MIDIbox SEQ V4 User manual
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Table of Contents
MIDIbox SEQ V4 Beginner's Guide 1 .................................................................................................
1. The basics 1 ..................................................................................................................................
1.1. User interface 2 ........................................................................................................................
1.2. Basic concepts 4 .......................................................................................................................
2. Basic settings 5 ............................................................................................................................
2.1. Track EVENT 5 ...........................................................................................................................
2.2. Track LENGTH 12 ......................................................................................................................
2.3. Track DIVIDER and tempo 13 ....................................................................................................
3. Trigger layers and parameter layers 15 ..................................................................................
3.1. Trigger layers 16 .......................................................................................................................
3.3. Drum tracks 26 .........................................................................................................................
4. Entering notes 28 .........................................................................................................................
4.1. The Jam page 28 .......................................................................................................................
4.2. Working on the EDIT page 36 ...................................................................................................
5. Working with patterns and songs 41 ........................................................................................
5.1. Saving a pattern 41 ...................................................................................................................
5.2. Phrase Mode and Song Mode 42 ...............................................................................................
5.3. Copying Patterns 46 ..................................................................................................................
5.4. Measure 47 ...............................................................................................................................
5.5. Guide Track 49 ..........................................................................................................................
5.6. Track selection, Solo and Mute 50 ............................................................................................
6. Some advanced features 52 .......................................................................................................
6.1. Using a bus to control a track 52 ..............................................................................................
6.2. Force To Scale 56 ......................................................................................................................
6.3. Random generator 57 ...............................................................................................................
6.4. Euclidean rhythm generator 58 ................................................................................................
6.5. Mixer maps 59 ..........................................................................................................................
Appendix 1. Customising some button functions 61 ..................................................................
Function buttons F1–F4 61 ...............................................................................................................
Button behaviour (momentary/toggle) 62 ........................................................................................
Appendix 2. Bookmarks 63 .............................................................................................................
Appendix 3. The MIDI Router 64 ....................................................................................................
Appendix 4. MBSEQv4 CC implementation 66 .............................................................................
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MIDIbox SEQ V4 Beginner's Guide
The Beginner's Guide is intended to cover the basic operation and concepts of the MBSEQv4 step
sequencer. It does not include instructions on how to make the most out of all the features of the
sequencer, or what each of the options on every menu page does, but it does give a good overview
for the new user.
Most of this guide is based on what can already be found in the "official" MBSEQv4 manual, and it's
not intended to replace that. On the contrary, once you've learned the basics, it's much easier to
search the official manual for a particular menu page and check out what you can do with the options
that are not mentioned in this guide. This guide is written first of all for new users who are not looking
for information on some particular detail, but instead would prefer to have an overview of the basics.
What this guide does not cover, however, is building the unit, the control surface, where to get the
parts etc. It is intended to be useful when you have a completed and working unit at your disposal,
preferably with Wilba's frontpanel design.
Also, this guide is based on the premise that you have a MIDI controller connected to the sequencer's
MIDI IN1 and a polyphonic synthesizer (mono- or multitimbral) connected to MIDI OUT1 of the
sequencer. If you don't, the guide will still be useful, but you'll have to find out yourself where you
need to do things differently.
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1. The basics
Before starting with the basics, it's useful to create a new session so that you're be able to explore
the sequencer's functions in practice. After switching the sequencer on, press EXIT until you reach the
top menu, where you can choose options like 'Open' and 'New' on the right LCD. Choose 'New', and
then wait until the sequencer has created the session.
The default new session has sixteen tracks that are almost similar.
• All tracks are Note type tracks
• Track length is 16/256 steps
• Divider/Timebase setting is 16
• Port is Def.
Only the MIDI channel setting is different, each track having its own MIDI channel (1-16) on which the
track is sending data.
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1.1. User interface
The physical user interface consists of buttons, indicator leds, two LCD displays, and 17 knobs. In this
guide the buttons are referred to with their names in ALL CAPS, i.e. MENU means the menu button,
PLAY mean the play button etc.
