RedMoon Music maxWerk, User Manual

Page 1: ...on Music com RedMoon s maxWerk mad scientist s music composing tool Users Guide Revised March 2007 Application and documentation by Çikira Amanda Pehlke Copyright 2000 2007 All rights reserved RedMoon Music evolutionary electronica www redmoon music com This document uses the Arial font ...

Page 2: ... 6 Basic Loops 7 Drum Loops 8 Controllers 9 The Transposer 10 Melody 11 The Block Map 12 Improv 13 Noodle II maxWerk In Depth 1 Main Settings 2 Patch Changes 3 User Scales 4 Loop Magic 1 5 Loop Magic 2 6 Step Split Tracks 7 Offset Note Lines 8 Keyboard Entry 9 The Idea Track 10 Deeper Drums 11 Control Tricks 12 phatWerk 13 Copy Import 14 More Melodizing 15 PC 1600 Setup 16 Werk Files III Key Comma...

Page 3: ...music without disturbing or changing aspects that you already like You can produce widely divergent flavors of music in maxWerk without formal training instrument chops or knowledge of music notation maxWerk can incorporate your recorded MIDI input to its looping tracks along with generated ideas and on screen edits As your maxWerk composition develops you can create and change any of the followin...

Page 4: ... Werk you can create and store the following kinds of data for each bar Patterns of chord triadic transposition change Patterns of transposition of an independent fourth chord note Patterns of scale change underlying the chordal notes Patterns of key change underlying scales and chords Mid bar changes to any of the data above Global key offsets underlying the other transpositions Patterns of track...

Page 5: ... of information about your composition listed above and it creates a reference text you can save and print that shows by bar everything you need to know about the structure of your composition Although you may use fewer than seven scale pitches as in the Pentatonic scale for example maxWerk does not support scales that have more However it does let you store a custom scale for each Werk maxWerk do...

Page 6: ...at maxWerk allows up to sixteen polyphonic parts and you are likely to think of uses for all of them This fully functional version of maxWerk is freeware and your comments and feedback are sincerely appreciated Being in touch with users who are enjoying maxWerk and finding it useful is the author s reward for making it available to others An important note The files maxWerk_default_setup and untit...

Page 7: ... for descriptions in the second part of this Guide If you are used to the composing process you will find many of the function and parameter labels informative enough The primary aim of this Guide is to show how even if you have little knowledge of music theory or keyboard playing skill with maxWerk you can set up ambitious and rewarding experiments in song design 1 1 Global Setup On first launchi...

Page 8: ...Setup for the device channels desired you must reload any already open Werk file in order for the MIDI information it contains to be directed properly to the newly defined setup A useful trick to know is that the Back to Werk in progress command under the Panic menubar heading lets you quickly re transmit the current Werk s MIDI settings to the currently enabled set of sound generating devices max...

Page 9: ...top of the menu is a switchable item THRU ENABLED which disables and enables keyboard thru play This does not disable MIDI notes triggered by the computer s QWERTY keys You can quickly check the state of this function by the presence or absence of color in the MIDI indicator LED When external MIDI input is enabled you will see a green background against which the LED flashes yellow on incoming MID...

Page 10: ...ng from your controller keyboard which has access buttons in the Note and Drum Editors The last menu item brings up a complete Werk text Leadsheet Read more about the Idea track in Part II and about the Leadsheet in the closing section Werk Files 1 3 The Main Screen Music is comprised of time segments or measures and we ll call them bars for brevity of labeling maxWerk can store data for up to 128...

Page 11: ...nt will of course add empty steps Tempo in BPM beats per minute is set from a Main Screen tempo slider You can adjust it by using key commands as long as you are not in Performance mode which refers to a Tempo Map Next to the Tempo slider is the tempo map button which is described fully in the Main Settings section of Part II Briefly the Tempo Map takes effect when you engage Performance mode and ...

