Dr T docs Part II Auto-Correct ~~~~~~~~~~~~ AUTO-CORRECT is used to round all of the TIME and/or DUR values in a track or sequence to multiples of some number. This is usually done to smooth out the timing of a less than perfect recording but can also be used for special effects. The number next to AUTO-CORRECT sets the step count for auto-correction. After auto-correction all times in the selected range will be a whole number multiple of the step count. The following table shows the step counts corresponding to several common note values at the stdandard 24 steps/beat: 3 for 32nd notes 4 for l6th note triplets 6 for l6th notes 8 for 8th note triplets 12 for 8th notes 16 for quarter note triplets 24 for quarter notes 48 for half notes 96 for whole notes The number next to DUR on the same line has a similar effect on the durations in the selected range: The entry is optional. You can also quantrize only the duration by leawng out the value for step count. When duration is auto-corrected, the resulting duration values are actually one less than the nearest multiple of the duration auto-correct value. For instance, entering a value of 6 for duration auto-corretion results in duration values of 5, 11, 17, etc. instead of 6, l2 and 18. This allows notes played on monophonic instruents to retrigger when legato parts are played, by ensuring that a note off message is sent before the next ON event in the sequence or track. When a portion of a track or sequence containing events other than ON and OFF events is auto-correted, the program treats all the non-note events between each pair of On events as part of the first note, and moves them along with that note. This is handy when a sequence contains pitch bends or other controller messages that you want to time to particular notes. If you want to auto-correct a part without affecting the non-note data use the SPLIT edit option to separate the note data to another track or sequence, as described later in this chapter. Compress/Expand ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The COMPRESS/EXPAND option changes the timing of the overall sequence or track. This option can also be used to speed up or slow down a part, relative to the other part of your song. The number next to COMPRESS/EXPAND sets the amount of compression or expansion (in percent), and the DUR button on the same line causes durations to be affected as well as time. Each note's TIME and/or DUR value will be multiplied by the amount you enter, divided by 100. Entering an amount of 200 results in a sequence or track which is twice as long as the original, 50 makes the part half as long, etc. Time Reverse ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The TIME REVERSE option will re-arrange events so that they play in reverse order. The TIME values of the first and last notes are not changed and if the last event in the range selected is a DE event it won't be affected either. Note that since the value in the TIME field represents the amount of time that elapses before an event occurs time reversal will not preserve the relationship between an event's TIME and DUR values. For example, consider the following sequence: MSR- ST EVNT TIME CH TYP NOTE VOL DUR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1- 1 1 0 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 13 2 12 1 ON D 3 50 10 1- 25 3 12 1 ON E 3 50 10 1- 37 4 12 1 ON F 4 50 10 1- 49 5 12 1 ON G 3 50 10 1- 61 6 12 1 ON A 3 50 10 1- 73 7 12 1 ON B 3 50 10 2- 1 8 24 1 ON C 4 50 94 3- 1 9 96 DE Reversing the order of tbe sequence yields: MSR- ST EVNT TIME CH TYP NOTE VOL DUR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1- 1 1 0 1 ON C 4 50 94 1- 25 2 24 1 ON B 3 50 10 1- 37 3 12 1 ON A 3 50 10 1- 49 4 12 1 ON G 3 50 10 1- 61 5 12 1 ON F 3 50 10 1- 73 6 12 1 ON E 3 50 10 1- 85 7 12 1 ON D 3 50 10 2- 1 8 12 1 ON C 3 50 10 3- 1 9 96 DE Now the C4 with the duration of 94 sustains while the other notes are playing. In a case such as this you might want to swap the durations of events 2 and 9, to preserve the original timing relationships. Channel Assign ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHANNEL ASSIGN changes the MIDI channel numbers of events in the selected range. If only the first of the two data fields to the right of this switch contains a value, all events will be assigned to this channel if these values are present, then consccutive events will be assigned to the next higher MIDI channel within the specified range. This is useful for playing polyphonic parts on a synth in mono mode, or for adding space to an arrangement. Velocity Scale ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Selecting VELOCITY SCALE will create a "velocity fade-in" or "velocity fade-out", depending on the values you gve it. The values next to this button represent the beginning and ending velocities; leaving the second field empty will set all velocities to the first value. The range for velocily is 0 - 127, with 127 being the loudest or brightest. Synths that respond to velocity can then be programmed to respond in sevcral different ways, so the result of your velocity scale will depend on the particular patch you are using on your instrument. Here is a monophonic sequence consisting of sixteenth aod eighth notes all at the same velocity. MSR- ST EVNT TIME CH TYP NOTE VOL DUR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1- 1 1 0 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 7 2 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 13 3 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 19 4 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 25 5 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 31 6 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 37 7 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 43 8 6 1 ON C 3 50 10 1- 55 9 12 1 ON C 3 50 10 If we apply velocity scaling and enter a starting velocity of 100 and an ending velocity of 1, the sequence will now look like this: MSR- ST EVNT TIME CH TYP NOTE VOL DUR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1- 1 1 0 1 ON C 3 100 10 1- 7 2 6 1 ON C 3 89 10 1- 13 3 6 1 ON C 3 80 10 1- 19 4 6 1 ON C 3 66 10 1- 25 5 6 1 ON C 3 58 10 1- 31 6 6 1 ON C 3 45 10 1- 37 7 6 1 ON C 3 34 10 1- 43 8 6 1 ON C 3 23 10 1- 55 10 12 1 ON C 3 1 10 Note that the difference in velocity between the last two events is twice that between any other two events. This is because the KCH scales velocity linearly over time, NOT the number of events. Since the time of the last note is twice that of the others, the velocity drops twice as much in that time period as in the others. Erase Controllers and Clear Deletes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ERASE CONTROLLERS option is used to strip all MIDI data except note on and off events from the selected range. CLEAR DELETES is a convenience feature which erases all DE events from a sequence or track, except for the final "trailing DE, if any. This option affects the entire sequence or track. Insert and Adjust ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options are used to insert new data in a sequence or track at the current position of the edit cursor. Clicking on either will create a new blank line ahead of the current event, at which point new events can be typed in as describwd earlier in this chapter. When INSERT is selected, events are simply inserted in the sequence or track, with no adustments to timing. When ADJUST is chosen, the program will attempt to keep the length of the sequence constant, by subtracting from the TIME value of the first event after the insert point. If the TIME value for this event becomes 0, the program will no longer be able to adjust, and the length of the sequence or track will increase as more events are entered. You can also insert nrw material by pressing the INSERT key. In this case, the program, will use the most recently chosen of the INSERT or ADJUST options. When you have finished inserting use the cursor keys to move to a new event line or click the left mouse button. Cut, Copy, and Paste ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CUT, COPY, and PASTE options are among the most powerful in the KCS. These commands utilize what we call the paste buffer. You can use the paste buffer to move and copy part or all of a sequence or track to another sequence or track. The same paste buffer is used for Open and Track modes, so you can use this to move information between the two modes. Any time you CUT or COPY, the previous contents or the paste buffer are discarded. Cut ~~~ The CUT command will delete or erase the events in a desired range and place the events into the paste buffer. The CUT edit window allows you to set a range by event or by measure. Cutting all the events in a sequence or track is not allowed. Click on EVENT RANGE or MEASURE RANGE to set the range; the values to the right of these buttons contain the start and stop points for the cut. DELETE ORIGINAL and ERASE ORIGINAL affect the data that is left in the original sequence or track. DELETE ORIGINAL will remove the specified section and shorten the sequence or track. ERASE ORIGINAL removes the events specified but adds their time values to the next event after the selected range, thus preserwng the original timing. ZERO FIRST TIME forces the TIME value of the first event to zero: this is usually the most convenient value when pasting. Click on OK and the data will be moved to the paste buffer. This data will remain in the paste buffer until you next use the CUT or COPY command. Copy ~~~~ The COPY command is identical to the CUT command except that the selected range is not deleted or erased from the sequence or track. It is also possible to copy all of a sequence or track. Paste ~~~~~ Once you have moved data into the paste buffer using the CUT or COPY command, you can use the PASTE command. There are a number of different ways to paste material to a track of sequence, which are outlined below. Because the PASTE edit window has so many options, a HELP button has been provided, next to the standard edit buttons. When you use PASTE in Track mode, remember that all tracks will loop when track 1 finishes playing. Notes that are pasted onto a track at a measure and step that is past the end of track 1 will not sound when all tracks are played at once, and extending track 1 will cause a gap in the other tracks when the sequencer loops. PASTE OPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INSERT will placw the contents of the paste buffer at the specified location, without changing the existing data at the paste location. INSERT is like cutting a piece of tape, and splicing in one or more copies of the paste buffer. The rest of the sequence will be pushed back in time, and the sequence will become longer. REPLACE will take the contents of the paste buffer and put it at the specified location. The previous contents of the sequence will be written over for the length of the phrase. REPLACE is like erasing a section of tape and replacing it with the contents of the paste buffer. The timing of events after the end of the paste will not be altered. MERGE will mix the contents of the paste buffer with the sequence. Both parts will play with their original timing. The result will be the same as if both the sequence and paste buffer were played together. MERGE TO END is similar to MERGE, except that copies of the paste buffer are mixed into the sequence, one after the other, until the end of the sequence is reached. A simple application would be to have the paste buffer consist of one note, say a bass drum hit on a drum machine. Setting the phrase length to 98 steps (one measure) and performing a MERGE TO END would cause one bass drum hit to be added every measure of the sequence. FILL TO END is like REPLACE, except that all data is erased from the sequence after the paste location. This data is replaced with enough copies of the paste buffer to make the resulting sequence the same length as the original. After an INSERT or REPLACE paste operation is executed, the pasted range will be highlighted in the event list. This allows you to see that the paste was done properly. PHRASE LENGTH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The length of the phrase which is pasted to the new location can also be changed by entering a phrase length, in measures and steps, under PHRASE LENGTH. These features can be particularly useful when doing multiple pastes. Note that the program will not allow you to increase the time or decrease the phrase length in a way which affects the relative timing of the event being pasted. LOCATION ~~~~~~~~ There are two different ways to select a paste location: either by event number, or by specifying a measure and step. If you specify EVENT NUMBER, the paste occurs immediately before the event specified to the right of the button. If you want to paste at the beginning of the sequence, enter 1. MEAS/STEP is used primarily when you want to paste at a point in the sequence which is not a location of an event in the sequence. The program will do the paste before any event at the selected measure and step. Remember, the sequence or track begins at measure 1, step 1, and the next step of any new measure in step 1 of that measure NOT step 0. The values for EVENT NUMBER and MEAS/STEP will default