Squarp Hapax

Sources split, and the split tracks what the pads are asked to do. The 16 × 8 grid is not velocity- or pressure-sensitive — Squarp fakes it with a global velocity encoder and, in drum Live mode, a 4 × 4 grid of 16 fixed velocity levels per lane (HapaxOS 3.10 added 8-, 4- and 1-level layouts). One camp, mostly people who sequence and edit on it, calls the firm, low-travel, slide-across pads exceptional — a 'tactile touch screen' for placing steps and drawing automation. The other camp, mostly people who try to play on it, finds them hard, small and button-like, not a performance surface; one Elektronauts owner returned the unit over them, and even fans of the pads say they plug in a keyboard or MPE controller to actually play. Loopop listed the missing velocity sensitivity as one of his four cons, and OXI's founder conceded on the same forum that it was technically possible at this pad size.

The strongest reason to buy it, and close to unanimous: nine clickable encoders (eight always tied to the left screen, one to the right), 52 dedicated buttons and two greyscale OLEDs give a menu-light workflow that reviewers and owners describe as the shortest learning curve of any deep hardware sequencer — up and running without the manual, patterns launched Ableton-style, notes edited on a piano-roll grid, automation drawn with a finger, up to eight non-destructive MIDI effects per track with a mod matrix, algorithms, chord modes, Snapshot and undo, and the dual-project trick that lets a live set flow from one song into the next. The recurring asterisks are real but consistent rather than polarizing: generative and Euclidean sequencing trail the OXI One, Song mode chains sections rather than laying out a linear arrangement, quantize is input/output-only rather than a selectable-range tool, the encoders suit programming better than live parameter riding, and the launch firmware's eight-pattern limit and missing note preview (both fixed in 2.00) still colour older reviews.

“the workflow of the Hapax is exceptional”

Juno Daily

“in my opinion, the Hapax is the king of hardware sequencing.”

Laser · Elektronauts

“Intuitive, lots of features, well written manual. Perfect for techno.”

Juri Konradi · Thomann verified buyer

“In my opinion, generative sequencing is currently the weakest point of the Hapax.”

polimath · Elektronauts

“the “Song” mode is not really the linear arranger that i was expecting it to be”

chrisroland · Elektronauts

Good, with two friction points worth knowing about. Over USB it is class-compliant and, since HapaxOS 3.00, appears to a computer as 16 virtual MIDI ports; it will follow a DAW's clock over MIDI, USB or — the setup owners call rock-solid — an audio-rate clock from an interface output into a CV input, with per-track latency compensation and a BPM nanotune to match unsynced devices. Its Assign mode turns the eight encoders into a DAW or plug-in controller, and owners run it as the hub for Ableton, Logic, Bitwig and MainStage alike. The first friction point is instrument definitions — plain-text files you write on a computer that name a synth's CCs and NRPNs. They are the reason automation feels so immediate, but they defeat some owners (a rich-text editor or a missing '#' line breaks them), and there is no way to author one on the device. The second is the USB Host port: one device only, no hub support, and a launch-era owner traced his lockups to a chatty Eurorack module on it.

“it was a perfect hub to power my hardware and also interface with the DAW (any DAW, not just ableton, which is also quite nice)”

BassesAndPads · Elektronauts

“When I want to record into Ableton I run a clock signal on an audio channel out through my audio interface and into one of the CV inputs of the Hapax, and set the latter to synchronize to that signal.”

videomusik · Elektronauts

“Everything is a hack to get to work.”

kfarrell70 · Squarp Community

“But it seems you can’t use a USB hub, and people recommend using a midi router (more expense and complexity).”

jcavell · Elektronauts

Sources split — over the pace of HapaxOS, not its quality. Nothing is bundled; the software is the device's own OS, and it is the second-most argued thing about the Hapax. One camp points to 25 free releases in four and a half years, two major versions, a run of betas and seven official releases in a single year, and a unit that has been stable in daily use since 2.00. The other camp counts the gaps — six months with nothing in 2023, which Squarp's founder publicly conceded while explaining that the team had been pulled onto the Hermod+, and nine months between 2.21 and 3.00 — and the feature requests (16 drum lanes, MPE editing, poly-aftertouch, CC min/max) that sat open for two or three years; some sold up before they landed. The early firmware also had a rough patch: 2022 owners reported freezes on the Pattern button and one returned a unit over save/load failures, and copy-pasting whole pattern rows could still crash a 2024 unit. What is not in dispute is that the 2026 3.x releases answered several of the longest-standing requests.

