NerdSEQ

01 The big picture

What the machine is, in one diagram — read this page and the rest is detail.

NerdSEQ is a tracker: music runs top to bottom in columns of steps, like a spreadsheet that plays. Everything you build follows one chain:

1. Song 255 sequencer rows arrange patterns per track
2. Pattern up to 64 steps of notes, gates, FX
3. Step note + trigger + mod + FX on one row
4. Output CV / gate / audio / MIDI / I2C

Around that chain sit five helper systems. You don’t need any of them on day one, but this is where the depth lives:

The hardware, in one breath

Out of the box, tracks 1–6 are Modular tracks: each owns one CV output, one trigger/gate output and one MOD output (a second CV). Tracks 7–8 are Audio tracks: each plays two samples or waveforms at once, so four voices in total, out of the two audio jacks. Plus four freely assignable CV inputs, clock and reset in and out, and a microSD slot on the front for samples and projects.

Every track can be reassigned — to MIDI (with a MIDI expander), to more triggers or CVs (Trigger16, CV16), to the Dualchord oscillator, to I2C, or to video. Chapter 05 shows how.

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02 Hex in 60 seconds

00 is minimum, FF is maximum, and your ears do the rest.

Trackers show most values in hexadecimal — counting in sixteens instead of tens. After 9 come the letters A–F, then the next digit rolls over:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 … 19 1A 1B … 1F 20 …

• 0A = 10

  A is ten.

• 10 = 16

  The left digit is worth 16.

• FF = 255

  The largest two-digit value.

You almost never need to convert. What matters: 00 is minimum, FF (or FFF for three digits) is maximum, 80 / 800 is the middle. Nudge values by ear with SHIFT + ◀ / ▶ (±1) and SHIFT + ▲ / ▼ (±16).

Notes look like notes: C-4 is C in octave 4, D#5 is D sharp in octave 5. A track can show flats instead (Eb5) if you prefer.

Some values are not hex at all. Probabilities, for example, are plain percentages written in hex: 19 is 25 %, 64 is 100 %. The status line at the bottom of the screen always spells out what the value under the cursor means — read it.

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03 Buttons & navigation

Every screen one press away, every value two keys — learn six buttons and you can reach everything.

There are no menus inside menus. Every screen is one button away, and every button’s second job is SHIFT + that button — the second name is printed above it. This guide always names the button you press, with the printed name in brackets where it helps.

The six screen buttons

Transport

Changing values — the one rule to memorise

SHIFT + ◀ / ▶

small step: ±1, or a semitone

SHIFT + ▲ / ▼

big step: ±16, or an octave

SHIFT + DELETE

clear the value (that is SHIFT + PATCH)

SHIFT + OK

cycle handy presets on a field, or clone

Mute & solo

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04 The sequencer screen

Arrange a whole song by stacking pattern numbers in a grid.

Home base (SEQUENCER). Rows 00–FE run down the page — 255 of them; the 8 columns are your tracks. Each cell holds a pattern number. A song is patterns stacked in order.

    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8
00  00 00 01 -- -- -- 04 --
01  00 02 01 -- -- -- 04 --
02  00 02 03 05 -- -- 04 --
03  00 02 03 05 -- -- ** --
04  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Patterns stacked under each other chain automatically and loop as a group. Track 1 here loops pattern 00; track 2 plays 00 once, then loops 02.

The right side of the screen shows the project name, BPM, transpose and edit state, plus live note, gate and mod indicators per track. The bottom line explains whatever the cursor is on. A thin minimap beside the row numbers shows which of the 255 rows are in use. Cells can be coloured via the Nerd menu to recognise song parts at a glance.

Launching things

Creating & reusing patterns

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★ The first hour — missions

Eight small wins, in order. By the last one you’ll know most of what this machine asks of you daily.

1. Make one note play 90 sec

   CV1 to oscillator pitch, TRIG1 to an envelope. Sequencer screen, track 1, row 00: OK creates a pattern. PATTERN to enter (or OK, if enabled in Setup). In the note column, SHIFT + ▲ drops a note in. If the trigger column next to it stays --, put a trigger there the same way (or switch on Auto Fill in Trigger in Setup). Press START in the pattern, or go back with SEQUENCER and press it there.

   You hear a note repeating.

