BankStep is a software emulation of hardware bank sequencers found in the big analog synthesizers, that produce control for the sound but not the sound itself. Instead of analog control voltages BankStep produces MIDI (and can make standard MIDI music files). Otherwise, BankStep functionally emulates a big $50,000 bank of hardware sequencers and supporting modules just as it might sit on top of a big Moog analog synthesizer - or your soft synth, MIDI module or sound card.

The main module in BankStep is the Bank module, which is a 3 or 4 bank knob sequencer of any number of columns up to 48. The Bank module is a "smart" module, with the ability to set sequence start and end points, and to automatically switch direction when the end points are reversed. There are no dangling patchchords in BankStep. Instead, module inputs (the red and blue buttons) connect to outputs by selecting them from a popup menu of all available outputs. When an input is connected to an output, the input button label indicates the connection.

Like the hardware sequencers it emulates, BankStep is modular in concept but it is not modular in the sense that you create modules as part of the composing process, as you would with our other MIDI composing software, SoftStep and ArtWonk. While you are free to create your own module Layouts, this should not be part of your composing process, just as specifying the modules of a hardware modular synthesizer is separate from the use of the modules in creating the music. This is less flexible than SoftStep or ArtWonk, but it is often easier to get started with; and because you likely will use the same layout over and over, you become familiar with it.

With BankStep, you are not creating an algorithmic music composition so much as you are creating music with a stack of sequencers, just as you would if you had a stack of hardware sequencers. But with BankStep, you can have a lot more of them to work with!