Mutes and row states

MSEQ has two independent layers of muting: sequencer mutes (silence an entire sequencer) and row mutes (control the play mode of individual rows within a sequencer). Both support cued transitions. You set the intent and the system resolves it at the next 8-bar or 16-bar boundary of the cycle, so changes land where the music turns over rather than wherever your hands were. A cue is not a next-bar promise: read the timing sections below before you rely on one mid-set.

Sequencer Mutes

Sequencer mutes are controlled from the LaunchControl XL. Each player’s LC shows two rows of 7 buttons, one button per sequencer. Which sequencers appear depends on the active LC user template: U1, U3 and U5 show sequencers 1–7, U2, U4 and U6 show sequencers 9–15. (Column 8 of both rows is not a sequencer. Those two buttons are the 8A / 8B modifiers, see LaunchControl modifier buttons.)

How timing works

MSEQ runs a 16-bar cycle, counted bar 0 to bar 15, so bar 0 is the top of the cycle and bar 15 is its last bar. Mute cues resolve at bar boundaries within that cycle:

• 8-bar cue (a plain mute or unmute press) waits for the halfway point or the top of the cycle, whichever comes round first. Press in the first half and it lands at bar 8. Press in the second half and it waits for bar 0.
• 16-bar cue (the same press with REC ARM held) only ever lands at bar 0, so it always waits for the top of the next cycle, however early you pressed.
• Autodrop cue takes bar 8, bar 12 or bar 0, whichever comes round first, and then bar 15 offers three more chances (at steps 1, 9 and 13). That is what lets the short 16, 8 and 4-step drops land right on the turnaround.

So the later in the cycle you press, the sooner your cue lands, and a drop cued in the last bar arrives within it.

Top row: mute/unmute

Pressing a top-row button with no modifier pressed cues the sequencer to mute or unmute at the next 8-bar boundary. The action depends on current state:

With REC ARM held, the same logic applies but uses a 16-bar boundary instead of 8-bar.

With SHIFT held: increment the sequencer octave (up to +4).

With MUTE held: increment the jam keyboard octave (up to +8).

Bottom row: autodrop

Autodrop temporarily mutes a sequencer for a fixed duration and then automatically unmutes it. Pressing a bottom-row button with no modifier cues an autodrop at the next available boundary (bar 8 or 12 within the cycle):

With REC ARM held: cue a 16-bar autodrop (fires at the next 16-bar boundary, lasts the full 16 bars).

With SHIFT held: decrement the sequencer octave (down to −4).

With MUTE held: decrement the jam keyboard octave (down to 0).

Autodrop types

There are four autodrop modes, selected by which LC modifier is active when the autodrop fires:

The two mute modes work. The CC and note drops cue, time and light correctly but do not yet suppress anything on a synth sequencer: the engine treats both as unmuted, so the sequencer plays on. See the “Limitations” section of Autodrops for why.

LED colours

The two rows of LC LEDs reflect the current sequencer mute state:

Row Mutes

Row mutes are set per-sequencer from the Launchpad (the vertical column of buttons on the right-hand side of the left-hand pad), and control how each of the 8 rows within a sequencer plays. Rows are numbered 1 at the bottom of the pad up to 8 at the top (see the “What You See” section of Trigs).

The TL;DR is that a plain press mutes and unmutes the row, MUTE will make that row drone, SOLO will make it play in legato, and REC ARM cues the change rather than applying it immediately. You can combine REC ARM with MUTE or SOLO to cue the drone and legato statuses. In this way you can move between states as and when you like, but with also the freedom to cue a change in state for the future, which is particularly helpful in a live situation. The full gesture table is in the “Row Mode” section of Trigs.

Each row can be in one of four play modes:

Cued transitions

Row mode changes are cued to the 16-bar boundary only (bar 0). Unlike a sequencer mute, they do not get the halfway chance at bar 8, so a row cued at bar 9 waits seven bars. The full set of cued states covers every combination of current mode → target mode.

Pressing the same cue gesture again cancels it and leaves the row in the mode it is already playing, so a cue you change your mind about costs you one press rather than a wait.

Rows can also be cued to autodrop, from whichever mode they are in, which drops them in or out for part of the cycle and then puts them back without another press.

Row LED colours

The row buttons show the current state directly. Cued states blink between the current colour and the colour it is heading for, so you can always see both where a row is and where it is going.

A row whose note arp is running shows magenta in place of orange for the unmuted states, so you can see at a glance which rows are moving. On the TR-8 the unmuted colour is replaced by the per-voice drum colour instead: red for kick and hand claps, green for snare and hats, blue for toms and rimshot.

Drone behaviour

When a row enters Drone mode, MSEQ immediately computes and fires the note that step 1 of the row would produce (using the current scale, chord, and octave settings) and holds it as a sustained MIDI note-on. When the row leaves Drone mode, a note-off is sent for that held note. This means the drone note reflects the current chord and scale state at the moment Drone was engaged.

LC Modifier Button Reference

The LC’s 6 modifier buttons (see LaunchControl modifier buttons) can be held alone or in pairs. These are the ones the two sequencer rows listen to:

Any other modifier or pair does nothing on these two rows, so a stray hold costs you nothing. The same buttons do plenty elsewhere: the grid views give each one its own gesture.