2. Make it a melody 90 sec

   Back in the pattern: notes on rows 04, 08 and 0C too. Tune each with SHIFT + ◀ / ▶ (semitones) and SHIFT + ▲ / ▼ (octaves).

   Four notes, looping.

3. Duplicate and vary 60 sec

   On the sequencer screen, cursor on your pattern: SHIFT + DOWN + OK clones it into the row below. Enter the clone and move one note somewhere unexpected.

   The track alternates A, A′ — an arrangement exists.

4. Transpose the phrase 60 sec

   In either pattern: SHIFT + SEQUENCER (MARK) on the top note, cursor down past the last note, then — still marked — SHIFT + OK + ▶ twice.

   The whole phrase rises two semitones. This mark-and-nudge works on any column.

5. Same notes, half speed 90 sec

   Track 2, row 00: SHIFT + ▶ dials in your first pattern — reused, not copied. With the cursor on track 2, press PATCH twice for its Track Setup and set Track Clock to /2. Back on the sequencer, SHIFT + START on row 00.

   Two tracks, one pattern, two speeds — a canon. Edit the pattern once and both parts change.

6. Let a note misbehave 60 sec

   In your pattern, pick one note’s row and set an FX to PRCV 019 (25 %). On the row below: PRCV 064 (100 %). FX values stick, so the second row protects the rest of the line.

   One note now sits out three times out of four, differently every pass.

7. One note becomes an arpeggio 2 min

   Do the Try this of chapter 12 on the first note of your melody.

   A single cell is now a cascade.

8. Save it 30 sec

   PROJECT → Save, give it a name. The NerdSEQ keeps 10 rotating backups, so save often.

   A named project with an arrangement, a canon, probability and an arpeggio.

Everything from here — audio, MIDI, tables, mappings — is these same eight moves pointed at bigger targets.

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05 Tracks & track setup

Make each track behave differently — half-time bass, drums that ignore transpose, humanised timing.

Each track has a type that decides what its patterns can do. Patterns, patches and tables belong to their type: a Modular pattern can’t play on a MIDI track.

Assigning types

PROJECT → Track Assign. Pick a type per track with SHIFT + ◀ / ▶, then select SET and press OK. Tracks 1–6 can be Modular, 7–8 can be Audio; any track can be MIDI, I2C or an expander, and one expander can feed several tracks.

Track Setup — settings every track has

Fastest route: PATCH twice from the sequencer, with the cursor on the track. Also: OK on an assigned track in Track Assign, or via the Nerd menu. On a Modular track it reads:

MODULAR SETUP 1
Track Clock         NORMAL
Transpose           ALLOW
Scale               GLOBAL
Trigger Delay       OFF
Trigger Setting     NORMAL
Voltage Setting     1V/OCT
Random FX1          Off

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06 Editing patterns

Move phrases around in blocks — mark, grab, paste, and loop slices live.

These moves work in every pattern type, and mostly on the sequencer screen too. Learn them once, use them everywhere. MARK is SHIFT + SEQUENCER, COPY is SHIFT + PATTERN, DELETE is SHIFT + PATCH.

Mark → grab → paste

• 1 · Mark

  MARK at one corner, move to the other (the border changes colour). SHIFT + cursor moves the start corner; SHIFT + DOWN marks everything.

• 2 · Grab

  MARK again: the block is in the clipboard.

• 3 · Paste

  COPY overwrites at the cursor; SHIFT + DOWN + PATTERN inserts, pushing rows down.

Paste between patterns and between tracks — any compatible columns (notes to notes, triggers to triggers…). FX columns only paste within the same track type. Deleting a marked block also copies it, so delete doubles as cut.

Deleting & shifting rows

Moves on a marked block

Entering notes

On an empty note field, SHIFT + ▲ drops a note in; small and big steps tune it. SHIFT + PATCH on an empty field inserts a note-off [ ] (it toggles). OK pre-listens a note; hold OK and scroll to audition a run of notes. SHIFT + OK cycles presets: [ ], C-0, C-4, C-8, RN0, ---. With Edit Steps on (Setup), the cursor moves on after each entry.

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07 The Modular track

The CV/gate workhorse: gates, ratchets, glides and chance for your rack.

