Buchla & Friends 2025: Endorphin.es Ground Control 3.0 is a major firmware update for its performance sequencer, which includes new “Happy Accidents” features.
Sequencers can be found in many Eurorack systems. Often separated into one sequencer for notes and another for trigger signals, i.e., for drum and percussive sounds. You can also get all this in one module.
The Endorphin.es Ground Control brings both elements together in one performance sequencer module. For Buchla & Friends 2025, Endorphin.es has released Ground Control 3.0, a free firmware update with major changes, including features that bring Happy Accidents into it.
Endorphin.es Ground Control 3.0
The new Ground Control 3.0 is a free update for existing hardware users. Grab it from the official website and update your module.
Firmware 3.0 brings many new features, some of which were also very high in user feature requests. One of them concerns the pattern length. All four tracks (drums + three melodic tracks) can now have 128 steps per pattern instead of 64. This change allows you to create much longer, evolving tracks.
The new random pattern generator and random pattern variation function for drums and melodic tracks are highlights of Endorphin.es Ground Control 3.0 firmware.
With three distinct algorithms (euclidean, narrow, and wide) and a simple button combination, you can generate endless melodies and full drum rhythms on the fly. Pressing tempo + 1/4 will generate a random variation for the current active pattern with different variations of slides, probability, ties, ratchets, and octave scales to musically variate your pattern.
Firmware 3.0 also adds USB mass storage mode to access the internal SD card via USB and adds SD card format in mass storage mode.
Other Changes
- reworked external clock input under 1-PULSE-PER-STEP condition – so the external clock might be variable speed yet with pre-set input dividers
- added a dedicated pattern and project clear option
- improved PLL bug when sequencer worked under external MIDI clock
- reworked time quantizer to the live arpeggiated notes – now it’s tight
- polyrhythmic time-base is now properly tight to the rest of the grid (done with the help of Nicolas Bougaieff)
- shuffle now works properly with polyrhythms
- new project load will always stay in LIVE mode
- all drums mute button fix
- added global MIDI channel selectable a button combination.
- USB-MIDI library reworked, making it more stable with modern USB-MIDI controllers
- startup animation fixes
- reworked V3 manual
In case you have never heard of the Ground Control sequencer, here are the main features you need to know
Ground Control Key Features:
- Performance sequencer for CV/Gate signals, drum triggers, MIDI, and USB-MIDI devices.
- 4 tracks: drum track with 8 triggers and modulation and 3 melodic CV/Gate tracks. Velocity and CC are recorded from external MIDI
- 2-octave keyboard (no velocity or pressure action)
- up to 128 steps per pattern (since firmware 3.0), 24 patterns per track, 24 projects
- various record modes: 101-style step input with step editing, live recording and step editor with x0x-style drum editing
- arpeggiator, roller, patterns queue, slides, ties/rests, ratchets, transpose
- music scales
- random pattern and random pattern variation generation (since firmware 3.0)
- works as a power supply for your modular system
If you want to know more about Endorphin.es and their story, here is a developer interview from Superbooth 2024.
Endorphin.es Ground Control 3.0 First Impression
I am pleased that Ground Control has received another major update with modern features. These new features aligned the sequencer with the trends of 2024 when many things happened around generative sequencing ideas.
Endorphin.es Ground Control 3.0 firmware is available now for free download for existing users. Ground Control is available now for $719/699€.
More information here: Endorphin.es
Available at my partners
Thomann
do we get a happy ending with that happy accident? or is the accident the end?