The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and the Atari ST home computer in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. This software also improved on the quality of the earlier sequencers which tended to be mechanical sounding and were only able to play back notes of exactly equal duration. Software-based sequencers allowed musicians to program performances that were more expressive and more human. These new sequencers could also be used to control external synthesizers, especially rackmountedsound modules, and it was no longer necessary for each synthesizer to have its own devoted keyboard.
As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio. Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (DAWs).
Many modern sequencers can be used to control virtual instruments implemented as software plug-ins. This allows musicians to replace expensive and cumbersome standalone synthesizers with their software equivalents.
Today the term "sequencer" is often used to describe software. However, hardware sequencers still exist. Workstation keyboards have their own proprietary built-in MIDI sequencers. Drum machines and some older synthesizers have their own step sequencer built in. There are still also standalone hardware MIDI sequencers, although the market demand for those has diminished greatly due to the greater feature set of their software counterparts.
Types of music sequencer
Music sequencers can be categorized by handling data types, such as:
Analog sequencers are typically implemented with analog electronics, and play the musical notes designated by a series of knobs or sliders corresponding to each musical note (step). It is designed for both composition and live performance; users can change the musical notes at any time without regarding recording mode. And also possibly, the time interval between each musical note (length of each step) can be independently adjustable. Typically, analog sequencers are used to generate the repeated minimalistic phrases which may be reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder or trance music.
On step sequencers, musical notes are rounded into steps of equal time intervals, and users can enter each musical note without exact timing; Instead, the timing and duration of each step can be designated in several different ways:
On the drum machines: select a trigger timing from a row of step-buttons.
On the bass machines: select a step note (or rest) from a chromatic keypad, then select a step duration (or tie) from a group of length-buttons, sequentially.
On the several home keyboards: in addition to the real-time sequencer, a pair of step trigger buttons is provided; using it, notes on the pre-recorded sequence can be triggered in arbitrary timings for the timing dedicated recordings or performances. (See List of music sequencers §Step sequencers (supported on)).
In general, step mode, along with roughly quantized semi-realtime mode, is often supported on the drum machines, bass machines and several groove machines.
Realtime sequencers record the musical notes in real-time as on audio recorders, and play back musical notes with designated tempo, quantizations, and pitch. For editing, usually "punch in/punch out" features originated in the tape recording are provided, although it requires sufficient skills to obtain the desired result. For detailed editing, possibly another visual editing mode under graphical user interface may be more suitable. Anyway, this mode provides usability similar to audio recorders already familiar to musicians, and it is widely supported on software sequencers, DAWs, and built-in hardware sequencers.
A software sequencer is a class of application software providing a functionality of music sequencer, and often provided as one feature of the DAW or the integrated music authoring environments. The features provided as sequencers vary widely depending on the software; even an analog sequencer can be simulated. The user may control the software sequencer either by using the graphical user interfaces or a specialized input devices, such as a MIDI controller.
Digital audio workstation (DAW), hard disk recorder — a class of audio software or dedicated system primarily designed to record, edit, and play back digital audio, first appeared in the late 1970s and emerging since the 1990s. After the 1990s–2000s, several DAWs for music production were integrated with music sequencer. In today, "DAW integrated with MIDI sequencer" is often simply abbreviated as "DAW", or sometimes referred as "Audio and MIDI sequencer",[7]etc. On the later usage, the term "audio sequencer" is just a synonym for the "DAW".
A typical loop-based music software (Cubase 6 LoopMash 2)
Loop-based music software — a class of music software for loop-based music compositions and remix, emerging since late 1990s. Typical software included ACID Pro (1998), Ableton Live (2001), GarageBand (2004), etc. And now, several of them are referred as DAW, resulting of the expansions and/or integrations. Its core feature, audio time stretching and pitch scaling allows user to handle audio samples (loops) with the analogy of MIDI data, in several aspects; user can designate pitches and durations independently on short music samples, as on MIDI notes, to remix a song.
This type of software actually controls sequences of audio samples; thus, it can potentially be called an "audio sequencer".
Tracker (music software) — a class of software music sequencer with embedded sample players, developed since the 1980s. Although it provides earlier "sequence of sampling sound" similar to grooveboxes and later loop-based music software, its design is slightly dated, and rarely referred as audio sequencer.
Phrase sampler (or phrase sampling) — similar to above, musicians or remixers sometimes remixed or composed songs by sampling relatively long phrases or part of songs, and then rearranging these on grooveboxes or a combination of sampler (musical instrument) and sequencer.
