Thoughts after 1.60

Hermod
#1

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to Squarp. I thought I’d share here in case anyone in the community has thoughts! With the 1.60 firmware, Hermod is better than ever! However, I’ve noticed some issues that I’m finding challenging, and was hoping there were solutions.

  1. The new encoder acceleration feels a bit unpredictable to me. Even though it’s faster (yay!) I find myself now overshooting when adjusting the length. Granted, that may be because I’m constantly jumping between 4, 8, 16, 32 for lengths, as I use Hermod for live-looping.
  • 1a. This problem could be solved by implementing the ability to extend a pattern length 2x, duplicating the existing pattern, and also cut a pattern length in half. For example, holding Y plus 1-8 like I’ve outlined here Pattern: extend + copy?

  1. Pressing a 1-8 number button in STEP mode will delete any note recorded in this step. Is there any way to disable this, or at least allow some kind of undo functionality? I only use Hermod as a MIDI recorder / looper, and while I might transpose an entire pattern, I never change my zoom level or want to edit individual notes. Accidentally deleting everything in a region by pressing a 1-8 number button is something that I do all the time, and it’s a huge bummer when it happens :frowning:

  2. I’d like to be able to route MIDI out from one track to another track, so that the “following” track is playing something derived from the “leading” track. Can you add an “Internal” setting to the OUT FX to send MIDI data to an arbitrary track?

  3. Can you add some way for incoming CV to be routed to arbitrary MIDI (like CC values or pitch bend) for the purposes of recording? Currently we only seem to be able to control a few Hermod features or FX parameters after the fact, but I’d like to be able to use CV to generate MIDI data that I can use while playing, that will be recorded and played back like any other MIDI data. I could buy a separate, external CV-to-MIDI device to do this, but it seems like such a waste since Hermod already has 4 CV inputs. See Is it possible to control pitch (and other arbitrary MIDI CC) via CV while recording?

  4. Can you add a way for the SCALE FX to allow the color/scale/key parameters, which combine to select a set of “valid notes” for sequence notes to be quantized to, to optionally the note output from another Hermod track? For example, if Track 1 was playing a chord sequence, say C-Eb-G for measure 1, then D-F-A for measure 2, if Track 2’s SCALE FX could use the currently-playing notes from Track 1 as the “valid notes” it could allow for some amazing things! Maybe this would be implemented by adding an option to the OUT FX to route MIDI data into an internal note buffer reserved for FX. For example, if you implemented #3 on this list, in addition to Tracks 1-8 there might also be an option like “FX Buffer” that SCALE FX could use. See Quantize CV input based on a MIDI chord using Hermod

  5. X+REC doesn’t work when the clock is external, but this is SUCH a useful feature and I don’t see why it’s disabled. Can it be enabled when Hermod is using external clock? I’d imagine that it’s disabled because it also resets Hermod’s “play head” back to the start when the recording is done. But what if it took into account where the playback was, relative to when the X+REC loop began and ended? It shouldn’t have to reset the clock (and honestly, I think this is more intuitive than the current externally-clocked behavior as well, the way it resets the “play head” can be really confusing).

:smiley:

#2

1a. this could maybe be done by adding a looper midi fx with loop length and loop start position as parameters? i don’t know if it’s possible firmware wise, and would be very usefull regardless

  1. you can link midi out and midi in port with a midi cable, that way you can send tracks to other track via midi out fx and control other parameters as well, it works with the usb ports too

five. if i understand correctly, you could do this with the method described above. put a midi out fx on track 1 with pitch destination whatever cc you want, in mod matrix of track 2 set the cc you have chosen to control whatever parameter of whatever fx. of course set the midi channel for the track and midi out fx accordingly. and it also might need some twiggling with the attenuverter on mod matrix to get exactly the parameters getting modulated the way you want

#3

The only problem with the midi in/out trick is the latency added means fx are updated usually after the note/gate of the target track has triggered. So it works great for modulating LFOs but not so great for things like Scale note transpose.

#4

Hi Cowboy
Not directly related, but since you are a fan of midi looping, I would urge you to take a loop at Bastl Midi Looper. :partying_face:

#5

I’ve considered it… it looks intriguing!

#6

On second thoughts: I have just played with Hermod as midi looper, and it is great! (So forget what I said about the Bastl looper. It is nice, but does not work yet (after more than three years of development, it is buggy as hell. :exploding_head::exploding_head::exploding_head:).

#7

Haha, noted! Yeah, I use Hermod as a MIDI looper. I don’t even try to program it. I just play into it. And it’s very good at this.

There are a few rough edges that they’ve worked to smooth out over the last few years, mostly around reducing the number of button presses required to do common tasks, like deleting all the notes in a track or duplicating a sequence. However, there are still a few outstanding issues that I’d like to see addressed, like being able to easily double or halve the length of a track, or being able to record a track and have the length set by when you stop recording like a looper foot pedal (this seems to only work when Hermod is the master clock and has a few weird behaviors).

#8

How do you find recording midi and the gate appearing correctly on the grid? Whenever I’ve tried to do this, I find gates are not positioned correctly - even though it plays back fine - the key pad lights are not lit on the 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 etc.

#9

Hi Cowboy,

I’m new to Hermod, and got a question you probably know. What’s the quickest way to clear out a track?

I like to jam and hit rec to catch a loop. If it doesn’t jive, I want to quickly ‘undo’ and rec a new one. Now I need to go in the menu and ‘delete all note events’, killing my flow. Is there a quicker way?

#10

Hold Step and press X! It’s right in the manual under “Edit pattern menu” here https://squarp.net/hermod/manual/modestep

#11

Holy smokes. Oddly enough, I never got past the Quickstart section of the menu. Lots more to dive into then…

Thanks mate!

#12

I would really love track mutes to be “without memory” or “global” as squarp calls it. So the moment you mute or unsure a track, it will be muted or unsuited in whatever sequence you play.

Currently the mute state is saved with the pattern, which means you have to decide before going into a pattern live, which tracks you want muted. I never think like this live, I want to be able to have all possibilities available going into any pattern, in terms of which parts will be playing. For this reason I cannot use mutes in their current implementation.

In my book they could just scrap the current way of working, but I understand some users likes it.

My hope is that we will (very soon) get “global track mutes”. Please!!!

#13

If you haven’t I would send them a feature request. They’ve been awesome at welcoming user feedback and implementing suggestions. I can see this being a very useful feature.

#14

Thanks, I already send them a feature request, initially it didn’t seem to resonate with them, but after mentioning it in another correspondence, there seems to be at least some acknowledgement. Hoping so much for this to happen, as I’m currently not using the mute feature at all…

Thanks for chiming in!