PSQ-1684 Rack Extension Appreciation Thread

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artotaku
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22 Jul 2018

I would like to see what people come up with when using the PSQ-1684 RE as a sequencer.

The device seems to be daunting at first since it is not your normal bread and butter step sequencer. But once you have grasped the Euclidean algorithms and how to sequence drums with the pulses and let the playhead run berserk in the sequencer section you are in the game. It´s a real power house.

It took me a while to get something musical pleasing (at least to my ears) but this is what I have come up with in the last days.

All of the MIDI sequencing is done by PSQ except the vocals and the glitch loop. Monophonic notes are feed into a Sales & Chords player to generate chords which is the base for all other stuff. Voices are switched on/off with a Newtrol which is automated from Reason main sequencer.

Notice how the lead at the end is sequenced (S4) by overlapping regions of other sequencers which leads to some unexpected melodies.


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Loque
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22 Jul 2018

artotaku wrote:
22 Jul 2018
I would like to see what people come up with when using the PSQ-1684 RE as a sequencer.
This is the result when i tried PSQ. It uses only one pattern for all.
Reason12, Win10

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Reasonable man
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22 Jul 2018

Good Stuff.

I bought this Re on black friday along with Expanse and Parsec but i havn't had time to dig it out as its not a meat and gravy device for me ...yet. Can't wait to eventually get stuck into the 3 of em ..especially the PSQ .
I feel with regards modular gate/cv in Reason you need to be compatent (at the very least) in that area before you launch into a beast like the PSQ to get the benifit from it. I'm not quite there yet ;)

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artotaku
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22 Jul 2018

Loque wrote:
22 Jul 2018
artotaku wrote:
22 Jul 2018
I would like to see what people come up with when using the PSQ-1684 RE as a sequencer.
This is the result when i tried PSQ. It uses only one pattern for all.
Awesome. I used the PSQ for the Noise Engineering Song Challenge. Seemed quite natural ;-)
It would be cool to have switchable patterns within the PSQ.

Do you use the Aux outputs in the sequencer section outputs for something?

I use it together with the velocity output to control chord generation with the Sales & Chords player.
The Aux for selecting inversion and velocity for enabling color. It´s flexible enough to makes some nice chord progressions.

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Loque
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22 Jul 2018

artotaku wrote:
22 Jul 2018
Do you use the Aux outputs in the sequencer section outputs for something
No, i recognized this after the song challange and I wanted instantly slap in my face for overlookibg it. But i also instantly understood, that i can use PSQ to control everything and every parameter I want in a rythmic fashion and I can make it predictable or unpredictable as i want.

Is the pattern selection automatable or programmable in the mod matrix? Did not tried, since i can use combined triggers from several patterns if they match.
Reason12, Win10

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Catblack
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22 Jul 2018

I really like this patch from Kungubu here: viewtopic.php?p=303114#p303118

And that thread has some great patches too.
If you ain't hip to the rare Housequake, shut up already.

Damn.

ExianNYC
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23 Jul 2018

I am new to Reason but the PSQ is a great example of why I like Reason better than reaktor or VCV rack or any other virtual modular environment.

Can I please ask a stupid question. How do you record from it? I can make really nice things play, but when I hit the record button, nothing gets recorded. On a standard issue phead player you press direct record, but there is no such switch on the PSQ.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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rcbuse
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23 Jul 2018

ExianNYC wrote:
23 Jul 2018
I am new to Reason but the PSQ is a great example of why I like Reason better than reaktor or VCV rack or any other virtual modular environment.

Can I please ask a stupid question. How do you record from it? I can make really nice things play, but when I hit the record button, nothing gets recorded. On a standard issue phead player you press direct record, but there is no such switch on the PSQ.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Since PSQ was created before the players SDK was available, its a CV only device. If you want to record the sequencer output to MIDI, I suggest using the free CV Player Tap. https://shop.propellerheads.se/rack-ext ... layer-tap/

ExianNYC
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23 Jul 2018

Thanks rcbuse!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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BRIGGS
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23 Jul 2018

The PSQ seems like a good way to make a randomized framework...I prefer to make a deliberate framework then randomize from that point. That said, I'm having trouble making the PSQ work for me.
Last edited by BRIGGS on 03 Aug 2018, edited 1 time in total.
r11s

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artotaku
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23 Jul 2018

Loque wrote:
22 Jul 2018
Is the pattern selection automatable or programmable in the mod matrix? Did not tried, since i can use combined triggers from several patterns if they match.
What I meant is pattern support like in Drum Sequencer, Matrix or Redrum, so basically e. g. multiple pages of sequencer section, so you could have different variations of all sequencer values.

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theshoemaker
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23 Jul 2018

What I really would like to see is pattern switches for PSQ
:PUF_figure: latest :reason: V12 on MacOS Ventura

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kungubu
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23 Jul 2018

And since rcbuse seems to be here i would love to get an explanation of what happens when you turn the DP-knobs more than the obvious: different drum patterns with scaleable density.

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rcbuse
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23 Jul 2018

kungubu wrote:
23 Jul 2018
And since rcbuse seems to be here i would love to get an explanation of what happens when you turn the DP-knobs more than the obvious: different drum patterns with scaleable density.

Imagine a very simple 8 step drum pattern

Code: Select all

X...XX..
Now, lets image that was a top down view of the pattern, but we can flip it on its side and give each hit some height. Note this has nothing to do with velocity.

Code: Select all

X
X   X
X...XX..
X   XX
XX  XX  X
XX XXX  X
Each Drum Pattern in PSQ is like this, like a city skyline. When you select your 'depth', you are selecting the level of intersection and it
uses that to create the binary drum pattern.