Page 12: ... showing track play status the LED s are also mute enable switches like those in the Quick Mutes window A maxWerk preset for Peavey s PC 1600 MIDI controller described in detail in Part II provides more mute enable buttons in hardware along with a set of faders that control track volumes One PC 1600 fader is reserved to echo the bar scrolling key command 1 4 Features to Note A display lock switch ...

Page 13: ...dow The Automute track strips are essentially horizontal bar graphs of 128 bars that have a vertical range of 1 so that each track stores a value of 0 or 1 for each bar Values of 1 appear as colored bars in the strip and 0 s are empty and the thirteen fully enabled strips appear entirely filled in in a new file for the default state is that all tracks are enabled all the time Automuting may be ena...

Page 14: ...nction is triggered that produces changed note values so that four bars of listening are required to appreciate the effect maxWerk automatically displays the number of bars in one pitch cycle by way of the small number tag located to the right of the track label The gradual mutate function is an exception not reflected this way Noting the reminder in this case you might enter a pattern such as 001...

Page 15: ...d Basic or Drum Loop track A track switching menu in Autofade does the obvious These switchable track strips store an Expression Controller 11 value with a range of 0 through 127 at each bar giving you a way to bring tracks in and out of your Werk in a subtle manner over any number of bars Autofade is always active along with Automute and you can creatively layer the two functions Be aware that wh...

Page 16: ...the rejected menu selection will not stick If the total steps were out of sync with bar starts on play through the resulting repetition of beginning steps or skipping of end steps would cause confusing track behavior Read on to discover maxWerk s much better ways of creatively shifting loops If you are unfamiliar with music theory the first of the four sections of bar graph data in the Note Editor...

Page 17: ...e second in the Note Editor has a range of 0 through 8 and produces values from 0 through 127 To accomplish this steps 1 though 7 trigger values that maxWerk randomizes at the start of each bar within subgroups of 16 while value 8 triggers a constant value of 127 As an example a velocity entered as value 7 actually floats around somewhere between 112 and 127 as repetitions progress but value 8 is ...

Page 18: ...rk uses a random wrap step value that changes once per bar Value 8 tells it to use the current Note value as wrap step A repeating figure takes on craziness with creative octave wrapping Four dedicated display reset controls with menus and quick refresh buttons set all note velocity octave or wrap steps to the desired value at once The controller THRU menu above the octaves display mirrors the Noo...

Page 19: ...note value of 0 turns the last note off whatever the velocity at that time When you choose the second item play all steps maxWerk triggers a new note at each non zero step in a robotic manner after the manner of older analog hardware step sequencers regardless of the changing state of note values or step resolution The third menu item is sustain note groups This mode tells maxWerk to trigger and s...

Page 20: ...entries differentiated between several target loops all at once Below the window button is a split status LED that is also a disabling shortcut The step split function is described in detail under Step Split Tricks in Part II as are features lying behind the window opening button labeled expand pattern in the top left section Below the four graphic displays are various additional controls to gener...

Page 21: ... of the Drum notes display and it will drop a selectable number of hits into the remaining available steps randomly When you hold down one of the test buttons you ll hear repeating beats of the slider selected kit instrument and you can rotate up or down through the kit with button presses Using another button you can remove all beats at the last selected note number and let maxWerk place them aga...

Page 22: ...eforms and you can compress values on entry As an alternative approach you can quickly generate repeating sequences by entering one instance of the desired set beginning at step 1 Press the button labeled repeat a series and enter the number of steps to be repeated into the dialog box presented You ll find the same function available for each of the displays in the Note and Drum Editor windows You...

Page 23: ...e white keys in C The Transposer has bar graph displays of four different sets of data for 128 bars The values that you see in the primary window of the Transposer appear again in the smaller displays of the Patterns window which is accessible via one of the secondary window buttons along the bottom edge of the Transposer The Patterns window reflects the state of any 16 bars of Werk that you wish ...

Page 24: ...r song for emotional effect or you may wish to let maxWerk change Key values automatically many times to accommodate complex chord progressions You may elect not to use changing Transposing Key information at all if you are feeling entirely modal in your approach to your Werk Of course doing experiments with one data set will not harm any of the others 3 Scale Scale values determine the selection ...

