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You'll have to forgive me for signing up here and asking such a simple and potentially stupid/obvious question, but I'm just scratching the surface of learning about synthesis.

I own an R3 (only synth) and I'm at the point where I can program basic patches and have an ok understanding of the basic controls.

What I can't figure out is whether or not I can "sequence" (think it's the right term) note progressions within the R3. I'm a big fan of that kind of primitive electronica bass sound as heard on many 70s Tangerine Dream etc songs where the bass just kinda moves around on it's own and they add delay and mess with the filters and controls.

I can approximate the correct settings for those sort of percussive, unsustained bassy square wave tones. I just need to understand how I'd program notes to play on their own as I mess with other controls. I've tried using the arpeggiator and hold mode but I can't choose the sequence of the notes in ways that I want to.

Anyhow if anyone can offer just a bit of guidance or a slap in the head one way or another I'd really appreciate it.

Hi,

The R3 has no step sequencer. So if your note pattern does not fit in one of the 6 arpeggiator patterns, you can not do it.

Well, not completely true. But also not exactly what you're looking for. Here is a suggestion you can try: you may route the motion sequencer towards the pitch of the oscillators. In the R3 editor you can edit per step of the motion sequence the number of semitones that a note should sound higher/lower. Enable then the arpeggiator in trigger mode, 1 step length and latch enable.

As soon as you hit 1 note, the arpeggiator will continuously play that one note, while the motion sequencer will change the pitch of that note. Just make sure that both arp and motion seq run at the same tempo and trigger event. Then you can start twiddling the filters and so on.

So, you sacrifice the motion sequencer and it is not that straightforward, but it could be fun to play with. Unfortunately I don't have an R3 to try it myself...

Of course, you can always hook up an external sequencer as well via MIDI.

Ciao.

OpAmp-

Thank you for your help. I think I sort of stumbled across what you're talking about, using pitch as destination for the mod sequence but couldn't understand how to get the notes to play, i'll mess around with the arp/latch functions.

Is there a type of standalone external sequencer that would work well for what I'm talking about?

Hello,

Have a look at AkaiPro MPC500. Well it is more than a sequencer. It has also memory to hold samples triggered by the sequencer. But nothing prevents it to trigger notes on your R3.

If a laptop is standalone enough, use some software (DAW) to send MIDI sequences to your synth.
There exist even MIDI extension for iPhone/iPad + sequencer app. (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigmidi/)

There you go.