Spice and Dice

Two touch-strip functions that bend the arpeggiator's rhythm: Spice drifts it, Dice rolls new ones.

Do it in the simulator ↗Lesson 16 · 4 min

The touch strip has three jobs, picked by the icons beside it: Bend, Spice and Dice. Spice and Dice change the rhythm of a running arpeggiator or sequence. Each step has a gate length, which is how long its note sounds. Spice morphs the pattern away from normal, and Dice rolls a new random variation each time you touch the strip.

What Spice and Dice change in an arp or sequence
How to turn them on and use the touch strip
That Spice and Dice need a running arp or sequence
How to keep a result you like

The steps7 steps

Start an arp first. Make sure Amp Mod is unlit (press it if it is lit). With it on, the envelope controls the volume and hides the note lengths that Spice and Dice change. Then touch Hold, press Arp | Seq and play a chord.
Stuck?
Amp Mod off, Hold on, Arp | Seq on, then play two or three keys.
Touch the Dice icon. The touch strip now rolls Dice: each touch gives the rhythm a new random variation.
Stuck?
Touch the Dice icon, to the right of Spice.
Tap the touch strip several times, near the left and then near the right, and keep listening. Near the left the change is subtle; near the right it is a complete reshuffle. Press Next.
Now touch the Spice icon. Spice blends the rhythm from normal toward the Dice result you just rolled.
Stuck?
Touch the Spice icon, to the right of the arp mode icons.
Slide a finger along the touch strip towards the right. The further right, the more the rhythm drifts from normal toward that Dice result.
Stuck?
Click and drag on the touch strip above the keys, towards its right end.
When you hear a rhythm you like, send it to the sequencer with Shift + Up (sequence A) so it is kept. Press Next when you are done.
Turn the arp off to finish: Arp | Seq off, Hold off, and Amp Mod back on. (If you sent the arp to the sequencer on a real MicroFreak, stop it with Play instead.)
Stuck?
Press Arp | Seq, Hold and Amp Mod.

Spice drifts the rhythm, Dice rerolls it, and both only work while an arp or sequence is running. They are not saved, but you can send an arp with Spice and Dice results to a sequence to keep it.

On the real MicroFreak

Each step has a gate length: 0 is silent and 100 is a tie. Spice morphs each step's gate from the default gate length (nothing heard) toward the stored status as you slide to the right (MIDI CC 2). Each touch of Dice adds a fresh random offset to every step, small near the left of the strip and a full reshuffle near the right; the last result you hear becomes the new status. Both also subtly vary octave, velocity and the amplitude envelope's release. Spice and Dice results are not saved with a preset, and they are disabled while you are recording a sequence. The only way to keep a result is to transfer the arp to a sequence with Shift plus Up or Order.

Questions1

I touch Spice and hear nothing change.

With Spice at zero you hear the normal pattern. Roll Dice at least once, slide Spice further right, and make sure the arp or sequence is running and Amp Mod is off, because gate length is only audible with Amp Mod off.