25 thoughts on “Aline Compositional Performance Sequencer First Look”

1. 4 imperative engines?

   1. It means you tell the sequencer what to do, as opposed to generative, where it generates sequences on its own.

      1. so two lines of code rather than three. smooth.

         1. Rather two completely different systems. Think an euclidean sequencer (generative) and a elektron style sequencer (imperative). I think this quite a telling and straight forward naming convention. As you are seemingly able to see what a line of code is, you can probably imagine, that this is quite a lot of work.

            I don’t know why people are so reluctant to see how coding is a craft as well and requires lots of knowledge and time to do. Like oh, this is just a piece of software, therefore it was just pulled out of thin air for free with no passion or knowledge of the business case (in this case sequencing). I am honestly a bit fed up with that sentiment and the sarcasm around it.

            1. I think the explanation why (for this website anyway) is simply being old and grumpy.

            2. Coding was a craft ages ago. These days it is mostly copy and past (best code is the code already written). We’ve seen so many copy and paste software products over the last 30 years it is logical to have this attidude imo. Btw there are some rare circumastance where you see a software product and it is mindblowing but this is not it. If this sequencers becames succesfull it won’t be because it has some radical thought about it, but rather because it has a set of features that might fit into people’s workflow. But we’ve seen more “out there” stuff. From Teletype, to Flux…

            3. i got that little snippet from a software guy. he used it to belittle hardware description languages and hardware designers in general. so, don’t feel bad it’s part of the game engineers play.

      2. meh.. it’s jargon. It’s pointless sales waffle

         In all my years, and there have been many, I’ve yet to hear the word imperative (never mind parametric) used to describe a sequencer

         That said it does look like a good device. Like a more intuitive Torso T1

         1. It’s just a more accurate description that improves the explanation of what it is.
            Older people can learn new things too, just like you learned to say “meh”.

            1. lol i’ll never say ‘meh’, ‘my bad’ or ‘day zero’. although i did pick up lol. my bad. oh well.

               1. Do you say “back in the day”?

                  1. no. i’m just waiting for the Carter Catastrophe to finish us off. in the meantime, I like to play.

2. I got exited when I saw this last night and am keeping an eye on this box. I do get a bit confused when developers use weird new lingo to label functions that could be easily described with language we already use in the industry. I want to know if 16 independent sequences means you can sequence 16 different synths on separate midi channels or it has 16 sequences for one synth that can control different parameters.

   1. Would be probably be a question of connectivity there. It has 6 CV outs, and a single MIDI I/O. So the max you would be hooking up is 7 synths at a time.

      1. For synthesizer CV control, you need at least one CV output and one gate output per synth. One MIDI output can support up to 16 synthesizers.

         1. I suppose I meant directly. The midi could be split or Thru’d with other devices, but that doesn’t speak to this devices I/Os.

            There is no requirement to send both CV and Trig/Gate signals to synth or drum machine. Plenty of devices can be used with either/or depending on config, but that is besides the point here.

            1. Sorry, but your logic about counting connections to understand the number of tracks doesn’t make sense with this kind of sequencer. Any hardware sequencer with multiple tracks has fewer physical MIDI outputs than the number of MIDI tracks.
               For analog control, you must have a gate output to trigger the envelopes in addition to the CV output, which is continuous voltage, it can’t trigger envelopes. I don’t think anyone is counting the tracks of a drone machine here. Drum machine sequencing is always considered one track.
               Additionally, there is a USB connection that may support more tracks.

               It does say “16 independent sequencers”

               1. Good point about the USB midi, potentially another I/O there.

                  I didn’t mention anything about tracks – just the number of synthesizers that could be hooked directly to the device. That detail matters, and it’s one reason why something like the Cirklon, with 5 independent midi I/Os, is so highly regarded. It can fit in more devices without a Thru function, which is becoming rarer in modern designs. You can physically swap more easily without changing the Midi Ch in on every device, etc.

                  Your observation about CV/Gate is besides the point here, but I’m surprised by your rigid viewpoint. There are countless reasons why one might want to send CV without gate & vice versa, especially to something like a modular system. There is absolutely no requirement to trigger envelopes along with your CV. I urge you to consider these use-cases with more curiousity, rather than finding a reason to be contrary.

                  1. Actually, it sounds like you are trying hard to justify your assumption which is clearly wrong and rarely applicable to any modern sequencer in existence. The OP asked about the number of sequences, a term that is interchangeable with ‘tracks’ when discussing hardware sequencers. I would bet it’s simply 16 for this device.

                     Cyklone is a bad example to support your idea, it has a lot of tracks and, like most digital sequencers, has no correlation to the number of outputs. The reason it has 5 MIDI outputs is to support way more than 5 tracks and to minimize jitter, according to the designer.

                     Additionally, anyone in their right mind thinking about analog CV sequencing would consider CV/gate connections, unless they are thinking of a simple analog sequencer, this is true but this is clearly not the case here, as also evidenced by the product video.

   2. The industry does not only consist of Europe and the US. This developer comes from Brazil, and perhaps the words he uses are common in Portuguese music tech engineering.

      1. Good point.
         Also, lots of people here are old and grumpy 🙂

         1. it provides a healthy balance to the product gushing and hero worship.

3. Are the knobs and jacks all unlabelled?

   1. it’s probably all color coded.

4. Would be probably be a question of connectivity there. It has 6 CV outs, and a single MIDI I/O. So the max you would be hooking up is 7 synths at a time.