as someone who bought their Pyramid a few months before Hapax was announced, there weren’t a ton of active Pyramid threads here even then. i was resurrecting several old topics as i learned my way around the device, which at the end of the day is over five years old now. it does what it does and still works great at performing those tasks. not sure what more a new user can expect from it at this point, but it’s not abandoned by any stretch
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Everyone here is just a fellow Pyramid owner. My wish is that Squarp had a regular presence in the Pyramid forum, the way that, say, 1010 Music has a customer support team member visiting and contributing regularly. I enjoy participating in that forum. In that way, I agree that the Pyramid feels neglected.
Because we are just fellow Pyramid users and not Pyramid representatives or customer support volunteers, you pointing out specific threads in which you thought the suggestions were subpar just comes off as you being unappreciative of someone at least trying to be helpful. You and that person are peers, fellow travelers in using this complex and occasionally frustrating device.
Setting that aside, my guess is that the way you’re using the Pyramid is simply a less common use case, so there aren’t a lot of peers who have the knowledge to answer your questions. I will keep reading any questions you post and if I have some relevant knowledge I will share it.
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I very much appreciate the overall civility and thoughtfulness of this conversation, and find myself pretty much in agreement with or at least sympathetic understanding of all parties and perspectives Ive read so far.
But lets be honest. Are you saying that, having read the manual online a few times before purchasing your Pyramid, that when you finally acquired one and used it on a project, that everything worked exactly as you had gleaned from the manual?
Because that was definitely not my experience. There was very much a trial and error exploration and sometimes frustrating, often confusing learning curve, wherein I would be looking at the manual while using the device and scratching my head trying to reconcile what the manual was saying with what the device was doing.
I dont begrudge Squarp this - I consider it the tradeoff of their decision to create a relatively succinct, visually appealing and easy to consume reference guide for a pretty advanced device, rather than a detailed tome like the operator manual textbooks that used to come with old workstation synthesizers.
But I definitely had some preconceived ideas about how the device was going to function when i first purchased it that did not align with the realities of its behavior. Like the way the transpose track works, for instance. As well as the specific limitations of the live recording capabilities, as discussed. Or the behaviors around recording in CCs with the trackpad. I mean, does anyone here actually use the trackpad for anything, ever? Did you think you would before you bought your unit? Ok maybe that last one is just me, I dunno. 
Make no mistake, I have no intention of getting rid of my Pyramid. It does things that are still unmatched by any other hardware sequencer I know of. But I have on many occasions wished their manual was more detailed.
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Yes, that is what I’m saying. There might have been some youtube videos in there as well? I don’t quite remember. And I’d had pretty deep experience with many other sequencers before the Pyramid, so I’m sure that helped.
But I thought the manual did a good job of explaining the core concepts of the Pyramid, what it was doing different, and when I sat down with it those concepts were pretty much as I expected (once I figured out what parts of the UI mapped to which concepts. The cheat overlay helped a lot with that).
And yes, I use the trackpad to draw CCs lots. But, you know, different people are different. No reason to think my experience would be like yours, or that our music is similar, or that we need the same things from the Pyramid. If some people can get what they need from it, I’m super happy for them. If others cannot, move on. It’s a golden age of sequencers. Find something you love!
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You know - there’s an argument to be made that the pyramid workflow is more of a recommendation than a requirement. Like, if you apply a controllerism ethos to pyramid and don’t mind doing some trippy shit with midi the pyramid can almost be like a blank control surface with some sequencer features that you can use to do anything.
Anyways, lol, i just had that deep thought and wanted to share it with you while i was reading your thing. Like - sure the pyramid maybe suggests some workflows and yet, the pyramid could kinda do anything you want even without additional development from the squarpies assuming you’re weird enough to get a bomebox or an arduino.
Btw, i’m totally not disagreeing - like i always say, i totally have my want list from squarp. I just needed to share like this adhd deep thought where my mind started expanding.
