The old-style analog sequencer is a very different beast from the sequencer in a typical workstation synth. Today's "analog" sequencers are always implemented digitally, but that doesn't mean much except that lots of fascinating features can be added that would have been difficult or impossible to patch together with a true analog sequencer. A typical analog sequencer has 16 steps, or perhaps a multiple of 16 (32 or 64), suitable for playing a bar or two of sixteenth-notes in 4/4. Most often, all of the steps will be the same length, but you may have the option of programming a rest for one or more steps to create a less monotonous rhythm. The sequencer will quite likely be monophonic, but will have several "rows" of control outputs, allowing you to control several parameters at once ‹ pitch, filter cutoff, and so on.
One way to use the sequencer is to let it cycle while you play the knobs in the synthesis section, adding filter resonance, tightening up the envelopes, and so on. Another method is to use the sequencer's own knobs and switches to alter the pattern during playback. Some sequencers make the latter process easier, while others hide most of the controls in the LCD menus, where they're hard to get at in real time.
The old-style arpeggiator has also undergone extensive facelifting in the past few years. Polyphonic arpeggiators with programmable note patterns and complex rhythms are becoming more common. One difference between a sequencer and an arpeggiator is that an arpeggiator will transpose and alter the voicing of its playback based on the notes you're holding on the keyboard. Arpeggiators tend not to include any realtime controls, however, and usually play only notes; they don't tend to give you independent control over other synthesis parameters.
As you might expect from its "classic" voice architecture, the Nord's arpeggiator lacks some of the innovative features found on other instruments. It goes up, it comes back down. You can latch it, crank the clock knob in real time, and a few other things, but it doesn't even have an "in the order played" direction. The fun part is that you can have four arpeggiators going at once, one on each of the instrument's four multitimbral parts. They won't sync to one another, but they'll all sync to MIDI clock (though Clavia uses an odd type of free-run/retrigger "sync" that may not behave quite the way you expect).
The arpeggiator on the Q gives you up to 16 programmable steps, which cycle through as if they were a sequence while following the notes you play on the keyboard. Lots of complex patterns can be set up, but the multi-page user interface isn't really designed to let you change the patterns during playback. You can adjust the swing percentage of individual steps as well as glide and gate time. Steps can be skipped to create rests, or can be defined in unusual ways, such as playing the whole arpeggio as a chord rather than a single note. As in most of these instruments, you can store a different arpeggiator pattern with each patch.
The Q is destined to have a step sequencer as well, but on the unit we were shipped, the sequencer was mostly inactive. We're told it will have up to 32 steps with note, gate time, filter, glide, velocity, and an assignable MIDI controller amount for each step. These values look to be controllable in real time from a row of eight knobs (which do double duty as the envelope knobs). Word is, there will be 100 user sequences.
The Quasimidi Sirius has both an arpeggiator and a seven-track song/pattern sequencer. The arpeggiator is pretty basic, though it will do rests and chords. The sequencer is much more powerful. It has buttons for realtime track muting and triggering of fills, and up to 100 user patterns can be recorded. Four of the tracks are dedicated to percussion, so the Sirius is not just an analog-style synth, it's capable of some fairly complete-sounding productions.
The AN1x has both an arpeggiator with a supply of preset rhythms and a 16-step sequencer. Each patch can store its own sequence, and the eight knobs can be used to adjust pitch, velocity, and gate time for individual steps while the sequence plays. Changing the knob assignments (or even seeing what they are) necessitates using the switch matrix on the right side of the panel ‹ definitely less fun than the backlit buttons on the Polymorph and Sirius.
Figuring out how the Supernova's arpeggiator works was not easy. The manual is dreadful, and the only phone contact I had was in the U.K., which meant it was closed for the evening whenever I was at the office in California. Eventually I stumbled onto the fact that the arpeggiator patterns are edited under the Global menu rather than under the arpeggiator edit menu itself. The arpeggiator turns out to be quite cool. User-programmable patterns of up to 64 steps are supported, and both monophonic and polyphonic arpeggiation. A number of memory slots are provided in which to store each type. For each step in a mono arpeggio, you can choose which of the notes being held on the keyboard will be played, and as you add notes they're alternated into the pattern in an interesting way. What's more, in multi mode you can use eight independent arpeggiators at once for some truly wild patterns.
The Polymorph sequencer utterly failed the idiot test: I found the stop/start button, but the relationships between the bank of eight knobs and the sounds I was hearing remained obscure until I cracked the manual. Within seconds I was listening to some seriously groovy four-part sequences, and discovering some truly deep interactive possibilities. Each Polymorph sequence has four tracks, one for each of the four multitimbral parts, and each track supports four "lines" of information, one for pitch and three for assignable synth parameters (filter cutoff, etc.). Individual lines can be less than 16 steps, and can cycle independently, so you can create loops where the filter accent pattern cycles across bar lines.
The Sirius sequencer has lots of buttons for realtime control. Its seven tracks (four percussion, three synth) are built up out of ROMand user motifs ‹ a multi-level architecture that takes some getting used to. While knob movements can be overdubbed into sequencer patterns, trying to layer more than one knob into a given track can result in some seriously garbled output (which you might even like).
The Electribe's 64-step sequencer can record realtime knob sweeps. The sequencer has a separate track for each of the instrument's two monophonic voices, but each track can play only one type of knob data at a time: If you overdub a filter sweep track, the envelope decay track will go away. With 256 patterns that can be chained into songs, though, this sequencer still has a fair amount of music power.
The Z1 has a polyphonic programmable arpeggiator with up to 36 steps per pattern. The gate time and velocity can be programmed for each step, along with a few other things. It doesn't have as many features as the newer arpeggiators in the Supernova and Q, but with 15 user memories to work with you can do a lot with it, especially in multi mode.
The arpeggiator on the Virus ranks far below those on the other instruments. It has only the minimum of features, and no controls on the front panel at all ‹ not even an on/off button. If you want the clock assigned to a knob, you have to put it on one of the two programmable knobs when programming the patch.
The JP-8080 has a few dozen rhythm-oriented arpeggio patterns (all preset) tucked away in memory. Frankly, most of them seem kind of gimmicky to me, but a few are catchy enough to fit into a dance track. It also has a couple of buffers (called Motion Control) in which you can record complex multi-knob moves for looped playback in sync with the arpeggiator.
But there's more to the story: The JP's RPS (Realtime Phrase Sequence) system lets you record your own phrases and trigger them from a keyboard with one finger. RPS is off in its own world; it's not a step sequencer. But it will do things like polyphonic realtime input, which a step sequencer won't do.
The Nord Modular's palette of software modules includes four different 16-step sequencers. While these lack the interactive possibilities found on the Polymorph and Q sequencers, they're capable of some exotic effects.
The 777 does a good job of stringing together 16-step monophonic sequence patterns into songs, and it does Roland TB-303-style accents and glide, but it's short on interactive features ‹ other than the knobs, of course.
