Steinberg Sequel 2 Operation Manual

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The Multi Zone
Channels
Each track has its own channel which includes a Record 
Ready button, a Mute button and a Solo button. These 
buttons have the same functionality as the respective but-
tons in the track controls area in the Arrange Zone.
Each channel is labelled and numbered. These labels and 
numbers correspond to the ones found on the tracks in 
the Arrange Zone.
Channel Level (volume) and Pan
Each channel has a fader for controlling the track volume 
and a panner. The controls work in parallel with the ones 
found in the track controls. If you lower the volume here, 
the volume is also lowered in the track controls section 
and vice-versa. Remember that you can reset these con-
trols to their default settings by [Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking 
on them.
Setting the color
When you set up a track by dragging a loop or instrument 
preset into the Arrange Zone, Sequel will automatically as-
sign a track color. Which color is assigned, depends on 
the type of instrument, i. e. drum sounds will be assigned 
one color, guitar sounds another and so on.
Each channel on the Mixer Page also features the option 
to change the track color. To do so, hover the mouse over 
the right-hand side of the channel. A Color Selector in the 
form of a small box appears.Click on the Color Selector to choose from a range of col-
ors. All events on the track will also change color.
Scrolling
When you have multiple tracks in your project, you may 
not be able to see them all at once on the Mixer Page. Use 
the scroll bar along the bottom to scroll left or right to find 
a specific track.
The Master channel
The Master channel is the output of all of the tracks com-
bined. It is found on the right-hand side of the Mixer Page. 
This channel features a volume fader, a panner and a button 
to disable the master automation (see “Removing and dis-
abling automation” on page 32).
Mute
Solo
Record Ready
Channel Level (Volume)
Panner Track Number Track Name
Hover mouse here to display 
the Color Selector.
Master channel 
with normal levels
Master channel 
with clipping 
(overload)
Disable 
Automation 
						

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The Multi Zone
If you are clipping the Master channel, the channel will be-
come red. Lower the fader to return the channel to normal, 
or alternatively lower all track faders by the same amount 
to reduce the level going into the Master channel. Click 
the Audio Overload button to reset the clipping indicator.
The Track Inspector Page
The Track Inspector Page is where you find the track-re-
lated settings in Sequel, including all of the effect settings. 
The Track Inspector Page has a few similarities to the 
Mixer Page in that the Master channel is still present on 
the right hand side. This time however, there is only one 
channel strip present, which represents the selected track 
in the Arrange Zone.
You can only edit one track’s settings at a time. To edit a 
certain track, select it in the Arrange Zone to make its set-
tings appear on the Track Inspector Page.
The Track Inspector Page features seven tabs. You can 
click on a tab to access its controls and see what settings 
you have already applied to it.
The Pictures tab 
On the Pictures tab of the Track Inspector Page you can 
choose a Track Picture for the selected track. This is useful 
if you want to be able to recognize your tracks at a quick 
glance, e.g. in live performances. You can choose pictures 
of the Factory content or add new ones to the User Library. 
You can also change the size and the tinting of the pictures 
or even rotate them.
Adding Factory Track Pictures
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the track on which you want to insert a track 
picture and open the Pictures tab.
The track pictures available in the included Factory content are displayed.
2.Choose one of the pictures from the Factory content 
by clicking on it.
The Picture will be displayed on the Pictures tab, in the corresponding 
channel strip on the Mixer Page, and in the track list for the selected track 
in the Arrange Zone (if the Show Track Pictures button is activated).
…and on the Mixer Page (you might 
have to resize the Multi Zone in or-
der to see the pictures).…in the track list… The selected picture is displayed on the Pictures tab… 
						

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The Multi Zone
On the Pictures tab, you can now edit the track picture in 
the following ways:
Increase the tinting of the picture in the track color, or 
reduce the tinting to zero by moving the slider up or down.
Change the size of the track picture by using the Zoom 
slider and click and drag the picture in the Track Picture 
display to show the desired part of the image.
Change the orientation by clicking on the Rotate Picture 
button.
3.If you do not like the assigned track picture, you can 
either select a different one or click on the Clear Picture 
button.
You can also hide all track pictures by clicking on the 
Show/Hide Track Pictures button above the track list.
Adding custom Track Pictures
You can also add your own pictures, which will then be-
come available in the Library selection on the Pictures tab. 
The following formats are supported: *.bmp, *.jpeg and 
*.png.Proceed as follows:
1.Go to the location on your computer where you store 
the picture you want to assign, click on it to select it and 
drag it to the Track Picture display.
As soon as you release the mouse button, the chosen pic-
ture will be displayed in the track list, in the mixer and in 
the Library content on the Pictures tab.
The assigned track picture is stored in the User content 
folder specified on the Program Settings Page, see “User 
Content Location” on page 77.
2.To delete a picture from your library, select it and click 
the Remove selected pictures from library button. To de-
lete several pictures at once, you can select these by 
[Ctrl]/[Command]-clicking on them.
Note that this is only possible for your own pictures, Factory content can-
not be deleted.
Zoom slider
Tinting slider
Rotate Picture 
button
Clear Picture 
button
Remove selected pictures from library buttonLibrary content 
						

