Device Details

Device Overview

Name/Version: Euclidean sequencer 1.1
Author: alkman  
Description: Euclidean sequencers divide a number of beat subdivisions over a time interval and place MIDI notes as evenly as possible into the sequence. This is a 4 voice euclidean sequencer, for ableton and max for live. Creates complex polymeters and melodic arpeggios. Amongst other things it allows to have a fixed note per voice, or create your own melodic sequence for each one.

Requires max for live & ableton 10.1.2 or later

Demo video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR9L9CrbHzo&feature=youtu.be

review videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2drgThbQgY&t=553s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ2J-K2U9eY

Interesting music theory video that uses the device
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0-zuS_62wc


More info on euclidean sequencers :
http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff.pdf


*Update 1.1*

— Fixed a bug which occurred in Ableton live 10.1.30, where parameter values and presets were not reopened correctly.
— Fixed a bug where an automated note box outputs wrong notes
— Preset number box can be automated and midi mapped


Check also Euclidean sequencer Pro:

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/7382/euclidean-sequencer-pro
 

Device Details

Tags drum, sequencer, utility, other
Live Version Used: 10.1.2
Max Version Used: 8.1
Date Added: Dec 10 2019 10:34:29
Date Last Updated: Nov 18 2021 09:46:11
Device Type: midi_device
Download URL (report link) https://gumroad.com/l/euclideanSequencer
License (more info): Commercial


Comments

Very nice sequencer! Would be cool to get a Re-SyncMaster instead of catching all windows at once (Live purpose in mind ), and of course still having all re-sync button for each windows ofcourse.
Cheers

This looks thoughtfully designed and useful. Will def be buying it after the holidays.

@ alkinganng Thanks for the feedback. It's a good idea

@nulcearsugar, thanks !

I can't get any sound from this device. Any ideas?

@don70 . Make sure you deactivate the "MIDI" button. If enabled the device will output note when it receives a midi note from a clip or an armed track

I bought it! MIDI seems to be used to start/stop the pattern only. It would be great fun to alter the pitches with the MIDI input! All of the pitches would be moved up or down by the same amount, based on the pitch of the MIDI input. Would this be difficult to implement?

hi there, just purchased. quite nice. i'm wondering about the youtube demo and the kick drum that comes in with the 4th trigger on the operator device. are you able to provide the ableton .als so users can inspect the setup? otherwise do u recommend a workflow to achieve such results? it's as if each sequence is outputting to a different channel or something. regards

hi, just bought it. It's very fun to use. I have a problem though : when I activate midi triggering (midi button on) and I create a clip which length is say 2 and I play it in session view, the sequencer is out of sync from the second loop of the clip. Any idea ?

Hi I am having several issue with this device unfortunately.

If I click on any track other than the one with the sequencer on it, when I come back the sequencer is visibly eschewed and the bottom 10% of the plugin is no longer visible, meaning I can't press any of the buttons or see any of the values along the bottom.

Another issue I am having is that the presets do not work. I can save them but opening them does nothing.

These 2 issues together mean that any time I want to change anything in my project, I will need to delete this device and start it again from scratch as it will become unusable and I cannot load presets.

I can send you screenshots and am happy to help troubleshoot!
Thanks.

Hello, thanks for the great tool.

I'm embarrassed to ask but after some time, I still haven't been able to figure out how to export just the midi from the Euclidean Sequencer onto another midi track. Is this possible?

I've been able to record audio clips using the ES and an instrument, but I'd love to have just the midi so I can tweak it.

Thank you!

@Benaben . Bear in mind that one full cycle on a euclidean sequencer does not correspond to 1 full bar. The duration of the sequence depends on the length(steps) of the sequence. You can simply test that everything is in sync by doing the same thing as before but this time make a sequence of 8 steps and set the "playback" to 8n. Everything should come in sync at the beginning of every bar! Let me know if you still struggle with it

@RodSerlingsAshTray I've never seen that before. Which ableton and max for live version are you using?

@mjk3423 You can do that with the standard way of recording MIDI notes! Create new midi track --> Select as MIDI input the output that the sequencer is on --> arm the track --> record a new MIDI clip

You can also use the incoming notes as live input for another instrument

Thanks Alkman! I also needed to click off the Midi button on the ES app. It's working great now and I'm happy I bought it.

