these words describe the driving factors behind the design of the archangel sequencer. when we started developing archangel, we wanted to make something that is extremely functional yet acts as a catalyst for
your creativity. the result? an analog sequencer streamlined for performance and interactivity in the modern electronic studio.
performance:
archangel at its core is a 4-row 16-step analog sequencer with integrated 16-pad touchplate controller. the layout of the sequencer allows for instant access to every function available. archangel can be its
own timing master as well as slave to midi, din sync or an external clock pulse. the sequence length can be set from 1 to 16 stages, and step size can be adjusted from 1/32nd note to two bars. to speed
composition and improvisation archangel has an integrated multi-scale quantizer.
control:
the sequencer has five direction modes and three integrated sequential switches. there are two 2:1 switches on the top and bottom pair of rows as well as a single 4:1 switch for all 4 rows. altering the step
size and number of steps per row does not take effect until the start of the next pattern. the archangel sequencer can free-run or operate in one-shot mode, which will stop when the pattern reaches the last
step. the pattern can be restarted with the start/stop button, the external stage 1 gate, or via the touchplate keyboard.
expression:
as well as operating as a standard sequencer, archangel can be played with the touchplate keyboard. each sequencer stage will be activated when the corresponding key is touched. each touchplate key is both
pressure and position sensitive, giving 2d control of any parameter in your synthesizer system. finally, there is an external cv addressing input that allows archangel to be used as either a cv-controlled
sequencer or a low-frequency step-based waveshaper
features:
touchplate keyboard
archangel has a 16 pad touchplate keyboard which can be used separately or in conjunction with the sequencer. pitch output can be one of sixteen pre-programmed scales.
touchplates
the plates themselves are a generous 19mm wide by 40mm high (0.75" x 1.575"), large enough for the most demanding digits. they use a unique digital capacitive sensing mechanism which overcomes the limitations
of previous touchplate technologies. each plate is pressure and vertical position sensitive.
sequencer control
when the sequencer is in key address mode, each touchplate accesses the corresponding stage above, and will start the transport when the sequencer is set to stop at end mode.
parameter outputs
there are four outputs for the keyboard: one gate and three cv outputs. these are pitch cv, pressure cv, and position cv. pressure and position outputs are 0-5v
keyboard scales
16 keyboard scales can be selected by the key scale switch. they include all musical modes, various harmonic scales, and several specialized scales. the modes are arranged so that each scale is only one
degree different from the adjacent scales, to encourage experimentation in a performance situation
sequencer
the core of archangel is a 24ppqn resolution sequencer which runs from 5 to 350bpm.
sequencer outputs
there are six outputs for the sequencer: one output for each row (a-d), a stage 1 trigger output and a clock output which runs at the same rate of the stages. the other three outputs are explained below in
the sequential switch section
transport control
archangel can be a sync master while sending midi and din sync out, and will slave to both midi clock and din sync. transport can be controlled via the front panel, the stage one input, the touch keyboard in
keyboard address mode and external sync when slaved
miscellaneous inputs
there are several inputs to control the sequencer from external synthesizers:
advance is a trigger input to advance the sequence one stage.
stage one is a trigger input that immediately returns the sequencer to stage one.
direction inverts the direction when high.
row shift advances the internal sequential switches by one.
address is a 0-5v cv input which selects the current sequencer stage when in voltage address mode.
stage addressing
each sequence stage can be addressed directly via the touch keyboard, or via an external 0-5v control voltage on the address jack. the external cv will automatically scale to the number of stages set with the
stages knob
stage and sequence length
stage size can be adjusted from 1/32nd note to two bars, including several triplet and dotted lengths. sequence length can be adjusted from 1 to 16 stages
stage directions
there are 5 stage directions. these are forward, reverse, alt one, alt two and random. alt one and alt two are pendulum modes, with the alt one doubling the first and last stage in the sequence. random is not
displayed in the list and indicated by all 4 leds unlit
stop/loop modes
in stop mode, the sequence plays through once and then stops. only when the transport is re-engaged will it reset to the first stage in the sequence begin playing again. loop mode continually loops.
sequential switch
there are three sequential switches that multiplex the 4 rows of archangel - a single 4:1 switch which is output on the abcd jack, and two 2:1 switches on the ab and cd outputs. the switches are automatically
advanced each time the sequencer wraps back to the first stage, or when a trigger is applied to the row shift input jack.
quantizer
archangel's sequencer also has a 2-octave quantizer which operates on all sequencer outputs.
quantizer modes
two quantizer modes are available. in chromatic mode, archangel will output a two octave chromatic scale. in key scale mode, the scale is set by the keyboard scale knob.
transposition
the quant. add input allows you to shift the sequencers around musically without leaving the current scale because the input is summed with the sequencer rows before the quantise operation is performed. this
allows the archangel to be used in a conventional song-oriented context if desired.
the archangel's sequencer is running at 8th notes, the clock output driving the v-trig input of the micromoog. the a row of the archangel is controlling the pitch of the micromoog, the c and d rows are used
to control the filter cutoff of the micromoog via the "cd" output, which alternates between the c and d rows creating a filter pattern twice as long as whatever the current pitch pattern is. the filter
pattern is sent through an attenuator so it can be brought in partway through the recording. sequence lengths of 2 to 8 stages are used at various points.
the touchplate keyboard of the archangel is controlling my modular synthesiser. the gate and pitch outputs are controlling pitch and gate on the modular. the pressure output is controlling vibrato amount and
the vertical position is controlling filter cutoff.
voice and vibrato oscillators are synthesizers.com q106, mixer is homebrew using a hacked stg soundlabs wave folder pcb as a gain stage, filter is an motm-490, output and vibrato vca is an stg soundlabs
signal amplifiers module. adsrs are based on mfos pcbs.
clock master is a x0xb0x through the stg soundlabs time buffer, driving the archangel and the cr-8000. micromoog delay is a boss dd-20, cr-8000 reverb is a pcm-80, and the modular goes through the eventide
h3000. everything tracked individually with effects printed to an alesis hd24 and mixed in digital performer.
no spirytus rektyfikowany was harmed or consumed in the making of this video, but apparently someone present in the studio during filming drank more of it than he should have the previous night.
