What are your favourites? Looking for inspiration

For the past months ive been working on a software sequencer in the style of acid-step sequencer genre. Its main initial idea was elektron style lock capabilities, as well as the ability to mutate existing midi sequencies. Now that im in the process of finishing it, im just asking here to see what kind of features my common acid-lovers are missing in their current sequencer set ups? Any ideas would be appreciated :)

I’m quite certain Flick, in the scenario where Barça don’t manage to buy a top-class striker before the end of the transfer window, has his eyes on getting Raphinha comfortable with playing centrally in the front three. I’m also confident it will work.

To be clear, such positional changes are not easy, but at the same time, fans also tend to overemphasise the positional rigidity of professional players. Maybe that’s a side effect of young kids learning about players through FIFA, where players have their positions printed on them, almost like a rigid identity.

There are loads of examples of successful positional changes throughout history. I’m going to bring up just a single one here to argue for the potential of Raphinha making this positional change successfully. I’m thinking of when Ángel Di María was moved from the wing to a three-man central midfield role in Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in 2013–14. This change was probably the biggest tactical shift behind Real Madrid’s success that season, and Di María’s positional shift propelled him to the status of one of the best midfielders in the world, with 11 goals and 26 assists.

What made this shift so successful? Di María had the combination of high football IQ and dynamism. He had the lungs of few other players, and his high football IQ allowed him to make use of those lungs, as well as his elite agility to create the recipe for elite off-the-ball movement. This allowed him to adjust very quickly to his new position and quickly develop elite positional awareness of playing in the central midfield. It allowed him to adjust to a new position despite having played his entire career on the wings. The move was motivated by a need for a player like that centrally, but also by the competition from superior wing players at Real Madrid at the time (Ronaldo and Bale). Right now we deal with a similar situation in Barca.

Now, moving to striker from the wing is obviously not the same as moving centrally into midfield. But there are nonetheless similarities to be drawn. Raphinha does have a high football IQ; one of his biggest strengths is his decision-making. He also has excellent off-the-ball movement. Furthermore, we have already witnessed him make the positional change from primarily being a right winger to playing on the left.

Furthermore, Raphinha, and this is where the comparison to Di María differs, is an excellent finisher. His strengths are his end product and getting into goalscoring positions, being first to the end of crosses, getting ahead of his defender, making diagonal, unselfish runs, etc. He has already shown that he has many of the skills needed to succeed as a striker.

Now, some may argue that the few times Flick tried this at the end of last season, it didn’t work. And I agree. But that was in my opinion a failure, not due to the inadequacy of Raphinha playing centrally, but rather because we did not have a wide runner replacement for Raphinha on the left. The failure was due to the vacuum left behind on the left. With the arrival of Gordon, the situation is now different.

So, while some fans are talking about Gordon as the false 9/striker, I see much more potential in leaving Gordon as the wider runner on the left and giving Raphinha the primary striker role. Just my opinion/prediction. Visca Barca.

I'm trying to find software or hardware that solves a very specific workflow, and I'm surprised it's been so difficult to find.

What I want to do

I often have MIDI basslines/melodies (mostly acid/303-style, but sometimes more melodic).

I don't want an arpeggiator or a melody generator. I want to preserve my existing musical ideas and create controlled variations of them.

Ideal workflow:

1. Import an existing MIDI clip (or record it into the device from Ableton).
2. See/edit the actual notes.
3. Select certain notes to lock/protect.
4. Randomise/mutate only the unlocked notes within a scale or selected possible notes.
5. Preserve rhythm (or optionally mutate rhythm separately).
6. Repeat the mutation process until I find a variation I like.
7. Export or send the mutated MIDI back into an Ableton track.mple:

Things I've already looked at

Not what I'm looking for:

• Phrasebox (acts as an arpeggiator rather than editing imported sequences)
• Riffer
• Thesys
• Melody Sauce (generates new melodies rather than mutating existing ones)
• Novation Launchkey MK3 mutation (arp mutation only)

These don't have the ability to either import midi sequences, or in the case of phrase box, does not allow you to edit notes individually as a sequence (nor have much capacity for midi mutation).

Possibly relevant:

• Harvest plugin - this actually does what I want. But, it is not available for Mac apple silicone processors atm, and does not look like it's getting an update. I already sent emails to them asking a couple of weeks ago without any response.
• Elektron Digitakt (record MIDI in, use Elektron sequencing workflow, send MIDI back out). This actually seems like the best option currently, but it seems like a lot of money to spend considering im mostly looking for the sequencing import capability, and dont really care for the sampling etc of the digitakt. It feels strange that there is not really a software equivalent.
• Max for Live devices, I've tried many, but nothing really works the way I want it to, or in the elektron kinda working flow.
• Custom Python solution (if nothing suitable exists) - given that I suck at programming, this would be last option.

What I'm NOT looking for

• Melody generators
• AI composition tools
• Arpeggiators
• Step sequencers that require me to re-enter the pattern from scratch
• Random MIDI generators that ignore my original phrase

What I am looking for

Essentially a MIDI mutation engine or MIDI variation tool.

Something that treats my existing MIDI clip as the source material and lets me evolve it while preserving the parts I like.

Does anything like this exist (software, Max for Live, VST, standalone app, or hardware)?

If you've actually used something that supports this workflow - not just something with a randomise button - I'd love to hear about it.

(I apologise sorry for the help of AI in writing this, it seemed easier than summarising my problem completely independently).

I feel like this warrants its own thread as it’s probably the lineup that’s the hardest to predict at the moment.

From the looks of it, Yamal won’t start.

In terms of nailed attacking picks, Pedri and Oyarzabal might be the only nailed picks for the first game. As the tournament goes on, Nico and Yamal are likely to become nailed if they become fit.

Other than that, Fabian Ruiz is likely also to start, but usually plays a bit further back - hard to predict his attacking output.

I am personally considering Ferran Torres for gameweek 1 as he scored and started in their friendly vs Peru, but I’m unsure about his chances to start.

I already have Oyarzabal as I think he is essential and is guaranteed to start/ but other than that, it’s really hard to guess who De La Fuentes will go for. Do you reckon it’s safer to go for Pedri? Even tho there’s also the risk that he plays in the pivot if they go for the 4-2-3-1.

Tough one! Any input would be appreciated :)

Cheers

De la Fuentes said so yesterday in an interview, but what do you think is the risk of him coming of the bench/subbed early? Rather high right considering the opponent?

Title. The seller says it’s almost in new condition. Also any opinions on whether this is a decent first synth after having produced just in Ableton for 10 years. Looking for an all rounder to take me outside of the laptop for a more tactile sensation.

Also, I’ve heard that the factory presets are not fantastic on this synth, any suggestions on available presets to download? Are there lots available? I am quite synth savvy and have no issues creating my own presets most of the time, but I do enjoy and get a lot of inspiration from flicking through wonderful presets as well.

Thanks in advance.