************************************************************************** - THE LEGENDARY >> SUBSOFTWARE << IN 90 !!! =========================================== - CONTACT US - BP: 36 - - 1380 REBECK - - BELGIUM - - DON'T SEND ANY DISKS - ************************************************************************** Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHAPTER 1 ~~~~~~~~~ GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you for purchasing Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer for the Atari ST or Commodore Amiga. You now owm the most powerful music processing program available at this time. Before reading this manual, check your disk directory for a file entitled README. If one exists print or view the file before diving into the manual. The file contains any corrections or additions to this manual which were made after it went to press. This manual is current for version 1.6 of the KCS. If you haven't already done so, turn to Appendix 1 of this manual and read it carefully. This appendix contains important information on obtaining backups, warranty service, and customer support. We have made every effort to test the program and eliminate serious software bugs. Still, there is always some possibility that bugs exist. We suggest that you become thoroughly familiar wdth the program before using the sequencer on stage. Dr. T's music Software assumes NO RESPONSIBILlTY for losses caused by software errors or other problems in using the program! How to Use This Manual ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Keyboard Controlled Sequencer is a program which operates in three modes and performs several independent, yet inter-retated, functions. Our philosophy in designing this program has been to give the musician a wide variety of methods for creating and manipulating music while imposing a bare minimum, of restrictions on the form of that music. This allows each user to develop a unique method of creating music without regard to our own ideas of what form the music should or should not take. In addition to this chapter, the manual contains two short tutorial chapters describing the six disk operations and sequencer options, and several chapters of application notes and general information. We recommend that you start by reading this chapter and the tutorials, followed by Chapter 4 (OPEN AND TRACK MODE EDITING) for more information on editing and Chapter 11 (SET OPTIONS) for information on the sequencer's operating parameters. Refer to the other chapters as the need arises. Once you become familiar with all the features of the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer, you will develop your owm method of using it, depending on the equipment you are using and your own personal approach to music. Program Overview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Keyboard Controlled Sequencer provides three distinct modes of operation: Track mode, Open mode, and Song mode. In Track mode, the program acts as a 48 track tape recorder with many special functions that make it far more powerful than an actual tape deck. Open mode is a more generalized sequencing system which allows for completely independent looping of up to 128 separate sequences. Song mode is used to chain sequences created Track and Open modes into complete songs much like a drum machine. The three modes allow different approaches to be used for different pieces of music depending on the requirements of the piece or the mood of the composer. An entire song can be done in Track or Open mode without ever going to the other two modes or a composition could be started in one mode, edited in another, and completed in a third mode. Individual notes, phrases sequences or entire songs can be easily transferred between the various modes using special copy commands, or with cut and paste techniques. Sequences and tracks can also be merged, unmerged, split, or appended to other sequences or tracks. Sequences and tracks can contain any type of MIDI data including note data, continuous controllers pitch bend, aftertouch, system exclusive messages, and real time commands. Tempo changes can be added at any point in a track or sequence. In addition, Open mode sequences can contain events which start, stop, and otherwise influence other Open mode Sequences. This provides a means for creating music of enormous complexity, or it can be used simply as an alternate method for creating traditional song structures. Each mode has its own edit and play/record screens. While each edit screen has some unique features, many of the editing commands, as well as the overall operation of the edit screens, are similar in all three modes. The three play screens each have their own special methods for interacting with a sequence as it is Playlng. Which mode you choose for a given piece of music will depend on your level of familiarity with the program, as well as the requirements of the piece. Users who are familiar with the Commodore or Apple versions of the KCS will probably want to dive right into Open mode, to take advantage of its expanded structuring capabilities. If you are new to sequencing but are familiar with multi-track tape recording you may want to work exclusively in Track mode until you have finished a couple of small pieces. Once you feel comfortable with Track mode, you can transfer your tracks to Open mode for assembly into songs, either in Song mode or, after you've gained more experience, with Open mode control sequences. We do some or our pieces exclusively in Track mode, other pieces in Track and Song modes, and other pieces using the generalized control structure of Open mode. The KCS supports a number of load and save operations, for maximum flexibility in transferring music from one file to another. Indivdual songs, tracks, and