Now put 100 unique pattern like this on a 10x10 grid, one pattern at each grid point. If you are on single point, it will use that single pattern, if you are between points, it will blend the nearest patterns, mixing the beat skylines.


Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 9.34.00 PM.png
Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 9.34.00 PM.png (124.59 KiB) Viewed 5794 times

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Faastwalker
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24 Jul 2018

This device is still something of an enigma to me. That's mainly because I have not spent the time with it or RTFM! But really inspired to do so by this thread, particularly Loque's examples. Very cool. I need to invest the time. I'm free tonight. I'm into this ;)

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emilng
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24 Jul 2018

This is hands down my favorite sequencer. Even though the new players are opening up a lot of options for me, I still always start a track wth PSQ.

Here's the thing I did for the Reason 10 Challenge. It uses all 8 sequencer outs. I get a lot of variation out of the same 4 notes by changing the clock division and using the brownian motion sequence option.


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artotaku
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24 Jul 2018

Is there a way to make a drum pattern like this with just one pulse?

Code: Select all

............XXXX
(12 steps rest and a hit on the last 4 steps)
Usable e. g. for a drum roll at the end of a 16 or more steps pattern.

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Catblack
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24 Jul 2018

emilng wrote:
24 Jul 2018
This is hands down my favorite sequencer. Even though the new players are opening up a lot of options for me, I still always start a track wth PSQ.

Here's the thing I did for the Reason 10 Challenge. It uses all 8 sequencer outs. I get a lot of variation out of the same 4 notes by changing the clock division and using the brownian motion sequence option.

I wish you'd flipped the rack around in that video. But really, how did you get that Dual Arp player under the PSQ attached to nothing???
If you ain't hip to the rare Housequake, shut up already.

Damn.

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emilng
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24 Jul 2018

Catblack wrote:
24 Jul 2018
I wish you'd flipped the rack around in that video. But really, how did you get that Dual Arp player under the PSQ attached to nothing???
I didn't flip the rack around because there wasn't really anything special going on. It was just a single note gate pair going to each instrument from each sequence. I have no idea how :shock: I got the Dual Arp player without attaching it to anything now that I think about it. Maybe it was a bug in how players worked in the Reason 10 beta or it's something they fixed in the recent players update.

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emilng
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24 Jul 2018

artotaku wrote:
24 Jul 2018
Is there a way to make a drum pattern like this with just one pulse?

Code: Select all

............XXXX
(12 steps rest and a hit on the last 4 steps)
Usable e. g. for a drum roll at the end of a 16 or more steps pattern.
Make sure you have steps at 16 then set the delay to 12.
Change SR Bits to anything other than -- and SR Pattern to ZZ.

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artotaku
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24 Jul 2018

emilng wrote:
24 Jul 2018
artotaku wrote:
24 Jul 2018
Is there a way to make a drum pattern like this with just one pulse?

Code: Select all

............XXXX
(12 steps rest and a hit on the last 4 steps)
Usable e. g. for a drum roll at the end of a 16 or more steps pattern.
Make sure you have steps at 16 then set the delay to 12.
Change SR Bits to anything other than -- and SR Pattern to ZZ.
Thanks. Tried that some minutes ago. It works if Reset is set to 16. However, I typically have Reset to off since when Reset is reached it makes a hearable not pleasing effect if the width is nearly 100 for long notes.

ExianNYC
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24 Jul 2018

emilng wrote:
24 Jul 2018
This is hands down my favorite sequencer. Even though the new players are opening up a lot of options for me, I still always start a track wth PSQ.

Here's the thing I did for the Reason 10 Challenge. It uses all 8 sequencer outs. I get a lot of variation out of the same 4 notes by changing the clock division and using the brownian motion sequence option.
Super interesting and inspiring. Nice! Can I ask you how you recorded it, either as audio or as MIDI tracks? I can manage to record a single track of MIDI from PSQ at a time, using CV Tap. But is it possible to either record multiple tracks of MIDI, or record the audio?

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rcbuse
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24 Jul 2018

artotaku wrote:
24 Jul 2018
emilng wrote:
24 Jul 2018


Make sure you have steps at 16 then set the delay to 12.
Change SR Bits to anything other than -- and SR Pattern to ZZ.
Thanks. Tried that some minutes ago. It works if Reset is set to 16. However, I typically have Reset to off since when Reset is reached it makes a hearable not pleasing effect if the width is nearly 100 for long notes.
Instead of using the global reset, you could use a clock divider on another pulse that triggers every 16 and use that in the mod matrix to trigger the first pulses reset.

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emilng
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24 Jul 2018

ExianNYC wrote:
24 Jul 2018
Super interesting and inspiring. Nice! Can I ask you how you recorded it, either as audio or as MIDI tracks? I can manage to record a single track of MIDI from PSQ at a time, using CV Tap. But is it possible to either record multiple tracks of MIDI, or record the audio?
Thank you! If I'm happy with how it sounds I just export the audio. If I feel like having more control of individual notes I send those notes to track. If I'm generating CV data rather than note data, I sometimes route that into Thor and convert it to audio or I use Shape LFO editor to record the CV data for later use. If there's too much CV change going on simultaneously to be bothered to save the CV data separately like when I'm working with the Noise Engineering synths I might bounce that single track to audio.

ExianNYC
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24 Jul 2018

Thanks @emilng! Those are all good approaches. Just today, I figured out how to record separate audio tracks for each instrument in a PSQ setup, simultaneously, by creating mix channels and then audio tracks for each instrument. (Yes, I am a noob.) That way I can play with the controls of the PSQ while recording, and capture all of the impact on that on each instrument, in one take, and then apply separate mixing and effects to each instrument's audio track.

On pages 148-150 of the manual it explains how to create and record from mix channels. I wish I could record multiple MIDI tracks simultaneously, but at least this is something. :puf_wink:

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