to the current location of the edit cursor. Times to Paste and First Event Time ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can also select the number of times you wish to paste. The program will paste copies of the paste buffer, one after the other, for the number of times selected. TIMES TO PASTE is used for the first three paste options only; it is ignored if you select FILL TO END or MERGE TO END. FIRST EVENT TIME sets the time of the first event in the paste, same as in the CUT and COPY edit windows. Backup, Get Backup, and Undo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on BACKUP will make a copy of your current sequence or track. The message "Backup accomplished" will appear on the message line, or an error message will appear if there is no room for the copy. It is a good idea to make a backup before making any change that can not easily be reversed. The GET BACKUP command exchanges your current sequence or track data with the most recently made backup. This allows you to swap and compare the sequences. A separate backup sequence is created whenever a TRANSPOSE, CUT, PASTE, DELETE, ERASE, or SPLIT operation occurs. Clicking on UNDO or pressing the UNDO key will swap this sequence with the altered original track or sequence. The manual and automatic backups are stored by the program in sequences Y and Z, respectively. You can thus hear either backup sequence from the Open mode play screen by pressing the appropriate key. If you decide that you want to keep both your edited material and the backup, copy the edited sequence or track to a new location and retrieve the original data by clicking on GET BACKUP or UNDO. If you are planning extensive changes to a sequence or track, you may wish to make a copy of your original using one of the copy commands described below before you start editing and then make frequent backups as you edit. Delete and Erase ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DELETE and ERASE are used to remove a range of events from a sequence or track. DELETE will shorten the length of the sequence or track, while ERASE preserves the length of the sequence or track . by adding the time values of the events that are erased to the time or the first event after the selected range. After choosing one of these options, a dialog box will prompt you for the range of events to be removed. The beginning and end of the range can be specified by typing in the event numbers for each, or they can be set to the beginning by clicking on START or END. It is not possible to delete or erase an entire sequence or track - at least one event must remain. Text and Map ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on TEXT provides access to a 16 line by 68 character text area which can be used to hold comments about a piece. The text area is saved and loaded with .ALL files. The mouse and the BACKSPACE and cursor control keys can be used to move the cursor around the text area, and the CLR HOME key will erase the entire line which holds the cursor. Note that .ALL files saved by versions of the program before 1.5 will display gibberish in the text area when loaded. This is normal, and can be written over with no danger of damaging your data. The MAP option displays a map of all track, sequences, and songs in memory, including their names, comments and lengths in measures and events, as well as the channel number and event type of the first event in each track and sequence. The map and text area may be listed to a printer by pressing P after the map is displayed on the screen. The CONTROL key will terminate printing when sending the map to a printer. If SHIFT is held down when MAP is selected. The map will be sent directly to the printer, without going to the screen. Print ~~~~~ PRINT sends a copy of the current sequence or track to the printer. The range is set as described above for DELETE and ERASE. If there is no printer conected or if the printer doesn't respond, a dialog box will ask if you want to abort or try again. Change Repeats ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option, which only appears in Open mode, sets the number of times a sequence will play when started from, the Open mode play/record screen. A dialog box will ask you to specify a number from 1 - 99. Enter 99 if you want the sequence to repeat immediately. When a sequence is started from a control sequence, it will play the number of times that are specifed by that control sequence. Step Time Track ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ STEP TIME APPEND is used to enter notes at the end of the current sequence or track with the step time recording feature of the KCS. See Chapter 9, STEP TIME RECORD for more information. If you are in Track mode, you should remember that the entire length of all tracks is the length of track 1. Appending to track 1 thus increases the effective length. Appends that make another track longer than track 1 will not be heard when all tracks are played together. STEP TIME TRACK allows you to create a new track in step tine. A dialog box will ask the measure at which you wish to start recording and the program will set the time of the first event recorded so that it is at the selected measure. This feature allows you to add new material at any point in a set of tracks. Pressing F1 or left clicking on EXIT when in step time record will return you to the edit screen. Find and Calc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FIND is used to locate a particular measure in a track or sequence. Entering a number after clicking on FIND will place the edit cursor on the event nearest to the start of that measure. The CALC option is a convenience for calculating the number of steps between two points. Click on CALC, and an edit window will prompt you for two measure/step values, the second of which defaults to the current position of the edit cursor. After entering the values and clicking on OK, the difference between those two points, in steps, will be shown on the message line. If the exit button labeled CORRECT is chosen intead of OK, the program will attempt to "correct" the time of the current step to that in the second measure/step entry by adding the calculated time to the current time. This allows you to enter a new event location in terms of it's measure and step directly in the CALC window without dealing with the TIME setting. After CALC is used to compute a time value, typing a "C" in the TIME column will enter the calculated time value at that point. Split ~~~~~ SPLlT allows you to split the current sequence or track into two parts by note value. A dialog box will ask you to specify the entire sequence or a range. It will also ask for a split point. This must be entered as a MIDI note number (60 = middle C). All note events with note values greater than or equal to the entered note number will be copied to the first unused sequence or track and erased from, the original sequence. Selecting SPLIT with a split point of 60 will therefore remove all in notes at or above middle C (C4) from the current sequence or track and place them on a new one. SPLIT followed by CHANNEL ASSIGN allows you to create a split keyboard effect for a part that was recorded on a single MIDI channel. It is also possible to nondestructively separate all the note data in a track or sequence from any control changes, pitch bends or non-MIDI events by setting the split point to 0; in this case, all note data will be sent to the new sequence or track, and the original sequence or track will contain only the other data types. Vary ~~~~ The VARY option is used to generate a variation on the current sequence or track by randomly changing the pitches, velocities, and/or location of the ON events in the sequence. The original sequence or track is unaffcted, the variation is piaced in the first available sequence or track, and the variation is selected for editing. In Track mode, the original track is also muted. The VARY dialog box displays six variation presets, and asks for the number of individual variations to perform. The actual number of variations performed might be lower, as sometimes a note will be randonly chosen for variation more than once. The presets consist of different algorithms for altering the sequence or track. HALFSTEP changes the pitch of a randomly selected note by a semitone. This will add new notes to the sequence or track and thereby change the tonality of the phrase. PITCHES randomly transposes selected notes by larger amounts, but won't allow any new notes to be created. (For instance, if the original sequence consisted or nothing but C4s and C5s, the variation might contain C4, C3, C5, etc., but no Bs or other notes.) SWAPS will@ randomly swap the pitches and velocities of two notes; if they are adjacent notes, the time, channel and duration values may also be swapped. The first note of the sequence or track is not affcted by SWAPS. DYNAMICS randomly varies the velocities of the notes in the sequence or track. The amount or variation is determined by the amount in the original. MIX 1 and MIX 2 make random changes to the pitches, velocities and durations of selected notes. The amount of variation will depend on the amount of variation in the original sequence or track. MIX 1 will allow new notes to occur, and MIX 2 only permits notes that are found in the original to be used. The VARY feature in the KCS is a very early spinoff from the Programmable Variation Generator/Master Editor portion or the Level II KCS, which is available as an upgrade to owners or the current KCS. Contact us or see our advertising for details. Copy Sequence, Copy Track to Track and Copy Track to Seq ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each of these options makes a permanent copy of the current sequence or track. In Open mode, the COPY SEQUENCE option will bring up a dialog box asking you to select the sequence that you wish to copy to. The default will be the first unused sequence. If you copy to an existing sequence, that sequence will be lost. In Track mode, there are two ways to make a copy. COPY TRACK TO TRACK will copy the current track to the first unused track. Remember that both this track and the current track will play unless you mute one of them. The MUTE and SWITCH features described in Chapter 6 allow you to easily compare the original and edited track within the context that they are to be used. COPY TRACK TO SEQ is used in the same way as COPY SEQUENCE. This option is useful for making a backup that will not be heard with your other tracks in Track mode. It is also useful if you have a part that you want to use in Track mode in more than one context, as you can use the COPY SEQ TO TRACK option to get it back into Track mode at a later time. Copy Seq to Track ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option copies an Open mode sequence into the first unused track in Track mode. Note that neither this option or the APPEND and MERGE options descrebed below will have any effect on the sequence being copied, merged or appended. Seq to All Tracks and All Tracks to Seq ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options allow you to move data back and forth between the 48 track tape recorder environment of Track mode and individual Open mode scquences. These sequences can be chained or otherwise combined into longer pieces in Song mode or by using control sequences in Open mode. SEQ TO ALL TRACKS copies an Open mode sequence into Track mode. All existing tracks are erased by this Option. Events in the sequence copied will be sorted by MIDl channel, with each channel assigned to a diffrent track, which makes this option handy for unmerging open mode sequences, for editing channels independently and for splitting up sequences recorded from, another sequencer. Each track will be named with the channel of the data that it contains. ALL TRACKS TO SEQ will merge the data from all active tracks (tracks that are not muted) into a single Open mode sequence. The length of the merged sequence will be determined by the length of Track 1. For some applications you may want to create different sequences using this option with different combinations of muted and unmuted tracks. When ALL TRACKS TO SEQ is chosen an edit wmdow will appear after the sequence selection dialog box in which you can enter a name and comments for the sequence. The comments for the sequence will default to a list of the unmuted tracks or the list can be cleared by clicking on the field and pressing CLR HOME. The edit window also has a button labeled INCLUDE MUTED TRACKS. If INCLUDE MUTED TRACKS is turned on, all tracks will be copied to the new sequence, regardless of their status. ALL TRACKS TO SEQ can also be selected directly from, the Track mode play screen with the ! (SHIFT-1) key. Append and Append Seq to Track ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options allow you to append an Open mode sequence to the current sequence or track. A copy of the appended sequence is simply tacked onto the end of the sequence or track being edited. Merge ~~~~~ Available in Open mode only, this option merges a second sequence with the sequence being edited. The sequence will now sound as though both sequences were playing at once. In track mode, this task is accomplished using the BACKSLASH key from