Dave Smith Instruments TETRA - Manual (Page 35)

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For the most part, the sequence destinations are the same as the modulation
destinations, which is appropriate: a sequence is just another modulation source.
For each sequence step, the envelopes are gated on for half the step’s duration.
The duration varies according to the BPM and Clock Divide settings (or the
MIDI clock, if synced to an external source). The envelope settings of the
current program ultimately determine how long each step plays, though, and
longer (more legato) or shorter (more staccato) effects can be achieved by
editing the envelope rates.
Tetra’s sequencer is a gated sequencer. That means it requires a note to be gated
on—that is played from the P
USH
I
T
button or via MIDI—in order for the
sequencer to run. There is no dedicated start or play button and it does not
respond to MIDI start/stop/continue messages, but it can still sync to an external
clock. Simply turn on the sequencer and then play and hold a note to start. Or
use the P
USH
I
T
button’s toggle feature to latch a note on with one push and
release it with another; in this case, the P
USH
I
T
button is essentially a Start/Stop
control.
Reset and Rest
Sequences have a maximum of 16 steps, but they can have fewer—from 1 to
15—using Reset. (Sequences of 16 steps reset automatically.) Reset appears
immediately after the highest value setting for a step. Setting a step to Reset
causes the sequence to jump back to the first step and continue playing.
Reset is set separately for each of the four sequences, so it must be set at the
same step in all four sequences to shorten all the sequences equally. The
following illustration shows an example in which all the sequences are eight
steps in length.
1 2 3 4
1
2
3
4
5 6 7 8 9
Steps
v = step value; R = Reset
Dest. 1
Dest. 2
Dest. 3
Dest. 4
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
S
e
q
u
e
n
c
e
Tip: Using Reset while programming a sequence can be helpful. For
example, when programming a specific melodic line, start by shortening
the sequence to four or eight steps until those steps are set, and then
gradually move the reset point to lengthen the loop until the desired
number of steps is playing.