This technique is possibly referred as "audio sequencing".
Beat slicing — before the DAW became popular, several musicians sometimes derived various beats from limited drum sample loops by slicing beats and rearranging them on samplers. This technique, called "beat slicing", was popularized with the introduction of "beat slicer" tool, especially the "ReCycle" released in 1992.
Possibly it may be one origin of "audio sequencing".
The early music sequencers were sound-producing devices such as automatic musical instruments, music boxes, mechanical organs, player pianos, and Orchestrions. Player pianos, for example, had much in common with contemporary sequencers. Composers or arrangers transmitted music to piano rolls which were subsequently edited by technicians who prepared the rolls for mass duplication. Eventually consumers were able to purchase these rolls and play them back on their own player pianos.
In 1206, Al-Jazari, an Arab engineer, invented programmable musical automata,[13] a "robotband" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."[14] It was notably the first programmable drum machine. Among the four automaton musicians were two drummers. It was a drum machine where pegs (cams) bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummers could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.[15]
In the 14th century, rotating cylinders with pins were used to play a carillon (steam organ) in Flanders,[citation needed] and at least in the 15th century, barrel organs were seen in the Netherlands.[16]
Additional inventions grew out of sound film audio technology. The drawn sound technique which appeared in the late 1920s, is notable as a precursor of today's intuitive graphical user interfaces. In this technique, notes and various sound parameters are triggered by hand-drawn black ink waveforms directly upon the film substrate, hence they resemble piano rolls (or the 'strip charts' of the modern sequencers/DAWs). Drawn soundtrack was often used in early experimental electronic music, including the Variophone developed by Yevgeny Sholpo in 1930, and the Oramics designed by Daphne Oram in 1957, and so forth.
Analog sequencers
Early commercially available analog sequencers (bottom) on Buchla 100 (1964/1966)[20]
Moog sequencer module (top left, probably added after 1968) on Moog Modular (1964)
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017)
During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott, an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions. The "Wall of Sound", once covered on the wall of his studio in New York during the 1940s–1950s, was an electro-mechanical sequencer to produce rhythmic patterns, consisting of stepping relays (used on dial pulsetelephone exchange), solenoids, control switches, and tone circuits with 16 individual oscillators.[21] Later, Robert Moog would explain it in such terms as "the whole room would go 'clack – clack – clack', and the sounds would come out all over the place".[22] The Circle Machine, developed in 1959, had incandescent bulbs each with its own rheostat, arranged in a ring, and a rotating arm with photocell scanning over the ring, to generate an arbitrary waveform. Also, the rotating speed of the arm was controlled via the brightness of lights, and as a result, arbitrary rhythms were generated.[23] The first electronic sequencer was invented by Raymond Scott, using thyratrons and relays.[24]
Clavivox, developed since 1952, was a kind of keyboard synthesizer with sequencer.[verification needed] On its prototype, a theremin manufactured by young Robert Moog was utilized to enable portamento over 3-octave range, and on later version, it was replaced by a pair of photographic film and photocell for controlling the pitch by voltage.[22]
The step sequencers played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of a measure. These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions. Sequencers of this kind are still in use, mostly built into drum machines and grooveboxes. They are monophonic by nature, although some are multi-timbral, meaning that they can control several different sounds but only play one note on each of those sounds.[clarification needed]
In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when Keio University professor Sekine and Toshiba engineer Hayashi experimented with the TOSBAC computer. This resulted in a piece entitled TOSBAC Suite.[32]
Early computer music hardware
DDP-24 S Block (expansion card rack unit) that is assumed the A/D converters used for GROOVE (1970) by Max Mathews.
Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system,[36] a first fully developed music synthesis system for interactive composition (that implies sequencer) and realtime performance, using 3C/HoneywellDDP-24[37] (or DDP-224[38]) minicomputers. It used a CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12-bit D/A converter for realtime sound playback, an interface for CV/gate analog devices, and even several controllers including a musical keyboard, knobs, and rotating joysticks to capture realtime performance.[34][38][35]
In 1975, New England Digital (NED) released ABLE computer (microcomputer)[50] as a dedicated data processing unit for Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer (1973), and based on it, later Synclavier series were developed.
The Synclavier I, released in September 1977,[51] was one of the earliest digital music workstation product with multitrack sequencer. Synclavier series evolved throughout the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, and they also established integration of digital-audio and music-sequencer, on their Direct-to-Disk option in 1984, and later Tapeless Studio system.
