2022/05/13 - Spent several hours playing with Hexen Eurorack simulator for android, while in a location with no internet access.

• I saw YouTube videos talking about multi platform Hexen, but I don’t see how to get it for other platforms. It does not seem to be in the Apple App Store.
• the Hexen speech module is really cool and appears to be based on the SP0256 phoneme based sound chip. It can say lots of random words or phonemes, and allows frequency of the module to be adjusted via knob or cv
• the Hexen drums sequencer is easy to use and makes nice sound. Hexen drum sequencer allows four drum tracks of up to 16 steps, with several velocity of hits available. It has a range of instruments such as hi hats, congas, kick drums, cymbals, then quite a few versions of each.
• the Hexen pads module has a wide variety of very interesting fat pad sounds. There are no cv inputs for changing any parameters, just a cv input that varies the tone.
• the fish tank sequencer is a lot of fun, as is lotto balls sequencer.
• the XY pad input is a great way to control the sound of two pads. Adding a slew between the XY and the pad helps keep the transition between notes smoothly portamento. Without a slew, rapid changes in note position can have audible quantitize like jumps.
  • I experimented with two pads, one for R & L, and slewing each side opposite to the other.
• Generally Hexen is very solid and does not crash. I played with it for hours without any issues.
• Hexen bugs
  • occassionaly when restoring the app, after phone has been turned off, no sound comes out of the Hexen racks. Part of the problem seems to be that the clock module will not work.
  • when the clock is driven by an external source, (another clock), it can only multiply the input frequency, it can not divide the input frequency.
  • the Silicon Droid website does not mention Hexen at all, nor their dice program. They now only talk about an Iota watch project.
  • problems when running with no internet
    • I am a paying user of Hexen. But without internet access, Hexen thought I was not a paying user, so several features were crippled: no save, no undo. I lost two really cool rack setups.
    • when using Hexen with no internet, and you try to look at the manual, it will try to launch the copy of the Hexen manual on the website. Hexen should have a local copy of the manual it can launch when their is no internet connection.
    • when I got back to civilization with internet, and restarted Hexen, then it knew it was a paid app again.
      • Helen already running, when launched with no internet, does not know how to check that it is authorized and allow a rack to then be saved.
    • Hexen should probably remember its authorization status for at least 30 days.

miRack

• Drums with MiRack
  • https://youtu.be/QIjAw-_Wa2E - very simple drums in miRack tutorial.
  • miRack stock drums options are rather limited compared to miRack.