The headline strength and the clearest point of agreement: two MIDI ins (DIN and TRS-A), four MIDI outs (three DIN and TRS-A), USB host and USB device ports that each carry 16 virtual cables, four 16-bit CV outs with four gates, two 16-bit CV ins that can record or clock, a footswitch jack and an SD slot — 64 MIDI channels in, 96 out, before you count CV. Owners run twenty or thirty devices from it, and the USB port is isolated well enough that there is no hum on the CV outs. The spread comes from modular users: four CV voices is thin next to the OXI One's eight-plus-eight with its breakout, so a MIDI-to-CV module often joins the rig; there is no battery or Bluetooth; and the USB Host port takes one device, not a hub.

“Around the back of the unit, four MIDI ports and ten CV/gate connections hint at the Hapax’s versatility for controlling any instrument.”

Juno Daily

“That's more than enough ports for even the most well-equipped hardware studios”

Perfect Circuit

“Connectivity is fantastic for my needs”

hausland · Elektronauts

“Overall I like the Hapax a lot more just wish it offered more for CV”

OldmanChompski · Elektronauts

A studio piece, and everyone agrees — they only differ on whether that matters. At 358 × 206 × 58 mm and 1.855 kg with a 2 mm aluminium top it is lighter than it looks and slots into a desk or a 19-inch case, but it runs from an included 15 V wall supply with no battery and no wireless, so it is the desk-bound counterpart to the OXI One that people carry to gigs and pair with an iPad. There are no rack ears or mounting points.

“relatively lightweight thanks to a plastic enclosure but solid and durable”

Juno Daily

“Oxi is compact and very portable though, whereas the Hapax is more of a studio sized sequencer.”

hausland · Elektronauts

“I wish the Hapax was also battery-powered and had the BLE”

geekraver · Elektronauts

Solid, and broadly agreed to be: a 2 mm CNC-aluminium top panel on a unibody ABS rear, click buttons with a positive action distinct from the softer playing pads, and encoders on standard D-shafts. Long-term owners call it a tank. The nuance is cosmetic rather than structural: next to the OXI One's all-aluminium, screw-free body the Hapax reads less elegant, the hard plastic encoder caps feel cheap to some (a metal main-encoder cap is a common swap), and the first batch had small blemishes — clouded screen covers, faint line artefacts on the OLEDs, two loose caps in one box, one owner's clicky buttons catching in the faceplate. The reliability signal in the record is firmware, not hardware.

“The unit itself is beautifully made”

Juno Daily

“Build quality, and looks, briefly: Tank. Absolutely solid. Looks and feels premium.”

Laser · Elektronauts

“The Hapax feels pretty solid but doesn’t feel nearly as elegant.”

pmags · Elektronauts

“Only negative is that 2 of the encoders were rattling around loose when I opened the box.”

sid6581 · Elektronauts

Sources split, and the argument is about what you are comparing it with. At €1,080 direct (plus US duties) or $1,299 from US dealers — up from a €864 launch price — it costs more than an OXI One MK2, about the same as a Deluge that also makes sound, and more than a Push 3 controller or a laptop running a DAW. One camp says it earns that as the most complete standalone sequencer you can buy, with connectivity, dual projects and a workflow nothing else matches, and owners back that with a 4.9/5 at Thomann. The other camp says a sequencer-only box at groovebox money is hard to justify — the 'only a sequencer' con from the day Loopop reviewed it, the Canadian hobbyist for whom C$1,600 is 'nuts', the owner who calls it a DAW that 'does about 10%' of Ableton, and the buyers who walked away when the price rose 25% in late 2022.