While there were earlier microprocessor-based sequencers for digital polyphonic synthesizers,[note 4] their early products tended to prefer the newer internal digital buses than the old-style analogue CV/gate interface once used on their prototype system. Then in the early-1980s, they also re-recognized the needs of CV/gate interface, and supported it along with MIDI as options.
It was not until the advent of MIDI that general-purpose computers started to play a role as sequencers. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI sequencers were developed. MIDI-to-CV/gate converters were then used to enable analogue synthesizers to be controlled by a MIDI sequencer.[44] Since its introduction, MIDI has remained the musical instrument industry standard interface through to the present day.[58]
In 1987, software sequencers called trackers were developed to realize the low-cost integration of sampling sound and interactive digital sequencer as seen on Fairlight CMI II "Page R". They became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as simple sequencers for creating computer game music, and remain popular in the demoscene and chiptune music.
Modern computer digital audio software after the 2000s, such as Ableton Live, incorporates aspects of sequencers among many other features.[clarification needed]
The spread of MIDI on personal computers was facilitated by Roland's MPU-401, released in 1984. It was the first MIDI-equipped PC sound card, capable of MIDI sound processing[66] and sequencing.[67][68] After Roland sold MPU sound chips to other sound card manufacturers,[66] it established a universal standard MIDI-to-PC interface.[69] Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI software sequencers were developed.[44]
↑ On WhatIs.com of TechTarget, an author seems to define a term "Sequencer" as an abbreviation of "MIDI sequencer".
Margaret Rouse (April 2005). "sequencer". WhatIs.com. TechTarget. Archived from the original on 2015-06-27. In digital audio recording, a sequencer is a program in a computer or stand-alone keyboard unit that puts together a sound sequence from a series (or sequence) of Musical Instrument Digital Interface ( MIDI ) events (operations). The MIDI sequencer allows the user to record and edit a musical performance without using an audio-based input source. ...
↑ Automation parameters in DAWs are often interoperable with MIDI messages, i.e. Control Changes (CC) or System Exclusive (SysEx); in that case, it can be controlled in real-time via pre-assigned MIDI messages generated by MIDI controllers or MIDI sequencers, etc. And even more so, in several DAWs, automation parameters are explicitly recorded as MIDI messages on their embedded MIDI sequencers. (See Price 2006)
↑ The term audio sequencer seems to be relatively new expression and seems to be not clearly defined, yet. For example, "DAW integrated with MIDI sequencer" is often referred as "Audio and MIDI sequencer". However, in this usage, the term "audio sequencer" is just a synonym for the "DAW", and beyond the scope of this article. In that case, please check Digital audio workstation.
↑ In 1974–1975, Australian computer music engineer Tony Furse developed the MC6800-based Qasar M8 with a software sequencer MUSEQ 8, with a minimum price of $8,000. In 1976, it was licensed to Fairlight Instruments Pty Ltd., and eventually Fairlight CMI was released in 1979 (for details, see Fairlight CMI). Also in 1975, New England Digital released original microprocessor-based ABLE computer (utilizing mini-computer architecture) as a future migration target of Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer. Their commercial version of digital synthesizer, Synclavier I was first shipped in 1977 (for details, see Synclavier).
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Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops software for writing, recording, arranging and editing music, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It also designs audio and MIDI hardware interfaces, controllers, and iOS/Android music apps including Cubasis. Steinberg created several industry standard music technologies including the Virtual Studio Technology (VST) format for plug-ins and the ASIO protocol. Steinberg has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha since 2005.
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The timeline of music technology provides the major dates in the history of electric music technologies inventions from the 1800s to the early 1900s and electronic and digital music technologies from 1874 to the 2010s.
↑ Rothstein, Joseph (1995). MIDI: A Comprehensive Introduction. Computer Music and Digital Audio Series. Vol.7. A-R Editions, Inc. pp.77, 122. ISBN978-0-89579-309-6.
↑ Pinch, Trevor. J.; Trocco, Frank (2009). "Buchla's Box". Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (reprinted.). Harvard University Press. pp.55–56. ISBN978-0-674-04216-2.
"Subotnick suggested that using a light source to control sound might be promising. ... Later he [Buchla] turned this into an electro mechanical sequencer by introducing step relays and a dial. ... Buchla, like Moog, realized that voltage control ... But Buchla was after something different; ... Buchla was led to the electronic sequencer—a device that later was used to make much influential pop, rock, and dance music. A sequencer produces predetermined control voltages in a cycle or sequence and can endlessly recycle ..."