Page 25: ...he pattern of Tonic shifts from bar to bar by itself forms the basis of a scalic or modal chord progression Consider a Basic Loop note line that includes values 1 3 and 5 A Tonic transposition of 1 makes those values trigger Scale notes in positions of the same number so if the default Key is C as 1 s 3 s and 5 s play you hear the root the third and the fifth pitches or notes C E and G If we first...

Page 26: ... have a 9th added to it the second scale pitch by means of a Note transposition of 2 at the bar in question If the Tonic value in display 1 stays the same but the new bar has a Note value of 6 we hear the same Tonic triad with an added sixth an A if we re using the C Major Scale wherever a pattern value appears at 8 When you first experiment with this you will notice that the seven possible Notes ...

Page 27: ...ordmaps You can work with the chord map in either of two ways First you must make a mode menu choice at the top If you select modally by shifting triads only the seven colored chord buttons are active and the map triggers combinations of Tonics that sound scalic triads along with Notes defaulted to echo the Tonic These are chords that make sense musically in modal composing and work in any traditi...

Page 28: ...ere you can select one or more types of Transposer information copy a sequence of values for any number of bars and then apply them anywhere else in the Transposer You can also save a transpositions only data file for later import in its entirety Be sure to give your saved Chord files names that remind you how many bars they cover To focus on editing a particular section of your Werk you can use a...

Page 29: ...s from the Q W E R T Y U keys just after you trigger Tonics from the number keys and make harmonious arpeggiated chord changes You can also do this while listening to your entered patterns with the Transposer disabled and maxWerk playing When maxWerk is not playing a toggling key command turns off the Arpeggiator if you don t want to hear it The up and down keyboard arrows shift the Transposing Ke...

Page 30: ...p first can provide a structure that inspires supporting Basic Loops The best way to discover maxWerk s Melody Editor is by walking through some melody making behavior You will see by the status buttons on the Main Screen that opening the Melody window automatically enables Melody play The Melody track draws from up to five four bar Blocks Each of these can originate from notes you enter directly ...

Page 31: ...e will describe these full Phrase treatments shortly but for now let s look at Phrase making functions letting stand the default symbol in the first play pattern menu to indicate no changes in pitch order direction and in the second menu meaning no tone variation Add some notes into the first bar of the Phrase and you will see them transfer automatically into a small non editable representation of...

Page 32: ... menu for chordal tone variation offers these choices var var var var When you choose the second menu item for example which reads var the symbol tells you that the Phrase s chordal tones remain as originally entered in the first half of the Block bars 1 and 2 In Block View you will see that bars 3 and 4 have changed and now Scale note positions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 are inverted to 1 6 5 4 3 2 7 in the s...

Page 33: ...t wish to remove some notes in the last Block bar for example Since any further edits to Phrases will refresh an unlocked Block display you should engage the Block lock switch and make finishing touches to Block displays last You can use copy block to clone a favorite Phrase before experimenting with new direction and variation patterns and then repeat any needed finish work in the Block editor Wh...

Page 34: ... 1 through 5 can be stored at each bar of the Map which looks like yet another bar graph When a set of Block values is stored and subsequently enabled maxWerk triggers a new Block with every changed value and silences Melody when there is a Block value 0 regardless of the lengths of the patterns stored in the Blocks When the same Block number is entered for more than four bars in a row that Block ...

Page 35: ...on and inversion functions When you select busier source patterns Improv plays livelier tunes Using the style menu setting you can stretch these over additional bars to produce more moderate and relaxed lines Once enabled by default Improv pops up wherever it pleases in the stereo field Improv has a resolution of sixteenth notes and you can impose a start delay in 32nd note increments Several more...

Page 36: ... There is a companion setting found in the Noodle window only to double octaves on input Auto modulation sends a ramp of mod wheel or aftertouch values to any depth you like as each new note is played One of several GS NRPN controllers can also auto modulate your noodles with an option to invert the values it sends for fun and variety 1 14 Werksync This collaborators aid deserves a heading of its ...