Hi Alkman,

Thanks for the response.

My Ableton Live and Max are both at the current versions but it looks like I have errors in Max, which I didn't realise until I tried to open the editor.

I guessing it's the Max issues I'm having that is causing the other issue.

I will get in touch with Cycling '74 support and update here. Cheers!

@alkman Thank for your answer. I understand what you mean about the euclidean cycle.
I made the following test : create a midi track and put the device on it. Enable the click. Create a clip in session view (say 2 measures) with a note spanning the 2 measures. Create a pattern, setting it to 8n playback. I expect that each time the clip is played (each time the note is on), the sequencer resets and start from the beginning of a cycle.
-> That is what happen but sometimes the cycle restart with a tiny delay and so all the notes are all out of sync.
I hope to be clear enough. :)

Just bought, but it crash ableton live every time....

@ mariodance . Sorry to hear about that. Which version of ableton live are you using exactly?

@benaben. Are your sure your sequence have 8 steps? I cannot recreate the same problem on my system.

same to me. once I adjust the event nob ableton live crash.
@mariodance

Hi, I just bought this plugin, and it crashes Live every time I change the "Events" parameter. I can reproduce this with a blank project and the plugin added to an empty track. I'm running Live 10.0.1 and Max 8.0.0. Can you issue a refund please?

@cvpines and @solarpavilion. I am sorry for the inconvenience but this device requires Ableton 10.1.2 or later. It is clearly stated in the description. Please contact me through Gumroad for a refund

@alkman Thanks for your reply. I don't see a contact option on Gumroad. Should I email you my receipt?

I cannot figure out how to use this, it seems to have a bug, for some reason it does not play on my Ableton live 10. Has anybody else had this problem?

@2v909 Make sure you deactivate the "MIDI" button. If enabled the device will output note when it receives a midi note from a clip or an armed track

Hi there.

Very nice and intuitive (I think :) )

But I have found one issue.

I want change the pitch of one of the keys with an lfo. So I mapped the CV LFO of the CV tools to the pitch and tuned it so I see the pitch on the euclidian seq change between D4 and D#4 but the pitch sent out to the vst synth isn?t the same. It is C#4 and D4 and it doesn?t change in sync with what is represented on the screen.
I then tried grouping the euclidian seq so I could map macro controls to the pitch and the change those with the LFO but it is the same behaviour. Also when I move the macro ctr manually.

It seems to me, like the mapping affects the midi information first and the visual representation on the gui of the sequencer is an approximation of this. Instead of the mapping affecting the gui wich then tells the sequencer what pitch to trigger.

Hi @hzd
Thanks for reaching out and reporting the bug. An updated version with a fix and some new features is coming soon.

Hi Alkman,
I am running live 10.1.7 and cannot get Euclidean Sequencer to generate any midi data. I have watched the demo video and have loads of events on Euclidean being swept by the clock hands as Live plays but no MIDI data is monitored on Live's MIDI track, nor detected by any instrument that gets loaded onto the channel.

Is there anything you could advise?

With thanks, Rob

Never mind! Was resolved by reading your comment above about deactivating the MIDI button! Many thanks!

I love this device. I may be in the minority here but i'd love a toggle feature or something like that that changes the mode to where you're able to click on individual dots/cels like a traditional step sequencer, I get that goes against the whole euclidean thing but buying and using this just made me realize how much i love the circle layout instead of the usual grid/line in most sequencers. another thing i think would be great is a button to dump the sequence to a midi clip in the same track, so i wont have to make a new track and record midi in that way. Not a big deal just makes things a bit faster. I know nothing about coding and M4L stuff so these may be near-impossible for all i know, but just things i wanted to bring up to see what you and others think. love this device though, great work!

paid, copied, dragged in front of a drum rack and continued making music.

I bought the device but it can't be handled with Push 2. You plan to add this improvement. Thank you.

Hi,

I've been using this for a few weeks now and loving it, but it suddenly stopped putting out any audio. It's strange, if I open the Max edit window, the preview puts out sound, but when in an instrument rack it isn't working. Channel puts out audio as normal when I power off the Euclidean sequencer. Any help would be appreciated.

