Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Getting Sequences in ESQ/SQ80 Format

Someone recently wrote the SQ80 list asking for sequences of current pop songs. Many gigging musicians consider these sequences their 'bread and butter', as they become the backing tracks of a set list.

Like many of you, I am a DAW based studio musician, so I have no sequences to contribute, but I do have lots of info:

If any of you remember "Monster Dan" from the Transoniq Hacker days, he is still in business [links open in new window]:

http://www.monster-tracks.com/index.html

He does pro arrangements of (American) top 40 hits. He has thousands, and has retained his SQ80 format (at least as of a few years ago when we exchanged emails). For a pro gigging musician, buying these sequences would be a good solution.

Margus Kliimask has very generously developed a Window's based ESQ/SQ80 sequence converter, but I think it is 1-way only (I'm on a W3 phone and can't confirm):

http://wolzow.mindworks.ee/analog/esq-1-seq.htm

Finally, Gary Giebler still sells his very-capable MS-DOS based 2-way sequencer translation tools! He even has a new storefront with new tools:

http://www.midifile.com/

It's my guess that a contemporary computer will need an emulator to run them. I have used DosBox successfully for a ton of stuff:

http://www.dosbox.com/

I don't have the Giebler tools, though. Can someone confirm that they still work either with or without DosBox?

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