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The Multi Zone
The Event Effects tab (instrument tracks only)
The Event Effects tab only works with instrument tracks. It 
includes two effects: a Chorder and an Arpeggiator.
Adjust the effect parameters until you get the desired result.
Chorder
The Chorder automatically plays chords when you press a 
single note on your MIDI keyboard. This is great if you 
have trouble playing in keyboard parts.
Use the “Bypass Chorder” button to bypass the effect. 
You can select the type of chords you would like to be 
generated from the pop-up menu.
Arpeggiator
The Arpeggiator automatically creates patterns based on 
the notes you play, creating great rhythm and a really cool 
effect. It creates this pattern as long as a note is held. 
Once the note is released, the pattern stops.
The Quantize value allows you to set the resolution of the 
patterns the Arpeggiator creates.
The Octave Range value allows you to determine how 
many octaves the pattern will go above or below the note 
you are playing.
Transpose Step determines how many steps the pattern 
will change each time it starts again.Transpose Play Direction determines whether the pattern’s 
key will go up, down, or a combination of the two.
Arpeggiator Play Mode determines what type of patterns 
will be played back. When it is in Phrase Mode, pressing a 
single note will play a scale and the Arpeggiator will not 
recognize chords.
Use the “Bypass Arpeggiator” button to deactivate the 
effect.
The Instrument tab (instrument tracks only)
The Instrument tab only works with instrument tracks. It 
contains eight controls that are fixed for each preset.
You can change the value of a control by clicking and 
dragging left or right.
For details on what each a parameter does, see the chapter “Effects ref-
erence” on page 99.
You can apply an instrument preset by clicking on the 
preset button to open the preset pop-up menu.
You can then use the Category and Sub Category filters 
to find a suitable preset. Select a preset along the right 
hand side and click the Close button to close the menu.
For more details on category filters see the section “The MediaBay 
Page” on page 67.
The Reset button will switch the instrument back to the 
original preset and settings made prior to opening the 
pop-up menu.
Click here to 
access the 
presets 
						

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The Multi Zone
The Track Effects tab
Each track can have two insert effects, which are pre-
fader. That means that raising or lowering the track fader 
doesn’t affect how much audio signal is sent to the effect.
Use the “Select Effect Type” pop-up menu to select an ef-
fect and apply it to the track. Every effect also features 
presets which can be accessed by clicking in the effect 
preset field. Select a preset from the menu and click the 
Close button to close the preset window.
The Track Effects can be bypassed by activating the 
“Bypass Effect” button.
Each track also features a built-in compressor which is 
also pre-fader, but is post EQ, meaning that the audio is 
routed through the two insert effects, then the EQ, and 
then the compressor.
The Threshold slider determines how much compression 
will be added to the signal. This sets a threshold level. 
When the signal goes above this level, the Compressor re-
duces the signal. Or in other words: the further to the right 
you drag, the more compression you get. Gain Reduction 
reflects how much gain or volume is being attenuated.
ÖYou can also select a preset from the Compressor 
presets pop-up menu.
The Compressor can be bypassed by activating the 
“Bypass Compressor” button.
The Equalizers tab
The Equalizers tab features a three band EQ. It features a 
low shelf or bass frequency, a parametric mid or middle 
frequency, and a high shelf or treble frequency.
The low shelf or bass frequency sets the frequency at which 
the low tones will be affected. The parametric mid or middle 
frequency sets the frequency at which the middle tones will 
be affected. The high shelf or treble frequency sets the fre-
quency at which the high tones will be affected.
Adjusting frequency
You can adjust the frequency of each EQ by clicking on 
the frequency slider and dragging left or right.
Effect PresetsSelect Effect TypeEffects list
Effect parametersBypass Effect
Bypass Compressor
Treble (Hi EQ)
Middle (Parametric Mid EQ)
Bass (Low EQ) 
						

