Hello,
Not an owner yet, but hopefully in June.
A thing that I like to do with modular sequencers is to modulate the start/end of a sequence.
From what I see that’s not possible yet, and I am wondering if I am hopefully wrong or if it could be done in the future?
Cheers!
Amit.
I hope to see this too. As well as the ability to modulate direction. Currently not possible.
yeah, this would be interesting…
though, I’d say it’d be a bit of departure from how things work at the moment…
my experience with modular sequencers is many are built with this goal at the outset, since its a very modular thing to do, many are derived from ‘step sequencers’ - often being driven by a single pulse clock simply moving thru steps / backwards n’ forwards… this is a very simple model.(*)
whereas, Hapax more comes from the traditional piano roll/daw model.
this is much more complex, since we don’t really have a step at all, every step can be split down into micro steps ( 1/768th of a note) … then we have micro timing, so things are not even then neatly aligned to steps. so basically, you can see it as ‘continuous’ time, not steps at all.
so this liberal way of moving around becomes much more complicated.
on top of this, its being moved by a tempo clock, rather than simply a pulse, again because time is seen as continuous NOT a step operation.
thats not to say it could not be done, but its nowhere near as simple as most modular sequencers that allow for it… and the continuous time, means it has to be different.
Its an interesting area, and something many asked for in Hermod (given it was in the Eurorack space, that was kind of natural) … we did get something in this area for Hermod (a kind of stepping mode) , so perhaps that might come to Hapax?
(though its not what you are asking for)
but for sure we can dream 
(*) even in Eurorack Ive noticed, the more complex the sequencer… the less freedom you get in this area … e.g. a simple doephfer analog sequencer is much more ‘open’ in this area, than my complex USTA.
The Vector Sequencer does this too. It would be nice to be able to module sequencer parameters in general: rate, key, etc. Not sure what’s possible but it’s cool to do on the Vector.
Thank you very much for the detailed response!
I understand its very complex, as simple as it might sound.
I will still try to be optimistic and dream
I don’t have a Vector, but when I was researching it… it also felt more like a traditional step sequence, albeit a very complex one
I think its interesting what Squarp did with the Hermod, and I think is the way they could go with the Hapax.
as time is continuous, they kind of the took the approach of an audio sampler/slicer (since audio is obviously also continuous), so it cuts it up into slices of notes - which are played at ‘constant time’.
now on the Hermod, its only allows forward progression thru these slices, but I could see that be extended to going different directions, or selecting arbitrary slices.
however, thats more complex, since it means you need to track what notes in the slice, to be ready to send note offs as you switch… its also complex with automation… since you may not have automation points at the slice points if you are not using interpolated values.
so I can see why in the Hermod it was limited…
But it does hold out a possible direction they could go with the Hapax…
the other side of this is… how many users care so much about this outside modular?
it’s a really common feature in the modular world, but not something we see so much outside, so what % of users want this? how many Hapax users are modular users? (*)
of course, this is a rhetorical question, aswe all have no idea of this… but hopefully feature request to Squarp, will help them to assess demand.
but yeah, I hope they do look into this area it would be cool to see.
(*) I think this is partly why it came to Hermod, but not the Pyramid… though in fairness, the Hermod is also newer hardware (and firmware design), so perhaps it was just not possible on the older pyramid design.
I have the Pyramid and the Hapax and of course a DAW sequencer and none of them can do all the things my old Doepfer Dark Time can do… - setting start/end loop points within a step sequence, turning off a step (either as a rest or omitted altogether)…
The Midi Box sequencer can do all of these things and it’s a very traditional midi sequencer.
What do you mean by turning off a step? Do you mean having the step’s notes still exist in the pattern but be temporarily muted? Or having them still exist, but skipping the step so that subsequent notes play 1/16th earlier? Or something else?
Yeah, each step has a switch- “On, Off or Skip”, so it will play, rest or skip altogether.
This is especially nice for skipping to get a 7 or 15 note sequence so it is polyrhythmic.
Ah, yeah, that’s super cool.
yeah, thats basically the classic analog step sequencer model… really cool.
moog have one of these in 1969
, and im not even sure they invented it 
and they still have their place…
this was partly why I bought an USTA… sometimes you want that really hands-on, one to one connection.
Ive also considered (many times) the Make Noise Rene, as that goes the next step beyond, its still a clock driven step sequencer BUT you can move around the steps using various patterns, and via cartesian coordinates…which is really creative.
so yeah, there will alway be different types of sequencers, with different advantages etc.
Don’t know about the turning off a step part, but you can set loop start/end points on a Hapax pattern. It’s manual, not something you can modulate, but still a useful feature for performance (and also while creating a pattern, I find, as it lets you loop portions you’re trying to develop).