Quasimidi The Raven MAX

I just got one of these older heavy as hell beasts today and here is a review of what it is all about for those who don't know, as I didn't 24 hours ago.

I just got one today. I am happy to report the following points:

1. It is built like a tank.

2. It looks really cool.

3. It is 16 note multitimbral, and you can assign a patch for each of 16 channels while it is in "sequencer" mode so you can use it from another sequencer.

4. It is a full blown 8 track pattern sequencer that can send midi out on channels 1 through 8.

5. It has a great arpeggiator, gater, and chord repeater that will transmit out over midi!

6. A sequence has ten patterns. Each of the ten patters has eight parts. The lenght of the parts are at least 4 bars, if not eight in length. While you have about 3200 built in phrases that all can be assigned to each of the parts for zillions of combinations, you can also write your own phrases (they call them motifs). I call them phrases because the resemple the rps phrases in Roland's MC-505 and JP8080. Also much like the phrases built into the Yamaha sequencers, QY70, 100 and 700. So you can mix and match from the tons of phrases/motifs available or rely on your own homegrown ones (or both). You can either dial them in, or just hit a button and a motif will randomly fall into the part you chose. If you don't like it, hit the button again. Cool. Of course for each part loaded with a motif, you can go in a change the actual sound (patch) that that part is playing (or if you are using an external synth, you can change it there (but the Raven will send program change messages if you want).

6.5. So now you have a seqencer with 10 patterns full of 8 parts each, all sussed out with your chosen sounds, with each part sending a particular amount to the 2 FX units on board (pretty good, flanges, ping pong delays, phasers, chorus, and REVERB!). At this point you can either play the patterns live or sequence them (an a bunch of permutaions) into a song. In order to understand the permutations, I will explain what you can do live. The thing has a tap tempo button btw. Anyway, while you are playing a pattern, you can use the seven lower keys on the keyboard to mute parts, ie, kick, snare, hh, bass, seq1, seq2, chords, perc. This resembles very much the superbeats mode on the new E-mu xtremle lead and similar units. Better than those though, since the Raven allows you to make your own motifs, you can roll your own. Now the next octave up the keybaord will allow you to transpose the non-percussive parts. So you can build melodic changes. Also, while the groove is playing you can go into the patterns themselves, play with pan, filter, patch, and even motif, without dropping a beat. So now you see all the things you can do live. Oh yeah one other thing, you have a solo part, which is not a motif, but is just a patch which you can play on the rest of the keyboard. ON this patch you can apply the fancy arpeggiator on and off on the fly. Now you can record all this for a song. I am not yet whether you can let it fly and hit record. Maybe, But I do know that you can consruct as many permutaions of the 10 patterns and their 8 parts, muted and un-muted, transposed, etc, and plug them into 99 slots that make up a song. Each slot need not be the same length in time, it is just a step. I.e., one step could be pattern 3 with 7 of 8 parts going, transposed to G# and rolling like that for 32 bars. All in all a very cool pattern sequencer that is geared for live jamming. It recieves and send midi clock and could be a very cabable partner for another sequencer such as the MC505 or a Notron, etc. One could preview the other in earphones and then seamlessly mix over the sequences. NICE! Finally instead of step writing your song using the patters and permutations with fills etc, you can press a button and the Raven will make on up for you! That's right a whole song from your stuff! Hit the button again, new remix, ad inf