Tracks 1–6. Track 1 owns CV1 + TRIG1 + MOD1, track 2 owns set 2, and so on — but any track can reach every other output through FX. A pattern looks like this:

    NOTE TR MOD PT TB FX 1234 GR
00  C-4  20 800 -- -- GL C 020 6
01  ---  -- --- -- -- ---- --- 6
02  D#4  E3 C-2 -- 01 PRCV 032 6
03  [ ]  00 --- -- -- ---- --- 6

Note column

C-4-style pitches; [ ] is note-off. With Autogate on (Setup) a note also opens the gate and a note-off closes it; a trigger on the same row overrules that. Above the top note sit RN0–RNF: a random note inside random range 0–F. With Auto Fill in Trigger on, entering a note drops a trigger in too.

Trigger column — two digits, three behaviours

• X0

  Trigger of length X: 10 = 5 ms … C0 = 60 ms.

• 0X

  Delayed gate: off first, then on. 01 = 5 ms delay … 0F.

• XY

  Repeat: length X, Y extra pulses. 22 = 3 fast pulses.

Euclidean rhythms: on the trigger column, SHIFT + OK + ◀ / ▶ removes / adds evenly spaced triggers across the pattern; SHIFT + OK + ▲ / ▼ rotates the column (values wrap). OK fires a trigger to audition it.

MOD column

A second CV lane: 000–FFF spans the full output range. Keep going past FFF and it becomes a note lane, C-0 to B-9 plus one extra C-A — a second voice. Past that: R0–RF random voltages, then RN0–RNF random notes.

FX columns

Four of them, shown one at a time; a small mark beside the value tells you another FX column on the row has data. Pick an FX with OK (the FX selector) or scroll with SHIFT + ▲ / ▼. A row executes in this order: Patch → FX1 → FX2 → FX3 → FX4 → Table → MOD → Trigger + CV.

CBPB — one FX, ten jobs

Groove column

Ticks per step — 6 is normal at 24 ppqn. Alternate 5 / 7 for swing, or give tracks unequal grooves and let them drift apart on purpose.

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08 The Audio track

A sampler, drum machine and FM synth in two tracks.

Tracks 7–8: sample player, waveform oscillator and 4-operator FM in one. Each audio pattern holds two independent parts — scroll right past the groove column to reach part 2. Two tracks × two parts = four voices.

    NOTE SMP VOL FX 1 2  GR
00  C-4  01  7F  ---- --- 6
01  ---  --  --  BCSH 040 6
02  C-4  0C  60  RTRG 042 6
03  [ ]  --  --  ---- --- 6

Samples & waveforms

12 sample slots (00–0B), loaded from SD: OK on the sample column, or PATCH in a sample pattern. Sample memory is 180 kB in total. Each sample is stored at 8 or 12 bit — you choose in the load browser with ◀ / ▶, and 12-bit costs twice the memory. That is about 4 s at 44.1 kHz, 8-bit mono; lower sample rates buy longer samples. Slots 0C–11 are built-in waveforms (sine, triangle, ramp, saw, pulse, noise) that run until a note-off. R0–RF picks a random sample per hit.

The two parts mix like a mixer: keep both under 7F or expect clipping. Volume works without a note too, to fade something already playing.

Audio FX — two columns per part

Track setup extras

Per track: delay type, time, send and feedback; Clone Audio 7→8 (run track 7’s audio through track 8’s FX chain); FM boost. Per part (flip with UP / DOWN): sample, volume, glide, mute, clone-notes source with coarse / fine offset, FM / hard-sync source, pulse width, wavefold, bitcrush, distortion.

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09 The MIDI track

Run your hardware synths — four voices, slides and CC sweeps from one track.

Needs a MIDI expander. One MIDI track sequences 4 notes polyphonically plus CC, pitch bend, program change, aftertouch and NRPN. The pattern is wide, so it spans three pages — keep cursoring right.

• Page 1

  4 × note + velocity columns.

• Page 2

  Program change + FX1, FX2.

• Page 3

  FX3 + patch + table + groove.

The velocity column’s other codes

Normally 00–7F. Toggle with SHIFT + OK and it becomes a router — the note can drive the local modular outputs instead of, or as well as, MIDI:

MIDI FX highlights

Track setup worth knowing

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10 Trigger16 & the other expander tracks

Sixteen drums on one screen, programmed like a drum machine grid.