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I wish I could say that. There were things I didn’t understand at all after reading the manual a few times. And I went to the beach shortly after getting my Pyramid, a beach vacation w/o wifi so I took a copy of the PDF version of the manual. I wasted at least an hour trying to trial-and-error my way through something that wasn’t working before giving up and tethering my laptop to my phone to check the web version of the manual. My problem was caused by the PDF manual incorrectly having “is” where the web version correctly had “isn’t”. I stick to the web version now.
I do not.
I did.
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FWIW, Squarp is great. I doubt they’ll drop Pyramid support, but they are a small team.
I also read the Pyramid manual a few times before purchase and it worked as expected if not better.
I also did not like the trackpad so I turned it off. It’s pretty dry where I live so the trackpad is a bit flaky.
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I like my Pyramid, but for me that trackpad is a waste of space, should have been used for a larger screen! The manual is complex but works for me when I use it.
FYI: I have my Pyramid synched to a NDLR sequencer, and it’s env/clock out to a eurorack Stochastic Instruments regenerative sequencer, as well as to a Mutable Instr Yarns (MIDI to x4 CV convertor) - all this controls multiple analogue midi synths + euro rack modules - its fun writing songs with Pyramid!
cheers
H
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yeah, I have to admit, I rarely (almost never!) use the trackpad. (*)
don’t get me wrong , I think conceptually it was a nice idea… (include a modulation source), but for some reason, just doesn’t seem to work out for me.
I think largely for me, the issue is I dont really use the Pyramid as a playing surface … I have a dedicated controller for that… so, for the same reason, I rarely map the pyramid encoders to anything either.
then again… these days, I find the pyramid can be fun for a small eurorack setup.
and in that scenario, perhaps I should map the trackpad and encoders, as I never can have too many input sources there!
(*) that said, I don’t think theres a direct design choice between screen and a track pad … space is not the only concern on product design… a larger screen would have been more expensive, and also draw alot more power (from an already ‘pushed’ USB power source) …
I’d suspect the trackpad as an ‘easy add’ low cost addition
interesting side note, which is kind of related… the early pyramids also had a gyro, which was dropped pretty early on… but again, a bit odd for sequencer, but was probably just on the MCU so Squarp thought ‘why not’
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Imagine instead of the track pad there was 8 knobs.
who knows what a Pyramid 2 would use as a form factor… (if it ever was created!)
(and its not as if we are going to retro-fit the current pyramid )
the hapax has more encoders, more screen real estate … and no track pad, so I guess thats a good pointer…as for sure, Squarp have learnt a lot of lessons from the Pyramid (and Hermod!), that have influenced the Hapax.
anyways, as for the pyramid…
fortunately, its easy enough to connect a midi controller (with as many knobs as you want ;)), and use these either for CC, or to midi learn fx parameters.
so, the Pyramid doesn’t really have an issue in that area.
(in some ways, pyramidi gives it a bit more ‘external control’ that the hapax)
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This is a way too technical reply to a comment that started with the word “Imagine” but whatever 
I think I used the trackpad twice for CCs, but did use it for automation curves a bit, was nice for that. As for the encoders, never ever used them for CCs. I find endless rotation knobs are a nightmare for controlling parameters live (the Nord G2 is a very notable exception, although they have visual feedback with LED rings and no acceleration, which I think helps massively)
Just buy a cheap MIDI controller with loads of knobs on it, and use those. I know it’s an ‘extra’ thing, but it works well.
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idk, i mean i almost never use the track pad but when i do it’s super helpful. like say i want a filter to crescendo, i just open that up and draw it in. for me its harder to do x/y programming with knobs.
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That true, it’s useful when u need it, but extra knobs would’ve been better & you could always add a external touch pad when needed - this would’ve more sense in the long run.
more sense ‘for your workflow’, which is fine - we all use pyramid differently. i almost never use the knobs.
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So you use the pad more than the knobs & if so do you most people would’ve preferred the pad over 8 knobs?
i thought i might use the knobs (and the ones on Digitone Keys) to control external gear but more and more i realize that an all-in-one thing like the Novation Launch Control is really what works best for a live set
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But what would you perfer the pad or extra knobs?
given that choice, currently i’d prefer the pad over additional knobs myself.
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