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The Multi Zone
Adjusting level (gain)
You can adjust the EQs level by raising or lowering the 
bass, middle, or treble gain slider.
To do this, click and drag up or down on the desired slider.
Adjusting width
The middle EQ is a parametric EQ. That means that the 
frequency range of this EQ can be widened or shortened. 
To do this, click on the Middle Width slider and drag right 
to widen the range, and left to shorten it.
EQ Presets and Bypass Equalizers
Sequel has built-in EQ presets which you can access by 
clicking in the presets field and selecting a preset from the 
pop-up menu. Select Reset to clear all EQ settings.
To bypass the EQ, click the “Bypass Equalizers” button.
The Global Effects tab
Each project can have two send effects. These are re-
ferred to as “Global Effects”. You can select any of the 
available effects as global effects. 
Using global effects can help reduce CPU load on your 
computer. If e. g. you find you are using the same reverb 
on every track, you can create a “Global Effects” reverb 
and use the Amount fader (see below) to send signals to 
that reverb.
Every global effect also features presets which can be ac-
cessed by clicking in the “Effect Preset” field.
Here you can select a preset from the menu. Click the 
Close button to close the preset window.
ÖNote that the global effects exist only once for your 
project, i. e. the effects on this page will not change when 
changing to another track.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see “Effects 
reference” on page 99.
The Amount fader
To adjust the amount of signal to apply to the send, use 
the Amount fader. You can deactivate a send for a parti-
cular track by clicking on the respective Bypass button. 
Bypass Equalizers 
						

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The Multi Zone
The Output Effects tab
You can apply two custom and two fixed output effects to 
the Master channel. These effects are similar to the track 
effects in that they are pre-fader.
The two fixed effects are Maximizer and StereoEnhancer. 
Both are controllable via one fader and a Bypass button.
The “Maximizer” raises the overall volume level without 
clipping the output.
The “StereoEnhancer” spreads the stereo image out to 
give a project a larger sense of space.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see the 
chapter “Effects reference” on page 99.
The MediaBay Page
The MediaBay Page is a browser for audio and instrument 
loops, instrument presets, and track presets. This page is 
extremely useful because not only can you manually enter 
a name to search for at the top of the page, but you can 
also define so called tags, i. e. attributes for each of your 
media files to narrow down the result list.
Filtering media files
The tags predefined for the included media files include 
items like Category/Sub Category, Style/Sub Style, Char-
acter, Rating, Tempo, Bars & Beats and many others.
The MediaBay Page is made up of five columns (or “fil-
ters”) for narrowing down the list of media files. Click on 
one of the items in the column list to only show files con-
taining this attribute. The results will appear on the far right 
of the MediaBay Page. When you set up the category fil-
ter, only the sub categories, styles and sub styles for which 
files were found will be available, all others will be grayed 
out. The number displayed before a filter name indicates 
how many files match this criteria.
If the MediaBay Page has the focus, you can use the ar-
row keys to step through the different columns and press 
[Ctrl]/[Command]+[Space] to select or deselect the cur-
rent filter item. 
						

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The Multi Zone
At the top left of the MediaBay Page you will find the con-
tent selection pop-up menu. Here you can decide which 
content you would like to use the MediaBay Page to 
search through.
Although Sequel comes with thousands of great loops, 
you may want to add loops from other libraries or content 
you created yourself. In order to separate factory content 
from your own libraries, Sequel has a folder structure for a 
clean organization of media files. To add a new library from 
a CD or DVD, create a new subfolder inside the “VST 
Sound” folder on your hard drive, pick a meaningful name 
for this library and copy all its files into this subfolder. If 
your content is located elsewhere, create a shortcut/alias 
for this subfolder. You can later browse this folder by se-
lecting it from the content selection pop-up menu on the 
MediaBay Page. 
Selecting “User Content” will only show files that you have 
added to the User Content folder on your hard drive. Loops 
that you add to the MediaBay Page by drag&drop will auto-
matically be saved in the User Content folder, see “Adding 
Content” on page 70. You can specify the User Content 
Location on the Program Settings Page, see “The Program 
Settings Page” on page 77.
ÖAfter you added new content to Sequel, the MediaBay 
Page has to learn about which content has been added 
and scan for this new content. On the PC, this happens 
automatically when the transport is stopped, so make sure 
Sequel is not playing when you add loops. On the Mac, 
you will have to restart Sequel after adding new content.
To specify attributes for your media files, select the file so 
that it is displayed to the right on the MediaBay Page, click 
in the tag columns and select a tag value from the pop-up 
menu, or enter a new numerical value (depending on the 
type of the tag value).Showing Loops, Sounds and Tracks
Using the Show Loops, Sounds, and Tracks buttons you 
can decide what kind of files you want to search for.
By activating the “Show Loops” button only audio and in-
strument loops will be shown. With the “Show Sounds” 
button only instrument presets and instrument track pre-
sets are shown, and the “Show Tracks” button is used to 
show audio track presets.
Searching by file name
At the top right of the MediaBay Page you will find the Text 
Filter field. Here you can type in a name to search for. 
Pressing [Return] will show the results to the right.
Setting a rating filter
Next to this there is the Rating Filter setting. You can use 
this to automatically get rid of loops and patches that you 
have given a low rating to. Any files with a lower rating 
than the one you specify here will be filtered out.
Show 
Loops
Show SoundsShow Tracks
Search fieldSearch results 
						

