A pad-based MIDI step sequencer: an 8×8 RGB grid, eight function buttons, eight track buttons, nine faders and an eight-strip mixer. Program chords, velocity, gate, ratchets, probability and micro-timing, then play it live with patterns, scenes and a song.
GrooviXBox V2 turns a Raspberry Pi and two popular Akai controllers into a sequencer with the depth of dedicated hardware that costs far more, and none of the menus.
No custom boards to buy or solder. The Pi, the pad grid and the mixer are common, affordable and easy to find second-hand. Plug them in and they're picked up automatically, with no mapping to set up.
Chords, per-step velocity and gate, ratchets, probability, micro-timing, swing, an arpeggiator, 32 scenes and a song mode, the kind of depth usually found only in dedicated sequencers at many times the price.
Every mode is one button away and every setting is a pad you can see. Colour tells you what's on, what's playing and what's empty, so you stay in the music instead of scrolling through menus.
Everything you need is under your fingers, not three menus deep.
GrooviXBox V1 was an extendable controller of encoders and switches. V2 is the music machine behind it: a full step sequencer that keeps every track, pattern, scene and song in its own projects and drives your gear over MIDI.
Its surface is an 8×8 grid of RGB pads with a column of function buttons and a row of track buttons, plus a mixer of eight strips like an Akai MIDI Mix. The pads change meaning with the mode; the buttons around them never do.
It runs on Linux and on a Raspberry Pi, where an APC mini mk2 and a MIDI Mix are picked up automatically as the hardware. A Teensy build is planned.
Program. Perform. Arrange.
| V1 (legacy) | V2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Role | MIDI controller | MIDI step sequencer |
| Main surface | 16 LED-ring encoders, 32 RGB switches | 8×8 RGB pads, 8 function + 8 track buttons |
| Hands-on | Encoders | 9 faders, 24 mixer knobs, 8 mute/solo strips |
| Display | 320×240 colour TFT | The pads themselves, plus a status line in the simulator |
| Runs on | Its own board | Linux and Raspberry Pi (Teensy planned) |
| Timing | Follows your DAW | Sends MIDI clock, or follows one |
Everything is on the pads: steps, notes, patterns, scenes, the song, even the tempo.
GrooviXBoxV2controls.conf; presets send Bank Select and Program ChangeThe right-hand buttons open each mode; SHIFT reaches the second layer. Each links to its page in the manual.
Three short sittings that build a whole track between them, on the first page of tracks, steps and patterns.
A drum loop on three tracks in about five minutes: steps, tracks, the tempo and where the loop ends.
Start →A bassline in A minor: the key, the keyboard, chords, velocity and gate.
Continue →Variations, silencing tracks, storing sections as scenes and putting them in order.
Finish →What one project holds on Linux and Raspberry Pi.
| Linux & Raspberry Pi | |
|---|---|
| Tracks | 32 (4 pages) |
| Patterns per track | 32 (4 pages) |
| Steps per pattern | up to 256 (8 pages) |
| Notes per step | 4 (a chord) |
| Keyboard start octave | 0–8, default 2 |
| Projects | 512 (8 pages × 64) |
| Presets | 512 (8 pages × 64) |
| Tempo | 20–300 BPM, default 120 |
Saves are atomic, so a power cut mid-save leaves the previous version intact, and a cleared project goes to a trash folder rather than being deleted.
Open the manual for every mode, button and gesture, or go straight to the first tutorial and have a beat running in five minutes.