I am very excited to finally release a project I have been working on for a very long time, the Context Modular Sequencer. Context is a small, minimalist abstraction that is packed with features and punches above its weight. Where most sequencers are based on a timeline paradigm, Context works more like a flow chart. You create as many instances of the abstraction as you want, and then connect them together to create your own patterns (hence its "modular" nature). Context is designed with generative music in mind, and can incorporate randomness at any level of musical composition.

Here it is in action:

You can download the patch, and read more about the concept, here:
http://contextsequencer.wordpress.com

You'll need PD Extended for this one (L2Ork might work, but it's a bit sketchy). The download comes with extensive documentation files, and I am planning to make video tutorials if they are needed. There are several example patches in the documentation too.

Many people on this forum have helped indirectly wth this project, and feel very grateful to the PD community as a whole. I am also hoping that others here can help me spot errors in the programming and the documentation, or suggest new features. A lot of work still needs doing, but I'll need your help identifying it.

Please feel free to ask questions here, and please share any patches you make with Context! I can't wait to hear other people's work.

This looks quite amazing!! Thanks for sharing it!

But why do you keep getting all those ALSA output error messages in the console?

@gsagostinho ALSA output errors are a bit like mosquito bites for me--they're annoying but I've become more or less immune to them. I get them all the time, so I hadn't realized that Context in particular was causing them. But I infer from what you're saying that you don't usually get them, but you do when using Context. This is worrying.

I have a theory for what is causing it, though: I think it's the position sensing mechanism (which involves a metro and a "getpos" message). Can you tell me the following:

1. Do the error messages come at regular intervals, or at random?
2. How many instances of Context does it take before the errors come? Does it take a lot, or is just one enough? (Bear in mind that the "anatomy" page of the manual contains almost a hundred).
3. What happens if you turn graphic mode off? (To do this, send the message [; context all graphic 0( Do the errors still come?

@gsagostinho said:

This looks quite amazing!! Thanks for sharing it!

But why do you keep getting all those ALSA output error messages in the console?

Hi Liam, I actually didn't test your sequencer yet but I will do it today and then I will answer your questions above.

Ah, sorry, I misread your message; you saw that I was having ALSA errors! I'm working on a netbook with an Intel Atom processor and running the screen cast software at the same time as PD sent it over the edge (happily the recording was unaffected).
I think my system does have an underlying problem, but hopefully it doesn't have anything to do with Context!

Do let me know how it goes when you try it--I am eager for feedback.

Do let me know how it goes when you try it--I am eager for feedback.

I will for sure, I still didn't have the time for it but I will do it today, I promise!

But here is already a comment: it would be better IMO if you'd name the tar file with the version number of your work, which is useful for knowing if you updated the work or not by simply looking at the tar file. Something in the style of Context_1.0.7.tar would be excellent

Hi Liam,

I tried creating lots of [context] objects, and I never got an ALSA error such as you did. I created 64 objects without any problem, so everything seems to be fine.

The error that I get though is when I try to open the manual. I get:

serial
... couldn't create
 rmstopow~
... couldn't create
 powtorms~
... couldn't create
 scalar
... couldn't create
warning -- 'template' (pd-intro-help.pd) is obsolete\; replace with 'struct'

From which libraries are these objects?

As for your object itself, it is quite amazing I have to say, I am really impressed by it. Of course I still need some time to read how it works, but from what I can already understand it will be very handy. Thanks for sharing this!

Take care,
Gilberto

That's strange, I really don't know where these came from! Could it be the [bassemu~] object? I did use that once in the tutorial. Try opening it and see if you get the same error messages.

Hi Liam,

I don't know what is the cause of those errors, but I tried searching for those four objects in my pd-extended extra folder and they are not part of the default installation. Maybe you have some external library installed for them.

Take care,
Gilberto

@LiamG Hmm, the funniest thing just happened: I went to test it again and now I get no error messages! Also, [bassemu~] works without a problem here. So I don't know what the problem is, but if it appears again I will report here.

And I really can't say enough how impressed I am with this work, it's really a fantastic addition to pd-extended. Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Here is a little preview of Context 2.0:

I'm turning the Context timeline into a drag-and-droppable area for sample playback. Any Context can be loaded with any number of arrays, giving Context some basic DAW emulation and making sampling and modulation very easy.

There's a long way to go before the release, but I should have it out before the end of the year.