TATO - Aline

Aline is a sixteen-layer step sequencer from Brazil-based Tato Audio. Each of its layers holds one sequence, and the way you build those sequences is through what Tato calls engines — eleven of them, split into seven parametric and four imperative. Imperative engines are the hands-on ones: you place triggers and dial in notes, velocities and durations directly. Parametric engines generate a sequence from a handful of parameter values, so a few turns of an encoder gives you a Euclidean rhythm, a chord progression or a monophonic line. You pick one engine, work with it, then switch to another and keep editing the same layer. Tato compares them to Photoshop tools, and that's a fair way to picture it — one tool sketches, another refines, and you alternate until the sequence sits right.

The engines manage to cover a lot of different functionality. Play records what you press in, Full Grid and TD3 handle precise step-by-step editing (the latter with a 303-style workflow), while Arp, Euclidean, Line, CnR, Progress and Bank generate patterns from rules — arpeggios, clave rhythms, voice-led chords, clustered call-and-response phrasing. Others operate on the whole sequence at once, transposing or reshaping velocities across every step.

Another interesting aspect of Aline is how the layers interact with each other. Group several layers together and their outputs combine into a single stream, with each layer assigned a destination: one sets the gate, another adds pitches, another controls velocity, duration or transposition. So one layer can hold a chord while a second chops it into a rhythm, and a third arpeggiates the result. Give the layers different lengths and the interplay drifts and evolves rather than always repeating the same loop. It's a an interesting modular way of thinking applied to sequencing.

On the back you get two channels of pitch, gate and velocity CV, a clock in/out, TRS MIDI and USB-C, so it slots into a Eurorack rig or drives outboard synths just as easily. Aline is a very capable brain for a live setup, and just as good as a sketching tool for quick generative sequences or tightly arranged, interlocking parts.

Features:

• 16 independent layers (sequencers), each holding one sequence
• 11 engines: 7 parametric and 4 imperative
• Imperative engines: Play, Full Grid, TD3, Drum
• Parametric engines: Euclidean, Arp, Line, CnR, Progress, Bank and more
• Layers combine into groups with per-layer destinations (gate, pitch add, velocity, duration, arp, mask, offset)
• Variable sequence lengths per layer for polyrhythms and evolving patterns
• Scale system with per-layer scale lock
• Piano and grid input views
• Pattern storage in banks and slots; freeze groups to a single sequence
• Two channels of Pitch, Gate and Velocity CV output
• Clock I/O (analog), TRS 3.5mm MIDI in/out, USB-C for MIDI and audio
• Ableton Live control surface for rendering groups to MIDI clips
• Internal, MIDI, USB, analog or auto clock source
• Firmware-updatable