The sixteen numbered buttons immediately below the LCDs and knobs are referred to either with
their button names (LENGTH, DIVIDER, FX etc.), especially if they are used together with the MENU
button; or if they are used without the MENU button, they are called general purpose buttons, or GPBs
for short (usually with a number, e.g. GPB7 for the 7th GPB from the left). Often the menu pages, too,
are called with their button names (EVENT fron the Track Event page etc.), to indicate the means to
get to that page quickly.
All knobs are called general purpose knobs, or GPK for short (also with numbers) with the exception of
the big knob in the middle of the panel, which is called the datawheel. The displays are called the left
LCD and right LCD.
The unit should have at least one physical MIDI IN and one physical MIDI OUT port, and that's taken
for granted in this guide (it is likely you'll have four of each). These will be called MIDI IN1 and MIDI
OUT1, or just IN1 and OUT1.
The top menu page. Use the datawheel to scroll through the various menu pages on the left.
Almost all of the menu pages can be reached by pressing EXIT (once or a few times, depending on
where you are) to get to the top menu, then using the datawheel to browse the options on the left
LCD and finally pressing a GPB to select the menu you need. However, with Wilba's frontpanel layout
most menus are only one or two button presses away. Some menus/functions have their own
dedicated button, while many others can be brought up by pressing MENU together with one of the
GP buttons. The MENU button, along with several others, can be configured in the HW setup file (see
Appendix 1) to be momentary or toggle. “Momentary” means the function is active as long as you
keep pressing the button, while “toggle” means you press once to activate the function, and another
time to deactivate it. You can choose whatever you prefer; the notation in the guide will be of the
form MENU + [BUTTON_NAME].
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Various options on the screen will be written between apostrophes. For example, if reference is made
to the save function on the main menu, the option is written as 'Save'; if you are advised to press a
button to initialise the active track, you are told to select the 'INIT' option, etc. Also, 'on' and 'off' will
be written between apostrophes to indicate that they denote a binary state instead of grammatical
pre- or postpositions.
Many buttons have indicator LEDs associated with them. These LEDs will tell you whether something
(out of many possible options) is selected, or whether some mode or function is toggled 'on' or 'off'.
The 16 LEDs directly below the knobs are step indicator LEDs which will tell you something of the
state of the step. In addition, when the sequencer is running you will see a red cursor LED indicating
which step is being played and how fast the progression from one step to another will be. Above the
datawheel, there is a tempo LED, blinking quarter notes.
On the left side of the frontpanel there's two groups of buttons which deserve special mention. The
eight buttons on the top left are the group and track selection buttons. The left column selects a
group (1–4), the right column selects a track within the selected group. (More on groups and tracks in
section 1.2.) The LEDs indicate which group and track is currently selected, though the information is
often available on the LCDs as well (most often on the left edge of the left LCD).
You can select multiple tracks at once within a group by pressing & holding one track selection button
and then pressing the others one by one; press another time to deselect. (Any combination of tracks
can be selected on the Track Selection page, which is available only as a F1–F4 button or as a saved
bookmark; for customising F1–F4 buttons, see Appendix 1, and for bookmarks, see Appendix 2.)
Below the group and track buttons there are six more buttons for layer selection. The left column is
used to select trigger layers of the selected (active) track, and the right column is used to select
parameter layers of the selected track. (More on layers in section 3.)
In a new session, trigger layer button A selects the gate trigger layer, button B selects the accent
trigger layer and button C brings up a menu of all the trigger layers, allowing you to choose the one
you need with the GP buttons. You can have a maximum of 8 trigger layers, except on drum tracks,
where the maximum is two.
In a new session, parameter layer button A selects the note parameter layer, button B selects the
velocity parameter layer, and button C alternates between length and roll parameter layers. Each of
the default session's tracks has four parameter layers, but if your track has more than four parameter
layers, button C brings up a menu, allowing you to choose the layer you need with the GP buttons.