Needs the Trigger16 expander (assign it in Track Assign). One track drives 16 gate / trigger outputs. The pattern spans three pages:

• Page 1

  TR1–TR8 trigger columns, same codes as the Modular track (or TR9–16 via swap).

• Page 2

  FX1–FX3.

• Page 3

  Patch + the drum matrix (16 columns) + groove.

The drum matrix

    1234 5678 9ABC DEFG
00  ■··· ···· ■··· ····
01  ···· ···· ···· ····
02  ···· ■··· ■··· ····
03  ···· ···· ···· ··■·

Euclidean fill works per matrix column: SHIFT + OK + ◀ / ▶ removes / adds evenly spaced hits, counted from the cursor row and respecting the pattern length. It rewrites that column, but you can hand-edit the result afterwards. Copy and paste work on the matrix like on any other column: whole rows or any marked part of it, down to single drums — also between Trigger16 and I2C / Multi tracks. OK pre-listens one trigger; SHIFT + DOWN + OK the whole row. Piano Roll mode (Track Setup) turns the 16 columns into semitones from a base note, playing the local CV/gate; the matrix outputs still fire unless you pick a base note past B-8, where the same notes come again without them.

Trigger16 FX

The other expander tracks, briefly

• CV16

  6 columns, each assignable to any of the 16 expander CVs, the local CV/MOD outs or Trigger16 outputs. Past the top note the values become modulator codes driving the expander’s own 8 ASR envelopes (attack, sustain, release) and 8 LFOs per output. Polyphonic MIDI recording up to 6 voices.

• Dualchord

  4 pages; the first is 4 note columns = the 4 oscillators of one output, so chords are typed in as notes. A voice block adds envelope, 20 filter modes, noise, wavefold and hard sync, with the FX VMOD VENV VFLT VFLD VNOI.

• I2C / Multi

  6 polyphonic note columns + the same 16-column drum matrix, but every column and every matrix lane picks its own destination — ER-301, Just Friends, distingEX/NT, custom I2C commands, MIDI notes and CCs, samples, local triggers or Trigger16 outputs.

• Video

  Shader-based video synthesis on the Video expander — chapter 19.

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11 Patches & current values

Change a whole sound state from a single cell — and see everything the track is doing, live.

Patches are presets

A patch is a stored bundle of FX settings — your knob positions, recalled by one step. When the sequencer passes a row with a patch number, every enabled value in that patch is set at once. There are 144 patches in total, shared by all track types: each patch belongs to the type it was created on, so MIDI patches and Modular patches come out of the same 144.

• Create / open

  OK on the patch column (tuning-fork icon) makes a new patch; SHIFT + OK clones one. PATCH on the number opens the editor. Audio tracks have no patch column — use the PATC FX.

• Edit

  Left: every FX the track type knows. Right: a value bar. SHIFT + PATCH disables a row (no bar = untouched when fired). OK pre-listens one value; SHIFT + OK fires the whole patch. Name it via the Nerd menu.

Example: patch 00 = “clean” (glide 0, probability 100 %), patch 01 = “loose” (glide on, note probability 50 %). Put 00 or 01 in the patch column at section changes.

Current Values — the track’s state, live

PATCH from the sequencer shows a live list of what the track is doing right now: CV value, glides, last trigger, every probability. Change any row with SHIFT + cursor; OK fires the ones that can be fired. This is the fastest answer to “why is it sliding?” or “why is it skipping notes?” — the sticky FX values are all visible here.

CURRENT VALUES TRACK 1
CV                        000
Glide CV                  040
Glide CV Resolution       000
Trigger Prob. %           050
Row Probability           100

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12 Tables

A sequencer inside every step: arpeggios, ratchets and evolving lines out of a single note.

A table is a 16-step mini-sequence that runs alongside your pattern at its own speed, transposing notes and firing FX. 32 tables; one running table per track. Start one from the table column or the TABL FX.

    HP TPS FX
00  -- --- ---- ---
01  -- +4  ---- ---
02  -- +7  ---- ---
03  00 --- ---- ---

The Nerd menu inserts ready-made presets: Random, Doubles, Triplets, and about 25 chords from triads to 13ths. A table FX can start another table, for chains longer than 16 steps. The MIDI input destination Table Arp writes held keys into a table, built on C-5.

