Definitions: Drum Lane Limit

Hello,

I am setting up my Hapax and while making a definition file for the Roland TR-8S I noticed that for drum lanes the maximum number is 8. The TR-8S got 11.

I don’t see the reason for this limitation in the Hapax as has a scroll function in many screens and having more than 8 drum lanes would be just as easy to manage as a simple scroll up or down.

Am I missing something or do I really have to make a work around and waste two tracks in the sequencer?

Many thanks!

Cheers,
mineral

2 Likes

Hello!

Correct, there is a limitation of 8 Lanes per Drum Track. I too use a TR-8S with Hapax and have to “sacrafice” an extra Track to accommodate all the voices of the TR-8S. I actually 4 Tracks dedicated to the TR-8S because of some kits/sounds using Alt Sounds. This is often overkill… 2 Tracks is plenty… but still one more than I’d like to be using.

Squarp is aware of this limitation and desire of the community for more Drum Lanes per Drum Track.

Here is there response to my recent request for more drum lanes: “For now adding this would take a lot of internal memory and we don’t want to reduce the scope of other features, but we planned to think about ways to improve parts of the code to earn space and be able to add 16 tracks. In the meantime, you can use two tracks sending notes to the same destination. this is not the same but it works right now.”

So hopefully we see this feature added in the future (without too much expense to other feature requests). As always if you have changes/improvements/requests, please forward them on to Squarp using their request form found here: Contact us | Squarp instruments

Michael

6 Likes

16 drum lanes would indeed be better. I am also using TR-8S. It would also allow to easily record 16 existing lanes from BeatStep Pro to Hapax.

1 Like

I would even be ok if there was a way to “sacrifice” a lane in order to see and program all 16 lanes on one page. Uses the same amount of memory but increases usability,

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Could you clarify what you mean ? I’m not sure I understand

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My main issues with the 8 drum lane limit is having to jump back and forth between multiple drum “instruments” to program steps and also manage multiple drum “instruments” when using mutes/sequencing.

I would be happy with an option that allows you to combine multiple drum “instruments” so that I can scroll through all the lanes on one page and mute them all at once from the mix/mute page.

Something like picking one instrument as the “master” and then being able to choose other instruments to be under the master. You’d have the same number of total lanes available in the Hapax but you’d get to split them up/combine them as you see fit.

I would also very much like to see more drum lanes indeed! Most drum maschines have more than 8 pads :wink: Just make it scrollable (both in live as in step view: problem solved?)

4 Likes

I think I would be happy if I could name the notes of a poly track.
And maybe select which notes are available in live mode of that track.

Perhaps that would be a sample track rather than a drum track. But it would solve a lot of drum machine scenarios.

3 Likes

This is how it’s done on the cirklon

Likewise I use an AnalogRytm and Digitakt2, with 12 and up to 16 tracks respectively. So support for more than 8 would be mighty fine :slight_smile:

FBF

1 Like

Perhaps he meant to sacrifice a “track” for this instead of a “lane”?

I was just about to post this here, if this is a memory limitation, I’d be willing to sacrifice 2 tracks for this, as long as I have all sounds in a single pattern / instrument definition.

Dear Squarp people : When will we get 16 drum lanes ?

2 Likes

Ok, I guess the easiest way in terms of workflow would be to create 2 definition files - the first has the first 8 instruments, and the second has the others. Then, you need to use 2 tracks, but at least you can reach them via MIDI now inside Drum tracks!

1 Like