You can have up to 16 parameter layers, except for drum tracks where the maximum is two.
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1.2. Basic concepts
1.2.1. Groups, tracks, patterns and banks
MBSEQv4 is organised into groups, tracks and patterns. Patterns are stored into four banks.
There are four groups of tracks, and each group has four tracks, so all in all there are 16 tracks. Group
1 always holds the tracks 1–4, group 2 always holds the tracks 5–8 and, group 3 the tracks 9–12 and
group 4 the tracks 13–16. In MBSEQv4 shorthand language, groups and tracks are referred to with the
formula GxTx. For example, G1T3 means “Group 1, Track 3” (i.e., track 3 out of 16), and G3T4 means
“Group 3, track 4” (i.e., track 12 out of 16).
Tracks contain the data – gates, accents, notes, note velocities, CCs etc. – that you've programmed in
them and that is sent over to your MIDI equipment. This data is in trigger layers and parameter
layers. (For details, see section 3.)
In addition to the musical data, tracks also contain settings data. Defining the settings for each
individual track is one of the most complicated operations a new user has to face, because of all the
interconnections that are not immediately self-evident. The flipside is that track setup offers a lot of
possibilities. Some settings (like the MIDI Router settings, see Appendix 4) are independent of any
session.
Most of the time one track is selected and visible on the screen. This is the active track, the track
that's ready for editing. You can always tell which track is selected by looking at the group and track
selection LEDs (on the left of the frontpanel); most of the time the active track is also named on the
left edge of the left LCD (“G1T1”, “G2T4” etc.). By selecting several tracks simultaneously (with the
track selection buttons, or on the Track Selection page) you can also edit several tracks
simultaneously, e.g. to set their length. In this case the selected track on the left LCD will be of the
form GxTM, where 'M' stands for 'multiple'.
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A pattern is a collection of musical and other data on four tracks. Each group always has one active
pattern in it. Because there are four groups, you will always have four simultaneous active patterns.
(Whether or not all the active patterns have any practical data in them is another matter.) Groups and
patterns overlap in the sense that a pattern in Group 1 will always be made up of tracks 1–4, a
pattern in Group 4 will always be made up of tracks 13–16, etc. But the group is just an organisational
concept, a receptacle, and the pattern is the content that fills it. The same pattern can be played in
any of the groups.
Patterns are stored in four banks (1–4). In a default session, Group 1 plays patterns from Bank 1,
Group 2 from Bank 2, etc., but in principle there's nothing stopping you from playing a pattern from
any bank in any group you like. Patterns always have a numerical names, which indicate the bank
they are stored in, and the location within that bank. For example, pattern 3:B2 is stored in the 3rd
bank, 10th slot. Every bank has 64 slots, and the slots are named with a combination of a letter (A–H)
and a number (1–8). Thus, A8 is the 8th slot, B1 is the 9th, and H8 is the 64th.
Patterns can be chained to form songs. Songs are several patterns played one after the other. A
maximum of four patterns can play in parallel (one in each group). It is not possible to put individual
tracks one after the other; a pattern is made up of four tracks, and that is the smallest unit that can
be chained.
A totality of tracks, patterns, songs and settings (and a few other things like groove patterns and
mixer maps) is called a session. One session can have a maximum of 256 different patterns (64 per
bank) and 64 different songs (i.e. different sequences of the patterns in the session).
It makes sense to organise your groups (and hence the four tracks they contain) around a
principle. For example, Group 1 could be for lead sounds, Group 2 for keys and pads, Group 3
for bass, and Group 4 for drums. Or, Groups1–3 could be dedicate to different synthesizers,
and Group 4 from drums and percussion.
2. Basic settings
2.1. Track EVENT
The track EVENT page is the central page for track settings. In a new session, each track will have
some default settings, but it's likely that you will have to change them to match your setup. Changing
the track's Type settings on the EVENT page requires you to initialise the track for the changes to
take effect. The sequencer will tell you when this is needed by displaying a message in the right LCD.
