So I saw an amazing deal on reverb for a Pyramid MKii and decided to scoop it up. I didn’t research much, but am a big fan of hardware midi sequencers. I love my octatrack, but it makes me long for offset chords and playability.
So, the deal was too much to pass on so I bought myself a present today on my birthday.
I make hiphop mostly, but hate working on a computer outside of some arrangement and mixing.
I use a Prophet X, minilogue XD, Virus TI, moog grandmother (May trade for a Erebus or potentially a Pro 3) as well as an Analog RYTM and Octatrack (both mki).
I want to do more complex polyphonic step sequencing, with the ability to live play chords. Need offsets on them. Plan to use it as my midi hub for my other gear, though I will use the RYTM sequencer for drums because of retrig and plock slides.
Will also be nice to use as a midi controller sometimes for scale and chords, almost like note mode in a launchpad or Push.
The deal was so good even if I don’t like it, I won’t lose out, but I think I made a good choice. Time to research I guess.
I hope so. It looks amazing now that I’ve looked into it. Similar enough to what I can do on the OT, but much more capable. Should arrive Sunday.
Now I need to see how to hook up my virus TI keyboard so it controls all of my tracks (depending on what is selected) and still go through the channels midi fx such as Quantize and scale. Then still feed the multitimbral virus. Seems to be some confusion in the past.
if you want to select tracks on the pyramid rather than virus , then just use single channel on the virus.
( local echo off)
The only thing that then gets ‘confusing’ is twisting knobs on the virus , as these send midi cc.
I’ve found the best way to avoid confusion here, is to make the knobs not send midi cc - ie set your internal ( rather than int+midi)
The other option is to use multibank mode on pyramid and set virus to send midi on multiple channels ( ie different channel per part)
Kind of depends how you prefer to operate - more using virus controls or pyramid.
welcome, sounds like you’ve got a nice setup there already.
i’m currently doing Pyramid controlling all my synths and drum machines except my Rytm as well, tho the Rytm is obv clocked to the Pyramid.
i was pretty used to using Ableton/Push for MIDI control for a year or two as well, Pyramid definitely ticks similar boxes for constraining the scales/chords like you could with Push.
will be curious how you end up incorporating things into a hiphop style, don’t think i’ve seen much from Pyramid users doing that. lots of potential there of course
I was a Push and then force user, and I enjoyed that. The force had issues for me, though. Started using octatrack, which I am keeping for sampling, but when I realized how much I enjoyed step sequencing on it I decided I wanted something with much deeper capabilities. I think the Pyramid is that, and if I need to write in ableton at all I can use the pads in scale mode/chords like on a push.
As for hiphop, so much of what people make these days is step sequenced in FL studio anyway, so this is similar in my eyes but as hardware.
I will show what you can do with it hiphop wise when I get used to it, I think it will be perfect.
Your situation is almost identical to mine, with similar gear (OT, virus etc) and have just started learning my Pyramid, so I’ll accompany you on this journey (thread) if you wish and don’t mind ?
I just got mine today, arrived while I was at school. After class I spent some time with it sequencing my stuff. The Virus is great to accompany it because of being multitimbral and having 3 stereo output pairs. So I made a quick 1 bar loop so far with 2 virus tracks, 1 prophet x and one minilogue XD. Clocked my analog Rytm to it as well.
Here is an issue I’m having.
Sometimes when I play a chord on my keyboard so that I can then place it on a step, it does not seem to register with the Pyramid.
So I’ll hit C-d#-G on my keys and then hit step one (in step mode) and usually the C minor will play. Then if I try to insert a 2nd chord onto the 9, it’s not registering what I selected on my keys.
Btw, love that I can load a scale on the smart pads, and then map the white keys to smart pads.
So I can select a scale and play it like a c major on my keys! Awesome for crappy keyboard players like myself.
Can tell you. 10 year user of a Roland MC 808 and your story is similar to mine… I wanted more options and the ability for create polymetric & polyrhythmic sequences. Had mine for just over a month now and boy has the Squarp Pyramid ever changed my sonic world. Creating new and innovative tracks is no longer a struggle. Each time I approach my gear I find something new and am inspired by the machine. It seems to make the music for me