I should note this is also happening with a M4L LFO I have, so I don't think the issue is with your device particularly. Many other devices, both midi and audio effects, are working fine. I'm very confused.

@toddburbo . Bummer! I am not sure I understand exactly what is wrong. This is a midi device so it is not producing any sound but only midi information. Try to deactivate the ?midi? button and let me know if you see any notes at the output of the device.

Having so much fun with this, Just one question; can you output the different rhythms to separate midi channels - Or is this something that could be done in a future update? All in all, great fun!

Awesome device. Seems to be buggy on windows though :(

@melnikalex0 what is the exactly the problem you?re facing?

This is brilliant!

Hi, the presentation view looks nice, but in patch mode the objects are completely messed up.

Can you fix this please? I can't even work with this patch then.

Thanks.

Hi thanks for this. Really cool device. A couple of questions. I don?t see how to set note length ( duration) in fixed note ( non-sequencer ) mode.
Am I missing something ?

Secondly, it appears that there is currently no way to send each voice to a separate midi channel ? (this has already been asked by someone else ) To be able to do that would really vastly increase the possibilities, and I?m guessing should not be too complicated to implement ?

I would also second the suggestion of having a ??toggle?? between euclidean and a ??click on the grid?? mode, similar to LoopSeq for iPad ( I realise that that is probably not _at all_ a quick and simple addition, but if ever it is feasible, it would also enormously increase the power of the device !

Thanks for your great work !

I really want to use my push2 to control this sequencer, can you help me? or will you release an update eventually? Thanks in advance gannoksnk@gmail.com

hey, i'm expiriencing a massive bug issue
basically i cannot change the number of events due to the fact every time that i try to change it, ableton immediately crashes, this happens on my windows pc as well as on my Mac with MacOS installed
Using Live 10.0.1 & max 8 on both of them
Can change the number of events on a deactivated sequencer but as soon as i activate the event-changed sequencer, live chrashes immediately

Kind regards

nvm i just scrolled through the comments again and saw that it needs 10.1.2 or later

Great composition tool! Thank you for putting this together.

+1 for separate MIDI channel out

@gannok push integration is coming soon.

@weswook I would like to implement this too, but unfortunately, Ableton does not support internally separate midi channels. This is more of a design flaw. You can read more about it here https://cycling74.com/forums/midi-channels-in-m4l




@alkman Okay, I just want to say that this is a powerful and interesting tool and I will get a wide variety of uses out of it in the future. The design/user interface is great and it is an excellent way to visualize the concept of what's going on, and alkman does great work all around (I HIGHLY recommend all of his other stuff on here for whatever that's worth). Having said that, there are a few points that I wanted to bring up.

First of all, the description specifically mentions polyrhythms which was a big reason I bought it. I was hoping that this could do those right out of the gate, with appropriate parameters inputted in of course. This is something that Live doesn't directly do, which is disappointing, but there are workarounds that you can use such as directly entering/manipulating/warping the MIDI notes (which results in crude/coarse timing) or using overdubbing with the stock arpeggiator in time mode (which requires some math for every polyrhythm desired, but I do find it personally hilarious that I have a disdain for doing that given the styles of music that I listen to/produce/write that require polyrhythms in the first place). After playing around with this for about a dozen hours over about two days, I have discovered that this is not the case with the Euclidean Sequencer. I would say that instead of doing straight-up polyrhythms in sync with the global time signature, it will do polymeters instead. While I can't make it do polyrhythms directly, you have to set it to the polymeter that reflects the intended polyrhythm (5 over 4 in 4/4 at 120bpm to get a 5:4 polyrhythm, for instance), print the MIDI to a track, and then warp it by hand from a phrase/clip length of five beats to four beats. This still puts you at the mercy of Ableton's quantizing, grid snapping, and note-length resolution limitations, however I will say that the end result sounds a bit cleaner than doing it all yourself manually. I guess I was hoping for something for straightforward that could be setup and run to achieve that goal without breaking the creative flow for that specific issue.

After doing some reading of the previous comments from the graciously helpful creator and the supplied paper on Euclidean rhythms, I don't know if this is even a valid feature to request but I would love to see it included. I dunno, but will confess that I am Max ignorant and not a programmer of any kind. I will also freely admit that maybe my expectations based on the description and the video demo may not have necessarily conformed to the actual reality of the tool, though.