the play/record screen. Delete Sequence and Delete Track ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options allow you to delete an unwanted track or sequence. A dilog box will request the sequence or track number; the selection in this box defaults to the current track or sequence. Sequences Y and Z and track 1, can not be deleted. Clear and Double ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CLEAR erases all tracks in memory. It does not erase anything from Open or Song modes. An edit window will allow you to set the length of all tracks, in measures. If you do so, the program will create track 1 with a single DE event whose TIME is the desired length. This will determine the effective length of any additional tracks that you record. If you change your mind, you can also cancel the operation from this wondow. After the clear operation, the program will put you on the Track mode play/record screen. DOUBLE simply doubles the length of all tracks. Any events which would havc played after the end of track 1 are lost. Since the length of track 1 sets the loop point for all 48 tracks, you could extend a set of tracks by half their length by using the DOUBLE option, then shortening track 1 by the required amount. Ext (Atari ST Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If your ST has 1 meg or more of memory, the EXT option can be used to load up to four other Dr. T programs into memory at once, thanks to our mulli Program Environment (MPE). Clicking on EXT will cause a GEM file selection window to appear, where you must select a .INF file for the program to be loaded. This file contains information about the program to be loaded. If there is enough memory available to load the new program, it will be loaded and a three letter abbreviation for the new program (FTN for Fingers, for example) will appear on the EXT line. Once an external program is loaded, clicking on it's abbreviation will take you to that program, or clicking here while holding down the SHIFT key will erase the last prcgram loaded and free up the memory used. Note that the external programs use memory that would otherwise be used for event storage, so there are some tradeoffs involved in loading mulyiplr programs, especially on the 1040 ST (as opposed to a Mega ST, that is). Some programs, especially our algorithmic composers, may also overwrite one or more sequences when they are loaded. Check the manual for each program for this type of thing before loading the program, in order to prevent accidental and unsightly loss of data. Programs to be loaded via the MPE MUST be loaded from drive A. It is not possible to load MPE programs from a hard disk, even if the original disk is inserted in drive A. Attempting to do so will result in a system crash. .INF files may be stored on any drive, however. WorkBench, NewCLI, and Drag Bar -> (Amiga Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These buttons are used to access the Amiga's multi-tasking functions. The WORKBENCH switch is used to toggle the state of the WorkBench window (that is open the WorkBench if it's closed, or close it if it's open). If you attempt to close the WorkBench while a window is open on the WorkBench, either a CLI wndow or a window from some other program, the KCS will not be able to close the WorkBench. The NEWCLI switch is used to open a CLl window. When this button is selected, the WorkBench screen will move to the fore and a CLI window will appear. The operation of the KCS will be suspended until you type the command "EndCLI". The DRAG BAR -> button is intended as a reminder on how to toggle the KCS drag bar at the top of the screen. Moving the mouse to the right edge of the screen and clicking the left mouse button will cause a drag bar to appear at the top of the screen. You can now move the KCS screen in relation to any other screens using the gadgets on the drag bar, as with most other Amiga programs. The Amiga version of the KCS will continue running when other windows are in use (except as noted above), so you may use any of your other Amiga software (including Dr. T's Caged Artist patch editors for the Amiga!) while your music plays. See your Amiga documentation for more on multi-tasking. Play and Play/Record ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options take you to the play screen of the mode that you are currently in. The Track and Open mode play screens are described in detail in Chapters 6 and 7. The Track Mode Play screen automatically puts you in record. To record in Open mode, you have to select the record option described below. The PLAY option displays a dialog box with five options. GO TO PLAY SCREEN takes you directly to the play screen. Double clicking the right mouse button from the edit screen (or single clicking the right mouse while the SHIFT key is held down) will accomplish the same thing. PLAY CURRENT SEQUENCE plays the sequence or track currently displayed. PLAY FROM CURSOR POSITION plays the current sequence or track from the position of the edit cursor; clicking the right mouse button once does the same thing. PLAY CURRENT CUE plays the sequence or track from the current cue point, which can be set from the play screen, or with the SET AND PLAY NEW CUE option. In Open mode, a dialog box will ask for a sequence and a starting measure when the SET AND PLAY CUE optIon is selected; play will then start from this point. In Track mode, the dialog box will ask you to enter the measure of the new cue point, and all tracks will be started from that measure. If you choose any option other than Go To PLAY SCREEN, the edit sreen will be displayed during play. The word PLAY will appear on the mcssage line. You can stop play at any point by pressing the left mouse button or Fl. You can also restart play from, the beginning by pressing FlO, the SPACE bar, or the right mouse button. Tf you do neither, the word PLAY will be erased and all edit functions will return to normal as soon as play completes. If a range of events is highlighted, then clicking the right ouse button will play only that range. If no events are highlighted clicking the right mouse will play the track or sequence from the edit cursor position. Record ~~~~~~ This is used to enter the record screen from Open mode only. Open mode recording is described in detail in Chapter 7. Load/Save ~~~~~~~~~ Thc LOAD and SAVE options are described in detail in Chapter 10. Set Options ~~~~~~~~~~~ This feature lets you change a number of parameters that are used by different parts of the program. It brings up an edit window that is described in more detail in Chapter 11. TRACK Mode, OPEN Mode, and SONG Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options, only two of which are available from any screen, are used to move between the program's three operating modes. When you enter Open or Song modes, the program, will place you on the edit screen; when you enter Track mode, the program will place you on the play/record screen. You can then get to the Track mode edit screen by pressmg F1 or clicking on EXIT. Colors (Amiga Only) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the COLORS option is selected, a small requestor box will appear, where you may adjust the screen colors used by the program. The screen colors are automatically saved and loaded with enviroment (.ENV) files. Quit ~~~~ QUIT will exit from the KCS and return you to the desktop (or WorkBench). Be sure to save your data before quitting. A dialog box will ask you to confirm the choice. Chapter 5 ~~~~~~~~~ SONG MODE EDITING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Song mode provides a simple environment for creating longer pieces (songs) by chaining Open mode sequences. This task can be accomplished much more generally with control sequences in Open mode, but Song mode is conceptually much simpler. You may want to create a few pieces in Song mode before you attempt to use control sequences. You may also choose to do all of your sequence chaining in Song mode. Song mode is intended primarily for use with multi-instrument sequences created in Track mode, as only one sequence can play at any time. There is certainly no limit to the complexity of the music that you can create using Track mode and Song mode. The Song mode edit screen allows you to create songs that consist of up to 100 linked segments. For each segment you can specify the sequence to be played, a tempo change, a delay, a pitch transposition, and the number of times the segment is to repeat. You can also specify program and/or volume changes on any or all of the 16 MIDI channels for each segment. Tempo, program and volume change entries are optional; if you do not specify a tempo change for a segment, it will play at the current tempo. No program or volume changes will be made by the program on channels for which they have not been specified. Sequences entered in Song mode should not contain PRIMARY, ST, XX, XL, MS, or US events, as these are ignored in Song mode. Entering Segments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Song segments are entered into an event list that is similar to the one used in Track and Open modes. Although the headings are different, the procedure for is entry and edit of individual segments is similar to that described in Chapter 4. As in the other modes, any of the edit options on the right side of the screen can be selected by clicking on that option, and songs can be selected with the select boxes in the lower right corner. The fields used in the Song mode event list are: SEG: A number supplied by the program indicating the position of the segment in the list. SEG is used to specify a range of segments in the song when you are using the various edit options. SEQ: The number <1 - 9, A - X, or 00 - 92) of the sequence to be paayed for the segment. Frequently, this will be the only entry that you need to make for a segment. NAME: The name of the sequence to be played. This is supplied by the program, and cannot be changed in Song mode. TEMPO: The tempo at which the segment is to be played. If this is omitted, the segment will play at the previously established tempo. Tempo changes will have no effect unless you are using the internl clock, though it is used in calculations when synchronizing to an external clock. DELAY: The number of time steps that you wish the program to pause before playing the segment. Most of the time, you will probably not need to enter a DELAY. TRN: The number of half steps that you wish the segment to be transposed in pitch. If a drum channel has been defined on the SET OPTIONS screen, notes on that channel will not be transposed. REP: The number of times that you wish the segment to repeat. If you want the segment to play only once, you do not need to enter this field. When you first enter Song mode, the edit screen will come up, and the cursor will be under SEQ on the first line. To enter a segment, type the desired sequence number, and any other fields that you wish to enter, and press RETURN. You can use the TAB and SHlFT-TAB keys to move forward and back along a line. The DELAY and TRN fields default to 0, and the REP field to 1, so if you want your sequence to play once vwih no delay, transposition, or tempo change, you need only enter the sequence number. Here is a shot of the Song mode edit screen, with a representative song in ihc event list: These seven segments illustrate all of the options available on the left side of the screen. The first segment entered was sequence 1, at a tempo of 90 BPN. If no tempo had been entered, the segment would play at the previously set tempo, shown at the bottom of the play screen. Tempo change events within the sequences themselves will change the tempo from that programmed on the Song mode edit screen. The second segment plays sequence F with the tempo increased to 120. Sequences 3 and 4 are each played once at the same tempo. Sequence 5 is then played twice at a tempo of 140, and then twice again transposed up 12 half steps (an octave). Finally, sequence 6 plays at a tempo of 120. This segment does not start until 48 time steps (half a measure at the default setting) after the previous segment ends. To play the song, click the right mouse button, and the Song mode play screen will come up. Click the right mouse button or press Fl to play the song. The Song mode play scrcen is described in detail in Chapter 8. Editing Single Segments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Segments are edited using the same procedure used in the Track and Open mode edit screens. Move the edit cursor to the line that you wish to edit, and click the mouse. Type in any desired changes, and press RETURN, or press UNDO to cancel any changes. If you want to remove a tempo, repeat or delay specification, just type over it with blanks. You can delete an entire segment by pressing the DELETE key while the cursor is on the line you wish to delete. If you want to add segments to a song, click under SEQ on the line below the last segment shown. If your song is more than a full screen long, you can use the scroll arrows to move up and down. A song can contain up to 100 segments. Song Mode Editing Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Song mode edit options, on the right side of the screen, are selected by clicking the mouse as in the other modes. Most