Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaUtilCD2.iso/Sound/MidI/KCS_2.DMS/in.adf/ReadMe.PVG

Text File | 1991-07-07 | 12.7 KB | 244 lines

PVG manual update, 01/27/88


As of this time, the only undocumented change to the program is the addition
of the R buttons to the right of the note lists on the PROTECTION and
RESTRICTIONS subscreens. Clicking on one of these buttons reverses the
state of all of the toggle switches forthe twelve scale
positions. Thus, if you want to apply a global
operation to C's or F's only, turn on the C and F buttons on the PROTECTION
subscreen, and click on R.

The file DEFAULT.VRY shipped with the program contains a set
of presets that you may find useful. You may be able to use many
of these as is, and they also serve as examples of how to do things with
the PVG. Some do straight-forward editing tasks, while
others illustrate the use of the PVG as a generator of algorithmic music.
All of these presets were developed for use
at the default setting of 24 steps/beat, so if you are using a higher
resolution, you will want to increase all time settings proportionally.


I.     THE VARY NOTES PRESETS.


Presets 1 - 7 can be used to generate random
variations from a sequence or track that you have created. 1 produces only
pitch changes of a half-step, while 2 and 3 produce larger pitch changes,
The changes produced by preset 3 will be larger for sequences with large
jumps between consecutive notes. Any of these presets can be prevented
from producing new scale positions by turning off the Allow New Scale
Positions button on the Defaults page. Preset 2 uses the Pitch Limits on
the Defaults page to limit the range of  pitches created by PVG.

4 produces pitch changes and small (2 unit) timing shifts. 5 produces
velocity changes, while 6 and 7 combine changes of different kinds. When
using presets of this type, I usually start with a fairly short phrase and
create a large number of variations with both Evolving
Mults and Consecutive Mults on. This results in a sequence or track that
evolves over time. It is also interesting to play more than one of these
slightly out of phase, and listen to how they diverge from each other.

Presets 8 - 10 accent certain notes by transposing their velocities up by
36. You can also accent notes by using the Global 1 page to set their
velocities to a high value. 8 processes all notes, while 9
uses the Pattern page to process ONLY notes which are part of a group of
consecutive notes of the same pitch. 10 uses protection to accent
only notes whose pitch is C or F in any octave.

Preset 12 erases the second and subsequent notes on a given time step,
turning chords (and double strikes) into single notes. Increasing the
high value under Tim in the PROTECTION subscreen will increase the
maximum distance between notes for which erasure occurs. 13
uses the Patterns screen to rechannelize all notes that are part of a
rising sequence of pitches to channel 2. This creates a sequence which uses
one timbre for rising pitches and another for equal or falling pitches. 14
uses the PROTECTION subscreen to rechannelize all notes whose velocity
is less than 64 to channel 2, thus creating a velocity split.

Presets 8 - 10 and 12 - 14 illustrate the use of the PVG for edit operations.
Be sure to turn the Edit Mode button on, unless you want to keep both
the original sequence and the changed version. When creating new presets,
be sure to click on the CLEAR exit button to remove any weights that may
have been set in a previous preset on another screen. Don't forget to
set the weight for the change(s) that you do want!

Presets 11, and 15 - 20 are described in the Macros section.


II.   THE ORNAMENTS PRESETS


When using Ornaments or Add Controllers presets it is important to remember
that the program will ONLY apply the preset to all of the notes in the
sequence if you set Changes per Vary to 0. Otherwise, the program will
assume that you want to apply the preset to only Changes per Vary notes,
selected at random from the sequence. All of the presets were created
for use with Changes per Vary = 0, althrough they can, of course, be used
with other values.

All of these presets were created with Split on. This causes them to put
the additional notes or controllers on the next available sequence or
track. In open mode you can start the two sequences together by pressing
Esc (PAUSE), then pressing the sequence keys, and then pressing Esc again.

Preset 21 creates a simple echo 3 time steps after each note in the
sequence. Leaving Follow on and setting the Pitch, Velocity and Duration
values to 0 creates notes that are identical to the original. 22 creates
an echo that repeats 99 times, or (more likely) until the next event in
the sequence. Note that both the Next Note Lim and the Abs
buttons are both on and the loop length is the same as the
time of the note. 23 creates a softening echo by setting
Shift on the Velocity line to -18. 24 creates echoes that can overlap the
following notes by leaving off the Next Note Lim buttons. 25 creates
echoes that rise in pitch by setting Pitch Shift to 1.

26 turns each note into a major chord by adding notes 4 and 7 half-steps
higher. 27 creates arpeggiated chords by separating the notes in time. 28
(Whatsit?) was created by playing a very weird phrase and copying it into
the PVG using the COPY button on the top right of the page. 29 repeats
the the phrase 3 times, dropping it by an octave each time. These were
included to illustrate the possibilities that the PVG gives you with
even the unlikeliest of material!

30 uses protection to create a simple echo for notes of pitches C or F.
31 echoes notes whose velocities are 64 or higher, and puts the new notes
on channel 2. 32 and 33 illustrate the use of modulation to affect the
number of echoes. 32 will create 8 echoes for notes of velocity 127, and
fewer echoes as velocity is reduced. 33 creates 8 echoes for pitch C2 (MIDI
pitch 40) and fewer echoes as pitch is increased. 34 uses Duration Lim
to create echoes only for the length of the original note, and uses
Duration Fix to set the length of each echo to 2.

35 uses a negative offset (the other time values cannot be negative) to
create a preecho, which occurs before the original note. (Try doing that
in real-time!) 36 uses an offset to create echoes which start 12 steps
after the note, and repeat every 3 steps. 37 creates echoes of a fixed
pitch (C5 or MIDI pitch 72) on channel 10. Velocity shift is used to
make each echo quieter than the last, and Cut causes the echoes to stop
when the velocity would have become negative. This sort of preset can
be used to echo notes with a drum sound.