sequences may be saved, all 48 tracks may be saved as a block, or the entire contents of memory . may be saved. MIDI files are supported via an external conversion program, and the settings of a number of important playback and record options can be saved in an "environment" file. As with any piece of Software, it is a good idea to periodically save a copy of your work to disk in case of an accident. Any work which takes more than 15 minutes is probable worth backing up, and you should also keep alternate takes of pieces in progress, as well as archive copies of completed works. Open Mode Sequences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A sequence in Open mode may contain any type of MIDI data or commands to start or stop other sequences. Sequences are divided into two types, primary and secondary. There are 35 primary sequencesc designated by the single numerals 1 - 9, and the letters A - Z. Primary sequences can be started and stopped from the Open mode play screen by pressing the appropriate alphabetic or numeric key. The remaining 93 sequences are called secondary sequences and are designated by two digit numbers from 00 through 92. These sequences may be started from the Open mode play screen by pressing two digits on the numeric keypad. They playback of both primary and secondary sequences may be independently controlled in real tine using the computer keyboard, and as many sequences as desired can be played simultaneously. The KCS contains two reserved sequences, sequence Y and sequence Z. Sequence Y is used from, the edit screen by the BACKUP function. The program will not let you create or edit sequence Y, but you may play or append an existing sequence Y. Sequence Z is used as an automatic backup for certain editing functions, and is not accessible to the user. Using the Keyboard and Mouse ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Atari ST and Amiga keyboards consist of a basic typewriter layout with a row of ten function keys above, a group of cursor control and editing keys to the right, and further right, a numeric keypad. Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer uses the mouse to move the edit cursor, to access the various options on all three edit screens, to oontrol playback from the edit screens, and to control playback and rocording in Track mode. Clicking the left mouse button selects the option under the mouse pointer or places the edit cursor at that point, while clicking the right mouse button, or both buttons at once, select a play option. When we use the expression *Click the mouse on xxx", we are asking you to move the mouse pointer to xxx and then to click the left button. "Double click" means to click the appropriate button twice in quick succession. The computer keyboard is used heavily on the various play and record screens. the functions or the keys vary from screen to screen, and are described in detail in Chapters 6 - 9, and summarized in the Appendix. When selecting tracks or sequences on the play and recoed screens, numerals on the numeric keypad will NOT have the same effect as the numerals on the typewriter keyboard. Function keys Fll - F20 are accessed by pressing SHIFT and Fl - FlO. The function of the FlO key is also duplicated throughout the program by the SPACE bar. In many cases, the RETURN and ENTER keys will perform the same function, though there are some parts of the sequencer in which these keys act differently. Such instances will be pointed out in the manual, as well as the Appendix. Special Note for Amiga Users ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fortunately for us at Dr. T's, the Atari ST and the Amiga are similar enough that no significant changes had to be made to the program when we ported it from the ST to the Amiga. Due to some slight differences in the two computer's keyboards, however, some of the keys used for control functions in the program are not available on both computers. In the Amiga version of the program, we have substituted the following keys for keys on the Atari keyboard. Atari ST Amiga ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ UNDO Right AMIGA key INSERT Right ALT key CLR HOME Shift-DEL Numeric ( Numeric - (1000 only) Numeric ) Shift-Numeric - (1000 only) Numeric * Numeric . (1000 only) Numeric / Shift-Numeric . (1000 only) Edit Windows and Dialog Boxes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When selecting an edit operation or some other function in the KCS, it is often nccessary to provide additional information to the program. Two methods are utilized to set the parameters for these operations. Dialog boxes are an element of the ST's GEM operating system, and are used to enter data for some functions in the ST version of the program, and edit windows, which were specifically designed for the KCS, are used by operations requiring more than a few data entries in the ST version, or for all operations in the Amiga version. Dialog boxes, which are described in the manual that came with your ST, appear in the center of the screen when certain operations are selected. The box will contain two or more edit buttons, and possibly one or more areas for entering numeric data or text, called data fields. Clicking on a data field will place the cursor at the end of that field and the BACKSPACE and ESC keys can be used to clear the data field. When done entering data click on the appropriate exit button. If one of the exit buttons is heavily outlined, it can also be selected by pressing RETURN. Some dialog boxes may have radio buttons as well, which are used to choose one of several options. These buttons are similar to the buttons on a car radio, because selecting one will turn the previous selection off. Edit windows are used by moost operations which have more than two or