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13 Automators & envelopes

Modulation that runs by itself — LFOs, recorded motion and envelopes without sequencing a step.

AUTOMATE opens the Automators; press it again for the Envelopes.

Automators: 8 slots and a routing matrix

Each slot holds an LFO, a CV input or output, or an envelope tap, and routes to one destination per track via the matrix: CV/MOD outputs, trigger length, FX-column overrule, glides, any probability, gates — on audio tracks pitch, volume, bitcrush, distortion, wavefold and sample position; on MIDI tracks pitch bend, CCs and NRPNs. OK starts / stops a slot.

Everything here is also controllable per step with the ASL0-7 FX — start, stop or retune an LFO on beat 3 of bar 4.

Automator Record — a CV recorder

Select a SMPL wave on an LFO; the status line says PRESS OK TO RECORD. The record window captures a live signal into that sample slot as a 12-bit shape locked to the main clock, so it replays in time at any tempo. Sources: CV IN 1–4, CV OUT 1–6, MOD OUT 1–6, any mapping row, the variables A–P. Set the length in steps; recording starts on the next main-clock zero crossing. With the window open, SHIFT + TABLE (RECORD) or a mapping row also arms it. The slot is pre-listened live through the LFO while you record.

Envelopes: 8 × ADSR, patchable anywhere

Each has Attack (with peak level), Decay, Sustain, Release, Offset and a type: 1 Shot (fire and run through), AD-SR (holds sustain while gated) or Loop — each with a linear (LIN) or exponential (EXP) curve. Sources: track gates 1–6, audio part starts, CV inputs, another envelope’s start or end (chaining), or clone. Destinations: CV 1–6, MOD 1–6, or per-part audio volume, pitch, bitcrush, distortion, wavefold — a built-in VCA for the audio tracks.

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14 Project, Setup & samples

The settings that make saving, clocking and playing live painless.

Project screen — saved with the song

Setup screen — machine-wide

SHIFT + PROJECT (SETUP). The settings are grouped under headers: Hardware / Expanders · Input / Navigation · Triggers · New Pattern Defaults · Playback / Clock / Record · Files / Project · Display / UI · Maintenance / System, plus Encoder & Multi-IO Buttons. The cursor skips the headers. Rows for hardware that isn’t selected are greyed out but still editable.

The ones people use most: Edit Steps (auto-advance after entry) · Pattern Launch Normal or Sync (new patterns land on the main-clock zero crossing) · Auto Fill-In / Remove Trigger (notes bring their triggers along) · Autogate + timeout · Reset FX on Stop (clears sticky glides and probabilities at every stop — recommended) · Show Decimal · Play editing FX off (don’t execute the FX under the cursor while editing live) · Pre-Record Countdown · Mainclock Progressbar horizontal or vertical · row highlighting, screensavers, key repeat, colours and fonts.

Sample memory rules

12 slots sharing 180 kB. Each sample is stored at 8 bit or — for WAV files with more than 8 bits — 12 bit, chosen in the load browser with ◀ / ▶; the size updates as you switch, and 12-bit costs double. WAV (8, 16, 24, 32-bit and float, mono or stereo) or RAW. Long or high-rate files can be resampled to a lower rate on load. Pre-listen in the browser with SHIFT held. Old tracker trick for longer samples: record them pitched up, play them pitched down. Sample blocks (all 12 slots as one set) swap the whole kit — even mid-song with LSMP. Samples in projects from older firmware load as 8-bit; reload the WAV to get 12 bit.

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15 Inputs, recording & MIDI setup

Get voltages and MIDI in — play it, record it, or let it drive the machine.

The 4 CV inputs — two jobs

Set up in PROJECT → CV Input/Gamepad.

• Live input

  Route an input to: transpose a track (or all), pass or quantise straight to any CV / MOD / trigger output, play samples (gate, pitch, offset, slot per input), or move the sequencer cursor with X/Y voltages and start / stop patterns from gates.

• Recording

  Step-based: notes, MOD values, gates or triggers land in the playing step. CV NOTE + GATE pairs two inputs, with a settable delay for slewing keyboards — the right choice for recording from a CV keyboard.

SHIFT + TABLE (RECORD) arms and disarms. Recorded values also play through, so you hear what you put in. While recording, hold TABLE to erase the notes of the steps passing by. CURSOR CV/GATE mode types notes at the cursor from a CV keyboard instead, no playback needed (Edit Mode on). On the trigger column of a playing pattern, OK taps triggers in.

