Press step to enter this mode. This is where you can edit notes, modulations, gate events or live recordings.
Notes (or modulation events) of the current page are shown both on the screen and the 16 pads.
Under the piano roll, the bottom bar shows the number of bars in the current pattern, the currently viewed page, and the track playhead:
Tip By default, the currently viewed page is following the playhead. Changing pages with X and Y will temporarily deactivate this behavior. To reactivate it, simply leave step mode and enter it again. You can also disable this option for good in the MISC settings.
Pattern length, zoom and navigation
Hold Y and turn the encoder to set the pattern length, from 16 (1 bar) to 256 steps (16 bars). When increasing the length, new pages will be available to display.
Tip Hold Y and press the encoder while scrolling for finer resolution (17 = 1 bar + 1/16 note, 18 = 1 bar + 2/16, …)
Hold X and turn the encoder to set the zoom value. Zoom in for precise editing, zoom out to get a global view. This will affect the number of pages.
Tip It is possible to set a zoom of 2/3 to easily create triplets.
Briefly press Y (left) or X (right) to select the page to display. The number of pages depends on the pattern length and the zoom value.
Adding and deleting notes
On a note track, patterns are polyphonic and grid-free. It is therefore possible to add chords, superpose notes, record off–grid events, program complex grooves and compose intricate harmonies.
Each note event has 3 parameters: pitch, length and velocity. Pitch goes from note C0 to C10 (CV out –5V to 5V). Length is the duration of the note. Velocity is used when the track outputs MIDI, or when the track layout has a VELOCITY voice, which will output note velocities as control voltages.
To add or delete a note, simply Press the corresponding step (pad 1 to 16). A note will be added with the parameter values displayed on screen.
To set the pitch parameter before adding a note, simply Scroll the encoder.
To add a note with a new length or velocity: Hold a step, click the encoder to select a parameter to edit (pitch, length, velocity) and Scroll the encoder to set it to the desired value.
Editing notes
Editing a note works exactly the same way: Hold the step where the note lies, and edit its parameters to modify the note in real time.
If several notes are on the same step, they will be edited simultaneously.
Holding an existing step will overwrite the default values of the note parameters (pitch, length, velocity) with the parameters of the selected note.
Tip Hold multiple steps (instead of a single step) to select a larger range to edit.
Tip Hold a step to quickly copy its content. Then, Press any other step to paste it.
Tip Hold a step and Press a track selection switch to quickly set the note length, from 1 step to 8 steps.
Row editing
Row editing is a handy way to find a particular note in a pattern, to program chords, and to create drum patterns.
By default, the 16 pads show every notes contained in a particular step. For example, if a chord is present on the first step (pad 1), editing this step will edit the entire chord.
It is also possible to only display notes of a given pitch on the 16 pads. Hold step and scroll right to enter ROW editing. An arrow () will appear next to the pitch parameter.
Adding, editing and removing notes is achieved the same way as in default mode.
To exit ROW editing, hold step and scroll left. Next to the selected note, (logo notes) will reappear.
Tip Press step repeatedly to cycle through the notes already used in the pattern.
Note learn
Step mode greatly benefits from the use of an external MIDI controller. A keyboard can be used to set the current pitch (and velocity) before adding a note, and even learn a chord. Play a note or a chord with the external controller, and press a step to add it to the pattern:
Tip Enter the 'On Air' mode to turn the 16–pad matrix into a chromatic keyboard. Thanks to this Hermod+ integrated keyboard, you can play notes or chords, and they will be learn when you go back to step mode. Click here for more information.Click here for more information.
Edit any type of event (Analyser mode)
All event types are accessible and editable directly from the step mode.
New! You can fine-tune or create complex automation from scratch for your Eurorack system or MIDI synthesizers.
Hold step and Press one of the track buttons to access the event types. Each track button color corresponds to a specific event type.
The available event types in the Analyser are:
The selected event has access to the usual step mode features, including selection and editing, random generator, copy/paste, erase and generate shortcuts, pattern rotate, change the page, set the zoom and the track length.
For example, select the PITCHBEND event type and use the 16–pad matrix and the encoder to create a pitchbend automation for your pattern:
Tip After selecting an automation, Hold step and Press X to delete it, or Hold step and Press Y to randomize it.
Note PITCHBEND automation can be sent to MIDI outputs. When using the CV/Gate MONO tracks, this automation will affect the CV output (CV = quantized note pitch + pitchbend).
Note AFTERTOUCH and MOD automation can also be sent to MIDI outputs. When using CV/Gate tracks and a voice linked to these event types (thanks to layouts), the automation will be sent to the CV outputs.
Note SUSTAIN cannot output CV or MIDI, but can be used to hold notes when APPLY SUSTAIN is enable.
