Great talk again. I do wonder why people like us bother with this at all given a DAW is so much easier to use, but combined with modular gear this opens up nice possibilities so we adventure on, right?
I think hybrid workflows can be good. Find a good song base, perform it into a daw and then layer over top. Also you can use something like ableton to sample many variations of a theme while tweaking knobs. Do this over a few parts and you can have an instant song. Or just go dawless, its fun too :).
Do you find that for sequencing a drum machine + 3 hardware synths 8 tracks are a little limiting? i currently have a pyramid wich feels overwhelmingly complex but i think 8 tracks is a bit too little for me
Sorry for the late reply, but no. I personally usually find myself using 4-5 tracks. With modular, it also helps that the gates on modulation tracks can be used as triggers for percussive sounds or envelopes/other effects. With the sync you can also run it from a DAW or other sequencer in a hybrid setup. But alone for live performance, having a few main synth tracks and some modulation is almost always enough for what I'm working on now. I also think limitations feed creativity.
Am I getting this right, each automation lane sent to the same MIDI instrument uses up one of the eight channels? Doesn't it all go under one channel? I could understand it for CV stuff but not MIDI surely? Thanks in advance
Yes, you can only use one automation lane per "track" so eight total. I usually choose between filter or some other CC parameter like sustain takes up a track. To add another you add another track and choose the same midi output channel and can use the modulation there to a different destination (can use the same or a different source, MIDI or CV as your other track) So in a way it works like the CV, where doing CV/gate uses 1 track, while velocity and aftertouch each take up their own. In that case, the gates are still able to be sequenced independently for drum or other triggers on the velocity and after touch tracks.
@@JordanColburn1 Hi mate, I tried to message you directly but can't see the option. I spoke to Squarp support and they said: If you set a midi out FX on your track there is no limitation in terms of polyphony or number of automation sent to a midi channel. So yes, you can play multiple notes to a midi out. If you use the Midi Din or USB midi outputs, your track will send all notes and CC to one channel (you can choose which one in the midi out effect params). Just throwing that back to you because it might be some help! If you give it a try it'd be nice if you could confirm it! thanks!
@@custardgannet That hasn't been my experience. I am able to get unlimited polyphony with midi out, but only the one CC. I just checked their website and I am several OS updates behind, so I will update that and give it another try.
I have a sub37 which outputs midi cc for each knob (does grandmother do this also?) can the hermod also record midi cc info of knobs turning on the sub37 on a single midi track? or do you need to use a modulation track for each midi cc? So if I want to modulate 10 knobs the sub37 via midi would I be limited to only 8 midi cc's of modulation because the hermod is limited to 8 tracks? or could I use one midi track/channel and output several midi cc's to fully control the sub37 and then have 7 more tracks to control my modular?
I think the hermod only has one cc it can record per track. I'd have to test it, but I do think you could use the modulation and midi out to control those and still have the pitch/gate available for other modular synth parameters.
I think some knobs on the grandmother send cc like mod wheel and rate and a few others (maybe all the ones that need calibration) the rest are all analog and don't send cc.
@@JordanColburn1 thanks for the info! Been trying to figure that out and got a few different answers. If it could record and then output all CCs on a single track...and let me overdub CC changes I would buy it today.
@@dr.eville yeah, it even causes problems for the sustain pedal cc. If you remap the main one to that, you can't use the mod wheel (or anything else). It pretty flexible and can even put lfos on CVs, but it will probably be a really tweaky setup that is more work than you want.
@@rickylarkin-sweet7095 yup! That's the one question I had to answer and soon as I found out I bought one. It's kind of my central hub, now but I almost feel like an advertisement when I tell people about it.
@@JordanColburn1 You've got me convinced haha, seems to really tie everything together. Hows it go using DAWs? I've had clocks fluctuating when recording and that sucks.
@@rickylarkin-sweet7095 It works great for me being synced to logic. I normally jam and get a song working, then sync it, arm tracks and record a "take" working through some settings. I've had trouble getting my Moog Grandmother sequencer to follow it, both through MIDI and CV clock, which I think points more to the problem being with the moog (also had trouble with the moog and logic).
midi out midi effect - that's what i missed, thanks a lot!
Thanks for making this.
Brilliant!
Your voice is very quiet. I had to turn my audio interface gain up to 3pm on my dial.
Great talk again. I do wonder why people like us bother with this at all given a DAW is so much easier to use, but combined with modular gear this opens up nice possibilities so we adventure on, right?