Page 37: ...have seen in Part I from the MIDI thru heading in the menubar you can manually change the MIDI target and if you disable the auto thru checkbox incoming notes and other information remain directed to the track instrument channel last edited or selected for thru play On the Main Screen the KB map checkbox appears for the benefit of those who aren t accomplished keyboardists Checked it enables one o...

Page 38: ...cted by the MIDI keyboard split point When Automute is disabled you can selectively mute and enable tracks and see their status by means of the blue LED s on the Main Screen Mute and solo switches for the track you are editing are also in the lower section of the Note and Drum Editor windows Notice that soloing in an Editor window temporarily overrides automuting of the track The positions you set...

Page 39: ...ere are some differences in the naming of sounds of certain combinations of bank and variation numbers When this is the case the name for the later version of the sound has been used For cross reference the GS patch selection window shows Bank and Tone variation numbers and arrow buttons let you move forward and back through each set of sounds to audition them A Global Setup parameter lets you ena...

Page 40: ...ances than those based on the Scales numbered 1 through 7 Note too that in order to make pentatonic music you can start from either a Major or Natural Minor Scale and simply avoid the use of steps 4 and 7 when you create step patterns and when you transpose Tonics or Notes 2 4 Loop Magic 1 As you ve seen the displays referred to throughout this Guide are vertical bar graphs that represent data pat...

Page 41: ...t Whenever you change the parameters for either step resolution or loop length maxWerk resizes the four displays to accommodate the new total number of steps that is to say step resolution multiplied by a number of bars from one to four up to a limit of 128 steps per loop The default size is a one bar loop of 16 steps If you assign number of steps and bar length to a loop then proceed to make a no...

Page 42: ...eresting When you choose random starts whatever the number of bars maxWerk starts each loop from one of several musically useful Meter counts ones that mark quarter note segments in the first loop bar This has the effect of shifting the pattern unpredictably in relation to your other tracks When you choose the second or third menu items the starting step displayed is reset to 1 The three remaining...

Page 43: ...ersistent drone sound by entering a single value across your loop without any rests and disabling the transpose function Leave the gate times slider set to its default off for normal play changes mode A reddish slider indicates that gate times are being imposed and the green setting indicates randomizing These effects mask the tied notes in play changes mode and shorten the durations of single ste...

Page 44: ...tones are scale steps 2 4 6 or 7 pitches that are not part of a triadic chord built on the Tonic note value 1 The effect of alt1 all steps alt1 changes and alt1 random on any loop that contains passing tones is that a musical statement in chordal tones is followed by and then alternated with a response with added passing tones The difference in the alt2 notefilter set is that maxWerk plays the unf...

Page 45: ...re coincident with the start of a new note Drum notes can t be tied and they hold for no more than a full step s duration The octaves display has nine available values to pair with entered notes covering the full range of MIDI note numbers The nine values of the wrap steps display below it determine the highest allowable Scale pitch after the effect of transposing that will sound in the designated...

Page 46: ...just the note density menu setting to your liking a button press fills the loop with a pattern of notes and rests for your consideration You can generate alternative patterns of accompanying velocities for existing notes Octave and wrap step data remains unchanged through both of these procedures To lend interesting dynamics when the loop is in play all steps mode you can have new independently ge...

Page 47: ... field of play controls comprised of menus and checkboxes Steps delay shifts the loop s onset by a selectable number of steps the duration of which varies according to the step resolution The 16ths sustain on mute menu directs Automute to switch off that part following a delay setting measured in 16th note durations For example muting a track with a sustain on mute setting of 2 has the effect of c...

Page 48: ...s and use Basic Loops effectively for non pitched instrument patterns if you disable this function so that the defaulted state of transposition for the loop remains unchanged The third transpose menu option alt loop inversions applies its processing on alternate repetitions to Scale pitches 2 thru 7 whatever their play direction For example a note and rest pattern of 1 1 0 2 3 4 5 5 becomes 1 1 0 ...

