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Topic starter
February 15, 2021 2:35 am
I have long been desiring an easier to understand and use live sequencer app like Zyklus Improvisor (software that emulates features of Vangelis's hardware setup). Unify certainly gets very close, but I feel like Zyklus has some useful features that could push Unify over the top if implemented. Have you seen this app before, and what do you think about adding some of these additional features? I already requested "scenes' in another post but there are a few other nice features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpWmeHXajZw
mj_prod reacted
Topic starter
February 16, 2021 2:29 am
@getdunne Let me know how it goes. I think it has not been worked on in some time. I had an old version kicking around that I got on a Yahoo group page many years ago. I never got it to function quite right. Now that Unify is here, a lot of the functionality got easier to use. 😉
February 16, 2021 2:36 am
I got email back from the fellow who wrote Zyklus Improvisor. I intend to carry the conversation forward, but the most I would hope for is to incorporate a feature or two from it into some future version of Unify. The full project took the guy a year and a half, and just about drove him insane.
Topic starter
February 16, 2021 3:04 am
@getdunne Sounds good. I could see why it would take a while and understand the insanity! Looking forward to see what you come up with.
February 17, 2021 7:00 pm
I’m the person who wrote Zyklus Improvisor. Shane contacted me a few days ago and I’m looking forward to making any ideas/suggestions that can make Unify even more appealing.
At the moment I’m watching videos about Unify to get a deeper understanding of what it's all about since I don’t own Unify. I did know about Unify before and there were a few aspects that hold me back. Reason 1 there is no midi out afaik and I have lots of hardware synths. Reason 2 making multi-instrument patches with VST’s can make my computer down to its knees. I have to be careful.
However, since I learned about MidiBox and its ability to play midi files things are getting interesting. It occurred to me that Unify is really close to Improvisor if it would have 2 more features:
- record your own (small) sequences, for example 1,2 or 4 bars on the fly and automatically looped preferably in a pre-defined scale (see point 2). Since playing midi files is already possible the recording part is the challenge.
- harmonization. When a small sequence is recorded and looped it doesn’t stop there. Hitting for example an F minor chord will make the sequence (when it was recorded for example in C-major) go from C-major to F-minor. The harmonization routine in Improvisor allowed for inversions as well. And not only inversions but also the distance between the intervals of the chord would affect the playing sequence. For chording I usually used a separate small keyboard to not interfere with the normal playing keyboard.
Improvisor had some cool features but were poorly executed. The UI was way too overwhelming and to set it up properly with all the midi in and outs wasn’t easy. Unify is a far better program than I could ever do with Improvisor.
February 17, 2021 9:17 pm
Thank you so much for joining our Forum! I'll email you with some more detailed follow-up.
