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From download to your module.

This app is a helper for Erica Synths Black Sequencer projects. Write patterns on your Mac, hear a rough preview, then copy them to the SD card the hardware already understands.

It’s still a work in progress — not everything has been tested end-to-end. If you hit a bug or something surprising, report it on GitHub Issues.

Download · Home · Issues

Install

Grab the macOS zip from the download section.
Unzip it. You’ll see Black Sequencer.
The first time, right-click the app and choose Open. macOS may warn you because the build isn’t signed — that’s expected for this free tool.
On first launch it drops a demo project on your Mac so you have something to open right away.

Home screen

Two sides:

Studio — projects living on this computer.
Card — your Black Sequencer SD card, once it’s plugged in and mounted.

Start with DEMO BANK. It’s a small set of patterns and songs (boom-bap, techno, ambient) so you can click around without building anything from scratch. When you’re ready for your own stuff, type a name and hit Create.

Patterns

A pattern is four tracks — CH1 through CH4. Draw notes on a lane, or open a channel wider when you want the piano-style editor.

M mutes a track; S solos it.
Bank, pattern number, tempo, and length live up top.
Play and Stop run the soft preview so you can hear what you wrote.
Hit Save pattern when you’re happy. Do this before you copy anything to the card.

Songs

Songs are just patterns lined up in order — the same idea as on the hardware. Open the Song tab, give it a name, pick which patterns play and how many times, then save.

MIDI

Import MIDI — bring in a MIDI file and point up to four parts at CH1–4.
MIDI in — pick your keyboard or controller.
Rec — arm recording, then play. Notes land on the track you have selected. You can also step-record while stopped.
Learn CC (or Alt-click a rack knob) — twist a hardware knob once so the app remembers it.

Hearing your work

The Rack tab is a quick listen, not a copy of your real modular case. Out of the box you get a lead, a pad, a bass, and drums mixed together. Tweak cables and knobs if you want; save a preset when it feels good. Mute mixer channels when you only want to hear one part.

Copy to the card

Plug in the SD card the Black Sequencer uses. It should look like a normal drive with a PROJECTS folder on it.
On the home screen, choose that drive under Card.
Select a studio project and hit To card — or open a project that’s already on the card and save there.
Eject the card, put it in the module, and load the project like you usually would.

Remember: the module only sees what’s on the card. The soft rack is just so editing isn’t silent.

Without the Mac app

On Linux or Windows, or if you’d rather run from the repo:

python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 -m blackseq --desktop

Same editor, different wrapper. More detail lives in the GitHub README if you need it.