The story

Every set should be a one-off

Two DJs can play the same records in the same order. What makes a set a performance is what happens on the night that couldn't happen anywhere else. Live instruments over the decks give each set something that's never played the same way twice.

Where it started

I once tried to bring a live TB-03 into a set. It never got as far as making a sound. The load-in was too chaotic: decks going on and off, cables everywhere, a changeover to beat. There was no chance of also plugging in Ethernet switches and getting a synth to sync.

So the first ambition was simple: make adding a live instrument to a DJ set as easy as plugging in a pair of headphones.

The rules it's built to

• An add-on, not a replacement. Sequent sits beside the setup that's already there. The CDJs and mixer don't change, and nothing about them depends on it.
• If it all goes wrong, it's still a normal mix. Pull Sequent's channel down and you're a DJ with two decks again. A crash costs you an instrument, never the set.
• Simple to set up. One computer, one cable to the players, one channel on the mixer. It follows the master deck's tempo and downbeat on its own, so there's nothing to sync by hand.

What it's turned into

The plan was one synth that played in time. It has grown into a multi-instrument sequencer: a 909-style kit, a rolling bassline, a 303-style acid line, sub bass, clav stabs, a swelling pad, strings, an oud, and rain and waves to sit under it all, all in one key and under one transport, through a mixer with shared echo and reverb.

It runs in a browser, on a laptop or a phone, and a set can be shared with a link. The rules haven't changed: it's still an add-on, and the decks still work without it.