Is the Squid still alive?

Yes, the SQUID is still very much alive! Unfortunately I don't have much information to provide in the way of if/when for updates, and I'll ask our resident TORAIZ specialist to address the other questions you have. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks. I'll wait for some answers. 

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I’ve been looking at the Squid, yes, it does have a song mode, but I don’t have a good feeling about it - I’ve also been looking at the Polyend Tracker, but its biggest limitation is the availability of one MIDI out only, which is another blocker for me.

I also have the Yamaha QY-700 (the top model of the line), which is great, but with a major drawback: there’s no pattern mode, a song must be arranged linearly from start to end, with no ability to repeat patterns, change their orders, etc.

So now I’m thinking: can I have the best from both worlds? Can the Squid change sets in response to midi messages, or is that possible only manually with the pads? If I can do it programmatically, I could set the QY-700 as the master sequencer, and use the Squid for everything that requires patterns (namely, drums, percussions, bass lines, etc.).

That would be perfect, as I love the QY-700, so being able to keep using it would be a double win :-)

Polyend Tracker is a very different beast than Squid and it depends what kind of interactivity you want with your MIDI data. I think the Polyend is a bit more of a programmer's tool to set up really fun and complex songs, but once you release the horse from the gate, doesn't seem like you can manipulate things nearly to the same degree as Squid. Even the physical interface doesn't feel all that "performative" to me, personally.

QY-700 has no patterns? Yikes.  I used a Yamaha RS7000 for years and it kind of had the best of both worlds...some QY features and also a very nice pattern and song-based way of working. Some of it's real-time MIDI manipulation features were definitely included to the Squid.

Squid only changes patterns manually, but using alongside QY might be nice because then you can sequence some things as a song and other things can be left to jam/improvise on in real-time.

> I used a Yamaha RS7000 for years and it kind of had the best of both worlds...some QY features and also a very nice pattern and song-based way of working. Some of it's real-time MIDI manipulation features were definitely included to the Squid.

The QY-700 actually has patterns, but they are more like arranger tracks - you can include them into a song, but they are independent entities, and they are NOT saved with the song.

Are patterns different in the RS7000? The ideal for me is that they work in a similar way to the session view in Ableton lives, or even better to Maschine, where I can create clips and then arrange them. Where in Ableton to reuse the same clip I have to duplicate it, in Maschine instead I compose a song by using "pointers", so I can create a pattern per track once and reuse anywhere with no need to create a copy.

Now you might suggest me: buy a Maschine. It turns out, I have the Maschine studio, but that still requires a computer. Ok, I know, now there's a standalone Maschine, but it has one midi out only.

If you want to sequence drums, do yourself a favour and get an SP-16. Even if you don't use it for sampling, the workflow for sequencing drums is very nice. I had a Squid for sequencing drums in my DAW and the workflow just wasn't that good so I had to sell it.

Thanks Martin for the suggestion. I went to a completely different path though - I bought a Squarp Pyramid and an Akai MD-232.

To be honest I seriously considered the SP-16, but then I decided to discard the idea because I found that it's not possible to load a project via midi messages (like using a program change) - as a drum machine I opted for an Alesis Strike module. It's more a drum module, but it can load samples from a SD card, and kits can be swapped with simple program changes.

Just got shown this post on the Squid FB group and signed up to say,
it's great that it is still alive!! Many rumours had it presumed dead, which would be sad given how many features in it are really forward thinking & ahead of the curve.

I really love my squid, it's the perfect balance between performance instrument and sequencer for my needs. 

For me if there are any updates in the works - bug fixes and a few UI tweaks would be the first thing.
Sometimes when I change selected track, the currently playing track mutes or stops playing for no reason. 
Also the interpolation seems to have... issues. With switching between interpolatiing then clearing the interpolation, then interpolating again, etc. I notice some strange value mixups / hangovers.

As for feature requests.. I'd love to be able to edit transpose offsets in trigger mode. As it is, the recorded transpose information is "invisible" or uneditable. Also being able to sequence a transpose offset in the step triggers, would mean that you can do some more complex melodic / harmonic exploration without having to "remember" or input which notes you're using all the time. (saves time with chords specifically). If you wanted to make it really powerful, you could have global trigger transpose, as well as individual transpose per note on the trigger. So you could change chord types using transposes.