Downloads - The Manual, Software Updates, Videos and Samples
Download the Manual
Chapters
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Credits
- Main text and illustrations by David J. Hughes.
- Layout and proofing by Jules C.
- Additional enhancements by Dave Peachey and Robert Schmeltzer.
All material copyright Infection Music Limited, 2009. No unauthorised reproduction.
Software Updates
Latest updates
Please make sure that you download the right version of software for your machine. If you upgrade your machine with the wrong software the your sequencer will almost certainly stop working properly.
Sofware Archives
Version |
Type |
Date Released |
Description |
Rack |
26-Oct-09 |
General maintenance release for rack machines with serial numbers 1 to 1000 (MAD CPU boards). |
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Rack |
26-Oct-09 |
General maintenance release for rack machines with serial numbers 1000 and up (SLO CPU boards). |
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Desktop |
26-Oct-09 |
General maintenance release for desktop machines with serial numbers 1000 and above. |
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Rack/Desktop |
11-Mar-09 |
Factory Preset utility for all machines |
Promotional Videos
Planets
Planets by Infection Media, Copyright 2008 presented by Vimeo
Produced as a promotional movie for Newcastle Astronomical Society, the soundtrack Minerva appears on the ZEIT Step Sequencer demo album, Future Forever by Ion.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
An early Quicktime promotional video, entitled Something wicked this way comes?
Ion / Flying Over Blue Waters video
A Youtube video of the track, Flying Over Blue Waters from the ZEIT Demo album, Future Forever. Created entirely in the virtual world, Second Life.
Concert
'Universal' concert, December 14th 2007
A concert performed at the Machines and Music Symposium at Newcastle University's Culture Lab.
Equipment used:
- ZEIT Rack Mounting Step Sequencer
- Roland JD800 Synthesiser
- Roland JD990 Module
- Yamaha EX5 Synthesiser
- Kurzweil K2000 Synthesiser
- Sony VAIO PC (effects, backing)
Recent Demos
A collection of pieces written by ZEIT users
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A demo of 'ratchetting'. Thanks to Jules for the title. |
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The title track from the new Ion album. All sequences driven by a ZEIT rack-mount, linked to a Yamaha RM1x, Roland JD800 , Roland JD990 , Yamaha TG77 , Waldorf Microwave and an (ancient) Akai s950 sampler. |
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Up-tempo, sequencer-driven dance piece from Future Forever by Ion. |
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Two improvised sessions merged. Features ZEIT Desktop Sequencer, Yamaha RM1x, a whole stack of synths and some luck. |
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From the album Future Forever by Ion, this piece was inspired by our attempts to drive around the City of Newcastle upon Tyne during rush hour |
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A 7-minute improvisation by Norman Fay of VietGrove. |
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Berlin School Sequencer with something else... It needs a new rhythm track and some drums, possibly???? |
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Often you get the best results when a musician who has never used a step sequencer arrives at the studio and just starts playing. Special thanks to Martin for this demo track. |
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All it takes is a sequencer, a sampler and a sunset... |
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Just noodling with two tracks and the Randomise button. The tempo for this track is low, very low. Something like 65 BPM. The syncopated echoes are the MIDI Effects module working over time. The rhythm track is a mixture of Yamaha RM1x, Kurzweil K2000 with a hint of Akai sampler thrown in for good measure. |
Edits from Fallen Angel by Skin Mechanix (INFECT005)
The album Fallen Angel was the first solo outing for Skin Mechanix and was recorded on Friday 11th February 2005 at the Brudenell Centre in Leeds and ZEIT was used extensively in the preparations for this concert.
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A brief sourjourn into ambient territory, I just jammed some weights on top of the keys to create a series of drones and then hit Randomise on the sequencer until it came up with something I liked. After that, I just faded everything as required... |
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I love the languid bass to this track. Like an aural slurpy... The rhythm track is from my Yamaha RM1x just synced to Zeit's MIDI clock. The off-beat sequences are created by muting the synth module on the desk and just listening to the syncopated echoes from an effects unit. |
Improvisation on a Berlin School theme. Real seat of the pants stuff. All done by just muting and unmuting pre-recorded sequences and then playing a basic melody over the top. I later realised that the melody had been used before, on Dimension Jump, but who cares? It sounds pretty good. |
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I cheated with this one. I set up a simple bass guitar track playing just four notes, all the same, with a noddy four-on-the-floor drum pattern. The guitar track transposes from a MIDI keyboard, the drum tracks don't. Then I just jammed along until I found something that came close to a rock song with a chorus. The result sounded horribly familiar. It was. It was actually a piece called "America" I'd written in 1988 using Steinberg's Pro-24. The Pro-24 track was corrupted and wouldn't load into Cubase so I just played the whole thing in from Zeit synced to MIDI clock. Being a complete pussy, I re-arranged the piece in Cubase and added the melodies etc afterwards. |
Functionality Demos
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An example of the Sequence Morpher in action. |
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Here's a more useful example of the Sequence Morpher in action, this time with force-to-scale enabled. |
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An example of the Arpeggiator. |
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Another example of the Arpeggiator function. |
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An early demo. |
Directional control
A collections of samples which illustrate the directional modes that are available on Zeit. All samples use the same eight note sequence as the starting point and where created on a Roland JD800 synthesiser.
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This is an implementation of the "Drunkard's walk" or "Brownian Motion" algorithm. The general direction of the sequence is positive going (increasing step numbers) although random in nature. Stationary and retrograde steps are possible. Many thanks to Steve Jenkins for suggesting this technique! |
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A sub-pattern is superimposed over the top of the main sequence which advances through the increasing step numbers. In pattern notation, the progression is {1, 0, 1, 2} + 1 although, in plain English, the sequencer would play the following step numbers with step number one as the 'base' step:
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Cycle mode 2 uses a sub-pattern of {0, -1, 1, 2 } + 1. With step number one as the 'base' step the sequence would play:
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Cycle mode 3 uses a longer sub-pattern of sixteen steps {0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 0, 5, 0, 6, 0, 7, 0, 8 } + 1. With step number one as the 'base' step the sequence would play:
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A complex track! The high-register, random sequence, is a Roland D50 on MIDI Channel 1. The bass sequence is played on a Modulus Electronics Monowave on MIDI Channel 2. The first sequence is also routed to the MIDI Effects Module which drops the notes played by two octaves and routes the modified sequence to MIDI Channel 2. So, the Monowave is playing a mixture of a straight eight note sequence (C-C-C-C-C-C-C-D) combined with the modified random sequence originally played by the first sequence. Oh, and yeah, the randomised LFO is also updating the Monowave's waveform shape and note velocity! |
Early Demos
These demos were created on our ATEM Development System in 2003.
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Inspired by, err, you guessed it... |
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Strange little tune... |
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Using a MIDI Continuous controller to change the waveform number on a Monowave... |
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More of the same... just messin' with the filter cut-off and start/end points... but also playing with muted and skipped steps! Force-to-scale is switched on and set to a minor harmonic scale in the key of C. |
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This is addictive! (Bit of distortion on this one!) |
Very Early Demos
These demos were created during the very early stages of development using just the Atem Development System. They're a bit raw but included here just cos' they sound interesting. The keyboards used were either a Roland D50 and/or an Akai AX80.
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Simple Four Step sequence played on a Roland D50 |
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Adding extra steps to create new rhythms... |
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Adding extra steps to create new rhythms... |
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Simple sequence with real time transposition |
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Organ patch with sustained notes, transposition and force to scale. |
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Akai AX80 synth playing a nice, deep resonant filter. |
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Gorgeous AX80 'blip' patch playing a simple bass sequence |