Full Bucket Music: SequencAir

German programmer and software engineer Björn Arlt began building VST plugins under the name Full Bucket Effects in 2010. Being a musician, and a synth enthusiast from a young age, he was drawn to analysing and building software synths. He now offers both synth emulations and effects as freeware through his website.

SequencAir is a software ‘matrix’ style step-sequencer and synthesizer, and features 16 banks of 16 steps, where each step provides individual controls for Pitch, Octave, Velocity, Gate Time, Mute, and two MIDI CC and/or synthesizer parameter controls. Furthermore, each step can be skipped which allows the programming of non-standard signatures.

When using the Bank switches, the current sequencer bank will be selected for editing. When clicking the Chain buttons, the checked banks (yellow-lit Chain button) themselves will be played in sequence. Apart from Tempo (which can by synchronised to the host’s tempo), DIV (note length per sequencer step), and Swing (amount of ‘shifting’ even numbered steps with respect to odd-numbered steps), SequencAir offers various play modes and options.

Forward: Plays forward from step 1 to step 16

Reverse: Plays backwards from step 16 to 1

Forward-Reverse: Plays forward and then again backwards

Reverse-Forward: Plays backwards and then again forward

Random: Plays random steps

Reset/Play: Resets to first step before starting to play

Loop: Loops the playback

Start on Note On: Starts playback on MIDI Note On

Stop on Note Off: Stops playback on MIDI Note Off

Transpose Note: Transposes the current note on MIDI Note On

Pivot Key: Base key for the sequencer steps

MIDI Channel: MIDI channel for sending MIDI events

The Synthesizer section features a very primitive synth with one oscillator, one filter, and a simple envelope. It has been included so that no subsequent MIDI or VST instrument is required in order to set up a sequence.

Features:

• 16 chainable banks
• 16 sequencer steps per bank
• Individual controls for Note, Octave, Velocity, Gate, Skip, Mute plus two MIDI CCs or synth parameters per step
• Sync-to-host and Swing functions
• Optional Start/Stop/Transpose by MIDI Note command
• Additional built-in monophonic synthesizer
• Straightforward user interface
• MIDI Learn – all parameters can be controlled by MIDI CC
• Plugin supports Windows and macOS (32 bit and 64 bit)