"Controller Data Vs. Automation / ... sequencer package such as Logic or Pro Tools, ... are akin to automation on professional hardware mixing consoles, ... This type of automation system is different to using MIDI Continuous Controller [Control Changes] (CC) data, ... In Reason, automation is MIDI Controller [Control Changes] data, but with some specialised tools for handling the data and playing it back. ...", "Recording Mixer Automation / As automation in Reason is MIDI CC data, it must be recorded on a sequencer track."
↑ Fowler, Charles B. (October 1967). "The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments". Music Educators Journal. 54 (2): 45–49. doi:10.2307/3391092. JSTOR3391092. S2CID190524140.
↑ Koetsier, Teun (2001). "On the prehistory of programmable machines: musical automata, looms, calculators". Mechanism and Machine Theory. 36 (5): 589–603. doi:10.1016/S0094-114X(01)00005-2.
↑ Fowler, Charles B. (October 1967). "The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments". Music Educators Journal. 54 (2): 45–49. doi:10.2307/3391092. JSTOR3391092. S2CID190524140.
↑ Fowler, Charles B. (October 1967), "The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments", Music Educators Journal, 54 (2), MENC_ The National Association for Music Education: 45–49, doi:10.2307/3391092, JSTOR3391092, S2CID190524140
↑ Holmes, Thom (2008). Electronic and experimental music: technology, music, and culture (3rded.). Routledge. p.222. ISBN978-0-415-95781-6. Moog admired Buchla's work, recently stating that Buchla designed a system not only for "making new sounds but [for] making textures out of these sounds by specifying when these sounds could change and how regular those change would be."
↑ "Circle Machine". RaymondScott.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.—includes 2 sound files: Raymond Scott's demonstration, and commercial soundtrack for new batteries of Ford Motors.
↑ Hiller, Lejaren (Winter 1981). "Composing with Computer: A Progress Report". Computer Music Journal. 5 (4): 7–21. doi:10.2307/3679501. JSTOR3679501. also available in Curtis Roads, ed. (1992-10-08). The Music Machine: Selected Readings from Computer Music Journal. MIT Press (1989/1992). pp.75. ISBN978-0-262-68078-3.
1 2 3 Shimazu, Takehito (1994). "The History of Electronic and Computer Music in Japan: Significant Composers and Their Works". Leonardo Music Journal. 4: 102–106. doi:10.2307/1513190. JSTOR1513190. S2CID193084745.
↑ Ninke, William (1965), "Graphic 1: A Remote Graphical Display Console System", Proceedings of Fall Joint Computer Conference, vol.27
1 2 Holmes, Thom (2008). "Digital Synthesis and Computer Music". Electronic and experimental music: technology, music, and culture. Taylor & Francis. pp.254. ISBN978-0-415-95781-6.
1 2 Roads, Curtis (Winter 1980). "Interview with Max Mathews". Computer Music Journal. 4 (4). in Curtis Roads, ed. (1992-10-08). The Music Machine: Selected Readings from Computer Music Journal. MIT Press (1989/1992). pp.5. ISBN978-0-262-68078-3.
↑ Max V., Mathews; F.R., Moore (1970). "GROOVE—a program to compose, store, and edit functions of time". Communications of the ACM. 13 (12).
↑ Nyssim Lefford; Eric D. Scheirer & Barry L. Vercoe. "An Interview with Barry Vercoe". Experimental Music Studio 25. Machine Listening Group, MIT Media Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31.
1 2 Bogdanov, Vladimir (2001). All music guide to electronica: the definitive guide to electronic music. Backbeat Books. pp.320. ISBN978-0-87930-628-1.
↑ "Fairlight – The Whole Story". Audio Media. No.January 1996. Archived from the original on 2017-05-04. Fairlight launched the CMI Series II in 1982, which incorporated their now legendary Page R, the first serious music sequencer, which, according to Paine, "simply blew people away".
List of papers sharing a similar perspective with this Wikipedia article:
Arar, Raphael; Kapur, Ajay (2013). "A History of Sequencers: Interfaces for Organizing Pattern-Based Music"(PDF). Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference 2013 (SMC 2013), Stockholm, Sweden. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-04-02. Note: although this conference paper emphasized the "Ace Tone FR-1 Rhythm Ace", it is not the music sequencer nor the first drum machine product.
External links
Look up sequencer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Richmond, Leigh (11 November 1974). "Computer hums its own music". Evening Times. Melbourne, FL. p.A1. (1974 newspaper article about digital sequencer)
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