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running across the length of the device is the step sequencer.
it is the heart of the OP–XY and represents the musical grid that sounds and notes are recorded to.
to select a note to step sequence, press the note or sound on the musical keyboard.
whenever you play a note or sound, OP–XY will remember that note. when you next press a step it will record the last played note.
you can then press a step on the sequencer. the step will light up letting you know a note has been recorded to it.
you can check the note recorded to a step by holding it down. the note or notes recorded to that step will then light up.
to step record multiple notes or chords, hold the notes or chord down then press the step you wish to record to on the sequencer.
alternatively, hold a step down and play the notes you wish to record to that step.
to add or remove a note or sound from a step, hold it down and then press that note to add or remove it.
extend the length of a note or chord by holding a step and pressing another step. the location of the second step pressed will determine the length of the note.
you can nudge steps by holding the step down then pressing - or +.
this will allow you to break from the musical grid. notes can only be nudged when quantisation is set to 0. learn more about quantisation below.
to view and sequence only one sound or note, hold the sound on the keyboard then tap record. this will then show you only the steps that note or sound has been recorded to. perfect for drum sequencing!
alternatively, you can hold a note down and then press the step sequencer to go directly into recording and viewing just that note.
hold a step then rotate a knob to record a parameter ‘lock’ to that step. this will then set that parameter to the recorded value when playing back that step. all four modules can be locked but players cannot.
to clear everything you have recorded on the current track just hold record and stop until the red leds fill the sequencer.
in some instances you may wish to undo a change. press shift and record to undo. it is only possible to undo certain actions. there is one undo stage.
you can record steps to your patterns in a variety of ways. to live play notes, hold record and press play.
the step 1 key will flash red indicating it is waiting for you to start playing.
begin playing on the keyboard and the sequencer will start and record notes as you play them.
steps in the sequencer row will turn red to indicate there is a note recorded on that step.
press stop.
steps with notes will now be white.
press and hold a step to see what note will play on that step. while holding, you may add or remove notes from the step by playing them on the keyboard.
press play to listen to your song.
while your song plays, hold the record key and you can live record notes into your pattern.
while holding record, rotate a knob to automate that parameter and record the motion into the sequencer. by default this automation will not be smooth, as it records automation per step. to smooth, hold bar and rotate the white knob.
release the record key to continue listening to your song.
to remain in record mode while your song is playing, hold record + play to lock recording mode.
you can quickly play a sequence in without running the sequencer. to step record, while paused hold record.
the step 1 key light up red indicating it is waiting for you to start playing.
keep holding record and begin playing on the keyboard. the notes will fill the sequencer.
steps in the sequencer row will turn white to indicate there is a note recorded on that step.
if you want to skip a step, while holding record just press the + button. the red led will move forwards to reflect the new record position.
to go back a step, while holding record press the - button. the red led will move backwards to reflect . the new record position and if a sound has been recorded to the previous step it will play and it’s key will light up, ready for you to edit it.
if you make a mistake and want to remove a step completely, just tap it to remove it from the recording.
on the far right of the sequencer you will find bar. bar is the gateway to longer and more complex
sequences and allows you to extend your sequences, apply quantisation, lengthen notes, apply grooves and smooth automation.
hold bar and press an accidental key to change the track scale. track scale determines the amount of time taken up by one step. this can be set per track independently.
available track scales include: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16, 1/2
hold bar and press + to add bars. remove a bar by pressing -. bars allow you to increase the number of steps available for sequencing.
a maximum of four bars can be used. this in combination with the track scale allows for a maximum pattern length of 64 bars, or 1024 1/16th notes spread across four ‘bars’.
holding bar and shift, then pressing + will duplicate the current bar.
for two bar phrases the first will copy to the third and the second to the fourth.
holding bar and pressing the step sequencer allows you to select the number of steps in a pattern.
when sequencing patterns with multiple bars this will alter the length of the final bar, all others will be the full length.
press or tap bar to switch between bars. if you switch bars while playing or
recording it will stay on the selected bar, allowing you to sequence just that bar without interruption.
rotate the dark gray knob to adjust track quantization. this will adjust the timing of whatever you live record into the current track. with quantization set to 100 you cannot nudge notes.
rotate the mid gray knob to adjust the length of step sequenced notes. this does not apply to live recorded or extended notes.
rotate the light gray knob to adjust the groove applied to the current track, this will overwrite the swing value in tempo. you can select the groove style in the tempo screen.
rotate the white knob to adjust the smoothing between parameter locks. by default parameter locks and recorded automation will have no smoothing.
while holding bar, press M1 to clear notes. this will delete the notes but not the parameter locks.
while holding bar, press M2 to clear parameter locks. this will delete the parameter locks but not the notes.
while holding bar, press M2 to all notes and parameter locks from the pattern.
press shift and bar in combination to keep the bar button held down for you, this will keep the bar page on screen until you press bar again.
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