Long time forum user but rarely post anything… thought I’d share some experiences with the Hapax in case it’s of use to anyone! Would love to hear some suggestions if anyone has any
Imo the drum sequencer in Hapax is the most fun way of programming drums I’ve ever used. If Ableton made a controller with a similarly streamlined workflow I swear it’d be a revolution!
Things I’m currently pairing with the Hapax:
Rossum Assimil8or (with MIDI expander).
Pros:
Smooth integration with the 8 lanes.
MIDI cc and velocity integration is smooth.
The new pitch transposition per step really opens it up. Somehow it just sounds in a different league when pitching up or down, can get a lot of mileage from a single sample this way.
It sounds so good, definitely better than any other modern box I’ve tried. Lots of mad sound design abilities.
Cons:
No slicer mode
No filters! (I’d love it if Rossum just made a fully fledged rack-able sampler with filters and a less compact UI!)
Fairly slow UI for drum duties. A bit fiddly to set up zones. (overall it’s not that bad though)
Roland TR-6S
Pros:
Pairs really well with the Hapax.
The LT track can be pitched up +2 to play an alternate sound for many TR-6S instruments (e.g. 727 congas, etc.)
Cons:
Sound is a little bit weak, kick drum especially (considering finding a preamp pedal to give it a bit of a push?)
Using your own samples is a very convoluted…
Michigan Synth Works SY-1 clone (non-MIDI version)
Pros:
Sounds amazing of course
Can be used with velocity if you have a MIDI-CV that can send velocity triggers (NE Univer Inter is great for this)
Cons:
Pitch tracking is wonky. Would have been good to have a jumper so you could choose accurate-ish pitch tracking or the original’s behaviour.
Some noise from the unit, I get a slight whine at 5k and another a bit higher.
Things I have tried and sold:
Sonicware CY Drums
Pros:
Sounded pretty hefty, quite an unusual tone but not bad
Paired well with the Hapax’s drum lanes and pitch sequencing
Cons:
UI was a bit too much for me, encoders were too fiddly as well
1010 Bitbox Micro
Pros:
Sounded super clean (not as good as the A8 but better than some Elektron boxes imo)
Cons:
Sample management was clunky (I believer there’s a 3rd party editor on the way that should improve this though)
UI wasn’t for me. All just a bit fiddly with the touch screen. All subjective of course.
Ableton - I tried (a lot) to sequence drum racks and drum VSTs (Microtonic, Electribe VST, XLN XO) but frequently encountered timing and latency issues. Again, somebody needs to make an Ableton controller that nails this (the Push is too big/not that great for x0x style and the Move isn’t really meant for controlling Ableton!)
Things I’m curious to try one day:
Vermona DRM1 mk4 (already had the mk3 which I kind of regret selling)
Akai S series sampler
Nord Drum 2 or 3 … or possibly Digitone mk2 !
Elektron Model:Samples or Cycles - wouldn’t use their sequencers though.
Roland SP-404mk2
Would love to hear any suggestions or experiences!
im pretty happy with my mpc 1000 running jjos2xl. havent used my akai force for drums yet. also mpc 1000 tracks tempo in midi clock sync mode, and i love a separate device meant for drums that isnt dependent on notes from hapax. imho mpc 1000 has a very nice ‘live mode’ where i can have loops that last more than 32 measures if i want, i can pair a second sequence with every sequence (bass and drums?), there are 4 velocity layers per pad, the onboard master eq and compressor just has that dance music drum sound, it can chop beat loops if thats your thing, can send program changes to switch up patterns so if you do it right, can be mental, its own timing is impeccable, anything i create on hapax can be recorded to its tracks for any sound, internal or external midi device. this includes hapax’s event management (hapax seems to avoid slop, jitter, smear with smart event management). hapax cc modulations work a treat and is kept 1:1 when recording to mpc 1000. i like it more that i thought i would. jjos2xl is more automatable than i thought too! velocity, cutoff, resonance, track volume, track pan, pitchbend, and the 2nd effect slot as well as the actual buttons themselves are all reachable with cc from hapax. and it sounds like 2005 if thats what you want with ease! also single cycle waveforms work so well! the filter actually sounds good once animated. theres also stereo audio input mix with filters and fx sends… the program editor lets you select all samples in the program so you dont need to do the same tweak for every sample assignment. i just love it!
Awesome, even though I’ve known about it for ages it’s totally flown under my radar !
What’s the program editor? Is that a desktop editor?
How much do you need to prepare kits with it? Or is it very speedy to load samples on the fly? I’ll have to look into the RAM specs.
So you don’t use the Hapax to sequence the MPC at all? I love step sequencing so would be a bit of a shift!
ok. you have to stop the sequencer to load anything. or save. but it has 128mb of ram which is a good bit of sample time.
program editor is onboard, can edit and play at the same time. its relatively easy to load stuff. idea is you can load your favored samples and then edit the program while it plays. the strength is its quite intuitive and has the depth of an mpc4000 which was supposed to be the end all back in 2003 at least. so jjos2xl gives you 4 layers that you can treat as static or velocity layers. there are drum and instrument program types. theres even cross fade looping! sorry theres too many things to list here but its moderately deep with plenty of trix and limits and a great song mode with great utilities for combining phrases and tracks. midi is very well supported too. it is 2003 tech tho so its really great for that time, it stands tall among other gear imho.
i do use hapax to sequence the mpc. in fact, the step nature of hapax is one thing jjos lacks in a way. there is a step mode but its not based on a grid of buttons. so anything at all i make hapax do can seamlessly be recorded to an mpc track, this includes any automations or pitchbends (with limits) or program changes. the mpc also has an event editor which i love, ok so i am making a bassline over midi from hapax controlling the sample engine on jjos and im able to layer samples in more ways than one, im able to control either with onboard envelopes or lfos or aftertouch or cc the volume, pan, filter cutoff, resonance, pitchbend, effect slot 2, also can control the pattern playing over program change. hapax and jjos merge into one machine for me anyways. the mpc can get very cleverly animated with all of those and also can pass the midi from hapax to other hardware synths or the computer. its a dream come true to sequence this way. im using my new akai force as a midi target only from my mpc 1000! which i think is a superior sequencer but the point is i can end up in the force or the mpc 1000 once i have recorded hapax’s brilliance to either. midi is amazing to work with in advanced sequencers like hapax and jjos2xl. im definitely a fan boy! to me the mpc1000 is worth it at $450 shipped used from japan. mine was pretty much new. im confident something like the mc-404mk2 would be equally amazing or maybe in some ways superior but i love jjos2xl! i know it well.