of the options are similar to corresponding options on the Open and Track mode edit screens, described in Chapter 4. Name ~~~~ The song name is 60 characters long, and stretches across the top of the screen. Clicking on NAME, or anywhere on the line, will move the cursor to this line. Type in the desired name and press RETURN. Text and Map ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The TEXT option provides access to the KCS's comment text area, and MAP displays information about every active track, sequence, and song. See Chapter 4 for more on these options. Prog/Vol Changes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can specify program and/or volume changes for any or all of the 16 MIDI channels to be sent before a segment is started. Move the edit cursor to the line containing the segment that you want to insert changes for, and then click the mouse on PROG/VOL CHANGES on the right side of the screen. An edit window with data fields for MIDI program and volume change commands on all 16 channels will appear. The segment number will be displayed at the top of the window. Data is entered in the usual manner for edit windows. MIDI program and volume numbers range from 0 - 127, though not all instruments respond to MIDI volume changes and most instruments do not use all 128 patch numbers. Different instrumens also use different patch numbering systems. MIDI patch number 0 will for example, call up patch off on an Oberheim Matrix 6, patch 1 on Yamaha instruments, preset 1 on a CZ-10l, and patch 11 on Korg instruments. In general when you have difficulties interfacing MIDI devices, the Doctor's precription is REXMAN (Relax, EXperiment, and read your owner's MANuals). The program and volume changes will be sent before the selected segment in played. No program or volume information will be sent for channels for which no data was entered. Insert and Delete ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on INSERT or pressing the INSERT key will open up a blank line, as in the other modes. Type in the new segments pressing RETURN after each one, or UNDO after any mistakes. Click the m*ouse on a new line to cancel INSERT. Pressing the DELETE key will delete the segment under the cursor. Copy Song to Song and Copy Song to Sequence ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COPY SONG TO SONG lets you copy the current song to the first unused song. COPY SONG TO SEQ lets you copy the segment list to an Open mode control sequence. Open mode control sequences, described in Chapter 4, provide a more general way to arrange your sequences into songs. If you decide that your song needs some more parts, you may want to use Copy Song to Seq to get the song into Open mode, and then add more parts using overdub or record with cue. Copying a song to a sequence is also a good starting point for understanding the structure of control sequences. you should remember that you cannot go the other way; there is no way to copy a control sequence to a song. Append and Delete Song ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can append another song to the current song or delete an unwanted song from memory by clicking on APPEND or DELETE SONG. Dialog boxes will prompt for the song to append or delete. Song to All Tracks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on this option will delete all tracks currently in Track mode memory and place the current song in all tracks by copying each sequence used in the song to all tracks. This is useful for overdubbing solo parts or controllers over an entire song: but makes editing the song more difficult. Since coping a song to all tracks requires quite a bit of the computers memory for work space, it is possible that you may get an "out of memory" message when doing this with a long song. Other Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The remaining options on the Song mode edit screen are identical to the coresponding options in Open and Track modes. See Chapters 4, 10 and 11 for more details on PLAY, LOAD/SAVE, SET OPTIONS, OPEN MODE, TRACK MODE, and QUIT. Chapter 6 ~~~~~~~~~ TRACK MODE PLAY/RECORD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Track mode play/record screen of the KCS functions as a 48 track tape recorder, with all the controls usually found on a mehanical tape recorder, as well as many more that have no counterparts on the physical instrument. All aspects of recording and playback are controlled in real time from the play/record screen. Track mode can be used in many different ways in composition. An entire piece can be recorded in Track mode, using tracks that run the whole length of the piece, or completed tracks can be moved to Open mode and linked with other tracks in Song mode, or in Open mode using control sequences. Play/Record ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Track mode play/record screen will appear whenever Track mode is entered from one of the other two modes, and when the program is first booted. The play/record screen looks like this: The screen is divided into three sections: the track status area, the control panet, and the message line. The track status apea, in the upper portion of the screen, displays the play status of each of the first 36 tracks. Activity on any track is also shown in the track status area by a musical note icon, which changes color as notes occur on that track. The control panel, in the lower part of the screen, contains a number of buttons and indicators which mimic the operation of a trap recorder, the message line, at the very bottom of the screen, displays messages relating to various controls that aren't shown on the control panbel. All of the buttons on the control panel can be activated with the mouse, or from the computer's key6board. In addition, there are a number of other controls which can be accessed only from the keyboard or the SET OPTIONS screen. Each control is described in detail later in this chapter. Each track has two designations: its track number, which is a number from 1 - 48, and an associated track key, which is a single key on the computer keyboard. Tracks are selected either by pressing the appropriate track key, or by clicking on that track in the status area. Selecting a track is not used to determine which track to record on, since recording is always done on the lowest numbered free track, but to apply the currently selected track option to a track. The track options are used to mute or solo a track, as well as for other functions. Recording in Track Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recording starts when a note is played on the controller connected to the computer's MIDI in, when the PLAY button is clicked, or when the FlO key (or the SPACE bar) is pressed. As soon as recording starts the visual metronome will start to flash, the audible metronome will start to beep, and the measure/step counter will start counting. Recording ends when the FlO key is pressed, or when the end of track 1 is reached, if track 1 has already been recorded. (The time at which recording stops is also affected by the ALIGN option, described later.) At this point, recording will start on the next available track, and continue until the end of track 1 is reached again. This process repeats until all 48 tracks are full, or until the sequencer is stopped. Recording can be turned on and off while the sequencer is running by clicking on the RECORD button or pressing F2, and all of the other controls can be changed during recoed or playback as well. Track Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The track options allow you to determine what will happen to a track when it is selected, either with the mouse or by pressing a track key. Only one track option can be active at a time. Some of the track options can be selected from the control panel or the keyboard, while others which are used less frequently can only be selected from the keyboard. The default track option is MUTE. When MUTE is active, selecting a track will "silence" that track; the track can be unmuted by selecting it a second time, as long as the MUTE track option is active. Muting a track will cause that track's status display to change from PLAY to MUTE. The other track options are SOLO, SET SWITCH, SET PUNCH, CLEAR/RESET PUNCH, ERASE PUNCH, COPY PUNCH, ERASE TRACK, SHIFT, SWAP, EDIT SELECT, and NAME. Each track option is described in detail later in this chapter. Punch-In ~~~~~~~~ Punching is used to replace a portion of an otherwise good track. The term "punching" is borrowed from multi track terminology, where it refers to re-recording a section of a track by punching the record button in at the start of the unwanted section and punching out at the end. Punching on the KCS is a little different than punching on a tape deck. Instead of erasing the punched portion of a track, the track is simply muted for the duration of the punch and new data is recorded on a new track. Once a good replacement track has been recorded, the original punched data can be erased and the two tracks merged. The details on punching can be found latcr in this chapter, in the section on the PUNCH buttons. RECORD ~~~~~~ The RECORD button on the control panel is used to turn recording on and off. This button will light up when recording is activated. Record can also be turned on or off with the F2 key. STOP, PAUSE, and PLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on STOP will stop playback of all tracks, complete the current recording (if record is on), and reset the sequencer to the beginning of all tracks, or to the current cue point, if one is selected. The ENTER key duplicates this function. Clicking on PAUSE or pressing the ESC key will temporarily stop the sequencer. Notes played on the keyboard will not be recorded when paused though controllers may be recorded depending on the setting of the CONTROLLER PAUSE switch on the SET OPTIONS screen. Clicking on PAUSE will restart the sequencer. PLAY starts the sequencer. If recording is enabled recording will start when PLAY is selected. If a cue point has been set, playback or recording will start from that point. Playback can also be started with the FlO key, the SPACE bar, or the right mouse button. CLOCK and MEASURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CLOCK display shows the current clock source, and the tempo of the internal clock. If MIDI is displayed next to CLOCK, then the external MIDI clock is in use. Otherwise, the internal clock tempo is shown in beats per minute (BPM). Clicking on the >> or << symbols will incrcase or decrease the internal tempo by an amount set by the TEMPO CHANGE BY RATIO control, described under HIDDEN CONTROLS, below. Holding the mouse button down while the mouse pointer is on one of these symbols will cause a rapid change in tempo. Pressing the, and . keys (COMMA and PERIOD) will also change the tempo. The MEASURE display shows the current location of the sequencer during record and playback, in measures and steps. RE-RECORD, RE-RECORD STOP and ERASE TRK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on RE-RECORD or pressing UNDO will erase the current track. Normally, this option will stop the sequencer and set the measure/step counter to the beginning of the sequence (or current cue point). The automatic stop feature can be turned off from the SET OPTIONS screen by turning off the RE-RECORD STOP button. In this case, clicking on RE-RECORD will erase the current track, without affecting the sequencer's playback. ERASE TRK causes the most recently recorded complete track to be erased, along with the current record track. This function is duplicated by the ? key. Be careful when using this button, as the sequencer will not ask you to confirm this selection before erasing these tracks! Tracks can also be erased with the erase track option. When this option (which can only be selected with the CLR HOWlE key) is active, selecting a track will erase that track. A question will appear on the message line to confirm this choice. Answer "y" to erase the track, or "n" to keep the track. Select another track option, such as MUTE, to turn this option off. CNTRLRS and AFTOUCH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These options are used to enable or disable the recording of MIDI controllers such as pitch bend patch changes and aftertouch. CNTRLRS affects all MIDI data except note data and aftertouch, and can also be toggled with the COLON (:) key. The AFTOUCH function is duplicated with the QUOTE (') key. When recording controllers, if a pitch bend or sustain pedal (CC 64) event is recorded, a zero pitch bend and/or sustain pedal off event are placed at the end of the recording. This prevents hanging or mistuned notes if the affected sequence is looped or joined to another sequence, either in Open mode or by using the DOUBLE or APPEND options in Trace mode. This is helpful in most circumstances, but you may need to edit these events out if you are recording a part that is to be spliced into an existing sequence. QUANT ~~~~~ When this switch is on, any events recorded will be rounded to the nearest time interval represented by the musical icon below the QUANT switch. This is similar to the AUTO-CORRECT edit option, but also effects controller and other non-note data types as well, and cannot be undone. Only