I think hybrid workflows can be good. Find a good song base, perform it into a daw and then layer over top. Also you can use something like ableton to sample many variations of a theme while tweaking knobs. Do this over a few parts and you can have an instant song. Or just go dawless, its fun too :).
@@JordanColburn1 Hybrid is the way for me, especially because I have all effects in the box.
How are you splitting the MIDI channels out from the one MIDI out to separate synths?
Each channel has a different output and each synth is set to receive on a different channel.
Can you load midi files onto the Hermod?
Not that I know of.
No but you can send it a midi file from a computer through the usb and record it. I haven’t tried this but in theory it should work.
Do you find that for sequencing a drum machine + 3 hardware synths 8 tracks are a little limiting? i currently have a pyramid wich feels overwhelmingly complex but i think 8 tracks is a bit too little for me
Sorry for the late reply, but no. I personally usually find myself using 4-5 tracks. With modular, it also helps that the gates on modulation tracks can be used as triggers for percussive sounds or envelopes/other effects. With the sync you can also run it from a DAW or other sequencer in a hybrid setup. But alone for live performance, having a few main synth tracks and some modulation is almost always enough for what I'm working on now. I also think limitations feed creativity.
Am I getting this right, each automation lane sent to the same MIDI instrument uses up one of the eight channels? Doesn't it all go under one channel? I could understand it for CV stuff but not MIDI surely? Thanks in advance
Yes, you can only use one automation lane per "track" so eight total. I usually choose between filter or some other CC parameter like sustain takes up a track. To add another you add another track and choose the same midi output channel and can use the modulation there to a different destination (can use the same or a different source, MIDI or CV as your other track) So in a way it works like the CV, where doing CV/gate uses 1 track, while velocity and aftertouch each take up their own. In that case, the gates are still able to be sequenced independently for drum or other triggers on the velocity and after touch tracks.
@@JordanColburn1 Thank you for confirming, much appreciated, and thanks for the video!
@@JordanColburn1 Hi mate, I tried to message you directly but can't see the option. I spoke to Squarp support and they said:
If you set a midi out FX on your track there is no limitation in terms of polyphony or number of automation sent to a midi channel. So yes, you can play multiple notes to a midi out. If you use the Midi Din or USB midi outputs, your track will send all notes and CC to one channel (you can choose which one in the midi out effect params).
Just throwing that back to you because it might be some help! If you give it a try it'd be nice if you could confirm it! thanks!
@@custardgannet That hasn't been my experience. I am able to get unlimited polyphony with midi out, but only the one CC. I just checked their website and I am several OS updates behind, so I will update that and give it another try.
I have a sub37 which outputs midi cc for each knob (does grandmother do this also?) can the hermod also record midi cc info of knobs turning on the sub37 on a single midi track? or do you need to use a modulation track for each midi cc? So if I want to modulate 10 knobs the sub37 via midi would I be limited to only 8 midi cc's of modulation because the hermod is limited to 8 tracks? or could I use one midi track/channel and output several midi cc's to fully control the sub37 and then have 7 more tracks to control my modular?
I think the hermod only has one cc it can record per track. I'd have to test it, but I do think you could use the modulation and midi out to control those and still have the pitch/gate available for other modular synth parameters.
I think some knobs on the grandmother send cc like mod wheel and rate and a few others (maybe all the ones that need calibration) the rest are all analog and don't send cc.
@@JordanColburn1 thanks for the info! Been trying to figure that out and got a few different answers. If it could record and then output all CCs on a single track...and let me overdub CC changes I would buy it today.
@@dr.eville yeah, it even causes problems for the sustain pedal cc. If you remap the main one to that, you can't use the mod wheel (or anything else). It pretty flexible and can even put lfos on CVs, but it will probably be a really tweaky setup that is more work than you want.
Can this be used to sequence polyphonic synths only using one channel with midi?
Yup! That's mostly how I use it. Just need to add a midi output effect on the channel and it sends all the notes.
@@JordanColburn1 Wow, this thing is a beast then!
@@rickylarkin-sweet7095 yup! That's the one question I had to answer and soon as I found out I bought one. It's kind of my central hub, now but I almost feel like an advertisement when I tell people about it.
@@JordanColburn1 You've got me convinced haha, seems to really tie everything together.
Hows it go using DAWs? I've had clocks fluctuating when recording and that sucks.
@@rickylarkin-sweet7095 It works great for me being synced to logic. I normally jam and get a song working, then sync it, arm tracks and record a "take" working through some settings. I've had trouble getting my Moog Grandmother sequencer to follow it, both through MIDI and CV clock, which I think points more to the problem being with the moog (also had trouble with the moog and logic).