mseq

Needles turn like clock hands. Circles are sounds. Each time a needle crosses a circle, the circle plays: loud near the tip, quieter towards the pivot. That's mseq in a nutshell, and it is enough to build a lot.

Rhythm comes from where you put things, not from a grid. Circles spaced evenly around a needle play straight; move one and the beat swings. Two needles at different speeds make a polyrhythm. A needle across a spiral of circles plays an arpeggio that never quite repeats. You are not programming steps. You are arranging a scene and listening to what it does.

AN OPEN-ENDED PLAYGROUND

• Needles sweep around a pivot at the speed you set, and play whatever they cross.
• Circles hold a sound: a sample or a MIDI note. Choose radius and color to taste.
• Stoppers deflect or brake a needle that hits them.
• The generator lays out rings, polygons, spirals and spokes of circles in one gesture.

SAMPLES

Any audio file on your iPad can be the sound of a circle: drop in a kick, a field recording, a single synthesizer note. Samples stay inside the scene file. There is a bundled kit to get you started.

MIDI

MIDI circles send notes to other applications on the iPad, to hardware over USB or Bluetooth, and to other devices over a network session. Each scene has a key, and a needle can re-tune the notes it plays into another key as it fires.

PLUGIN

mseq also runs as an AUv3 plugin inside hosts such as AUM and Logic Pro, as an instrument that plays its own samples, and as a MIDI processor that drives other instruments. Scenes are edited inside the plugin with the same canvas as the app, and every instance keeps its own scene.

MORE TO EXPLORE

• Pinch to zoom from 25% to 400%, drag with two fingers to pan.
• A scene library, undo and redo, and a level meter along the bottom.
• A guided tour on first launch, four scenes to take apart, and a full manual under Settings.
• Scenes are files. Share them, back them up, open them on another iPad.
• No account, no ads, no data collected, and no network requests.

mseq is made for exploring. Start with a needle and a few circles, and let what you hear guide you.