The Zyklus' MIDI Performance System allows you to record sequences: 99 polyphonic single-channel sequences, to be exact. These can be organised into groups of 12 sequences which are known as Configurations, of which the MPS allows you to store 24 in its internal memory. Once you've recorded a few sequences and organised them into a Configuration, you can "play" them from a MIDI keyboard and from dedicated front-panel Control buttons. These actions can in turn be recorded into one of 12 Performances. The important point to bear in mind is that the MPS's sequences are totally independent of one another. You can treat the MPS as a 12-track sequencer, but that's only one of countless options available to you, and it's really missing the point.

The Zyklus MIDI PERFORMANCE SYSTEM is a MIDI equipment controller designed to provide an unprecedented level of musical control. It achieves this by allowing the musician to interact with previously recorded MIDI data such as sequences so that complex music can be build up in real time. In a typical setup, the MIDI PERFORMANCE SYSTEM would be used in conjunction with a MIDI master keyboard or keyboard synthesizer, plus up to 64 slave MIDI devices - synthesizers, expanders, drum machines, MIDI-equiped signal processors, etc.

The MIDI PERFORMANCE SYSTEM can be thought of a collection of sequencers, MIDI control boxes and MIDI effects units integrated into a single system. This system is designed so that it can be "played" like a musical instrument in its own right. At its most basic level it is rather like 12 polyphonic sequencers, each of which can be run at any transposition or set of simultaneous transpositions independently of the others, simply by pressing a note or chord on the MIDI control keyboard. 99 different sequences can be stored in each memory bank, of which any 12 can be assigned to the front panel for immediate access together with related control information. These sequences need not consist of repeating musical phrases. They could be single chords, short fast runs which end on held chords, segments of control data such as MIDI program changes, the synthesisers/drum part for an entire song, etc.
In addition to keyboard triggering, sequences can be triggered from a footswitch, an external trigger source or directly from the front panel. The panel controls consist of 40 keys mostly with LED indicator, plus a encoder wheel used for tempo control, editing functions, menu selection, etc. User information is provided by a 40 x 2 backlit LCD with externally adjustable brightness and contrast.

In science, ideas require experimental or observational validation

Out in the depths of space, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is already revolutionizing what we thought we'd find as far as distant galaxies go. However, the claim that "This disproves the Big Bang" isn't being made scientifically, but rather by a crackpot attempting to prop up his long-discredited ideas. Here's what we know, based on their actual scientific merits and in context, so you won't get fooled: not now, and not ever. //

A recent revolutionary assertion has gone viral, claiming that the Big Bang never happened, and that the latest data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has proven it. The notion of the Big Bang has never sat well with many — all the way from its earliest incarnations in the 1920s (via Georges Lemaître) and the 1940s (from George Gamow; apparently you had to be named “George” to realize this) — and has been continuously challenged since its inception. However, the evidence has remained overwhelmingly in its favor ever since the 1960s, and no other serious competitors have ever been able to reproduce its successes. Which leads one to wonder: what are the merits, if any, of this latest claim? Could it be true, and if so, how and why? //

The modern Big Bang

Originally, the Big Bang was a simple idea that grew out of three facts, all put together.

1. In Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a Universe filled with any uniform distribution of matter and/or energy will not be stable in a static configuration: the fabric of space in that Universe must either contract or expand.
2. Observationally, there are spirals and ellipticals in the sky, and they lie well beyond the Milky Way; their distances can be measured.
3. Also observationally, the light from these spirals and ellipticals appears to be shifted, with more distant objects exhibiting a greater redshift in direct proportion to their distance: consistent with an expanding Universe.

By combining these three facts, we’d conclude that the Universe — if it’s expanding and becoming less dense today — must have been smaller and denser in the past. We can extrapolate this back farther and farther, to even very early times if we like, and recognize that our modern Universe must have emerged from a denser, smaller, more uniform state in the very distant past.

The first person to synthesize this information together was Georges Lemaître, who did it in 1927, although others would independently come to the same conclusion, including Howard Robertson in 1928, Edwin Hubble in 1929, and Arthur Walker a few years later. //

It might be hard to believe, but we only started seeing our very first science results from the JWST in mid-July, 2022. (That recently, really!) Perhaps the biggest surprise — other than the astounding technical performance of the telescope, which is arguably twice as good as it was designed to achieve on many fronts — is what it’s seen in the realm of galaxies. While we knew JWST would push far past what Hubble’s limited capabilities have seen, we had no idea its performance would be so revolutionary in such an early stage of its observation campaigns.

• There are greater numbers of galaxies out there than Hubble ever saw, including at distances that Hubble would never be sensitive to.
• Some of these galaxies appear more evolved, more massive, and at earlier stages than not only we’d previously seen, but than many models and simulations had expected.
• Some of them might even be massive and quite evolved at epochs between 200 and 350 million years after the Big Bang; the current confirmed record-holder, from Hubble, was already 407 million years after the Big Bang.
• Many of these galaxies, even the earliest ones, are shaped like disks, rather than being irregular. JWST’s superior resolving power and imaging capabilities have shown this even for galaxies that previously, with Hubble, looked like irregular blobs.
• And finally, nearby galaxies, in contrast to what Hubble saw, appear smaller and more compact with JWST’s improved resolution.

