Keyboard with Sequencer like Notator/Creator?

[forumuser641699]

Are there any workstation keyboards with a sequencer that operates like the old 90's Atari Notator/Creator where you have a pattern for each section: Pattern 1: Chorus, Pattern 2: Verse, etc?

[Ben Asaro]

I cannot answer the workstation question, but just about any software-driven standalone step sequencer can operate that way (Circuit, Launch Pad, Beat/KeyStep Pro, Polyend Tracker, Deluge, etc).

[forumuser641699]

Unless I misunderstand, step sequencers are not the same thing.
Patterns in Notator/Creator can be any length.
I'm looking to sequence in a more traditional songwriting method rather than loop-based electronic music.

Do correct me if I'm wrong.

[Ben Asaro]

You're not wrong, but not right, either.

Step sequencers, in their most basic form, are made to loop indefinitely and back in the day could do little else. Today's step sequencers can chain multiple parts of multiple lengths of 1 - 128 steps across multiple key centers, tempos and time signatures, polyrhythms, you name it. You can play prewritten chains and improvise over top of them and can interact with them in multiple ways.

And if you're particularly ambitious you can syncronise lighting and video effects as well.

[forumuser641699]

Thanks for the explanation.
I think that's not at all what I am looking for.

I guess I'm just looking for a box I can switch on, and put down ideas quickly; Verse. Chorus, Solo, etc, old school!

[BJG145]

I expect there may be keyboards out there with a sequencer which works in the way you want. But you might not get too many suggestions because I doubt if most people here would even use the sequencer in their 'workstation' keyboards, let alone base a purchasing decision on it.

After Googling a list of keyboards based on the built-in sequencers I'm just glancing through this YouTube video describing the features available in the sequencer on the Fantom, but is this the kind of thing you'd want...? It feels like putting the cart before the horse.

[Ben Asaro]

The Roland MC-500 will do that as well, you just need to find the 3.5" floppies!

This sounds like you might be more interested in doing MIDI recording with a DAW than actual sequencing?

[Eddy Deegan]

I've used workstations for the last 30 years and for a lot of that time I used the onboard sequencers as my main composition tool. I still like using onboard sequencers for sketching out ideas and trying things out and I've done tracks using nothing but the onboard sequencer (sometimes driving a second synth as well), recorded direct to DAT or CD.

Examples here (Korg Trinity), here (Yamaha SY85) and here (Yamaha XS8), but when it comes to the final rendition of a piece there isn't anything that can get close to a DAW.

Onboard sequencers are by no means restricted to step sequencers either. The Yamaha SY85, Motif ES and Motif XS, the Korg Trinity, M3 and Kronos ... all of them provide realtime recording as well as pattern recording.

The Motif family offer a pattern-based mode also, whereby you can create your patterns and then chain them together to make a song, though that's not my favoured approach as I always preferred song/sequencer mode where you record live into the tracks.

Punch in and out are useful-ish, but I've always favoured recording to a separate track and then using cut 'n paste to assemble the final take, assuming it's necessary at all.

[N i g e l]

...... I used the onboard sequencers as my main composition tool. I still like using onboard sequencers for sketching out ideas and trying things out ......

+1
it beats staring at a computer screen.

but when it comes to the final rendition of a piece there isn't anything that can get close to a DAW.

+1
keyboard , mouse & big screen - ideal for the detailed editing & polishing.