Social Entropy Engine sequencer

[Walter Ego]

Hope this isn't an overpost. Couldn't find anything in a forum search, though.

This guy looks pretty cool. The article announces the immediate availability.

https://ask.audio/articles/social-entro ... -available

[Z]

Hopefully, I'll get to see this in-person at the 6th Annual Dallas Synth Meet. Soc. Ent. (ripe909) is here in DFW and I have spoken to him and he's supposed to attend. He came to my 2nd meet just before he started Soc. Ent.

I'll report back with more info (video) if he does indeed attend.

[Walter Ego]

Hopefully, I'll get to see this in-person at the 6th Annual Dallas Synth Meet. Soc. Ent. (ripe909) is here in DFW and I have spoken to him and he's supposed to attend. He came to my 2nd meet just before he started Soc. Ent.

I'll report back with more info (video) if he does indeed attend.

Sweet. That would be very cool. It seems like it covers many of the bases that a sequencer should, and all things considered, the price point is not that bad.

[ripe]

I will be there!

This will be the first "public" appearance of Engine since NAMM

Things have been a bit crazy, but hopefully will be settled down a little by then, whew!

cheers
ripe

[Z]

SWEET!

Looking forward to seeing you again and the Engine.

[Walter Ego]

Do you think Brad Ferguson will be there with the Parva? They're in the final production stage, from what I understand.

[Z]

I had never heard of Parva. Just looked at the website and saw he's in Austin. I'll send him an invite, but remember, Texas is it's own country and cities are not as close to each other as you're used to. Austin is 3-4 hours from Dallas depending on traffic in Austin, Dallas and Waco.

DFW International Airport is LARGER than Manhattan Island.

[nuketifromorbit]

Whelp eff it, I just placed an order for a red one. I had no idea this thing would be released this year, otherwise I would have held off on buying an MPC. I've always wanted something like this. The closest thing, the cirklon, seemed overly complex, has a waiting list, and cost a quite a bit more.

[glassofwater]

What I really like about this is the simplicity of it all. It seems to have basically most of what I'd like in a sequencer like this (altho I'd like more than 4 note chords, but whatevs). Anyone know how deep the MIDI implementations are? is it only length and velocity, or can it do more?

[Z]

Brandon,

Thanks for getting in touch — it’s always good to hear from local musicians. I’d love to attend your synth meet (and check out Social Entropy’s new sequencer), but I can’t commit to going at this point. We’re in “crunch mode” getting synths assembled and shipped to our Kickstarter backers, so it’ll depend on how much progress we make in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks,
Brad

[Walter Ego]

Brandon,

Thanks for getting in touch — it’s always good to hear from local musicians. I’d love to attend your synth meet (and check out Social Entropy’s new sequencer), but I can’t commit to going at this point. We’re in “crunch mode” getting synths assembled and shipped to our Kickstarter backers, so it’ll depend on how much progress we make in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks,
Brad

Cool beans. Makes sense, too.

I'll send him an invite, but remember, Texas is it's own country and cities are not as close to each other as you're used to. Austin is 3-4 hours from Dallas depending on traffic in Austin, Dallas and Waco.

Yeah, I know Texas is its own country...I thought I would say something, though, since I thought I remembered you referring people to Switched On in Austin, so for something like this I figured people might come from far and wide in the Republic of Texas (Silicon Prairie and whatnot).

[meatballfulton]

[Yeah, I know Texas is its own country...

A bandmate of mine moved from Boston to Austin some years back and was amazed that some of his in-state gigs required drives of 8 hours or more

[Stab Frenzy]

[Yeah, I know Texas is its own country...

A bandmate of mine moved from Boston to Austin some years back and was amazed that some of his in-state gigs required drives of 8 hours or more

Ha, in Australia the next closest city to play in is a 10 hour drive (each way), it's cheaper to fly to out of town gigs than to drive.

Back on topic, the Engine looks great to me. I love the focussed attention on doing one thing really well.

[nuketifromorbit]

I've had mine for close to a week now, and I'm very happy with it, and I only have a few minor complaints. First of all I can't seem to find out how to adjust the number of repeats with the note repeat function. The manual says knob four is used to adjust this parameter, but it doesn't seem to have any effect? The arp is nothing to right home about and is a very humble affair. I've notice that the octave range on the arp only functions if you play a chord for some reason. In other words if you play a single note, say c3, c3 will only repeat and the arp won't play any of the following notes at a higher octave. I imagine both these issues will probably be fixed in a future OS update.

Overall work flow is extremely fast, but there is a slight learning curve. In terms of difficulty I'd place it between the simple korg electribe and the complex emu command station. The later can do a bit more and absolutely kills the Engine when it comes to arps, but I find the engine to be far more immediate and satisfying. Plus both the command stations I've owned had serious issues with dodgy buttons. The overall build quality is very good, although at this price I think they should have went for surface mounted pots. The switches feel extremely robust though and the housing itself is top notch.

[garranimal]

I got to see the Engine in person at the Dallas Synth Meet this past weekend. It's a solid piece of kit, and packed to the gills with features. I love the workflow of that thing. The note-repeat feature is a ratchet with variable speed (measured in ppqn), and can be very fast to sound like flam when used on a snare part. Yes it can do note length, velocity, ties, and slur 303 style. Snapshots allows you to go as far in left field as you want to take your sequence, and then jump right back to your basic arrangement. Unlike the Beatstep Pro, where saving is a real chore, on the Engine all of your edits are continuously saved so you never have to think about it. And you never have to guess what step you're editing, just push that step button and dial the encoder while the display tells you what you are doing. The six encoders are freely assignable so you can set them up with the features you use the most.