Thoughts on the genoQs Octopus

In the comments of this post, eric f wrote some notes on the genoQs Octopus. I asked him if I could put them up as a separate post and he gave me the ok. Here they are. Enjoy: "I *adore* the Octopus. The interface looks intimidating and, if you read the manual, it sounds intimidating, too. Quite the contrary... in practice learning to read the LEDs is very simple. You very quickly learn what mode you're in from the distinctive LED patterns in the grid without referring to the circle (see the manual, though it doesn't really do the idea justice).

Ease of use: The Octopus is easily the most intuitive sequencer I've used, hardware or software, for building great patterns once you have it set up (MIDI channel-wise and in terms of base track pitch). In terms of building a monophonic, single track melody, it's not as straightforward as the P3, but moving into multitracking, it more than makes up for this.

What it does best: I intuited this from the manual and am thrilled with the results, having bought it without using one before... You have ten tracks on a page, each assignable to its own MIDI channel (or the same MIDI channel as another track). Let's say you have four monophonic instruments each on its own channel and the current page is dedicated to a single chord structure within a single musical bar. I can assign four tracks to one channel (with a different base pitch for each), two to another, two to another, and one to the last track. Now I can arpeggiate the notes on each instrument among the base pitches (adding chromatic alterations per step on a track, where required) and explore the various inversions of the vertical harmony over the time of the bar.

This is amazing. On almost any other sequencer, you have to leave one track, go to another, remember from memory what notes were where, and then compose the harmony.

In other words, you can use the Octopus for polyphonic and multi-timbral arrangements in a visual and immediately interactive fashion, something I've never really seen before. The results have been very insteresting and once I get my MOTM-650's power supply and Bridechamber cabinet, this plus my modular will be very interesting indeed.

Once the aforementioned module and cabinet arrive, I'll send Matrixsynth some serious synthporn.

The caveats I'll add are that the Octopus does three things poorly (in my estimation). First: If I want to quickly put together a melodic line in one voice, know the notes I want, the P3 just cannot be beat. Second: The P3 is the *master* of evolving sequences and unpredictability. This is a tricky thing (parameters must be carefully pre-programmed and possibly filtered by a MidiSolutions-type box) in a harmonically complex environment, but is great for longform pieces (eg, live ambient, which I haven't actually done). Third: The Notron separates CCs from the clock step better than the Octopus and as such is better (I've heard) at being used as an independent voice modulator for a well-CC-mapped VST. But I use all analog/hybrid equipment, so it's not such a concern.

Ok, long, verbose post. I set up an email address if anyone is curious in asking Octopus-related questions: eulersid (dash) octopus (at) yahoo (dot) com. I'm not a shill for genoQs or Analogue Haven or anyone else. It's a fascinating piece of kit with relatively little first-hand info out there and the folks who run their forum are bad about approving memberships. I'm also interested in tips and thoughts on it as well.

cheers,
eric f"