three options to setect. Some edit windows are quite small, while one, the SET OPTIONS window, occupies the entire screen. Edit windows contain an assortment of radio buttons, data fields, and exit buttons but, look quite different from, dialog boxes. The radio buttons are the cyan (blue-green) text areas which describe the various options used to turn an option on or off (called toggling), while others are used to select one or another of a set of mutually exclusive choices (such as one of the three clock source options). Whether a button is a toggle switch or a selector switch is usually obvious from context, and is easily determined through experimentation. Data may be typed into the data felds, or data can be entered using the arithmetic strip, which is a row of red arrow and diamond icons at the bottom of the edit window. After clicking on a data feld, clicking on different parts of the arithmetic strip will change the value there. Clicking on the leftmost diamond sets the entry to its lowest legal value, the right diamond selects the highest value, and the middle diamond selects the center of that parameter's range. Clicking on the >>> or <<< symbols increases or decreases the entry by ten units, while > and < change the value by one unit. The functions of each of the icons in the arithmetic strip are duplicated by the M, <, COMMA, L, PERIOD, >' and / keys. The CLR HOME key will clear a data field, which is not always the same as entering zero. The cursor control keys can also be used to move from one data field to another. The exit buttons for the edit windows are the white text at the bottom of the edit wAndow. The RETURN key duplicates OK, and the UNDO key duplicates the CANCEL button. Hard Disks and Multiple Programs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hard disks can be extremely useful in a studio or live MIDI system. The KCS can be installed on a hard disk, but the oriUnal program disk must be inserted in drive A: on the ST, or any floppy drive on the Amiga, as a "key disk" when the program boots. In addition to the KCS program file, you will need to copy the files DEFAULT.ENV and DEFAULT.VRY to the hard disk. For Atari ST owners who would like to have more than one program, available for use at any time, a new feature which allows this has been added to version 1.6 of the KCS. The Multi Program Environment (MPE) allows you to load up to four additional Dr. T programs into the computer at once, by releasing memory normally used for sequence storage for use by the other programs. Note that the KCS is NOT compatible wdth other programs which perform this function externally such as K-Switch. Because of memory limitatations when the KCS is running the only desk accessory you may use with the KCS is CONTROL.ACC, which was suppUed with your Atari. In the Amiga version of the KCS, the Amiga's multi-taskung features are fully suppoded. Chapter 4 contains complete details. Equipment Hookup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depending on the equipment you have, there can be several ways to connect the various synthesizers, drum machines, sync boxes, etc. Basically you want to connect your recording synth or master keyboard's MIDI out to the computer's MIDI in then connect the computers MIDI out to the master synth's MIDI in. If you're using an Atari ST, you can connet your MIDI cables diretly to the computer's built-in MIDI port. If you have an Amiga, you can use any commercial or home-built MIDI interface that connects to the Amiga's serial port. (This includes just about every Amiga MIDI interface on the market, wnth the notable exception of Roland's MPU 401.) It is considered good practce to plug the MIDI interface into the computer before turning your system on. If you have more than one synth, you will need to connect any additional synths to the computer using a MIDI through jack on your master synthesizer, if present. Assign each instrument to its own MIDI channel, and make sure that data reception is enabled on each instrument. If you want to use drum, machine or other MIDI clock source as a master clock while recording you will need a MIDI merger to connect the computer's MIDI input to both devices simultaneously. When connecting your system, there are two common conditions to watch out for that can cause major headaches. The first is a MIDI loop, caused by routing the computer's MIDI out back to its input, either through a MIDI merger or a synth with a built in merge or echo function. The other condition, which occurs only on the Atari ST, is caused by the ST's slightly nonstandard MIDI output jack. While the MIDI spec calls for pins 1 and 3 of a MIDI connector to be left open, the ST uses these pins to provide a thru connection from the ST's MIDI in. Normally, this would not be a problem, but some manufacturers of MIDI cables also violate the MIDI spec and short these two pins to pins 4 and 5, which carry MIDI data. When used with the ST, these cables can cause data to become garbled, so check your cables carefully before using them. Worse yet, some instruments short these pins together at their MIDI inputs, so that even simple 5 conductor MIDI or DIN cables can cause the problem! If seeminly correct MIDI connections result in playback problems, check for these conditions. MIDI connectors are optically coupled so a wrong connection will at worst result in no data transmissi@on. Running the ST KCS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To run the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer on the Atari ST, insert the program disk in the disk drive and turn the computer on, or press the computer's reset button. The desktop will appear, with the disk directory enclosed in a window. Double click on the icon labeled KCS16.PRG,, and the program will load and run.