quantize values represented by the available note icons may be selected from the play/record screen, but any value desired may be entered from the SET OPTIONS window. MERGE and ECHO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MERGE and ECHO buttons toggle the MIDI merge and echo features. MIDI merge is used to mix data from the computer's MIDI in with data from the sequencer, for transmission through the MIDI out jack. This is necessary when using the KCS in conjunction with a master keyboard to control a set of expander modules. ECHO is similar to MERGE, except that data is rechannelized prior to mergina and/or recording. Clicking on ECHO causes a display of the current echo channel to appear beneath the ECHO button; clicking on the associated >> and << symbols will change the echo channel. The functions of the MERGE and ECHO buttons are duplicated with the SEMICOLON (;) and BACKSPACE keys, respectively. When ECHO is active, the status of the MERGE switch is ignored. MUTE, SOLO and SET SWITCH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These three track options are used to selectively mute one or more tracks during playback. MUTE, which was described earlier in the section on track options can also be activated with the F3 key. A block of adjacent tracks can be muted or umuted by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse over those tracks. The status of each track will toggle as the mouse passes over it. The MUTE function can also be modified using the SHIFT and ALTERNATE keys in conjunction with the mouse. If ALTERNATE is held down while MUTE is active and a track is selected with the mouse, that track will be muted if it ts playing, but will not be unmuted is it is already muted. Conversely, holding down SHIFT while selecting a track with the mouse will unmute any muted tracks, but will not mute tracks. (Think of the ALTERNATE and SHIFT keys as meaning "mute only" and "unmute only" respectively.) The SOLO track option is used to solo a track, that is, mute all tracks except the selected track. Selecting the track a second time will unmute the other tracks. SOLO can also be selected by pressing F8. SET SWITCH is used to set up a "switch" which will alternately mute and unmute two selected tracks. Selecting a track after this option is chosen will change that track's status to SWITCH; selecting a second track will change the first track's status to PLAY and the second track's to MUTE. The RETURN key can then be used to alternately switch between the two tracks. After the second track is selected, the track option will automatically change to MUTE. The SET SWITCH option can only be selected with the F9 key, and not from the control panel. Note that muting a track which contains OFF events (which are only recorded for notes with release velocity or for notes greater than 999 steps long) could cause some notes to stick. Stopping the sequencer, or pressing the " (SHIFT-ACCENT) key, will clear any stuck notes. EXIT and Help ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clicking on EXIT or pressing F1 will stop the sequencer and transfer you to the Track mode edit screen. Pressing the HELP key will stop the sequencer and display a list of the track mode keyboard commands. These commands are also listded in the TRACK MODE COMMAND REFERENCE LISTS at the end of this manual. PUNCH ~~~~~ The buttons under PUNCH are used to access the sequencer's punch in and out capabilities. The punch buttons are all track options so only one can be selected at a time, and selecting any other track option will deselect the punch buttons. SET PTS is used to set the start and stop points for a punch. The F4 key duplicates this function. When this track option is active, selecting a track will set the start point for the punch: the track will also be muted and will appear in the status display under PUN. Selecting the track a second time will set the end point for the punch, and the track will be umnuted and the word ON will appear under PUN. If the track is not selected again before the track stops, the end punch point will default to the end of the track. As the track loops, the display under PUN will change from ON to OFF when the punched out section is playing, and back again when the end punch point is reached. If punch points have already been set for a track, then selecting that track will change either the start or end point of the punch. Selecting a track while that track is punched OUT will change the end punch point, and selecting the track while it is on will set a new start point. Each track can only have one set of punch points, but separate punch points can be set for as many tracks as needed. The clear punch points track option is selected by clicking on CLR PTS, or by pressing F5. Selecting a track while this option is active will temporarily remove the punch points in that track, and unmute the punched section. Click the mouse a second time to restore the punch points. Clicking on ERS PUN or pressing F6 selects the erase punch option. Selecting a track while this option is active erases the punched section of that track and optionally merges the most recently recorded track with the original. When a track is selected, a prompt asking for one of three keys to be pressed will appear on the message line. Press Y to erase the punched data, L to erase the punched data and merge the track with the last track recorded (thereby replacing the punched data), or N to cancel the command. CPY PUN or the F7 key will select the copy punch track option. Selecting a track with active punch points will copy the punched data to the next empty track, and delete that data from the original track. The new track will also be muted. CUE ~~~ The CUE button is used to activate Track mode's cue loop. When CUE is on, the sequencer will repeatedly loop the material contained between the start (FROM) and end (TO) points of the cue loop. Clicking on CUE will immediately start all tracks at the beginning of the cue loop; clicking on PLAY when the CUE button is lit has the same effect. The TAB key can also be used to activate the cue loop, and the SLASH (/) key will turn cueing off. The start and stop points for the cue loop can be changed in a number of ways. With the mouse, clicking on the > > and << symbols will move either cue point forward or backward. These controls are duplicated on the computer keyboard by the cursor control keys, with the CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN keys controlling the start point, and the CURSOR LEFT and CURSOR RIGHT keys affecting the end point. The amount the cue points move each time one of these buttons is pressed can bm changed with the INSERT key. Normally, the cue point move amount is one measure; pressing the INSERT key changes this to eight measures and pressing it again will change it back to one measure. The last one, two, four, or i@ght measures played can be replayed by pressing the LEFT BRACKET ([), RIGHT BRACKET (]), ACCENT('), and EQUAL (=) keys respectively, Pressing one of these keys will move the cue point back by the appropriate amount and start the sequencer at that point, though the cue loop will not be activated. These buttons are handy if you hear a mistake or other point of interest while listening to the tracks and want to hear it again. Cueing can be used for recording as well as playback. When a new track is recorded with the cue loop active, the program adds time to the beginning of that track to align it to the other tracks. If the start point for the cue loop has been changed since the last time the cue was played, there may be a slight delay between loops as the sequencer advances to the start of the loop. Track Merge ~~~~~~~~~~~ Pressing the BACKSLASH (\) key, just to the right of RETURN, selects the Track merge option. This is used to combine two or more tracks tnto a single track, which can simplify the editing of tracks that are on the same MIDl channel, and frees up tracks for further recording. When this option is selected, the message line will prompt you for a list of tracks to be merged; select the tracks with the mouse or the track keys, and press RETURN. Each track in the list will be merged with the lowest track, and then erased. ALlGN ~~~~~ The sequencer's ALIGN feature is used during recording to force the length of track 1 to a whole number of measures. If ALIGN is off while recording track 1, recording stops as soon as the sequencer is stopped, so the last measure of the track may be less than 96 steps (or whatever the current measure length is), and the sequencer will loop unevenly. When ALIGN is on, the sequencer will continue to record to the beginning of the next measure after recording is stopped. ALIGN is turned on and off with the DELETE key. Since track 1 sets the length of all tracks, ALlGN has no effect when recording tracks other than track 1. Hidden Controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are a number of other controls which can only be accessed from the keyboard. Most can also be set from the SET OPTIONS screen, which can be reached directly from the play/record screen by pressing 0 (ZERO) on the computer's typewriter keyboard. See the SET OPTIONS chapter for more on these controls. The HELP key and this manual's appendix also list the hidden control keys. When a hidden control is changed from the play/record screen, a message confirming the change will appear on the message line. Hidden controls can be changed while the sequencer is playing or recording. AUTO-RECORD is selecled with the | (SHIFT-BACKSLASH) key. When this switch is turned off the RECORD switch will turn on when it finishes recording a track. AUTO-RECORD is normally on. The visible metronome can be turned on or off with the $ (SHIFT-4) key, and the audible metronome is toggled with the % (SHIFT-5) key. The & (SHIFT-7) key disables the step display in the measure/step counter. Track looping is turned on or off with the ( (LEFT PARENTHESIS) key, and FILTER is toggled with the ) (RIGHT PARENTHESIS) key. The filter channel is a changed with the PLUS (SHIFT-EQUAL) and UNDERSCORE (SHIFT-MINUS) keys. SILENT PUNCH is turned on or off with the MINUS (-) key. TEMPO CHANGE BY RATIO is toggled between one BPM and 2.5% by pressing the ^ (SHIFT-6) key. A few hidden controls are not duplicated on the SET OPTIONS screen. The PANIC BUTTON (the ~ key, or SHIFT-ACCENT) sends an All Notes Off message on all 16 MIDI channels as well as sustain pedal off and zero pitch bend messages for the appropriaate channels. Pressing # (SHIFT-3) will mute all tracks and pressing @ (SHIFT-2) wills unmute all tracks regardless of their current statuses. Finally, the ! (SHIFT-1) key brings up the ALL TRACKS TO SEQ edit window, which is described in detail in Chapter 4. Track Shift, Swap, and Name ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Function keys Fll through F16 are used to select the SHIFT track options. The SHIFT options are used to shift a track forward or backward in time, relative to the other tracks. The shift amounts are + 1, + 3, + 12, -1, -3, and -12 for keys F11- F16. (Remember, function keys Fll to F20 are selected by pressing SHIFT and a function key from Fl to F10.) The DELETE key can be used to toggle between a positive and negative shift amount when a SHIFT option is active. Note that since the DELETE key is normally used to toggle ALIGN, the ALIGN feature can not be changed when a SHIFT option is active. The program cannot shift a track if its first event would be placed before the start of the track, which means that negative shift values cannot be used on tracks which start on the first beat. Nor will events shifted beyond the end of track 1 be phayed. Shifting a track changes the time value of the first event in the track by adding or subtracting the shift amoumt, and this change will be reflected in the event list on the edit screen. The TIME value for the first event of the track will be displayed in the right part of the message line whenever a SHIFT operation is performed. You should be careful to turn SHIFT off by clicking on the MUTE button when you are done shifting tracks, as we have found that it is easy to accidentlly mess up a track by shifting it when you really want to mute it. SWAP is activated by pressing F18. The SWAP track option is used to swap the position of two tracks in the track display. Since notes on the lower numbered tracks are played before notes on the higher tracks swapping tracks can be used to correct for minor timing problems caused Eyb MIDI bandwidth limitations or differences in instrument response times. See Chapter 13 for more on sequencer timing. When the NAME track option is selected with the F20 key, selecting a track will allow you to enter a name for that track. The input from the keyboard is not parsed (interpreted) as it is entered, so the BACKSPACE, DELETE, and similar keys will insert funky graphics symbols in the name, rather than performing the expected operations. Typing mktakes can be corrected from the edit screen. MIDI Song Pointer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If a MIDI song pointer message is received while in Track mode, the program will start all tracks from the specifed point. Song pointer messages will be ignored if the clock source, on the SET OPTIONS screen, is not