Re: Tapping tempo --> MIDI Clock

["Robert S. Carter" <rsc4@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu>]

> > wow, a cyclone user! When I was at Gibson no one really knew what this
> > thing did, but people were still buying it every now and then. I 
>remember
> > being at trade shows and meeting fanatical cyclone users. You thought
> > looping was a niche.....
> 
> Can somebody give us a thumbnail description of what the cyclone does?
> Any relation to the Vortex?  ;-]
> 
> --Andre


The oberheim cyclone is a hardware MIDI arpeggiator and sequencer.
Arpeggiators have been around since the early days of synthesizers and
basically cycle the notes in a chord played on a keyboard. Typical
patterns are up, down, up/down, random, etc. and usually are cycled at a
fixed rhythm. The cyclone is rather unique in that it took the
arpeggiation scheme to an incredible level of complexity. You can
program wild and crazy templates with many variations on the up/down
theme plus notes can be doubled for arpeggiated harmonies. Rhythms can
be programmed as well, which I  don't think any other arpeggiator will
do. The unit will split a keyboard into zones for two handed
arpeggiations or having one hand act as a transposer for arpeggiations
generated by the other. And believe me, I have only begun to scratch the
surface here- the obertheim web page probably has more info. No, it's
not a looper like a Vortex (although it certainly is a MIDI looper) and
as pointed out above, the  loopers and cycloners probably share a
similar mind set.

BOB.