Steinberg’s newest creation is Sequel, an interesting mix between a live performance DJ tool, sequencer, and audio recording program. Although there are two major issues I have with the program, I was amazed at its ease of use, intuitiveness, quality and bang for the buck. Where else can you get such a large library of high quality loops and samples, and the ability to record audio using Steinberg’s renowned audio engine for $99 US? After watching a 15 minute demonstration, I spent 10 minutes at a workstation with the program and was able to put together a cohesive song – at least a very strong basis for one. If you aren’t a DJ wanting to use this for performance purposes, Sequel would be a fantastic songwriting tool as it is so easy to put ideas together. The one caveat to that is that the vast majority of sounds in its library are in the dance, rock or pop idioms – if you are a jazz, classical, country or folk musician then Sequel might not be the best choice.
To create a song, all you do is go to the extensive loop and sample library, grab a sample and drag it onto a track. You can easily copy and paste, edit a replace the loops, as well as transpose and time stretch. In fact, Sequel will automatically transpose and time stretch each loop as you drag it onto a track, so you don’t have to waste time doing that yourself. If you want to then modulate a certain measure or beat, then you just highlight that section and transpose it. The main basis of the program, in fact, is that you drag various loops for different instruments into the project (a drum loop, a bass riff, guitar, keys, etc), then modulate them all together at the same time. You can do each track or loop individually if you want, but you can see how easy it would be to throw a quick idea together.
As for the DJ part of the program, once you have a little arrangement, you can assign a bar, a beat, or a section of however long you decide to some on-screen trigger style pads. You can then ‘play’ these pads by clicking the mouse or pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. So, you can completely remix your song right away, and very easily. You can even record your performance to capture that amazing mix you just managed to pull off!
As an audio recording program, Sequel does quite fine. It uses the same audio engine that you will find in Steinberg’s Cubase programs, so you know you are getting good quality. If you happen to have an awesome microphone and preamp, then you would have the tools to create Grammy quality material! This does bring me to my first beef with the program though – you can’t import any existing audio. As of right now, you are restricted to either using the loops included with Sequel, or recording anything you may want to use within the program itself – it uses its own proprietary audio file format, so any Acid Loops, WAV or MP3 files you have will be unavailable to you.
The same goes for any virtual instruments you may have – you can’t use them. Sequel does have its own array of instrument sounds, some of which are impressive, but no third party instruments or sounds allowed. The demonstrator I talked to said this may change in future versions – hopefully that is the case.
Lastly, there is the usual complement of audio effects which do not disappoint, a mixer style editing window, and to top it all off you can export your creations as any format of audio file, and even upload directly to your iPod. All in all I find Sequel to be a very unique and useful tool for songwriting and arranging, mixing and remixing.
Sequencing & Multi-track Recording
