Features HY-SEQ COLLECTION 2 CM How to use HY-Plugins’ ace MIDI sequencer

Ditch the piano roll and supercharge your riff programming with HY-Plugins’ feature-packed MIDI step sequencer, free this issue

When it comes to software MIDI sequencing, all DAWs provide the industry-standard piano roll for recording and editing note data, while your host’s bundled MIDI plugins give you even more options for arpeggiating, manipulating and randomising incoming notes.

But all this flexibility can lead to predictable workflows: drawing in notes with the pen, or jabbing in the same old riffs on your MIDI keyboard. What if you could harness the magic of old-school hardware sequencers and make inspiring riffs and patterns more creatively?

Well, now you can! This issue’s free, exclusive Plugin, lovingly coded by HY-Plugins, is HY-Seq Collection 2 CM: an analogue-inspired, 16-step sequencer MIDI instrument packed with features to power up your melody writing.

Pitch, velocity, note length, playback direction and other values can be altered per step. The plugin’s four Macro knobs and four Macro buttons can be used to exert octopuslike control. Use one of four powerful modulators to sequence other parameters. There are even three reorderable FX modules for processing the sequencer’s note output.

You can then develop the idea with up to 12 global Snapshots, then chain them together, or trigger them via MIDI. But the real icing on HY-Seq Collection 2 CM’s creative cake is its MIDI Recorder, which lets you capture the plugin’s output to a MIDI file that can be instantly dragged and dropped into your DAW.

If you like our exclusive free version, check out HY-Seq Collection 2, which includes six different sequencer engines inspired by a number of classic designs, four separate modulation panels and a whopping nine MIDI FX. Find out more at hy-plugins.com