Aside from that, saving and loading patches isn't working for me (Live 10.1.14 and Max 8.15), same with parameters resetting to initialized when saving and loading a Live set. I personally would also really like to see if there could be an option (like the random or shuffle buttons) for setting all sequencer note pitches per channel to the same note, like a C3 for the whole blue channel, etc. I've also found that if you use a MIDI effect rack with several channels after it, each with a stock MIDI pitch effect at different "accepted note range" settings, you can then route multiple instruments/MIDI channels to each colored channel, at which point you can do some wild stuff (I had a Mick Gordon/Doom 2016 thing going for a minute, which was dope). Also, if this device was ever at a point where you could use it to assign parameters on other effects and instruments to modulate, I would fear for the dryness and structural integrity of my jeans.

All in all, it's excellent and I would say 10 out of 10 for what it can do, but not what I was expecting going in. I would say that if you need what it can do, it's definitely worth the money. Thanks and I am looking forward to whatever you do in the future.

Hi I Bough the Euclidian Sequencer and it keeps crashing my live. everytime I move a parameter the program just shuts off ... what can i do?

@Livinglivefree please update your Ableton version to 10.1.2 or hm later. As it is stated in the description this device requires a newer version of M4L.

Great device, could you please add "Preset selection" to envelope automation. Potentially even another 4 clock divisions for parameter mapping would be cool.

Excellent device with a great GUI!

There's a problem with the track on/enable buttons where they are all disabled on opening the project. All other parameters look to have saved.

As an additional feature, would you be able to add separate clock divisions to each track please, rather than them using the same one? It would be great to have each track moving at separate timings. Thanks

Is it possible to add more voices, other than duplicating the track?

When recording the Midi notes coming from the Euclidean to another Midi track , the notes are recorded much differently than what i've programed into the Euclidean (no melody very ridged).
Any info on this is appreciated, thank you .

Hello,
I wish that in the round you could choose which steps sound and which don?t. I can only make him distribute it symmetrically.
That is, in a 4 event if we put 2 steps choose 1 and 3. I can't choose 1 and 2 for example.

Looks worth purchasing. Going to get it soon.

Would be great if the tempo could be altered, relative to the tracks tempo.

hey buddy this looks amazing but it's not letting me download from gumroad (it never works for me for some reason) do you have paypal where i can pay you directly and get the product?

@xavieri please send me an email here zoisloumakis@gmail.com

@Marlon4life. The tempo is already relative to the track's tempo

Hi Alkman

I love this sequencer. It is a great tool, and I have used it on several tracks.

However, there seems to be a problem with it after the Ableton Live software update 10.1.30 that updates Max to 8.1.7.

When I open a saved project with the sequencer, it opens in a reset state without any of the changes I have made to it.

Does anybody else experience the same problem?

@johannesastrup Thanks for reaching out and pointing the issue.
I confirm the issue is present on live 10.1.30.
A free update is coming out with a fix.
cheers

I want to second @method's request to automate preset activation. I can find "delete" and "save" but not "activate?!"

Also, would it be possible to add automation capability for "shuffle" and "randomize"? Or if it's there someplace please answer quick, I'm on a deadline!

thanks, loving it otherwise.

@dcrandall Preset automation and mapping is already activated in version 1.1 which came out 2 days ago. Shuffle and random automation are coming on the next update.

- One of the best designed devices I've found here or on the commercial market...really nicely done.
- Glad to hear Random is coming - assume that would be a per channel random note select?
- Is there a way to send the different patterns to other devices/midi channels or did I miss how to do that?

@Drewskee thanks a lot.
Random will be per channel-voice.
Midi routing per voice is also coming soon.
:)

hi, i just bought the sequencer and want it to use it just in max. Is that possible? I can't start the device? how can i fix that? Thanks!


This is a cool device but often events dont trgger when sending to outboard gear. I have throughly tested on different gear and still get the same issues. It is fine with soft synths etc, but not happy externally. Do you have any ideas why that might be?

