Arcane Devices - Caress of Stars

Caress of Stars is a compact four-channel sequencer for the 1U row, combining tactile buttons with a precise capacitive touch strip. It is designed just as much for continuous voltages and atonal sequencing as for traditional note events and x0x-style gate patterns. Each channel can output CV or gates, or neighbouring channels can be paired into a pitch-and-gate voice, with sequences running up to 64 steps and independent length, loop range and clock division per channel.

The touch strip is the main interface. In Follow mode, touching it writes directly into the step currently playing, so melodies, modulation and other CV shapes can be entered while the sequence runs. Hold across several steps to create ties, drag on a pitch channel for slides, or use gate channels in a more x0x-like way with the buttons and touch strip. A conventional step-edit mode is there when you want to work one step at a time, while unclocked operation turns the strip into a direct touch controller for CV.

There is plenty of depth without making the basic workflow cumbersome: chromatic, minor and pentatonic quantisation, adjustable pitch range, loop selection, probability, conditional triggers, grouped mutes and quick save/recall. Internal tap tempo and external clocking cover the usual sync duties, making Caress of Stars quite capable of running a compact system on its own. For something this capable, keeping the whole interface in the 1U row is a terrific use of space.

Features:

• 4-channel sequencer in Intellijel-compatible 1U format
• Capacitive touch strip for live recording, step editing and parameter entry
• 16 step/function buttons and three LED rows
• Each channel switchable between CV and Gate mode
• Neighbouring channels can form pitch + gate pairs
• Up to 4 pages of 16 steps per channel / 64 steps
• Independent sequence length, loop range and clock division per channel
• Clock division: power-of-two 1/1–1/64 and integer 1/1–1/15
• Follow mode for live recording into a running sequence
• Ties and slides
• Step editing and gate painting
• Experimental density painting
• Quantiser with chromatic, minor and pentatonic scales
• Selectable root note
• Adjustable CV entry range
• Per-step probability and conditional triggers
• Adjustable gate length
• Quick mute and grouped mute arming
• Quick save/recall, save slots and persistent state
• Firmware updates via WAV file through a trigger input
• Internal clock with tap tempo
• 1 kHz update rate
• External STEP and RESET inputs
• Output range: 0–5 V