I stumbeled upon an Analogue Sequencer

A couple of years ago I bought a pretty cheap Yamaha AN200. Although Virtual Analogues in general and Groveboxes in particular hasn't been my area of interest I couldn't resist it thinking that it could be fun for the kids at least. They had actually just started to show some interest in some of my drum machines and synths. The Grovebox however didn't catch their attention for more than a couple of hours as they were fiddlin around with the preset techno rhythms.

Since then it has mainly been standing around in a corner in the studio just getting some attention every now and then when I needed some thick polysynth sounds. Actually it does sound quite good, but being bit of an orthodox when it comes to synths and organs I can't get the right feeling with the multifeature knobs.

Last week however I dug it out to try and use it as a sequencer for my Doepfer MS404. Don't know why I haven't thought about it earlier but I came across the idea after using my Roland TR626 as sequencer for the MS404 on my track DSTS. Even I realized that the AN200, even though beeing bit of a technobox, would be wiser to use is a sequencer instead of the TR626. One of the drawbacks, as I see it, with these multipurpose boxes is that you have to walk through the manual to get anything out of it. I mean with the Yamaha CS5or the Boss DR55 you just turn the power on and you know what to do. Anyway I sat down with the manual to the AN200 in the sofa this Wednesday to try to get a grip of the realtime and step programming features and pretty soon it came up to me...

It works just like an analogue sequencer!!! AN ANALOGUE SEQUENCER!!! I have had it for more than two years and hadn't discovered that feature yet (actually I think this was the first time I payed any attention to the manual).

Ever since I saw the Doepfer MAQ16 sometime in the mid nineties I have been dreaming about having an analogue sequencer of my own. And in the last years with cheaper DIY kits and the DarkTime I have been pretty close to ordering one. But someway with two kids, two cars and a house there is always something with higher priority in the households budget.

But now I actually own one, or at least a machine that works just like one. In the eight step mode (12 and 16 is also available) it is pretty straightforward and as long as you use it on an external synth instead of the internal VA you don't need to mix up your filter or osc settings with the pitch or the gate. I made a short demo of how it works on my Youtube-channel and hope to get a new track out on SoundCloud with this set up soon.