You all will know my motives much better after reading Bill Marshall's own informative article about the issue:

Twenty Five Years Later… (in case you don't have Word program, you could use wordpad)

First, let me begin with my own impression:

Do you rememeber when Yamaha DX-7 came the first time? At the time it was totally new thing, something that you never heard before and there wasn't anything else to compare it's features, so basically you had to hear and see the device yourself before you could understand, experience and see the potential of it.

Could you possibly imagine what the world would have been if the DX7 would have ended up as a flop product that no-one could understand? What if only handful DX7 were produced and then disappeared from the public? Perhaps in such world we would have seen much wider and more perfect analog instruments, with all the features finished to their maximum potential. Perhaps Yamaha would have brought their CS-80 to next level and continued their incredible legacy of ultimate player's and performer's keyboard that acts like real instrument. Even though I'm not the correct generation, but I think, DX7 as a flop product actually could have happened. No-one knew how to program it and there was no much of live controls either. What if Yamaha wasn't able to provide their large palette of presets and users were left with basic "Init" waveforms? Would that been enough make it finito?

I can imagine that, because I have already "seen it". I have seen that world in form of Zyklus MPS-1 - Midi Performance System. At the time, what DX7 was for synthesizers, MPS-1 was for sequencers. MPS-1 represented entirely new way of thinking... a totally new approach sequencing and making music. People couldn't understand it. Even today with all these groove boxes and other things, people can't understand what MPS-1 is capable, mainly because there never were anything else to compare. I can only imagine what the world would have been if MPS-1 could have made even moderate level of success. As Bill said, he expected someone else to continue his visions and innovations but the industry took totally different direction and totally abandoned these all. Even today, the modern industry still makes the usual safe product that will sell for sure, a new reverb or new compressor... or another "studio-in-the-box" gadget.

The problem is that even in this very modern world where technological progression is unbelieveable when comparing to 1988, still we don't see products that can act as a tool for encouraging the actual creative process of creating music. Everything is only about recording, editing and composing music in traditional way but nothing to encourage you to experiment and try new things.

If MPS-1 is still alien in this highly advanced modern world, just imagine it in 1988. Even today people expect easy "analogies". When it comes to sequencers, people still expect them to work like traditional multitrack tape recorders. I surely will have difficulties to describe the potential of MPS-1 without having chances to actually show the process how it works. The situation reminds me of John Cage and his methods. You need to show people that music performance could include weird things like pouring water to bathtub... any sound could be music too.

“Eloquent. Extraordinary. Timeless. Paradigm-shifting. Classic. Half a century after it first appeared, Leonard Read’s ‘I, Pencil’ still evokes such adjectives of praise. Rightfully so, for this little essay opens eyes and minds among people of all ages. Many first-time readers never see the world quite the same again.” ~ Lawrence W. Reed

Hundreds of thousands of Americans of all ages continue to enjoy this simple and beautiful explanation of the miracle of the “invisible hand” by following the production of an ordinary pencil. Read shows that none of us knows enough to plan the creative actions and decisions of others.

Back in my parents’ day, which saw them in their childhood fighting the Great Depression and in their teen/young adult years fighting World War II, politics was as much a rough-and-tumble bare-knuckled business as is presently the case. However, there was one noticeable difference between then and now. Those in Washington and various state capitals/local power centers/etc. would and did fight like terriers from 9 to 5. Yet after work, they would go out together for drinks and socialization, setting aside political differences in favor of what was more important. Namely, being human beings who are able to treat each other in the same manner they wish to be treated.

Alas, this went away when Saul Alinsky became the Democrats’ satanic patron saint. In our present era, actively practicing the politics of personal destruction has become the norm. Vicious direct attacks against any and all who dare to differ one iota from cherished beliefs, then squealing like a stuck pig crying “racism,” “sexism,” and whatever else you can come up with -ism (translation: petulant butthurt) whenever somebody breathes so much as a word against you or has the unmitigated gall to respond in the same brute impersonal manner that the original messenger put forth, is now standard operating procedure. Be it actual politicians or those who make discussing politics vocation or avocation; the same methodology. Snark for me, not for thee. //

Right now, we live in the locust days, days of insane inflation and unnamed recession; wars abroad and attempts to create wars at home. Such days can hover and smother for weeks, months, years, even decades, seemingly eating us alive. But they will end. We must not take the bait offered by those attempting to lure us into illegal conflict. Without compromising principles or policies, we must remember the other person is also a person of value, even as each of us is a person of value, not a thing to demolish. No one is beyond God’s reach. //

The locust days have descended upon us. We must choose whether to acquiesce and crumble … or ascend and conquer in Christ.