Yes, good news.
I did also six huge workspace with a lot of patches and sub-patches level, very complicated and very heavy. That was for the same purpose than you: improvisation. Since we need freedom, we need (work-)space, hu-hu...
With sequencer, it's quite another philosophy: you dig a groove and follow it - or fall down. You can of course give any shape to it (ABAB, etc...). You can also elaborate something ambivalent with track stopping in a more sophisticated patch configuration for momentary improvisation break and then just restart it (and as you restart, the heavy patch is deactivated).
Your CPU will breathe!
You'll see, if your CPU can handle big workspaces, it will say: "Cool, job is easy today" (mine says "tonight"). And Usine will become much more stable.
It seems to me that Oliver has developed Usine specially for tracks. As a matter of fact, this is the interesting main concept. As I said, the pure modular aspect is not so effective. I don't know, Olivier is maybe much more a composer than a "free walker of s(urr)ound". (yes we talking of you, Master!)
The great stuff of Usine is that you can have:
a) huge workspace for compositional or improvisational works (if your computer can handle it, because Usine is a greedy modular soft)
b) very specialized tracks of patches in lighter workspaces, created from scratch of the big ones and from your impros or personal searching works.
Let's says that one side is for personal self-evolution and the other one, as a kind of outcome, for stage and public (since public is generally not so interested in your work and just wants music - and thanks for that!). It's a perfect progress, I think.
It's amazing for me now to build my tracks with my patches coming from the huge stuff and see how they can be drastically simplified (I just save them in another folder).
Senso wrote:I think that it's a good direction.
Well, for Usine, yes. But for guys like Bj?rn or me and maybe many other?
Anyway, when you'll begin to use the sequencer, you'll think differently to your music and to the way you're used to work.
Master says "it's good".
Listen to Master, Bj?rn, or we'll have some problems!... Perhaps you should talk to your drummer (or change him)!
Well, more seriously, as this is a new concept, nobody knows exactly what it will give. Except Olivier maybe, as I suppose he build Usine to answer to a very precise stage need he had, and he is still alone in his workshop.