When clicked to display a filled red button, the piece will advance from step to step. The sequencer control can be clicked to its "off" state, indicated by a empty circle, to stop the piece at any stage. [This feature is useful for making changes in instrumentation or other modifications.] The music will continue to play, but without advancing from step to step. You can make changes with the music either on or off.
The Current Step value indicates which step in the sequence is playing. Click on the Up,Down or Go To Step controls to change from one step to another.
When the start sequencer is clicked to its "on" position (filled red button), the program advances automatically from step to step, with the time at each step determined by the Step Time control (see below). If the start sequencer is clicked "off" (empty red button), then the step can be changed either by clicking the Down Step control to go to an earlier step, or the Up Step control to go to a later step. The Go To Step slider control can also be used to move to a specific step in the program. Clicking on the Current Step indicator will move the step sequencer back to 0 (zero). This zero reset will work with the start sequencer either on or off.
Note: if you stop the piece and then start it at a later step, the data sequence will begin at the top, although the music controls will remain at their specified settings. All step timing settings must be made starting with the sequence beginning at stage 1. It is best to use stage 0 to clear all previous settings by moving all controls to their 0 position.
Time in seconds is indicated by the value displayed. Only the Step Time control can be set.
The Time control indicates, in minutes and seconds, how much total time the piece takes to play.
Note: this is accurate only if you begin playing the piece from stage 0.
The Step Time control is a slider control that can be set from 0 to 60 seconds. Setting it to zero will stop the piece at that stage and can be used as the last step setting to end a piece. If you want to continue the same control settings for more than 60 seconds, you can use the Copy and Paste controls (see below) to duplicate these settings without having to redo them all.
The Countdown control indicates how many seconds are left at each stage.
Click on the Copy control several times to copy the settings at any stage. Click on the Paste control to replace the settings at another stage with the settings copied.
Usually as you move through a piece, you will want to retain some settings and change others. The Copy and Paste feature makes this easy. Copy one step to the next and then make only the changes you want to make. Settings can be copied to either earlier or later stages of a piece.
There is a minor unresolved bug that causes these operations to miss on occasion. The remedy is simply to press Copy several times, then Paste several times.
Open: Causes the current stage to be copied to the next stage, first moving the current stage and all following one step ahead. It is best used to insert a stage into an existing piece.
Fill: Causes the current stage to all other stages. As a safety feature, this does not work unless the Protect button is on (filled).
Protect. This is a write-protect feature that will prevent changes made by Paste, Open, and Fill. The button must be on (filled button) to make changes.
Slide the Tempo controls right to decrease the tempo, left to increase the tempo.
Slide the Tempo Slew controls right to make the tempo change more gradual; leave them at 0 for an immediate tempo change.
Tempo can be set for each step, but will run at the default settings unless changed. Tempo is a master tempo regulator that works in association with the Tempo Select control (see below) on each of the Music Panels to determine how fast the program reads through the sequence data. In both cases the lower numbers set a faster tempo. Note: The master Tempo regulator can be set independently for the upper and lower four Musical Panels. The Music Panel Tempo Select controls can be set independently for each panel.Tempo Slew values determine how fast the tempo changes from step to step. Slide the Tempo Slew control to the right for a gradual change in tempo. Leaving the Slew value at zero makes an immediate tempo change. This can also be set for each program step.
Red = on; Green = off. Music plays when the mute control is green.
That’s all there is to it. However, Mute also causes the current page to reset, with all the timed sliders immediately jumping to their end setting, and the amino acid counter reset to 0.. If you are running a lot of fade-in and fade-out transitions, it is often useful to click Mute on then off to set all panels to their final settings.
Click to send a All Notes Off MIDI message to your synthesizer. Fixes stuck notes most of the time. Does not change your music composition in any way.
These are all activated by clicking on the control.
File Save saves whatever changes you have made to the
music program. However, see the discussion of
Write-Protect controls above.
Note that there is no warning when you are about to overwrite a file, and no warning if you exit the program without first saving your composition.
Exit takes you out of the music program and back to the Interface Panel.
Wonk takes you to the KAM page, which you will want to leave alone, for the most part. These are the controls that run the program. However, there are a few things that you will want to change and these will be discussed in Interface Panel, Part II.
Those who have mastered KAM/16 will be able to make custom controls and modifications virtually without limit. While BioSon is written in KAM, it is not the full KAM program and documentation. If you are interested in modifying BioSon it is strongly recommended that you start with the KAM/16 program, which includes tutorials. Tech support at the KAM level of BioSon will be severely restricted unless the full KAM/16 program is purchased as well.