A track is initialised by pressing GPB16 ('INIT') on the EVENT page for a few seconds.
Initialising the track erases all data in the track's parameter and trigger layers and replaces them with
default initialisation values for the chosen track type. Initialisation won't affect Port, MIDI channel, and
Program Change commands (on the Track Instrument page, GPB8), but all other settings such as
length, divider value, name etc. are reset to default values.
By default, initialisation switches the gates 'on' for each 4th step. In the options menu (UTILITY Opt.
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Option #11) you can disable this effect, so that initialisation inserts no notes in the track.
Initialisation works for only one track at a time, even if you have several tracks selected. Only the
track that's being displayed on the LCDs, the active track, will get initialised.
Let's take the first two tracks in Group 1 (i.e. G1T1 and G1T2). At the very least you need to
set their type, length, port and MIDI channel. These settings are made on the EVENT page
(MENU + EVENT).
Make the following settings for G1T1 and G1T2:
• Track type should be “Note”
• Maximum length should be 128 steps
• Port should be 'Def.' (or 'OUT1')
• the MIDI channel (Chn.) should be whatever your synth is listening to (you must know the
right channel yourself)
The port (that's where your synth is physically connected to) is going to be the same for both
tracks in this example, but it still has to be set separately for each track. As to the MIDI
channel, the simplest solution is that you set both tracks to the same channel, so they're both
playing the same (polyphonic) synth. If you have a multitimbral synth, you could use G1T1 to
play a lead sound on one synth and G1T2 to play a bass sound on another, but it's ok if both
tracks are playing the same sound (as long as your synth is polyphonic).
If your synth is monophonic, you will have to apply the following according to your best
judgement, because it's written for, and has been tested with, a polyphonic synthesizer.
Select G1T1 with the group and track selection buttons. To get a track that is of the type
“Note” and 128 steps long, turn GPK2–4 on the EVENT page until the type is “Note” and
“Steps” is 128. This will automatically set the correct layer numbers as well. Initialise the
track by pressing GPB16 for a few seconds.
Next, select the correct port and MIDI channel. Use the GP knobs to set Port to 'Def.' and Chn.
to whatever channel your synth is listening to (you will have to know yourself what the right
channel for your equipment is).
Then push track selection button #2 to select G1T2. You will notice that you stay in the same
menu page (the EVENT page), but the information you see now pertains to track G1T2. Make
the same Type, Steps/Layers, Port and MIDI channel selections for G1T2 as you did for G1T1,
and initialise the track.
2.1.1. Track types
On the MBSEQv4, track selection possibilities are organised into several predefined options based on
track type, length (number of steps), number of parameter layers, and number of trigger layers (the
options are listed below).
Changing the track type allows you to select different kinds of track presets that best suit your
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purposes. The track types are Note, Chord, CC and Drum, and each of these types has subtypes
based on a combination of maximum track length, number of parameter layers and number of trigger
layers. (For the difference between parameter layers and trigger layers, see sections 3.1. and 3.2.)
Because of memory limitations it's not possible to have the longest possible track (256 steps) with the
maximum number of parameter and trigger layers (16 and 8, respectively), so each subtype is a
compromise within the overall limitations.
Note, Chord and CC tracks always have 8 trigger layers, so in effect the track has to be balanced
between maximum length and the number of parameter layers. Drum tracks are somewhat different
from the other types, so they are dealt with separately. (See section 3.3.).
Mode Steps Param. layers Trig. Layers Instruments
Note 64 16 8 1
Note 128 8 8 1
Note 256 4 8 1
Chord 64 6 8 1
Chord 128 8 8 1
Chord 256 4 8 1
CC 64 16 8 1
CC 128 8 8 1
CC 256 4 8 1
Drum 64 1 2 16
Drum 128 2 (32 steps) 1 16
Drum 128 1 2 8
Drum 256 2 (64 steps) 1 8
Drum 64 1 1 16
Drum 128 1 1 8
Drum 256 1 1 4
When changing track type, the track needs to be initialised for the changes to take effect. Press
GPB16 for a few seconds to initialise the track. Initialisation erases all data in the track's layers!