Note MOD2, MOD3 and MOD4 cannot output CV, but they can be used as modulation sources in the ModMatrix and they can output MIDI CC messages. If you have connected the xp32 expander, it's possible to output these automation to the CV outputs.
Edit a 1–voice modulation track
To create a MOD track layout (1 VOICE ► MODULATION layout), refer to the TRACK LAYOUTS section.
Note Layouts are available only on the 8 CV/GATE tracks and not on the 8 MIDI tracks.
In a MOD track pattern, tthere is no piano-roll. Instead, two types of events can be edited: mod value and gate .
Press step to cycle through those event types.
CREATE AND EDIT MODULATIONS
— Scroll the encoder to set the mod value — Press a step to add or delete a mod event — Hold a step and scroll to offset the mod value of this step
CREATE AND EDIT GATES
— Scroll the encoder to set the gate length — Press a step to add or delete a gate event. — Hold a step and scroll to edit the gate length of this step.
Edit a 2–voice (or more) track
To create a multi-voices layout, refer to the TRACK LAYOUTS section.
Note Layouts are available only on the 8 CV/GATE tracks and not on the 8 MIDI tracks.
Once the layout is created, selecting a voice in step mode allows you to edit notes in the piano-roll view, as well as automation and gates if they are part of the layout.
For example, consider the 3 VOICES ► MONO + AFTERTOUCH + MODULATION layout:
• Selecting the first voice with the corresponding track button will display the piano-roll view, as this voice is linked to notes (MONO CV/Gate output):
• Selecting the second or third voice with the corresponding track button will display the AFTC or MOD automation , as these voice CV outputs are linked to aftertouch and modulation respectively. Similar to the Analyser mode, you can edit the automation events:
• To edit the gate events for this voice output, Press the track button again. This will open the GATE view , where you can add, remove, and fine-tune gate events:
Note When using a polyphonic layout, such as the 3 VOICES ► POLY layout, all 3 voices are linked exclusively to CV/Gate notes. This layout does not include CV automation or extra gates. Selecting any of the 3 corresponding track buttons will display the same piano-roll view.
Recording notes and modulations
Another way to program patterns is to Press rec O while playing to capture a live performance.
On a MOD track, a CV input (or a MIDI CC input) will be used to create the events.
On a NOTE track, a CV/Gate input (or a MIDI note input) will be used. Those inputs are configured in the TRACK CONFIGURATION menu.
OVERDUB RECORDING
Overdub recording is active by default. Arm the recording by pressing rec O, press play to start recording. It is also possible to press rec O while the pattern is already playing.
The recording will start overdubbing after the first loop, so you can continue to add notes to the pattern.
HARD RECORDING
Hard recording will overwrite any previously recorded note while recording the new incoming events.
Hold X and press O to arm the hard recording, press to start recording.
MULTITRACK RECORDING
Multitrack recording allows you to record simultaneously on every MIDI or CV/Gate routed tracks.
Hold X + Y and press O to arm the mutlitrack recording, press to start recording.
LOOPER RECORDING
Looper recording will keep adding incoming events to the pattern until O or is pressed again. The new length of the pattern will be set as soon as the recording stops.
Hold Y and press O to arm the looper recording, press to start recording.
Tip Activate the PUNCH IN option (found in SETTINGS > REC) to make Hermod+ wait for the first incoming note to start recording.
Pattern edit menu
Press the encoder in step mode to access the pattern edit menu, including the usual copy, paste and delete functions. It is also possible to copy the current page, and delete only the pitchbend, the aftertouch, the modulation, or the sustain.
Tip Hold step and Press X to delete all events of the current active pattern.
Tip Hold and turn the encoder to rotate all the notes or modulations in a pattern. It will move all the events left/right, in time increments related to the zoom level.
Generator
Hermod+ boasts a powerful pattern randomizer: the Generator. This algorithm generates random notes (or modulations) in accordance to its parameters, which can be found under PATTERN EDIT MENU > GENERATOR SETTINGS (quantize grid, note density, pitch range, length range and velocity range).
To generate a new pattern, enter PATTERN EDIT MENU > GENERATOR and select RANDOMIZE. Rather than generating a entire new pattern, randomization can be applied to individual parameters of existing notes, such as pitch, length or velocity.
Tip Use a SCALE effect to quantize the randomized notes and get a musical pattern.
Tip Hold step and Press Y to delete and randomize the entire pattern.
Note In a modulation track, you can randomize separatly the mod values and gates . The event type selected will be the one to be randomized. Press step to cycle through those event types.
Note In a NOTE track, if ROW editing is enabled, the generator will randomize notes only on the selected row.