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The Multi Zone
Show Family Items
When you select a loop, the “Show Family Items” button at 
the far right becomes available. Activating this button filters 
the results to only show loops that are part of the same 
family.
The Family Name menu also appears, allowing you to 
browse all of Sequel’s loop families.
Use the Go Back button in the top left hand corner to re-
turn to the previous menu.
Delete Selected Media
Next to the “Show Family Items” button there is the “De-
lete Selected Media” button. To delete a media file (a 
loop, track preset, or effect preset), select it and click this 
button. A dialog will appear where you have to confirm 
that you want to delete this media. Select “Delete” to con-
tinue or “Cancel” to close the dialog without deleting.
ÖThis button only appears for user content. Loops from 
the Factory content cannot be deleted.
Reset Filters
To reset all of the filters, click the “Reset Filters” button in 
the top left hand corner of the page.
Adding Media to the project
Once you have found the media you are looking for you 
can click on one of the results and either drag and drop it 
directly into the Arrange Zone or preview it to hear it first 
(see below).
Previewing media
At the top center of the MediaBay Page you will find the 
“Preview Volume” slider and the “Activate Preview Mode” 
button. If the Preview Mode is active and you click on a 
loop or sound, you will hear it play. To stop the preview, 
click again. When you preview while playing back your 
project, the project’s tempo and key will be used for pre-
view. When you wish to preview the media file in its origi-
nal tempo and key, make sure that playback is stopped. 
The “Preview Volume” slider controls the preview volume. 
Click and drag it left or right to lower or raise the volume. 
When you drag a file from the MediaBay Page into the Ar-
range Zone, the preview volume will be adopted, but only 
if you drag it to an empty area, creating a new track. You 
can click on the “Activate Preview Mode” button to deac-
tivate the Preview function.
Show Family Items
Go Back
Family Name
Preview Volume sliderActivate Preview Mode button 
						

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The Multi Zone
Changing media file attributes
You can also change the attributes that are associated 
with a file. To do this, click on the corresponding Loop, 
Sound or Track file in the MediaBay Page and do one of 
the following:
 To change the rating, click in the corresponding field to high-
light it, then drag with the mouse in the rating field to the de-
sired value.
 To change the Name, Tempo, or Bars & Beats attributes click 
in the corresponding field to highlight it, then click again and 
type in the new value.
 To change the Key, Sub Style and Sub Category attributes click 
in the corresponding field to highlight it and click again to open 
a pop-up menu where you can choose a new value.
 To change the Character attribute, click in the corresponding 
field to highlight it, then click again to open a dialog where you 
can change the settings.
ÖNote that you can select several files simultaneously 
and change their tags all in one go holding down [Shift] or 
[Ctrl]/[Command]. 
Adding Content
You can drag and drop your own events, parts and even 
entire folders onto the MediaBay Page. A duplicate of the 
corresponding files will be saved in the “User Content Lo-
cation” specified on the Program Settings Page.
Select an event and drag it onto the MediaBay Page. If you 
are dragging an audio event, the “Save Audio Loop” dialog 
opens. If you are dragging an instrument part, the “Save 
MIDI Loop” dialog opens.Here you can apply meta data to the loops based on the at-
tributes listed along the left-hand side of the window. Click 
beside the attribute and select a value from the pop-up 
menu that appears. Setting these attributes will make it eas-
ier for you to organize and find the files later.
You can name the loops at the bottom of the window. 
Click “OK” to add the loops to your user content.
The Editor Page
The Editor Page allows you to perform advanced editing of 
your audio events and instrument parts, including audio 
warp, reverse and quantize. The Editor Page will be blank 
unless an event is selected in the Arrange Zone. If you 
have an audio event selected, the Editor Page will become 
a Sample Editor. If an Instrument part is selected, the Key 
Editor will be shown.