Page 49: ...hanges and through the effect of octave data combined with wrap step data that effectively creates chordal inversions In other words you can explore tonal hocketing within note patterns Use the split button to access target track menus in the step split window There is a menu for each scale step Target tracks may be any except the source that is any but the one you are currently editing Any scale ...

Page 50: ...led Disable it by clicking the LED when you have finished entering your pattern The split setup is not remembered in your Werk file but remains in the setup window so that you can re activate it at any time during your composing session In order to avoid losing earlier work be careful to re activate the setup for further edits only if the source pattern is still available either in its original ed...

Page 51: ...r editing convenience the as automuted button has a hidden function it opens the automute window on a double click and maxWerk remembers the last audition setting made for each loop Parameters for Offset Note Lines are as follows Line A labeled triadic can be set to sound in unison with the original or a constant third or fifth apart according to your selection from the intervals menu A random sel...

Page 52: ...ffects Line C also can be delayed by steps It has no pitch inversion option Note that the choices of unison for Line A s base note value and 1 as Lines B and C base note values produce the same effect in all which is to sound secondary note lines identical to the primary one This is useful for offset arpeggios that feature an interplay of lines You can enable one two or all three Offset Note Lines...

Page 53: ...nerates random accompanying velocity values As each set of step information appears in the displays the progress bar advances to the next step While the function is active incoming values overdub existing ones with each pass through the available steps To enter a rest press the 0 zero number key You can overwrite the last entered step of both Basic Loops and Phrases by pressing any MIDI key below ...

Page 54: ... this purpose Once you have captured an Idea of any length you can set it to play starting at any bar number you wish If you set maxWerk to loop a certain selection of bars that includes the set starting bar you ll hear your Idea play repeatedly along with any stored loop or Melody information You might even use a longer Idea track to add an unstructured part to your finished Werk However the Idea...

Page 55: ... and undo beats Once you have set the loop length and number of steps the generator will decide how many of up to six beats to give you or it can try to give you exactly as many beats as you want so long as the step locations it picks are not already occupied by hits The default setting of the beats add menu tells maxWerk to pick a random number of hits and specific options for one through six of ...

Page 56: ... value Drum Editor controls for normal play or for loop start point variation are the same as those in the Note Editor Along with the solo button there is a drums 1 2 button to solo both Drum tracks together and one to hear them as automuted To the lower right of the displays is another to switch drum parts directly to edit the other Drum Loop bypassing the Main Screen access panel Track names are...

Page 57: ... To hear sweeps retrigger over each note of an eight step pattern double the resolution to 16 and use play changes mode The actual number of MIDI controller events that comprise each retriggered control sweep may be fewer than 96 for they are subject to a default 20 ms time grain for auto modulation density that can be adjusted in the Global setup window Keep in mind that control patterns designed...

Page 58: ...u can effectively flip the display of some control waveforms horizontally so that they read from right to left Should you then choose to narrow vertically the resulting waveform by adjusting the compression percentage you will need to re enter the waveform to see and hear the result When you press any of the three follow buttons for notes velocities or octaves In the Control A or B windows steps a...

Page 59: ...am and saved with Werk files A phatWerk window opening button appears in the Note and Drum pattern Editors as well as in the Improv Melody Sound and Noodle windows An array of virtual knobs and several menus store GS sound and effect settings for the edited track Your Roland GS product manual provides an in depth explanation of these parameters and the types of MIDI messages that produce them 2 13...

Page 60: ...ad a Werk file The changeable background color of the full Block display in both the Phrases and main Melody windows is a quick lock status indicator When you work with Phrases unlock the Block you wish to edit first in order to allow data to pass through from the Phrase window to the main Editor The main Editor allows partial or complete departures from Phrase entered note lines by direct hand ed...

Page 61: ...nerator which has a line of settings across the top of the Phrases window A four level pattern complexity menu offers sparse simple busier and complex choices A phrase length menu gives you a choice between two bar figures or a repeating one bar figure and lastly there is an activation button When you ask for a repeating motif four instances of a one bar pattern pass through to the Melody Block To...

