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Hi CBD1000,

Indeed, the Five12 is less menu diving then I was hoping for, there is a little bit if it comes to global settings, then you have a few pages of settings. But important things like: pitch, gate, groove, velocity, (gate) length, repeat, ratcheting and chance are very direct. These buttons are on top of the module, just press one of those and you can directly set that corresponding setting. An example, you are at part 1 and you press the pitch button, then directly those 8 encoders below can be used to set or change the pitch for the first 8 steps. With the Prev & Next buttons you can then walk through your part if it's longer than 8 steps. Works very practical.

If you press the Part button and then let's say 4 then you get part 4 and then press the gate and you can directly change all the gates of part 4. It's really direct, at least that's how I feel it and I am not much a fan of menu diving. But I have to be honest here the Global settings is a bit of menu diving, still kind of okay for me.

It wasn't distance or switching reason for me to decide to go for a in-rack-solution for the sequencer, it's just that I love modular so much that I try to avoid as much as possible (well within certain reasoning/limits) the external device stuff.

I know what you mean with the Elektron, it's less direct control of your sequence. You can do a lot with it but you need to take your sweet time. For that purpose I am not saying the Five12 is a million times better however it is certainly directer in use than the Elektron is.

I just got that Five12 very recently, so currently I am using 4 voices at the same time, still wondering what I am going to do with the left over two voices, but no worries, I will find good purpose for them :-) I just managed to get the drums work via the Five12. That was, in my opinion, a bit difficult to understand from the manual. The manual could be a bit more extensive in my opinion but if you read carefully, most of it has been mentioned somehow... it's just... the manual is a bit too compact for my taste.

Once you know it though, it becomes clear, it's logical in use and it's just a pleasure to use it; it was just the initial setup for the drums section that was a little struggle because the manual is so compact that I had to read it thrice or something like that.

Well... I like to make things complicated. Simple things are pretty fast pretty boring to me, so I was on purpose looking for a sequencer that could do quite a bit but if possible with not too much menu diving, like this Five12 for example. My initial requirements where something like this: at least 4 voices, at least 8 triggers for drums/percussion, at least repeat & ratcheting functionality, at least possible directions: forwards, backwards, ping-pong and random, and a few other stuff but that were my main requirements. If you check that then against all sequencers, not many sequencers are then left to choose from.

Pity, I actually like the concept of the WMD - Metron, it can be easily extended with extension modules, I like that concept, however it only can run forwards... I have already a sequencer that only can run forwards, hence the Elektron - A4, that's the reason why I didn't took the Metron since I didn't want yet another sequencer that only can run forwards.

My very first choice was initially the Endorphin.es - Ground Control, I am interested in that sequencer since about early summer 2019 however after about almost one-and-a-half year of waiting and the Ground Control is still not available, I gave up on that one...

So that's how I end up with the Five12 :-)