Textquencer turns ordinary text into a playable MIDI sequence. Each character is looked up in the current key and scale and produces a scale-based note; spaces and unmapped characters create rests. The text loops on a tempo-locked grid, so a sentence can become a repeating melodic phrase without drawing notes one by one.
Textquencer is a MIDI generator. The standalone app can audition its output with the bundled SoundFont sampler, but external MIDI routing or an AUv3 host is the normal way to hear it with another instrument.
The main screen contains the editable text area, the Rate control, Min Oct and Max Oct range controls, Key and Scale buttons, and the pattern strip. Tap Key or Scale to choose musical material. The Settings button opens the deeper controls.
The pattern strip shows the available patterns. Add as many patterns as you need. Long-press a pattern to copy, paste, or delete it. The active character is reflected while the sequencer runs, making it easy to see where the loop is.
1/8, 1/16, or a dotted/triplet variation.Characters are resolved from the current character map. A normal letter normally maps to a scale degree; whitespace and punctuation that have no mapping are rests. The sequence wraps at the end of the string.
The rate menu includes whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth values, with straight, dotted (D), and triplet (T) variants. The grid is tempo-locked and phase-aligned to the host beat. A pattern restart or transport relocation resynchronizes the phrase at the new position.
Min Oct and Max Oct bound the octave range used when scale degrees become pitches. Velocity sets the base MIDI velocity. Enable velocity randomisation and set Velocity Min/Velocity Max when you want controlled variation. Gate controls note length; gate randomisation uses Gate Min and Gate Max for a per-step range. A gate of zero suppresses the note.
When Accented Caps is enabled, uppercase mapped characters are sent at velocity 127, overriding velocity randomisation for those characters. Notes are clamped to the MIDI range 0–127.
Each pattern stores its own text, rate, key, scale, octave range, velocity, gate, and variation settings. Use separate patterns for verse, bass, and transition phrases, then switch them while the sequence is running.
Open the character map from Settings to assign a MIDI pitch or a scale note to characters that are not mapped by default. This is useful for emojis, symbols, punctuation, and non-English characters. The map is applied before the pattern is rendered, so custom characters participate in the same octave, velocity, and gate rules.
Textquencer emits generated notes on one MIDI cable. Set MIDI Out Channel in Settings; channels are shown to users as 1–16. The default pattern-select controller is CC 10 (Patterns CC#), and the controller value selects a pattern by one-based index. Set MIDI In Channel for incoming control routing.
BrainBud program change 69 can synchronize the current pattern's key and scale from the shared BrainBud settings. With BrainBud Universal MIDI Channel enabled, that program change is accepted on any channel; disable it to use the configured input channel.
Use MIDI Panic whenever an external instrument is left holding a note. Textquencer flushes its generated note lifecycle safely on the next render pass.
The standalone app includes a SoundFont audition sampler using the bundled piano sound. In standalone Settings, use Sampler Enabled, Volume, and Preset to control local auditioning. The sampler only listens to Textquencer's generated notes; it is not the MIDI destination for your other devices.
Set BPM when running without a Link session. The Ableton Link row opens Link transport controls for tempo and transport synchronization with other Link-enabled apps.
Standalone Settings also contains Virtual MIDI In/Out switches and lists for physical MIDI ports. Open the outputs that should receive Textquencer's notes.
Insert Textquencer's AUv3 extension on a MIDI-capable track in a host such as AUM, Audiobus, or a DAW. The plugin exposes the same pattern and expression parameters through its AU parameter tree, and its full state is saved by the host. Route its MIDI output to a software instrument or another MIDI destination, then use the host transport and tempo.
The Settings screen includes MIDI input/output channels, Patterns CC#, knob control style, Accented Caps, BrainBud channel behavior, velocity and gate randomisation, and the character map. The standalone screen adds tempo, sampler, Link, MIDI port, and panic controls.
Start with a short phrase and 1/8 rate, then widen the octave range until the contour is useful. Insert spaces deliberately to create rests. Keep randomisation ranges narrow for a humanised melody and widen them for generative movement. Store contrasting phrases as adjacent patterns so a single CC message can move between sections.
No sound: Textquencer is a MIDI app. In standalone mode enable the sampler, or route the MIDI output to an instrument. In an AUv3 host, verify the plugin is on a MIDI-capable track and that its output is connected.
No MIDI: Confirm the destination port is enabled, the output channel matches the instrument, and the host transport is running. Check that the text contains mapped characters rather than only spaces or unmapped punctuation.
Unexpected rests: Add the character to the Character Map or replace it with a mapped letter. A zero gate also intentionally suppresses a note.
Pattern switching does nothing: Send the configured Patterns CC# and use one-based values (1 selects the first pattern). Check the input channel unless BrainBud universal-channel behavior is enabled.
Notes sound too short or uneven: Adjust Gate, or turn off gate randomisation and inspect Gate Min/Gate Max. For a stable attack, turn off velocity randomisation as well.
Stuck notes: Press MIDI Panic, or stop and restart the host transport so the generated-note state is flushed.