set to MIDI WITH SONG POINTER. The correct time value will be inserted at the beginning of any track that is recorded after a song pointer message is received. Song pointer is sent by the sequencer at the beginning of the cue loop, if cueing is activated and if SONG POINTER SEND has been enabled, as described in Chapter 11. Countin ~~~~~~~ If a countin has been set on the SET OPTIONS screen the program, will wait for the programmed number of steps before starting to play or record. For example, a value of 96 will create a one measure countin. The metronone will sound and MIDI clock will be sent during the countin. Velocity Pedal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The velocity pedal feature of the KCS allows you to modify the note on velocities of a part being recorded with a continuous controller. This can be used, for example, to play accents on synths which recognize velocity but don't send it, or to do a MIDI mixdown on a synth which recognizes velocity but not volume control. In conjunction with the live edit feature described later in this chapter or the loopback recording technique discussed in Chapter 13, the velocity pedal can be used to affect velocities of previously recorded tracks or sequences as well. When velocity pedal is active, all continuous controllers on the velocity pedal channel (which is set from the SET OPTIONS screen only) will be combined with the note velocities of the incoming MIDI data in one of three ways. The three velocity pedal modes are selected with the F19 (SHIFT-F9) key, which is also used to turn the velocity pedal on or off. When the velocity pedal is on, control changes on the velocity pedal channel are not recorded or merged by the program. Pitch bend and aftertouch are not used for the velocity pedal. Pressing F19 once selects the FULL velocity pedal mode, where the note on velocities are simply replaced with the last controller value received. FULL is most useful when recording a part from a non-velocity sensitive keyboard, which is played on a velocity sensitive slave. A mod wheel or foot pedal can be used to set the not velocity between 1 and 127, regardless of how hard you strike the keys. MIX averages the last controller value received with the velocity of the note. This is most useful for making minor changes in a previously recorded track using live edit or loopback recording. SCALE combines the last controller value and the note velocities in such a way that the controller has more effect at the top and bottom of its range, but very little near the middle. For example, if the controaler is at or near 1, the recorded velocities will be at or near 1, no matter how hard the keys are struck. If the controller is at or near 127, the recorded velocities will be at or near 127. BUT, if the controller is near 64 (the center of its range), the recorded velocities will be determined mostly by the note velocities sent by the keybeard. SCALE is best suited to major editing on prerecorded tracks or sequences using live edit or loopback recordmg. Note that the velocity pedal channel, on the SET OPTIONS screen, need not be set to the channel that the keyboard or receiving synth is on, but must be set to the channel of the device with the continuous controller beung used. Live Edit ~~~~~~~~~ Live edit is an advanced feature of the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer which allows you to delete notes from a track or alter their velocities in real time, as the sequencer is playing. Since live edit is much more complicated than the other features of Track mode, we recommend that you become thoroughly familiar with the rest of the KCS before diving into live editing. Live edit is activated by selecting the EDIT SELECT track option with the F17 (SHIFT-F7) key. When this option is selected the words EDIT SELECT will appear in the message line, and the PUNCH buttons will be replaced with a set of EDIT buttons. The edit buttons are used to handle backup tracks and to turn live editing off and the ALTERNATE CONTROL, and LEFT and RIGHT SHIFT keys are used to edit the selected track. When a track is selected, the word EDIT will appear in its status display and a backup track will be created in the first available track. The track can now be edited with the keys mentioned earlier. RIGHT SHIFT will delete notes that play while it is held down, by replacing them with DE events. ALTERNATE will replace note velocities with velocity value Y from the step time record screen, which defaults to 127. If one of the true velocity pedal options is selected, pressing ALTERNATE will set the note velocities from the velocity pedal. LEFT SHIFT will replace note velocities with step time velocity value W (default 64). ALTERNATE plus LEFT SHIFT will replace note velocities with step time velocity value U (default 16). CONTROL will replace notes in the edit track with notes from, the backup track. Normally, this acts as an "undo" command but can also be used as a compositional device if the backup track is changed from the edit screen. For instance, if the backup is transposed up an octave, then pressing CONTROL will have the effect of transposing notes up an octave when it is pressed. The edit buttons are used to manage the current edit track's backup tract and to disable or exit from live edit. Clicking on an edit button will affect only the currently selected edit track. The BACKUP button will replace the backup track with the edited track. Use this only when you are satisfied with any editing you have done, and be careful, as the original track will be lost when this button is pressed. RESTORE is the opposite of BACKUP. It replaces the edid track with its backup track. Use this when you make catastrophic mistakes in your editing. DONE changes the status of the track from EDIT to PLAY, and turns off live editing for that track. The backup track can be deleted as well, if desired. Clicking on DONE again will replace the edit buttons with the punch buttons; pressing the * (SHIFT-8) key has the same effect. OFF temporarily disables the editing keys, without turning live edit off. This allows you to select functions which require the SHIFT keys, such as velocity pedal or certain track options. Note that OFF doesn't turn live editing off - that is done with the DONE button. Chapter 7 ~~~~~~~~~ OPEN MODE PLAY/RECORD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open mode is the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer's generalized sequencing mode. In Open mode, you can define up to 128 independent sequences, any number of whdch may be played back simultaneously. These may be completely independent of each other, or some sequences may include commands to start and stop other sequences. A sequence which starts or stops another sequence is called a control sequence. By chaining control sequences together, you can realize very complex pieces of music. Chapter 4 describes how you can create control sequences using the edit screen. There are two types of sequences: primary and secondary. Primary sequences are designated by the numbers 1 - 9 and the letters A - Z, and are activated from the Open mode play screen by pressing the corresponding key on the typewriter keyboard. Secondary sequences are designated by the two digit numbers 00 - 92. They are activated from the Open mode play screen by typing two digts on the numeric keypad on the right side of the computer keyboard. Play/Record Screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Entering Open mode from either the Track or Song mode edit screens will place you on the Open mode edit screen. The play/record screen is entered by double clicking the right mouse button, by clicking on PLAY and selecting GO TO PLAY SCREEN, or by single clicking the ri@ht mouse button while holding down the SHIFT key. The program uses the same screen for both play and record operations. An important difference between Open mode and Track mode is that going to the Open mode play screen does not automatically allow you to record. To record in Open mode, you must eiiher select the RECORD option from the edit screen, or activate Open mode real time recording from the play screen. This procedure is described in detail later in this chapter. The Open mode play/record screen looks like this: The play screen consists of two areas: the sequence area at the top, and the status lines at the bottom of the screen. The sequence area shows the status of the 35 primary sequences and the first 45 secondary sequences. (The remaining secondary sequences can be played from this screen as well, but no status information is shown for these sequences.) Four consecutive sequences are displayed on each lime. The P, F and W columns contain information concerning the status of each sequence. The S (Sequence) column contains the designator for each of the 80 sequences displayed. The RE (REpeats) column shows the number of repeats programmed for each sequence. A 99 in the RE column means that the sequence will loop indefinitely. NAME shows the name of each sequence. The P (Play) column shows the number of times each sequence has left to play and counts down as each repitition of the sequence occurs. A 9 will be displayed in the P column if that sequence has nine or more repeats left to play. The F (From) colunn contains the letter or number of the control sequence that started the sequence. This field is blank if the sequence was started from the computer keyboard. A W in the W (Wait) column indicates that the sequence is currently waiting for another sequence to finish, and an M means the sequence is currently muted. The status lines at the bottom of the screen display information about various record and play options and also show the measue/step counter, the real time clock and the clock source or tempo. The words RECORD, CUE, MIDI MERGE, PAUSE, etc. will appear on the status lines when these features are activated and dissappear from the status lines when they are de-actavated. The current cue point and cue sequence are also shown. CLOCK, Metronome and Measure/Step Display ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The cunrent clock source is displayed next to the word CLOCK on the next to last line. This will be the current clock rate in beats/minute if the internal clock display is being used, MIDI if MIDI clock is being used without song pointer, or MIDI WITH SP if MIDI clock is bemg used with song pointer. If the internal clock is in use, the clock rate can be changed during play by using the COMMA (,) key to increase the tempo, or the PERIOD (.) key to decrease the tempo. The clock rate can also be changed from within a sequence using TM, AC, or DC events, or from the SET OPTIONS screen, described in Chapter 11. The SET OPTIONS screen is the only way to change the clock source. The measure/step counter displays the current measure and step being played. It will be reset to measure 1 if you press UNDO to stop all sequences or CLR HOME to erase the current recording. It will be set to the cue or song pointer location if you start a cue or a song pointer message is received. The program provides both a visible and an audible metronome. The visible metronome appears in the bottom, right hand corner of the screen. The audible metronome can be heard through the speaker of your monitor. The separation between metronome clicks can be programmed from the SET OPTIONS screen. Playing Sequences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Primary sequences 1 - 9 and A - X are started by pressing a key on the typewriter keyboard, and secondary sequences 00 - 92 can be started by typing a two digit number on the numeric keypad. (Primary sequence 1 - 9 cannot be started from the numeric keyboard, nor can secondary sequences be started from the typewriter keyboard.) If ALIGN is turned off, the sequence will start immediately; otherwise it will wait for the beginning of the next measure and then start. The numeric keypad also has a "bank lock" feature, which allows selecting any secondary sequence from within a bank of ten sequences using a single key. Pressing the ASTERISK (*) key on the numeric keypad after entering one or both digits of a secondary sequence will lock the 10's place (the first digit) of that number, and subsequent numeric keypad digits will immediately start the appropriate sequence in the bank. For example, pressing on the numeric keypad after pressing 1 will lock the 1 in as the first digit of the secondary sequence, and pressing numeric keys 2, 3, and 4 will start sequences 12, 13, and 14. Bank lock is turned off with the ( (LEFT PARENTHESIS) key on the numeric keypad. The most recently started secondary sequence is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen, which is helpful when you are using the bank lock feature, and the word BANK will appear beside the sequence number if bank lock is turned on. Normally, the sequence will play for the programmed number of repeats and stop. To stop a sequence from, looping press the appropriate sequence key or numeric keypad number once. The sequence will play to the end and then stop. To stop a sequence immediately, press the sequence key or number twice if it is looping, or once if it is in its last play. To play several sequences at once, press the ESC key to put the program into pause, start the