Pre-Record Countdown

Setup → Playback / Clock / Record. Set a count-in of 1–16 beats (1 beat = 4 steps) and, optionally, a beep on one audio output or a pulse on a trigger output. When you arm recording on the internal clock, a full-screen countdown runs; record arms on the last beat and playback starts exactly at zero. SHIFT + STOP cancels.

MIDI / I2C setup — the routing hub

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16 Scales & random ranges

Keep notes in key and make randomness musical.

Scales

PROJECT → Scale → OK. Pick from 90 scales (Major, Minor, the modes, pentatonics, Hirajoshi, Pelog, Messiaen modes, whole-tone…), all of them editable, including per-note fine tuning — so microtonal scales work on CV, audio and I2C (not MIDI). Set a keynote and a direction: snap up, down, or a coin flip.

After the 90 come four User Harmonic scales (5A–5D). They are not saved: you play them from a MIDI keyboard (Input Assign → User Harmonic), the held notes become the scale and stay latched after you let go. A live scale lock.

• Global

  One scale for everything…

• Per track

  …each track follows, opts out, or forces its own…

• Edit / input

  …and note entry and MIDI input can be quantised too.

Random ranges

16 user ranges (min–max %), used by every random function: RN0–RNF notes, R0–RF voltages, random FX, random trigger codes. Example: range 2 set to 30–90 % makes R2 in a MOD column produce 30–90 % of the output range instead of anything. Nerd menu → Randomize range rolls the dice on whatever the cursor touches, inside the selected range.

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17 Fill Pattern

Let the machine write a starting point — notes, drums and modulation from a few rules.

The Fill Pattern screen generates a whole pattern, or the marked part of one, from rules you set. It works on every track type except Video. Open it from the Nerd menu (SHIFT + AUTOMATE) in the Sequencer or Pattern screen → Fill Patterns.

• What

  Three toggles at the top: Notes, Triggers, Mod (off / pitch / notes). Only what is on gets written.

• How much

  Ranges and densities per section: note range, trigger types, drum mask, MOD range, sample, volume and velocity ranges.

• Where

  Scale and key, then the spread: by density, every X steps, Euclidean, or blocks — with a direction, behaviour and offset.

Without opening the screen

Nerd menu

on Fill Patterns, SHIFT + OK fills straight away with the last settings; SHIFT + ▶ does a Magic Fill — random settings for an instant result.

SPFX

SPFX 013–01C fill or magic-fill the playing pattern of a track or the whole row from inside a sequence, some only while Record is armed.

Mappings

every fill parameter and action is a mapping destination (GLOB FILL), and the Fill screen updates live — a pattern can rewrite itself while it plays.

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18 Mappings

The patch bay that can calculate — the chapter for when the machine should play itself.

SHIFT + AUTOMATE twice (Nerd menu, then Mappings). 70 rows, each one sentence — source → destination — evaluated about 1000 times a second. CV in → LFO speed, MIDI CC → row probability, envelope 3 → BPM. Start with one row.

MAPPING Hex:000 Dec:0000 Bool:0
00  CV   IN 1  TH    >  TRCK  TRK3  MUTE  · a gate on CV in 1 mutes track 3
01  GLOB RAND  ----  >  CV    PTCH  CV 1  · a new random pitch every sweep
02  ENV  #  3  GATE  >  ----  ----  ----  · 1 while envelope 3 is gated

Entering a row — the Mapping Selector

With Edit Mode on, OK on any field opens a list of everything that field can hold, each with its four-letter name and a short description. Picking a base steps on to its functions, picking a function steps on to its extras — a whole source or destination in three presses; ◀ walks back. CALC and SKIP get a small editor that shows the finished sentence, e.g. Divide 4 by VarC. You don’t need to learn the abbreviations; the selector explains them.

The vocabulary, compressed

How it runs

A destination fires when its row’s source changes — not on every sweep. That keeps MIDI and I2C quiet, but it is tracked per row: if two rows write to the same destination, each only fires on its own changes. CALC FORC forces a write; use it with care on MIDI, where 1000 messages a second will flood the line. On this screen STOP stops the mapping and START runs it again (pressed once more, they work the sequencer as usual); SHIFT + OK runs the row under the cursor once — a single-step debugger. Rows export to and import from SD via the Nerd menu.

