Modern hardware secuencer?

Hi guyz, new to the forum, I hope this is the right place for my question.

I want to play secuences live, but Im NOT taking any laptop to the stage, Isnt any hardware secuencer out there that isnt "vintage", I mean something that you dont have to load the secuences from a floppy disk!

Like, usb or something?.........

AKAI MPC

http://www.akaipro.com/mpc

Even the MPC500 (entry level) has an awesome sequencer.

Roland Sonic Cell is your answer.

But an even easier and less expensive option is to record your backing tracks to MP3 and use an iPod.

+1 for the MPC (although the 500 seems a bit toyish). Great machines.

I don't think the Roland Sonic Cell has a sequencer, but you can play .wav files as backing tracks. If that's what he wants to do, then yes he could just use an iPod. I think he actually wants a sequencer.

Monomachine. But it's likely too expensive.

Plaid, you're making the 500 sound pretty cool.

It says on the Roland site that it'll play back standard MIDI files, but like you said, I don't think it has a full-fledged sequencer.

That's pretty cool. Didn't know it did that. I wonder what kind of limitations there are? Can you string together multiple sequences on different MIDI channels to play back a "song"?

SC users out there can probably verify if it's a full-fledged sequencer you can actually create with. Anyone?

Adam Sampler? That is pretty funny.

I don't know how anyone would get the impression, at least from looking at Akai's, site that the MPC500 is a toy. To the non-expert (i.e. me) it looks like a professional unit that has been scaled down in size and features (e.g. 12 pads instead of 16) in order to fit a small form factor.

What about the Korg Electribe? Does that count?

I want a CV sequencer like a Future Retro Orb for my Voyager - different sort of item though.

i've never even heard of the mpc500. looks toy-ish, though, you might want to avoid it.

i want one.

It's my understanding that the MPC500's pads are considerably lower quality than the bigger machines. It's not correct that the hardware is the same. That said, there are reasons to consider it, as there are few competitors in its price bracket that can approach its functionality.

They're not as nice as the pads on the 2500 but they are way better than the pads on the first run of 1000's. They actually do break in when you use them regularly and become more responsive.

Also FWIW, I never said (or meant to imply) all the hardware was the same. I said the buttons/scroll wheel/cursor keys etc. were the same. But the differences in the hardware are relatively minor. The 1000 has more solid in/out connectors but the overall construction of the 500 is definitely above average considering its price.

Yeah alright, let me reformulate the question! I would hate to actually do the sequence on the machine, I rather secuence on the computer, so I would only need the machine to read the midis and midi-out em

Sounds like an iPod to me.

I mean, that akai mpc is kind of monstrous !!, alllll those features!,I just need 3 buttons: -song select -play -stop like,I dunno, a little karaoke machine box thing...(?)

I think you just need the laptop. If all you're doing is running MIDI sequences what are you aftraid of? Surely even a weak laptop can handle that.

Of course, you might actually enjoy the workflow of an MPC and never go back to the software sequencer! There's more than a few that followed this path.

So you want a hardware Midifile player ?

http://www.miditemp.com/english/msx.html

http://freenet-homepage.de/styledrive/index.html

http://www.galileomusic.com/products/30

Most h/w sequencers with external storage would do that actually, like Roland MC-50 or more recently MC-80 (can accomodate a ZIP drive), Yamaha RM1-X and so forth.

I fail to understand what's wrong with floppies though, especially for something as lightweight as SMF. It still work like it did during the last 30 years.

The Roland Sonic Cell I suggested earlier is strictly a playback device but it can play MIDI files plus WAV, AIFF and MP3 files and it uses a memory stick so storage capacity should be unlimited.

As for creating sequences it also comes was Sonar LE. And it's handy in many others ways - it's an audio interface for your computer for recording, a GM synth and it can accept two SRX cards.

I think as a stage SMF backing machine alone it's probably worth it's price and the rest is gravy.