Numerology 4 - part 2: review

Here's a little story of my own use of Five12 Numerology 4 Pro sequencer. If you wish to check only the main points (pros and cons), just go to the end and read my small review. And if you have anything to ask, correct or comment, don't hesitate to share it!

This post isn't trying to be a comprehensive review of Numerology. You can get more information on Five 12 website and on Numerology user forum too: 
http://five12.com/n2.html

Starting with Numerology

I found Five12 Numerology mostly by accident. One fellow member from Nord User Forum told me about Numerology when I in fact tried his own small sequencer app for Nord Drum. It seems to me that Numerology isn't very widely known even it definitely should be. I am sure there are plenty of potential users who would like to have modern pattern sequencer with great work flow and flexibility. Numerology is obviously a "love child" from one man, developer James Coker, who is also very active on Numerology forum and quickly answering any questions privately via email. So with Numerology you can really expect things to develop and you may even have a chance to make your own contribution to this development. As said earlier, this is one major difference compared to iOS music apps, which develop painfully slow if they develop at all. When writing this (February 2014) Numerology 4 is still on public beta state and we are living interesting times to see what happens until the official 4 release.

Basically idea here is to describe my own use of Numerology which is perhaps little different from average users. In fact this is the major power of Numerology: this application is very flexible and you can make it fit into your personal needs. Just take those modules you need. It's also possible to make your own template-projects to make it easy to start with your next project. Do you want to have just one old-fashioned pattern sequencer for playing your hardware modular synth? Fine. Or perhaps you want to make a complete song with multiple tracks only using soft synths and plugin effects? That's fine too. Just remember that you cannot record all this in audio tracks or master it. Numerology isn't DAW.

Numerology 4 Pro start-up screen

Note sequencers

What I usually do with Numerology is to sequence my hardware synths via iConnect MIDI. So basically main my tools are those note sequencers, especially MonoNote, PolyNote and DrumSeq:

Note Sequencer modules

With MonoNote you can run mono patterns from any length from 1-128 steps and also send velocities, MIDI CCs etc. Step can represent anything from very small lenghts (e.g. 1/128 notes) to very long lenghts (e.g. two whole notes). There's also a chance to experiment with probabilities, "humanizing" parameters and let pattern evolve by itself based on predetermined rules. When you check all these features, you'll begin to realize how different this approach is compared to linear timeline sequencing.

MonoNote sequencer

PolyNote seq is quite similar as MonoNote, but it is "piano roll" style polyphonic seq. Main difference to Logic's Piano Roll (view) is that individual notes in a vertical line do not have individual velocities. This is something which I miss sometimes.

And finally here's DrumSeq which is configured to play my 6-channel (or 6-voice) Nord Drum 2. DrumSeq is simple but powerful tool for experimenting with groovy drum patterns. Those vertical red tabs represent different velocities from 0-127. This is very intuitive way of making beats. Then you just fine adjust tempo and Groove Amount (=swing ratio). Quite often my compositional process begins with experimenting drum beats and bass lines.

DrumSeq 

Stacks - putting modules together

Higher level structure a Numerology project is based on stacks: first stack is always a clock-stack which controls obviously clock related stuff: tempo, meter, Groove amount or special user defined groove and MIDI sync routing destinations. User can then make his/her own stacks and any stack can have practically as many modules that is needed. 

Example of stacks (pages with different colors in upper row) and Clock-stack 

You can also make (stack-) presets which save all data of the current stack (all parameter and note or CC valuers etc.). With those presets you can make multi-module patterns which are building blocks of your song or more or less improvised live performance. You can play (or trigger) presets freely or force them to follow a predetermined playlist.

Stack-presets and Playlist mode

Speaking a little about live performing there are few major improvements in Numerology 4 (still beta) over version 3: there are more options for quantizing jumping from a preset to another and also a chance to play indefinite loops. We also got "an exit loop button" which relases loop when it's pressed. To be honest there are still few issues to fix to make these new features 100% usable. Despite these issues I can already make many nice things that was impossible with N3: I can make song forms with loops from 1 to 32 bars (or more) and loop them as long as I like. Then when I want to move to a following song section I just press this exit loop button in any place of an ongoing loop. Sounds simple? Well in fact it is, but surprisingly few sequencers can do this. Probably there are few but personally I haven't met any. I must also say that after N4 came available I even sold my Elektron Monomachine. I had no use for it anymore cause with Numerology I could do all the same (well, at least almost) and much more and much more easily.

