific rows in a playable way. This is often available in basic modular sequencers where a step can be "disabled" with a toggle switch or a button, and enabled again, during performance, to nondestructively alter the middle of a sequence. The performer or CV modulation takes out some specific notes (rows) and brings them back.

Ok that is not what I meant. You don’t mean skip but mute steps. With skip you it would be kind of destructive as you would play
for example 7 instead of 8 steps.

There is no direct function for that. But it would be very easy doing that using the mappings. The only thing would be to add the conditional XMAP command which checks a mapping row of the step should play or not.

[sarukas]

Thanks, I guess there are two ways to adjust the sequence - skip the row, basically shortening the sequence from 8 to 7 as you say, or to interactively mute a note, but keep the length the same. Both ways would be useful and cool musically.

Regarding your suggestion,so it is possible after all? Amazing!!!

Just to make sure I understand correctly:

1. Add effect XMAP 1XX to all rows that I want to mute interactively
2. This will execute corresponding mapping row XX. If mapping row execution returns 0, the pattern row is not played, if returns anything else, it plays as per manual page 39.
3. Add playable control via mappings, e.g. set mapping variable using external faders, cv, midi, etc.

Is this correct? I have not tried it yet but am keen to try. I will post after trying so that others can benefit.

[XORadmin]

Thanks, I guess there are two ways to adjust the sequence - skip the row, basically shortening the sequence from 8 to 7 as you say, or to interactively mute a note, but keep the length the same. Both ways would be useful and cool musically.

Regarding your suggestion,so it is possible after all? Amazing!!!

Just to make sure I understand correctly:

1. Add effect XMAP 1XX to all rows that I want to mute interactively
2. This will execute corresponding mapping row XX. If mapping row execution returns 0, the pattern row is not played, if returns anything else, it plays as per manual page 39.
3. Add playable control via mappings, e.g. set mapping variable using external faders, cv, midi, etc.

Is this correct? I have not tried it yet but am keen to try. I will post after trying so that others can benefit.

1 XMAP 2XX should most probably already be enough. You don't need to execute the row, just read it's results to get the 'condition'.
2 Thumbs up
3 Thumbs up

Indeed correct. It would allow to do what you want. The only thing to consider is that it checks for the result being 0 (not playing) or anything else (playing).
It's not for the skip thing which I think might be more tricky and maybe not that easy possible with what is available now.

[sarukas]

After a test earlier today, I can confirm that this works beautifully and is very playable. I have set up a patch where I use a midi controller (faderfox).  With 3 knobs mapped to midi CC I can control which notes in the sequence "fire" and which ones stay mute by having xmap 2xx on the rows I wish to control. Very simple mapping code - midi cc puts cc  into variables a,b,c. Then I have 3 rows with calc command which checks if midi cc is above 0. XMAP checks against those rows.

This or a similar setup opens up insane flexibility and playability of melody fragments. You can enable/disable them with CV, LFO,midi keyboard,etc. By peppering your song with XMAP checks you can then have those parts of the song be muted or not.

What is nice with how nerdseq handles this is that the pattern length and clock stays where it is, so you get a very controllable change in the song.

Bravo Nerdseq for super powerful functionality!

[baikul]

Hi!!! I'm really interested in this, but I can't figure it out.
Could you post some images of how you did it?

What I'm trying to do is:

I have an 8-step sequence on a cv16 track. All steps on the 6 channels (1-6) are filled with cv values.

On another multitrack, in the drum matrix, column 1 is filled with a Euclidean rhythm using an external MIDI input (Sweet Sixteen from Tesseract Modular).
I'd like it to only play the rows of the cv16 sequence that match the active steps in column 1 of the drum matrix.

Can you help me?

[sarukas]

Ok Baikul here is my thinking (I don't have nerdseq nearby so this is theoretical) which may help you progress, but possibly not 100% what you want. I can suggest how to use triggers so that each trigger separately controls a specific cv16 row.

1. In CV16 screen, add xmap 2xx command which checks if mapping row XX is true. If true, the cv16 corresponding row is executed.

2. In mapping screen, you need to somehow get to the drummatrix trigger as a source. If I understand the current version correctly, you can get to the triggers 1-6 but not from the trigger16 extender.

In mapping screen you basically would read the trigger into the mapping row result which is then accessed via xmap in cv16.

Basically the logic becomes like this for each trigger and each cv16 row:

Trigger 1 fires
Mapping row 1 reads trigger 1 (trig tr1) and puts into mapping row 1 result
In CV16 row 1 the xmap 201 command reads mapping row 1 and skips or plays based on what it got from the mapping row 1 result (which in turn comes from trigger 1)

repeat for trigger 2, mapping row2, cv16 row2 etc

Quite tedious but can be made to work as shown for the 6 internal trigger/gate outputs.
Also accessible are internal mod1-6 and cv1-6 outputs via the mapping.

If you wish to access more triggers or the expanders, i think you will need to switch to reading midi notes as inputs in the mapping using MIDI command. You would read specific note which you fire from your drummatrix. I think drummatrix has option for separate midi note per column. Each midi note can set a different mapping row, and you check if it is set via xmap 2xx command in cv16 where xx is the mapping row number.

This gives you a bit different result - you use each trigger column (or midi note) to control specific cv16 row (gets fired or not)
So not quite what you asked, but maybe interesting.