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19 Expanders & extras

More outputs, more ports, more machines — never more tracks.

Expanders never add tracks — always 6 + 2. They add destinations you assign tracks to. NSA expanders daisy-chain (up to 4, each on its own channel jumper); MIDI expanders use the PAD-MIDI port. Power off before connecting anything.

The Multi-IO knob and X / Y / Z

Press a button to pick the knob’s mode; its LED shows which one is active.

• X — value

  The knob edits whatever is under the cursor, like the cursor keys. Hold X while turning for bigger steps.

• Y — notes

  In a Modular pattern, turning writes a note with a trigger at the cursor. Holding Y while turning removes them.

• Z — Euclidean

  Turning adds or removes Euclidean triggers from the cursor row. Holding Z while turning shifts the trigger column.

On other track types: on MIDI, Audio, Dualchord and CV16 tracks, Y changes the note under the cursor (holding Y removes it); Z also works on Audio and Dualchord tracks. On Trigger16 and I2C tracks, both Y and Z add or remove Euclidean hits in the drum-matrix column you last selected, and holding the button shifts that column. Each button and the knob can be switched off in Setup → Encoder & Multi-IO Buttons, and all of them are mapping sources (EXT BUTN MIOX…, EXT MENC), so you can give them your own jobs. To restart a Multi-IO: Setup → Midi Expander → SHIFT + OK.

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20 NerdScope & backup over MIDI

See your modulation, and get files on and off the card without taking it out.

NerdScope

A built-in four-channel oscilloscope: PROJECT → NerdScope. The traces are fed from the mapping screen: map anything to GLOB SCP1–SCP4 (scope inputs 1–4) and, for a trigger, to GLOB SCTV.

Backup & restore over MIDI

PROJECT → Backup/Restore. ◀ / ▶ picks the port (TRS, USB host or USB device — the USB ones need a Multi-IO). On the computer, open the receiver page in a browser with WebMIDI: NerdSEQ backup.

• Backup

  The browser opens at the root of the card and lists every file. OK sends one file; SHIFT + OK sends every file in the folder you are browsing (not subfolders). Hold STOP to abort between files.

• Restore

  Sends a file from the computer to the card. A transfer started from the computer on another screen asks first (START = accept, STOP = decline). A received NERDSEQ.HEX opens the Firmware Update window.

Transfers are checksummed and paced to the speed of a MIDI cable, so a large project takes a while. Transfers are refused while the sequencer runs.

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21 Panic, tips & cheat sheet

When it squeals, sticks or drifts — the fixes, on one page.

When it all goes wrong

The combinations that do most of the work

SHIFT + ◀ ▶ ▲ ▼

change values (small / big)

SHIFT + PATCH

DELETE: clear / note-off / disable

OK

create / confirm / pre-listen / open a selector

SHIFT + OK

clone / presets / fire a whole patch

SHIFT + SEQUENCER

MARK: start marking; again: grab

SHIFT + PATTERN

COPY: paste (+ DOWN = insert)

START on a mark

loop the marked rows live

SHIFT + DOWN / UP + START

mute / solo

SHIFT + OK + ◀ ▶

on triggers: Euclidean fill

hold PATTERN / TABLE + cursor

browse patterns / tables

OK, Edit Mode off

live-jump the player to the cursor

SHIFT + AUTOMATE

NERD: the Nerd menu; twice: Mappings

SHIFT + TABLE

RECORD: arm / disarm

SHIFT + PROJECT

SETUP

This is only the start

This guide is a selection to get you started, not the whole machine. Many of the deeper functions are not covered here at all: the Video track and its shader synthesis, the VEX setup, the full I2C command sets, the CV16 and Dualchord track setups, calibration, Launchpad layouts, the PC keyboard, pattern import and export, and most of the 72 CALC operations, to name a few. The manual covers all of them, and much more, in detail. When something here makes you curious, look it up there.

Firmware versions

As of 9 November 2026, this guide is valid for the following firmware versions:

Condensed from the NerdSEQ User Manual V3.03 by XOR Electronics, based on the original field guide. Read the manual for the edge cases, and get it from the XOR downloads page. The firmware keeps growing.

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