sequences, then press ESC again. Muting Primary Sequences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To mute any primary sequence that is playing press SHIFT and the sequence key simultaneously. An M will appear under the W heading for the sequence. The sequence will continue to keep time, but no events will be sounded. Notes currently playing will be shut off unless they were defined with separate ON and OFF events. Such notes will stick until Fl, UNDO, or the PANIC BUTTON is pressed. To unmute a sequence, press the sequence key again (no SHIFIt this time). The M will disappear and the sequence will resume sounding at the same point it would have been at, had the mute feature not been invoked. Use mute to cue in and out multiple overdubs in real time, or to isolate and listen to individual sequences. Secondary sequences cannot be muted from the Open mode play screen, though they can be muted and unmuted with MS and US events. Cancel ~~~~~~ Pressing the UNDO key will canccl, or stop, all active sequences, and set the measure counter to 0. If you are currently recording it will erase the recorded sequence and allow you to start recording again. Cancel will not erase a sequence which you recorded earlier in the current play/record session. Pause ~~~~~ The ESC key can be used as a pause button during playback or record. Pressing ESC shuts off any notes being played and stops the internal clock, or if MIDI clock is being used, all clocks will be ignored until the pause button is pressed again. The word PAUSE is displayed on the middle status line until it is deactivated or you leave the play/record screen. Notes played on the keyboard are not recorded when paused, but the last controller of each type played is recorded, if the CONTROLLER PAUSE switch is active on the SET OPTIONS screen. See Chapter 11 for more details. Cueing ~~~~~~ The TAB key activates the cue feature. Each time you press the TAB key the cue sequence will begin playing from the cue point. Program changes that occur earlier in the cue sequence will be sent over MIDI, and sequence start events and tempo changes will be executed. The cue sequence is set from the play options dialog box described in Chapter 4. It can also be changed from the play/record screen using the left and right cursor control keys. The CURSOR LEFT key decreases the cue sequence by one, and the CURSOR RIGHT key increases the cue sequence by one. The cue point determines where phayback will begin in the cue sequence. This also can bm set from the play options dialog box and changed from the play/record screen using the CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN keys and the INSERT key. The up arrow moves the cue point higher, the down arrow moves the cue point lower, and INSERT tnggles the amount that the cue point moves between one measure and eight measures. The cue feature is particularly useful when the cue sequence is a control sequence that plays an entire piece. You can use cue to hear the piece starting from any point. By keeping alternate arrangemems of your songs on consecutive sequence keys, you can quickly go back and forth between the same pmint of different arrangements of a piece with the cursor keys. Align ~~~~~ When activated, ALlGN forces the program to wait till the end of a measure before exiting the record mode. This assures that all sequences recorded will loop properly. ALIGN also forces all sequences that are started from the computer keyboard to wait until the beginning of the next measure before playing. ALlGN is normally on when recording, and off when in play and not recording. It can be toggled on or off with the DELETE key. MIDI Merge ~~~~~~~~~~ MIDI MERGE is activated by pressing the SEMICOLON (:) key. All incoming MIDI data, including system exclusive messages received by the computer is merged with the sequence data being played. Press the : key again to de-activate MIDI merging. MIDI mergng is disabled when ECHO is on. Echo ~~~~ The ECHO feature is used to rechannelize MIDI data recorded by the program and send it out the computer's MIDI out. This allows you to record on any channel while using a keyboard controller that transmits on a single channel. If ECHO is active, the word ECHO will appear on the bottom of the screen, followed by the echo channel. You can use the BACKSPACE key to toggle echoing on and off from the play/record screen, and use the > and < (SHIFT-PERIOD and SHIFT-COMMA) keys to increase or dccrease the echo channel. Filter ~~~~~~ FILTER is used to force the sequencer to accept MIDI data on only one channel, the filter channel. Incoming data on other channels as ignored. FILTER is turned on with the ) (RIGHT PARENTHESIS) key, and the filter channel can be lowered or raised with the UNDERSCORE (SHIFT-MINUS) or PLUS ( + ) keys respectively. Set Options and Help ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The SET OPTIONS screen can be reached directly from, the Open mode play screen by pressing the 0 (ZERO) key. The SET OPTIONS screen is described in Chapter 11. Pressing the HELP key will bring up the Open mode help screen, which shows the functions of each key on the computer keyboard in Open mode. These functions are also summarized in the Appendix to this manual. Exit ~~~~ Pressing F1 will immediately end the play/record process and take you dirctly to the edit screen. The left mouse button duplicates this function in Open mode. Panic Button ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pressing the ~ (SHIFT-ACCENT) key will send All Notes Off messages on all 16 MIDI channels. This is useful for canceling stuck notes on any synthesizers that, for one reason or another, did not receive a note off message. The All Notes Off message is not recognized by all instruments, so this button may not always clear all stuck notes. The panic button also clears any sustain pedal or pitch bend settings that may have been left "hanging". Recording in Open Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open mode recording can be selected in one of two ways. Clicking on RECORD from the Open mode edit screen will bring up an edit window which allows you to select one of four recording methods, or pressing the RETURN or ENTER keys on the Open mode 1 play screen will enable real time recording. Generally speaking selecting RECORD from the edit screen provides more flexibility in recording while the RETURN/ENTER method is more convenient if you are playing an Open mode sequence and want to record a part whenever inspiration strikes. Real time recording is described later in the chapter. When you select RECORD from, the edit screen, an edit window will ask which sequence you want to record, and will also present a set of record options. The sequence will default to the next empty sequence, or you can enter a sequence. Enter one key for a primary sequence or two digits for a secondary sequence. Remember that sequences Y and Z are reserved for internal use by the program and cannot be recorded. Four record options are displayed in the left part of the edit window, one of which must ge selected. STEP TIME allows you to create a sequence using a method similar to step mode entry on a drum machine. Step time entry is useful for entering fast arpeggios, regular chord patterns or other parts with few changes in note to note timiing. The step time recording process is described in detail in Chapter 9. REAL TIME records events from the synthesizer keyboard in real time. In this mode the program is similar to a tape recorder, recording all notes as you play. OVERDUB will automatically play the overdub sequence and set the length of the current sequence to match that of the sequence you are overdubbing to. You must select an existing sequence to overdub to if you choose OVERDUB. RECORD WITH CUE is another way to record a new sequence in sync with an existing sequence. RECORD WITH CUE differs from OVERDUB in that the existing sequence may be started at any measure. It is particularly useful when the existing sequence is a partly completed song that you want to add parts to in specific places. You must select an existing sequence to be the cue sequence. The real time record options are described in detail later in this chapter. Controllers, Aftertouch, Note Off Vel, and Echo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These record options set the sequencer to record or ignore MIDI controllers, aftertouch, and note off (release) velocity. CONTROLLERS enables the recording of pitch bend, control changes, and program changes. If a pitch bend or sustain pedal (MIDI controller 64) event is recorded, a zero pitch bend or sustain pedal off message will be placed at the end of the recording. AFTERTOUCH controls the recording of aftertouch (pressure) information. Since aftertouch and controller data use such large chunks of memory, it is best to disable CONTROLLERS and AFTERTOUCH uless specifically required. NOTE OFF VEL allows separate storage of note off events, including note off velocity. There are only a few synths capable of sending and receiving note off velocity. Notes recorded with note on velocity are stored as separate note on and note off events, and are more difficult to edit. The KCS can only remember to hold down 64 notes (on all synths) at one time using ON events, so if you need more than that, you need to record some parts with note off velocity. The letters C A O will appear beside RECORD on the play/record screen if any of these options are turned on. The options can also be turned on and off directly from the play/record screen. The COLON (:) key toggles controllers, the QUOTE (') key aftertouch, and the DOUBLE QUOTE (") key note off velocity. ECHO can also be toggled from this window. ECHO is described earlier in this chapter. Real Time Record ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you select the REAL TIME, OVERDUB, or RECORD WITH CUE options, the play/record screen will be diplayed. The only visible differences between play and record are that the words RECORD and ALIGN appear at the bottom of the screen along with any other active record options. The following example shows the screen that would appear if your first action in Open mode is to record sequence 2, echoing onto channel 4. The number of the sequence being recorded is shown in red on a color monitor. When you besn playing on the synth keyboard, the metronoe (bottom right of screen) will begin flashing and the measure/step counter will start counting up. A metronome will also sound on your monitor speaker. If you did not specify a name, the MIDI channel of the first event recorded will be d@splayed under NAME. If you want to begin the sequence with a rest, press the FlO key. If, during recording you make a mistake and wish to start again press the UNDO key. The current recordLng will be erased and the program will start recording again when you play the keyboard or press FlO. When you have finished recording press FlO and the sequence will begin playing back immediately if ALIGN is off or when the measure completes if ALIGN is on. If your new sequence is playing back and you decide you don't like it, you can erase it and record again by pressing CLR HOME. Recording will start again when you play the keybeard or press FlO. Press FlO a second time to end recording and hear what you just played. All of the play features described earlier in this chapter also function when recording. To stop recording and go to the edit screen, press Fl. As mentioned earlier, real time recording can also be selected directly from the Open mode play screen by pressing the RETURN or ENTER key. If RETURN is pressed, recording will start as soon as a note on or other relevant MIDI event is received at the MIDI in jack, and if ENTER is pressed, recordjng begins immediately. The first unused sequence will be used for recording. Pressing FlO will turn recording off and play the newly recorded sequence, pressing UNDO will erase the current recording and stop all sequences, and the CLR HOME key will erase the last sequence recorded in the current session. Additional Open mode sequences can be recorded in a single real time recording session by pressing either RETURN or ENTER, even if recording was initiated from the edit screen. This process can be repeated as many times as needed, to record additonal sequences. Overdub ~~~~~~~ The OVERDUB option allows you to record a new sequence in sync with an existing sequence called the overdub sequence which is automatically played back by the prograrn as you record. You can start the overdub process by playing a note on your synth or by pressing F10. In either case, the overdub sequence will automatically be started and recording will begin. When the overdub sequence completes, the program will automatically end the recording process and play back both sequences together. If you make a mistake during recording or are dissatisfied after the recording, you can use the UNDO or CLR HOME keys to start over, as described above under REAL TIME RECORD. Since the overdub sequence can be any Open mode sequence, including a control sequence, It is possible to overdub a sequence to a section of a song, or an entire piece. Overdubbing to a control sequence is done in the same mamer as overdubbing to any other sequence. If you start the overdub sequence