Yep! Standard MIDI File. @jofemodo changed the title of the menu item recently. I wondered if it might catch someone out. I am planning to work on the import feature soon as I feel it is suboptimal. At the moment you have to select a MIDI input channel which filters the SMF for events on that channel only then import which will populate the selected pattern and subsequent patterns as required by the duration of the SMF. The pattern parameters like steps per beat and beats in pattern are used to decide how to fill it from the data in the SMF.
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Thanks for all your work on ZynSeq @riban.
I’m starting again from scratch, and own next to no gear. If ZynSeq wasn’t available the Zynthian would have been useless to me.
I will likely end up with more gear, but because of ZynSeq I’ve had so much fun with nothing but a Pi and a USB MIDI controller.
Many, many thanks!
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As for me, the first association is always Twisted Sister. With some regret.
500: Internal Server Error
At what point do you get the error? Please detail each step you take and the resulting behaviour. I would recommend doing a software update to start with, e.g. from the Zynthian UI.
Hello, the error is 500.
And there is.
Just performed an upgrade on the zynseq branch, and my songs and patterns (which are now banks and patterns) are all gone 
Any chance of retrieving them? I had a quick look but anything that looked promising was a binary file.
Edit: Also, I’ve never managed to get ZynSeq to do live recording, although I have set input channels etc. I’ve tried whilst the pattern is running, while it stopped, while it is in preview mode, but it just doesn’t want to work. Is there a trick to this?
Hi @gr0k
I have previously made each update backwards compatible but the most recent changes made over past could of days does not do this. It proved very challenging to do so with the changes made to the data mdoel. I spent some time trying but agreed with @jofemodo that it was more important to complete the update than to maintain this functionality in the development branch. If you have stuff you really need to recover then you could save these files which may still have the content:
- /zynthian/zynthian-my-data/zynseq/default.zynseq
- /zynthian/zynthian-my-data/zynseq/snapshot.zynseq
- /tmp/snapshot.zynseq
Ideally do this before you save any snapshots. If the date of these files is earlier than your update then they may contain your data. I would prefer to avoid the extra work of converting these but you may be able to convince me!
Sorry about this - I had intended to post here (which I will do now) but have been fully occupied with work as well as resolving Zynthian issues.
Regarding live recording - that is kinda work-in-progress. I changed some of the implementation recently but did not test until now and can confirm it isn’t working. I am not particularly happy with the implementation / workflow but have not had time to consider how best to improve it. Any suggestions on workflow are gratefully received. I will add it to the list of broken features.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
I am pleased to inform you that zynseq has reached what I feel to warrant release candidate testing. The critical issues are resolved and pretty much all major features are implemented. I still need to update the wiki which has been rendered inaccurate by recent significant changes. Here are some of the new features:
- Simple workflow with a single pattern behind each pad using same group and MIDI channel assignment
- Default 4x4 grid of pads configured in columns of MIDI channel 1, 2, 3 & 10
- More colours to indicate larger quantity of groups
- Simpler time signature - everything is counted in beats
- Arranger view allows configuration of more complex sequences
- Multiple tracks in each sequence which can provide a linear song workflow as well as more complex, mulit-channel sequences, e.g. you can play a sequence with drums and bass line from a single pad
- Automatic direct access from ZynPad to Pattern Editor if simple sequence or via Arranger if complex sequence
- Grids of sequences arranged in banks
I am particularly pleased with the addition of tracks within sequences which solves the dilema of how to combine linear songs and looped pads. There are still features to be added, e.g. there is currently no way to add timebase changes to a sequence (tempo / beats per bar). These can be set globally and do get saved with sequences.
Sequences are now stored in snapshots (thanks to @jofemodo) so there is no manual load / save option.
WARNING This release is not backward compatible. Any previously created sequences will not be loaded. If you need to retain your previous data then I suggest saving your sequence with a name before updating to this version. I cannot promise there will be a way to restore it - it is a bit challenging.
This remains a development branch so you need to switch to feature/stepseq to test this. We are keeping this branch synchronised with main so it has all the new goodness. Please test and feeback. We hope to merge this with main branch soon - exciting times.
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No problems, it wasn’t hugely important, certainly not worth your time on it. Many thanks.
ZynSeq is going from strength to strength, so well worth it. Thanks again for all the work you’ve put in!
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I have just pushed a change to feature/stepseq branch which should enable MIDI input to pattern editor.
Manual step input:
- Open Pattern Editor
- From menu select
MIDI Input - Set MIDI input channel
- Play note on external MIDI controller
- Note is added to pattern at current step and step advanced to next step
- From menu you can set the
Rest notewhich when played will skip the current step without adding a note
Live input:
- Configure as above for manual step input
- Press SNAPSHOT to start pattern editor looping
- Play external MIDI controller to add notes to pattern at current (playing) playhead position
You can start other pads playing from ZynPad then go to pattern editor and start it looping to play along to existing sequences. Remember to start pattern editor looping with SNAPSHOT.
Other cosmetic improvements to the Arranger:
- The sequence group/index is shown for first visible track of a sequence only
- Track index shown in track title
- Name of preset for that MIDI channel is shown (truncated as necessary) in the track title
- Other track info removed from track title
- Information about selected sequence and track shown in title bar
There is currently no indication of playmode (oneshot, loop, etc) in Arranger except when you select it form the menu, I am working on the indication and deciding if it is necessary in this view. (It is currently indicated (with some ambiguity) in ZynPad by the icon on each pad.)
I don’t think showing preset name is optimal. In a future planned improvement it may be possible to send program change messages from a sequence which would change this dynamically during playback. @jofemodo may be considering how we improve the naming of layers which will play into this cosmetic feature.
Please test and give feedback here.
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Legend! A love heart does not do the required justice.
I will load it up after dinner and have a play. Thank you so much!
Will report back soon.
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Oh man, I am so excited right now.
You have turned my Zynthian into the best parts of an MPC, with everything else that the Zynth offers on top of it.
This is game changer for me. I can now work how I like to work. The Zynthian gets better and better. Your work is very very very much appreciated!
5 Likes
Hi riban,
Thank you so much for your tireless efforts on zynseq!
It makes a lot of sense to store the state of the sequencer in the snapshot as a complete working whole. But in addition it might be useful to save and load a sequence/track into another snapshot setup to reuse the sequence as a starting point).
You could say duplicate the snapshot, drop all layers and start again from there, but I do feel we lost a bit of workflow flexibility there. Adding a previously created sequence to a previous layer setup won’t be possible: either redo the layer configuration or redo the sequence.
What are your thoughts/plans on this?
Obviously, this should not be blocking point for a release.
Hi @twelve
I agree with you that there are some workflows that are undermined by the move of sequences into snapshots. I discussed these with @jofemodo and we agreed to implement the change and gather user experience to influence future changes. The underlying code remains the same - I have disabled manual load and save (and automatic save) of the sequences to file. What would be good is to build up a list of typical user workflows, e.g. do users have a pool of patterns they reuse in different sequences and/or in differnet snapshots.
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An interesting approach would be implementing partial snapshot loading, so you can decide if you want to load:
- Everything on the snapshot
- Only the layers setup
- Only the sequencer data
I think this approach would simplify things by having a single file format for saving everything, while giving the flexibility for combining parts.
What do you think?
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@riban I just switched to feature/stepseq, and it’s wonderful! The workflow is super intuitive! Rock on! 
One quick question: is there a tempo control somewhere?