Korg has today officially introduced the SQ-64, a new portable, feature-rich polyphonic MIDI & CV Sequencer with a slim design.
The news leaked almost two weeks ago at a Swedish music dealer, now it’s official. KORG has today announced the SQ-64, a new standalone MIDI & CV sequencer.
What is striking is its slim Korg-typical design that is very pretty. 64 step pad matrix, built-in crystal clear OLED display, elegant aluminum body, 6 rotary encoders, a wealth of connections, and a variety of modes and features. The SQ-64 is made to be the central piece of your music studio providing total and seamless control over all your instruments.
KORG SQ-64
The SQ-64 has three melody tracks with 16 patterns of up to 64 steps each. Plus a drum track with 16 sub-tracks also with up to 64 steps each, that can be played, chained, and edited in a variety of ways. You can edit melody tracks and patterns in several modes (GATE, PITCH, and MODULATION). So you can alter the information sent by your sequencer on each of these steps in many interesting ways. The DRUM track outputs have fine-tune options to match the polarity and voltage of your connected device(s).
Then, all 3 melody tracks include a MODULATION output, so every step on your sequence can be creating complex modulations on your gear of choice. The SQ-64 is capable of creating easily polyphonic chords patterns, melodies, complex poly-rhythms, and modulations on the fly. This can be recorded as data on each of the 64 available project slots.
It has 64 beautifully LED-lit step button pads that allow super-fast and quick editing with its encoder knobs and dedicated mode buttons that will simplify and speed up your workflow. Each step has graduated lighting; the higher the modulation value, the stronger the button lights up to give you a clear visual of what’s going on in the sequence.
Keyboard Modes & Arpeggiator
The 64 pad matrix is not only your sequencer interface but also a keyboard with several layouts with maximum flexibility. It includes several scales that are assignable to any of these.
- Keys: Your traditional piano layout.
- Isomorphic: it displays the notes symmetrically in rows, so you can easily transpose the same chord pattern up and down without changing its shape.
- Octaves: one scale displayed in 3 different octaves on each row
It also includes a powerful arpeggiator with which you can easily bring to life and create interesting patterns out of your hardware & software instruments.. Break free with 4 alternative sequence playback modes! Further, you can select reverse, bounce, random, and stochastic independently. This also works on the fly to each track to add variety and intrigue. All your patterns can also be freely chained and looped, making this the ultimate device for machine live.
Design & Connectivity
SQ-64 is just 18mm thick (38mm including the knobs and rubber legs) and is built into a highly portable and elegant yet robust solid aluminum body. On the backside it has: MIDI IN (x1) and OUT (x2), micro USB type B, Sync IN & OUT, 3 Melody tracks each with MODULATION, PITCH and GATE outputs, and a DRUM track with 8 individual trigger outputs for controlling analog synths, Eurorack, and drum machines.
Its audio sync In & Out connections will allow you to seamlessly control all your other Korg gear such as the volca synthesizer series, minilogue, monologue, minilogue xd, prologue and many others!
Like the other Korg products, it comes with a diverse variety of music software including Ozone Elements, Reason Lite & more.
At first glance, the Korg SQ-64 looks very interesting and competitive to the Arturia Beatstep Pro. It’s just a shame that Korg continues to install a micro USB on a product from 2020. Why no USB-C which is clearly soldier.
Korg SQ-64 will be available in January 2021 for 299€
More information will follow here: Korg
I can tell I’m gonna like it just from the back connection labels being on top of the unit….
16 patterns max makes me sad, but otherwise this is the beatstep pro i wanted. been using the model samples as a sequencer and while ultra basic, i hate moving between “pages” when having 4 bar loops. this will be damn wicked me thinks.