These basic notes are for a friend who may be purchasing one of these.
They aren't official in any way.
The Octopus is a beautiful handcrafted instrument. I think the wood is beech.
I wish more manufacturers would build devices like this today.
I have owned this sequencer for over 10 years
and each time I decide it's time to sell it, I change my mind.
Music is art. And I feel that an instrument which is a work of art helps inspire the musician.
GenoQs Co. was dissolved some years ago, thus the Octopus & Nemo
aren't in production anymore. Nevertheless, the former owners appear to
provide continued support, such as repairs & OS updates (latest OS:
08/2017).
I think reading the manual is essential to truly grasp what this instrument is capable of.
There are so many sequencers out there, and none are perfect. Many are boring and conservative.
This is neither.
The Octopus has a tree like structure.
Because there is no screen or display, all information is communicated with LEDs.
Reminds me of the Latronic Notron (though they are not related).
On the left is matrix consisting of rows of 16 by 10 LEDs with a round ball below each.
These are buttons, and they feel beautiful to touch.
On the right is the spiral (reminds me of a galaxy of stars).
This is where you find things like chords, tempo, transport, sequence chaining, and mode selection.
A good place to start is to just play a few simple sequences.
The transport buttons & tempo controls are on the right .
The main tempo control is the top right encoder.
Turning the encoder will change the LEDs indicated. They are a kind of bar graph.
Pressing the LED/buttons will also jump you to various fixed tempos.
The lower transport buttons are start, stop, pause, FF, etc .
When you first turn on the sequencer, you will enter what is called "Page Mode".
This is what most people would expect to see in a standard sequencer.
Pressing the play button, will start the sequencer.
You will see a row of 8 LEDs move across the matrix from left to right. You are on your way.
Pressing LED/buttons will enter steps. Adjust pitch (PIT) and Velocity (VEL) , etc
There are 4 Modes:
1.Grid
2. Page
3. track
4. Step
GRID mode
At the top of the tree is the GRID mode.
This is your view of the universe.
The universe (GRID) is divided into 144 pages.
Each of these 144 buttons is your gateway into the page.
When the Octopus powers on , you will immediately enter the page mode.
To toggle between page & grid modes, you can double click the
selected page LED button, press ESC or PAGE + selected page LED button.
I find just using the ESC button is the easiest way to toggle between the two modes.
A flashing page LED indicates you are in PAGE mode
to go to GRID mode press the grid button.
The grid LED will now flash and you will see lit LEDs in the matrix section indicating a active page
To go to page mode press the page button
To jump to different pages, press the desired LED/Button.
It will go green.
Hit ESC.
To create a new page, Press a unlit button/LED
Hit ESC.
The important ESC button
Track mode
Burrowing down past PAGE view is TRACK view.
Here, you can inspect & tweak fine track parameters.
To enter track mode, double press the button (selector button) to the left of the track you wish to edit.
You will see the track LED flash in the MODE section.
PIT - pitch (this represents the base value)
VEL - velocity (this represents the base value)
LEN - length (this represents a multiple to the value in step mode )
STA - start (this represents a multiple to the value in step mode )
POS - position - this shifts the steps around
DIR - direction - (Forward, rev, ping-pomg, browian. rnd.)
AMT - amount - amount of random
GRV - groove
MCC - Midi CC
MCH - Midi channel
STEP mode
Burrowing down past Track view is STEP view.
Here, you can inspect & tweak fine step parameters.
To enter step mode, double press the step button you wish to edit.
You will see the step LED flash in the MODE section.
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Saving the machine state
1.To perform a save of the machine state go to GRID Mode and press and hold the GRID button.
(The grid LED will flash orange).
2. Hold down the GRID button. (the Program LED will start to flash red).
3. Press the Program button.This will start the save operation.
Expect the save operation to take about 5-10 seconds.
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Saving individual pages
Occasionally it may be useful to save individual pages only, as opposed to the full instrument state. For this to work the machine has to be stopped, and you have to be in GRID mode.
1. While in GRID mode, make sure that the EDIT LED is lit up orange, otherwise press it once to make it light orange.
2. Now press and hold the matrix button corresponding to the page you are about to save. This will reveal a red blinking Program button (among others).
3. While holding the matrix button pressed, click on the red blinking Program button to save the respective page to memory.
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fACTORY RESET
tHERE is a large button on the underside of the sequencer.
Holding this down while turning the Octopus on will force it to boot into the factory settings.
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