with FlO and don't play any notes at all before it ends, the overdub sequence will still loop, and the program will remain in record. This allows you to listen to your overdub sequence a few times before recording. Record with Cue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RECORD WITH CUE is very similar to OVERDUB, but allows you to start the overdub sequence at any measure. This is useful for things like adding tom fills to a section, adding some grace notes to a long piano sequence, or adding controllers to a piece after the basic arrangement was done. The program will automatically insert the correct amount of time before the first event. When the RECORD OPTIONS edit window is displayed, select RECORD WITH CUE and then click the mouse to OVERDUB/CUE SEQ, and enter a sequence key or number. If you select an unused sequence, the program will alert you. You can also set a new cue point at this time. This will be the measure at which the program will start the cue sequence. When you get to the play/record screen the cue sequence and cue point displays will reflect the values you entered. Play a note or press FlO to start recording. The cue sequence will begin playing at the specifed cue point. Press FlO when you have completed recording. Both the cue sequence and sequence you recorded will start playing back from the selected cue point. You can restart both sequences at any later time by pressing FlO or TAB. If you make mistakes and want to start over, you can press UNDO if you are still recording or CLR HOME if you have completed recording. The program will erase your recording and return to the beginning of the recording procedure. Recording with Velocity Pedal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the VELOCITY PEDAL option has been activated from the SET OPTIONS or Track mode record screens, the sequencer will not directly record note on velocities, but will instead record values based on the position of any continuous controllers on the velocity pedal channel. The velocity pedal function cannot be accessed from the Open mode play/record screen. See the chapter on the Track mode play/record screen for more information on the velocity pedal. Recording with a Countin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can use the SET OPTIONS screen to set a recoring countin. This allows you to use the metronome or an external MIDI drum machine to get the feel for a few beats before recording. If you are using a countin, press F10 when you are ready to record or overdub. The program will sound the metronome and send MIDI clock, but it will not start recording or start the overdub sequence until the number of steps specified for the countin have passed. MIDI Song Pointer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the MIDI W SONG POINTER clock sourse option was selected from the SET OPTIONS screen, and the program receives a MIDI song pointer message during Open mode play, the program will turn on all active sequences, and start the current cue sequence at the point specified by the song pointer message. The only MIDI events that will be sent while the program is chasing the song pointer are program changes. It may take a few seconds for the program to chase many measures into a complex piece, and songs with a lot of continuous controller data will take a little longer than other songs. Recording with song pointer is similar to recording with cue. If the clock source has been set to MIDI WITH SONG POINTER, and the program receives a song pointer message, the cue sequence will be started at the location specifed by the song pointer message, and recording will begin. If a second song pointer message is received, and no notes have been recorded, the program will start the record process again. If a second song pointer message is receeved after some notes have been recorded, the program will end recording and play back both the cue sequence and the newly recorded sequence, starting at the song pointer location. You can still use CLR HOME to erase the new sequence and restart the recording process. Chapter 8 ~~~~~~~~~ Song Mode Play ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Song mode play screen allows you to play songs created on the song mode edit screen described in Chapter 5. You cannot record while in Song mode. The Song mode pIay screen is reached from the Song edit screen by clicking on PLAY or pressing the right mouse button. The following example shows the Song mode play screen as it might look before a song is started: The Song mode play screen has severl sections. The top line has the song number and title. The bottom of the screen is used for status lines, as in Open and Track modes. Most of the rest of the screen is used for a list of up to 48 song segments. A song can have up to 100 segments, but only the first 48 can be seen on the play screen. Each song segment shown has a number , and a segment key. The segment keys are used to select segments much like track keys can be used to select tracks in Track mode. Typewriter keys 1 - 9 are used for segments 1 - 9, keys A - Z for segments 10 - 35, and keys on the numeric keypad for segments 36 - 48. There is also a set of segment/channel options, seleted with the function keys which determine how the song is affected by selecting a segment. Each segment plays a single Open mode sequence. The sequence key (for primary sequences) or a two digit sequence number (for secondary sequences) is shown in the SQ column. The sequence name is displayed in the NAME column, and the number of times the segment is to play is shown under REP. Other information will appear in the REP column as the song is played. The right edge of the screen displays the status of the 16 MIDI channels. Each channel has a channel number and a corresponding key (1 - 9 and A - G). Channels can be soloed and muted, in the same way that tracks are in Track mode. Playing the Song ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The song is started by pressing FlO or clicking the right mouse button. When play starts, the measure/step counter starts to count, and a red musical note will appear in the REP column for segment 1. This symbol indicates the segment currently playing. If the segment is programmed to play more than once, the number in the REP column will count down as it plays. PAUSE and MIDI MERGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Song can be paused at any point by pressing the ESC key; pressing ESC a second time lets the song continue. MIDI merging can be toggled using the SEMICOLON (;) key. PAUSE or MIDI MERGE will appear in red on the status line if either of these functions are active. See the chapters on the Track and Open mode play screens for details on PAUSE and MIDI MERGE. Cueing and Single Segment Looping ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A song may also be started at an arbitrary cue point, just as in Track and Open modes. Pressing the TAB key stacts the song at the current cue point. The cue point is moved forward or backward using the CURSOR UP and CURSOR DOWN keys, and the cue point move amount is toggled between one and eight measures with the INSERT key. See the chapters on the Track and Open mode play screens for more details on cueing. The F2 key will cause the current segment to loop indeinitely. 99L appears under REF to show looping, Pressing F2 again will cause the segment to end after its current play. Segment/Channel Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Song mode provides seven segment/channel options channel which allow you to alter the playback of a song just as the track options discussed in Chapter 6 allow you to alter the playbach of individual tracks. These options can assist you in composition by allowing you to hear sections of a piece in different contexts and instrunents in different combinations. They can also be used to provide real time control in performance. The current segment or channel option is selected with one of the function keys F3 - F9. Pressing a segment or channel key will cause the current option to be applied to the corresponding segment or channel. The segment/channel options are MUTE/UNMUTE, PLAY IMMEDIATE, PLAY AFTER CURRENT, SET LOOP START, SET LOOP END, SOLO, and SET SWITCH. The MUTE/UNMUTE, SOLO, and SET SWITCH options are similar to the corresponding options in Track mode, but they apply to MIDI channels instead of tracks. The PLAY IMMEDIATE, PLAY AFTER CURRENT, SET LOOP START, and SET LOOP END options are unique to Song mode and apply to segments. The current segment/channel option is displayed on the right end of the top status line. The default is PLAY IMMEDIATE, as shown in the screen example on the last page. Only one segment option or one channel option may be active at any time. MUTE, SOLO and SET SWITCH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MUTE, SOLO, and SET SWITCH options are very similar to the corresponding options in Track mode. MUTE is selected with the F3 key, SOLO with F8, and SET SWITCH with F9. When one of these options is active, keys 1 - 9 control channels 1 - 9, while keys A - G control channels 10 - 16. When a channel is muted, MIDI data for that channel is not sent. When a channel is soloed, only data for that channel is sent. When a switch between two channels is set, the RETURN key alternately mutes one channel and unmutes the other. The words MUTE, SOLO, or SWIT will appear next to a channel which is currently muted or soloed, or for which a switch is in the process of being set. See the chapter on the Track mode play screen for more details on muting soloing or switching. PLAY IMMEDIATE and PLAY AFTER CURRENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These features allow you to alter the order in which segments as a song is playing. When PLAY is active, pressing the segment key for any segment tn the song will cause the program to immediately stop playing the current segment and start the new segment. The song will then continue normally from that segment. PLAY AFTER CURRENT differs from PLAY IMMEDIATE in that the current segment is allowed to finish its current repetition before the new segment is started. This is especially useful when altering the structure of a song in real time with Song mode's interactive control features. Song Mode Loops ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Song mode allows you to set a starting and ending loop point, and to loop the song between these points. The loop points are defined in terms of segment numbers, not measures. The SET LOOP START and SET LOOP END Segment options allow you to set the starting and ending segments for the loop. The letters B and E will appear in the REP column next to the beginning and end segments of the loop as they are set. Pressing the SLASH (/) key turns looping on and off. The word LOOP appears on the left end of the top status line when looping is active. The followng example shows the Song mode play screen after a song has been started, and loop points set: In this example, a loop has been set up between segments 3 and 5. Since looping is actiwe, segments 3, 4, and 5 will play repeatedly until the loop as turned off with the / key. The red musical note indicates that segment 5 is currently playing. Channels 3 and 5 have been muted. MIDI events on these channels other than program changes will be ignored. The segment/channel option is PLAY IMMEDIATE. Pressing any key in the range 1 - 6 will cause the program to immediately jump to the beginning of the corresponding segment. Song Pointer in Song Mode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the MIDI W SONG POINTER clock option has been selected on the SET OPTIONS screen, and a song pointer message is received, the program will start playing the current song from the point specified by the song pointer message. Exit ~~~~ Press Fl or the left mouse button to exit to the Song mode edit screen. Chapter 9 ~~~~~~~~~ STEP TIME RECORDING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The step time recording features of the KCS allow you to record note information from your synthesizer keyboard, while using the computer keyboard or mouse to specify tuning information. Note velocity can be specified from either keyboard. This can be a faster and more intuitive way of precisely entering rhythmically regular passages than the typing method described in Chapter 4. It is particularly convenient in Track mode, as the new passage can be played along with tracks that were previously recorded. The step time recording screen contains fifteen choices fOf note times, fifteen choices for note durations and six choices for note velocity. The current choices are indicated by a red asterisk. As you play notes on the synth keyboard they are recorded with the current time, duration, and velocity values. Each choice is assigned to one of the numeric or alphabitic keys shown to the left of the possible values. You can make a new choice for time, velocity or duration by pressing the appropriate key on the computer keyboard, or by clicking the mouse on your choice. The red asterisk will move to display your choice. If you select a zero velocity which is norally assigned to the Z key the program will record the actual velocity with which each note is played on your synth. End of Part 2 .... Now Load Part 3