Thanks

Excellent device! Thanks for the hard work! My only complaint is that the internal layout is uneditable when you open it. Using Max8, all objects are thrown into offset 0,0 with minimal width. Is there a version of the object available which doesn't have this problem, or is this the intent, that the patch be uneditable. If so, not really in the spirit of Max development. Nevertheless, still worth the price.

Hi,
I just bought the device. I was under the impression through reading the comments that the MIDI button allows for the sequencer to be progressed with MIDI notes. But in fact, it seems the sequencer is re-synced when it receives a MIDI note.
That's a shame, because I was hoping to add some swing to the patterns by using MIDI clip with swung patterns.
Any chance that could be implemented as a feature?
I love creating custom swing patterns (by shifting microtiming manually, not just a swing %) and would love if steps in this sequencer could be progressed with midi notes (acting as trigs/gates). What do you think?

P.S. Just tried opening it in Max and modifying it as per my comment above. What's up with the scrambled patch in the patching view?

P.S.2. OK, thinking out loud here. I think I figured out now what the MIDI button does (wish it was explained in the description!). For those who wonder, it essentially plays the pattern for the duration of the midi note entered. So, if you enter a midi note for half the duration of a bar, it will play the pattern for that long and then stop. It's a cool feature for "inserting" the pattern into different parts of the bar.
However, it would still be immensely cool to have a mode when the sequencer can be progressed with each successive midi note from the midi clip. Or at least a simple "swing" setting, failing that.

+1 for swing feature!

great device sequencer, very easy uses

One issue I'm having with this is when I group more than one instance of the device on one track I can't map the "resync" button to a controller without ableton crashing.
If I assign a controller button to "resync" and then try to use it, it triggers all the "resync" buttons of every instance of the device grouped together. This seems to cause a loop of the "resync" buttons all triggering each other until a crash occurs.

Hi buddy,
The device crashed all the time, Why? Thanks!

@Jurgen11 Sorry to hear that. Which ableton version are u using? Most likely it has to do with the bundled max version ableton comes with. Please make sure that you have ableton 10.1.2 or later.

I know... old live version :( I need to read more..

Same for me. It crashes and im unable to use it.
Can i get a refund for this one?

Hi there, I see from the screenshot that triplets are supported in some form, I have some follow-up questions:

- Are triplet notes supported independently for each of the four voices, so for example one voice could have a triplet pattern and another could not, or is it a global setting, in which case my example would need two separate instances of the sequencer?
- Are dotted notes supported, and if so is that independent by voice or a global setting? If dotted is not yet supported, could it be added in a future version?
- Otherwise is dotted supported in the pro version of the sequencer?

Thanks! :)

This device is a must to have and should be a part of Ableton Suite.
I wish a VST version to use it with another DAW

Thanks!

Hi,

Im trying to download the Euclidean sequencer PRO 1.2 but the "I want this" button does not seem to work so can't put it in my basket: https://alkman.gumroad.com/l/EuclideanSequencerPro?_ga=2.17245497.1028334750.1638736394-269178647.1638736394&_gl=1*yu2apq*_ga*MjY5MTc4NjQ3LjE2Mzg3MzYzOTQ.*_ga_6LJN6D94N6*MTYzODczNjM5NC4xLjEuMTYzODczNjYzNy4w


@richiekay I am not sure what is exactly the issue there, but I believe that you first have to fill the price field and then hit the "I want this" button.

Hi, please could you help me ? I bought this plug via the apple store with my i phone, and then I tried to download it with my new macbook air M1. But I don't know at all how to integrate the app with ableton (11). How to do ? do you have to go through max for live? I don't know the process. thanking you

Hi Alkman,

I need your help ,

I bought euclidean sequencer on the appstore, and I find myself with an icon in "application", but I don't know at all how to integrate it into ableton (I have a mac book air M1, so it should work ). Could you help me ? I've been trying for weeks and no one knows how to do it!!!! very frustrating


No possibility of panning ?

Hi @Alkman... I need to update to 1.1. as I still have the version that doesn't load settings properly (I had stopped using it as a result but saw somewhere recently that it had been fixed). How can I update it please? (I don't have the email receipt as it was a long time ago...eek)

Hello, I can't figure out how to map the note randomize button (R) in my midi controller. When I press MIDI in Ableton it doesn't turn blue, It's not mappable? Thanks

Login to comment on this device.

[ browse device library ]