It is important to note that even though initialising a track to the selected preset fixes the number of
parameter layers, you can, after initialisation, freely change what kind of parameter layers you have.
The difference between Note, Chord and CC type tracks is just in what the default parameter layer
functions are; a CC type track contains only CC parameter layers, while Note type tracks contain none
of them, but nothing stops you from from changing the parameter layer functions to whatever you
like after initialisation (naturally within the maximum overall number set at initialisation). Only drum
type tracks are different in this respect. (See section 3.3.)
Indeed, you will have access to many parameter layer functions (like Pitch, Delay and Probability) only
this way, as they won't be available in any of the presets. On the EVENT page, use GPK9 to choose
which parameter layer you want to edit (from A to H, if you have eight parameter layers), then turn
GPK10 to set which function you want to control with that parameter layer. You need to confirm the
change of function by pressing GPB10 (the seq will tell you this). Note that if you change parameter
layer functions, e.g. from Roll to Nth1, you will lose all parameter values in the Roll layer.
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2.1.1.1. Note tracks
In a default session, all tracks are of the same type: they are Note tracks that are 256 steps long and
have four parameter layers. This kind of Note type tracks have one velocity layer (parameter layer B),
one length layer (parameter layer C, for note length, not track length!), one roll layer (parameter
layer D), and one note layer (parameter layer A). If you initialise a shorter Note track, you just get
more note layers (parameter layer E and onwards); if you want other kinds of parameter layers, you
have to set them manually on the EVENT page (see section 2.1.1.). Maximum length of 128 steps
gives you four extra note parameter layers compared to the default, allowing you to enter up to five
note chords, and that should already be enough for most purposes.
The setting Sustain on the MODE page is good to keep in mind when setting up a track to play chords
or long single notes. Sustain holds each note/chord until another one is played on the track, and this
spares you the trouble of having to set the length of each individual note/chord.
2.1.1.2. Chord tracks
Chord tracks are set up length and layer wise just like note tracks. However, in a chord track,
parameter layer A is a chord layer instead of a note layer. The chord layer doesn't take normal notes
as input, but instead a value from A-P to a-p (plus octave value from 0 to 3), each of which represents
a pre-defined chord. The list of the predefined chords is found below.
The advantage of this to using several note layers on a note type track to play chords is that you can
have the chord data on a single layer, even if the chords are made up of 4 notes. Because you only
need a single parameter layer for chords, you can increase your track's maximum length to 256
steps. A disadvantage is that the value names don't make musical sense, though the names of the
chords do appear on the right LCD (top row). A bigger disadvantage is that in order to play chords
with different root notes (and not just different chords of the same root note, like C major, Cm, Csus4
etc.), you need to set up a loopback track to transpose each chord. (See section 6.1.)
There are two chord parameter layers, called 'Chord' and 'Chrd2'.
List of predefined chords for layer 'Chord':
• A-C: Major I, Major II, Major III (transposed variants)
• D-F: Root note, 3rd note, 5th note (single notes)
• G,H: Root+3rd, Root+5th
• I-N: Maj6, Maj7, Maj8, Maj9, Maj10, Maj12 (4-note chords)
• O,P: Sus4 and Maj+
• a-c: Minor I, Minor II, Minor III (transposed variants)
• d-f: Root note, 3rdMin note, 5th note (single notes)
• g,h: Root+3ndMin, Root+5th
• i-n: Min6, Min7, Min8, Min9, Min10, Min12 (4-note chords)
• o-p: Co7 and Min+
List of predefined chords for layer 'Chrd2':
• A-C: Pwr5, Pwr8, R+mj3
• D-F: R+min3, Maj, Sus4
• G–I: Maj+, Maj6, Maj7
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