III.   ADD CONTROLLERS PRESETS


All but two of these presets are used to add breath controller events to
your sequence. They probably are most useful if the breath controller is
being used to alter the timbre of the synthesizer sound (e.g. by using
it to control e.g bias on one or two operators on a DX-TX 7 or TX81Z, or
by using it to control filter cutoff on a ESQ 1. Matrix 6, or Xpander.
Other controller types can be added by changing the type values on the
PVG screen.

Preset 41 creates a breath controller value of 127 for each note. This is
not very interesting by itself, but it can be used to good effect in macros
or as a starting point for a Vary Controllers preset. 42 creates values of
127 for C's and F's only, while 43 creates values of 0 for all notes that
are not C or F. 44, 45, 48 and 49 use modulation: 44 creates a breath value
for each note that equals the note velocity, while 45 creates a value
127 - velocity. 48 creates values that equal the MIDI pitch number, while 49
creates values of 127 if the pitch is >= 84 (C6) and smaller values if
the pitch is below C6.

46 creates a 'breath lfo' that is retriggered at the start of each note.
47 creates an lfo that is faster (has shorter times) for notes with
high velocities.  50 applies a breath controller phrase that was recorded
in real-time along with a single note, and copied into PVG with the COPY
button. (Actually, I cheated and used a foot pedal programmed to send
breath data!). 51 uses modulation to reduce the breath values in the
phrase as the note velocity drops.

52 adds a program change for program 1 before all C's and F's, and 53 adds
a program 16 change before all other notes. The Offset value sets the time
between the program change and the note. You may need to use different
values for different instruments.


IV.   VARY CONTROLLERS PRESETS


These presets all modify breath controller values. 61 - 65 illustrate the
use of vary controlers presets for simple edit operations. 61 increases
all values by 24, 62 divides all values by 2, 63 makes low values high and
high values low. 64 limits all values to 99 by using PROTECTION to set
values that are > 99 to 99, while 65 deletes all values > 99. 70 deletes
all breath controller events.

66 - 69 illustrate the use of the PVG to generate variations in which
controller values are randomly modified. These presets are best used after
an add controllers preset has been used to set a controller value for each
note in the sequence. They can, of course, be combined with presets that
alter pitch in a macro, and used with the Evolving Mults and Consecutive
Mults settings as discussed in the Vary Notes section.

66 randomly picks out breath controller events from the sequence and sets
them to 0, 64, or 127. 67 makes random changes of average value 32, 68
either doubles or halves values, and 69 swaps values.


V.     MACROS


The first three macros illustrate the use of the range cycle feature to
apply an edit operation to certain parts of the sequence. 1 accents the
first beat of every measure by increasing all velocities by 36. Note that the
First, Last and Cyc values are set to 1, 24 and 96. Also note that the
Range Unit is set to Steps. These settings cause the program to apply the
preset to the first 24 steps of the sequence, and again to steps
97 - 120, 192 - 216, etc. Macro 2 uses a preset with global shift to
delay the last beat of every measure by 2 time steps, while 3 erases the
last beat of every measure.

Presets 4 - 7 illustrate some of the experiments that I discussed in the
preface to the manual. They are best applied to sequences that are relatively
short. Indeed 6 and 7 seem to work best applied to sequences with just
a single note! Use the Evolving and Consecutive Mults buttons, and create
enough variations to make a sequence of at least 200 notes.

4 and 5 use the Con Lines (Consecutive Lines) button to have each variation
created use the next line in order. The results of 4 are, in fact,
completely determined, although not easy to predict by ear. 4 will first
increase all pitches by 2 and decrease velocities by 18, then increase
pitches by 1 and velocities by 9. then apply the pitch map, and then
rorate all pitches by 1. The pitch map is set to reduce pitches by
variaying small amounts, with more whimsey than thought applied to the
settings. Certain velocities are increased also. The rotate operation
keeps the timing and dynamics of the sequence constat, while making
the first pitch of the sequence = the second, the second = the third, etc.
5 differs from 4 in that it includes a preset which picks a random note
from the sequence and echoes it.

6 and 7 create variations by randomly picking a simple pair of operations
and applying them to the sequence. The pitch and velocity changes were
selected to average to 0, so that the sequence does not have a strong
tendency to reach one end of the MIDI range and stay there. Protection
could be used to limit the pitch and velocity excursions if desired.
Macro 7 can also change the timing of the sequence by using preset 20.

I find it fascinating to take a sequence of a single note, and create
several long sequences by applying macros like 6 with a variations setting
of around 200. I then play the sequences out of phase, rechannelizing
some of them for timbral variety.

Macros 8 and 9 can be used to generate evolving variations for which each
variation uses a different preset, with the preset randomly selected from
those in the macro. 10 and 11 are similar, but the Con Lines button causes
presets to be selected in rotation from the list.

Macro 12 applies the rising echo preset to each note of the first beat of
every measure. 13 applies rising echo to the first beat and repeating
echo to the last. 14 applies rising echo to the first beat and accents the
last.

15 creates a breath controller value of 127 for each C or F, and a value
of 0 for other notes. 16 plays each C or F with program 1, and all other
pitches with program 16.

17 creates a breath value of 127 to each note in the first beat of a measure,
and applies the phrase preset to other notes. 18 deletes all breath
controller events in the first beat of a measure. 19 applies a rising
echo to each note in alternating measure (1, 3, 5, ...) while 20
alternates between rising echoes and simple repeating echoes. Both of
these set the Range Unit to Meas.