{"id":948,"date":"2025-11-06T00:34:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/?p=948"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:46:59","slug":"lofi-sequencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/2025\/11\/06\/lofi-sequencer\/","title":{"rendered":"Lo-Fi Sequencer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The LoFi Sequencer is an algorithmic sequencer and monophonic synthesiser with controls for pitch, timbre, density, and generative algorithm settings housed in a laser-cut box. It is a simple DIY device to be made at home or at community workshops. Designed to be portable, the sequencer features an inbuilt speaker, an output jack and is battery operated. It is built around an ESP32 microcontroller (pre-programmed and ready to go) using the simple <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/algomusic\/M8\">M8 audio synthesis libraries<\/a> I developed. It is breadboard-based for ease of assembly. The physical design and enclosure is co-developed with John Ferguson as part of our series of LoFi DIY music machines.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"The LoFi Sequencer in development, partially assembled.\" class=\"wp-image-950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-615x346.jpg 615w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/in-development-640x360.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The LoFi Sequencer in development, partially assembled.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The LoFi Sequencer combines digital and physical media into a postdigital device that both leverages the capabilities of modern digital fabrication and leans into the low fidelity aesthetic of 8-bit digital synthesis on low-cost microprocessors. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DQGF5uBkicz\/\">Here<\/a> is a short video of the developing version in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sequencer is also a simple subtractive synthesizer. Front panel controls change both the sound (oscillator, filter and amplitude envelope) and the sequence in real time. Sequence variations are depicted in the diagram below.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-1024x240.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-959\" style=\"width:1092px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-1024x240.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-300x70.png 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-768x180.png 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-1536x360.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-2048x480.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LoFI-Sequence-Variations-615x144.png 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Generated sequences can be varied in real time via front panel controls in ways showsn in this illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Workshops building the LoFi sampler have been held at Castlemaine and Melbourne, in Australia, as part of a research project exploring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regionalelectronicmusicaustralia.com\/\">regional electronic music<\/a> communities. Workshops have resulted in performances using several of the instruments, which can combine to form interesting music created from overlapping loop-based sequences.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"245\" src=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-1024x245.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-957\" style=\"width:1059px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-1024x245.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-300x72.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-768x184.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-1536x367.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-2048x489.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Central-Vic-Activities-Collage-615x147.jpg 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">LoFi Sequencer workshops and concert setup in Victoria, Australia, in 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The documents to support making the LoFi Sequencer are available at an open source <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/algomusic\/lofi-sequencer\">GitHub repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The LoFi Sequencer is an algorithmic sequencer and monophonic synthesiser with controls for pitch, timbre, density, and generative algorithm settings housed in a laser-cut box. It is a simple DIY device to be made at &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explodingart.com\/arb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}