Few minor specialities

Of course, above I just scratched surface about what can be done with Numerology. I must admit that there are many modules which I don't understand at all the the moment. Probably there are also modules and features that I'll never use. But that's just great: I know there's so much to learn. Or if you wish, you can keep it very simple. Here in this final section I'll just throw out some ideas which I have come up with Numerology.

First, Numerology can serve as a simple "Program Change sender". This is can be very useful on stage with multi-synth setup. The simplest way to do this is to first make a stack with (as many as you need) Program Change modules and route them to some MIDI Bus. Then you need to make stacks which route this MIDI Bus data to predetermined Midi Outs. Now with first stack you can make presets which send all this MIDI data at once to all your synths. When you trigger song X on your playlist (or should we say "set list") you'll get your right sounds immediately. Before Numerology I used "Set List Maker" app for iOS but now it's quite useless, cause Numerology is there anyway.

Stack with three Program Change modules

Above I have mostly talked about note sequencers. It's important to point that there are so many other modules to experiment with (again, check: http://five12.com/n3.html to read more or just download a demo and test it yourself!). I use for example ModulationSeq (one type of CV Sequencers) routed to some MIDI CC parameter like modulation wheel (CC #1) etc. With ModulationSeq you can loop your pattern while you experiment with some curve which affects some synth parameter (typically filter cutoff or resonance). All this is of course possible in Logic for example, but in Numerology everything goes so intuitively and smoothly.

In this example ModulationSeq is routed to PitchBender module:

One more thing deserves a special mention here: routing MIDI and CV (control voltage) data. Probably it's because of my lack of knowledge, but I've always had some trouble with managing MIDI routing in Logic. I suspect that I don't understand its logic completely. But when I started with Numerology I was amazed how easy it was configure my MIDI-setup. And when this is done, it was so easy to draw (yes, it's really done that way with mouse) those routings from modules (MIDI/CV in and out) anywhere I want. Here's an example how it's done:

Last topic here is about using Numerology 4 with other programs like Logic. There are in fact several options here: 

(1) you can use it as a AU plugin. I must admit here that I haven't used it this way much but (if I remember right) it's very limited compared to standalone version. (By the way, there is something interesting happening at the moment when v4 is evolving: you can use it as a MIDI FX in Logic X in OS X Maverick).

(2) You can record stacks (etc.) to MIDI clips. This is very handy if your main composition takes place in DAW. Still you can have both applications open and compose your music with both simultaneously! This way all the MIDI timing happens in one place and it's easier to keep it in sync. In N4 you'll get new MIDI clip options and you can even drag-and-drop clips straight to another application. 

(3) ReWire technology (Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReWire). If I just first open Logic and then Numerology those two apps go into ReWire mode where Logic acts as a host and Numerology as a slave. Simple as that. When you press play both apps will start playback. With this approach you can play audio- or more SMF (Standard MIDI file) type of tracks from Logic and patterns from Numerology. This combination is really Best of Both Worlds! I really don't miss Ableton Live at all.

SUMMA SUMMARUM

PROS

(+) Numerology is great help in whole creative process from searching for first idea to arranging it to a complete song to live stage playing.

(+) Its approach is non-linear pattern sequencer but it goes SO far beyond these old fashioned pattern sequencers. It gives you a nice alternative to linear timeline sequencers or DAWs.

(+) It's very easy to start with: MIDI configuration is easy, routing is very intuitive.

(+) It's very flexible: practically there are no limits how many modules or stacks you can combine. This makes it so much more powerful than most hardware sequencers like Elektrons. But if you wish, you can keep it very simple too.

(+) It can be your sequencer solution on stage too! I have used it on many gigs for managing my presets (sending Program Change messages to my synths), sending MIDI sync and of course playing some sequences. I am happy that I can count on this system! (Well, there have been two or three crashes, but then I just re-open the app and rock and roll. Fortunately start-up goes quite quickly…)

(+) Many possibilities to integrate it to other programs: AU Plugin, export MIDI clips, ReWire

CONS

(-) There are still some minor bugs which can puzzle me sometimes. Fortunately developer James Coker is listening and you get a feeling that things are really developing.

(-) There are few things which would make its use much more powerful: some users have asked for cut/copy/paste -approach to editing. I agree with them. Personally I wouldn't mind having more options for adjusting visual GUI, more options for Preset Playlist mode and Standard MIDI File player module. And as said above, PolynoteSeq could also have individual note velocities.

We aren't living in a perfect world so maybe it's not fair to ask for a perfect Numerology either. Especially because it's a creation of one man. All this being said we are getting closer and closer...