Page 62: ...bar Phrase edit functions they can sometimes cancel each other deceptively Complex or busier melody lines are best created with the Transposer disabled so that only changes in global Key take effect Like notes in the Basic Loops Melody notes transpose rotationally constrained the by upper and lower settings for Scale step octave cutoff found in the Melody Sound window Melodies have a two octave ma...

Page 63: ...this Werk part maxWerk s Improv function described earlier uses a modified version of the Melody engine and incorporates a number of its features You can tell Improv how long to play each new set of notes and it will generate another after the number of bars you set at the same time choosing a new direction pattern and a new variation pattern for note values 2 thru 6 Improv is unlike Melody in tha...

Page 64: ...window 2 16 Werk Files Be sure to name and save your new Werk via standard Macintosh File menu commands while it s under development and before you make a midifile recording Werk files save with the extension mWk automatically added so the program can identify and load them There are buttons to save and load individual basic loop files and drum loop files in their respective Editor windows Single ...

Page 65: ...uencing environment The spacebar press that stops play also stops recording As an alternative to manual stopping if you are recording a fully automated Werk Performance you can specify in the Automute window an automatic end bar number to be the last bar played Without either setting maxWerk stops recording by itself after 128 bars When recording finishes Tempo reverts to the initial value stored ...

Page 66: ...nd a list of track names by MIDI channel This is followed by a listing of transposition data by bar number including each triad by its root name and chord quality for example major minor diminished that resulted from all combined transpositions along with the pitches of Notes Mid bar changes are indicated and the number is given of any Melody Block in play The Leadsheet is dynamically overwritten ...

Page 67: ... Noodle track but you can direct it to any other via the Arp thru menu in the menubar This key command also reverse toggles the Transposer s 1 bar Looping Buttons Automute Shift a opens the Automute window and enables both Automute and Autofade These functions are among those that can be enabled by the Performance shortcut button before maxWerk records a midifile Double clicking the as automuted l...

Page 68: ...ern sequences that are up to four bars long using changing Block values 1 through 5 Block select see Melody Block select Chords see Arpeggiator Copy save progressions Leadsheet Click The apostrophe toggles the metronome click set in Global Setup which sounds according to the chosen Meter An accent click followed by an optional secondary one indicates 5 6 7 8 9 10 or 12 eighth note counts per bar S...

Page 69: ...e Main Screen to make accessible the Drum Editor window opening buttons Shift d toggles the mute enable status of both Drum Loops together unless their status is overridden by automuting Effects see phatWerk Entry see Keyboard step entry Globals Shift g opens the Global Setup window See Werk Files Also see Key shift Go to bar see Reset to go to bar GS see phatWerk Idea p optionally toggles playbac...

Page 70: ...op repetitions override previous data at the same step Zero 0 enters a rest and in the case of Basic Loops and Melody Phrases pressing any controller note below the split point lets you correct the last step entered Toggle tab to start over from the beginning of the loop Leadsheet This window has no key command access it from the Extras menu Locators see Bar Locators Bar 1 reset Reset to go to bar...

Page 71: ... shift b Metronome see Click Mute The right arrow key enables un mutes all tracks unless overridden by automuting This command also enables any GS mode Werk parts that were disabled via sys ex commands from Automute window checkboxes See Automute Shift d toggles mute enable status of both Drum Loops together unless overridden by automuting See Automute and Quick Mutes Note Editor Option followed b...

Page 72: ...v is initially disabled subject to the Automute window s play controls that allow a section of Improv to switch in and out Plus minus see Tempo Pointer see Bar scroll Quick mutes Shift q opens the Quick Mutes window for manual track control Scroll see Bar scroll Tempo scroll Record notes see Keyboard step entry Step Reset to Bar 1 The left arrow key sets the counter to Bar 1 and resets all Werk tr...

Page 73: ...ll at tempo rate of play and half timed play which in turn determines the MIDI sync output tempo maxWerk displays the status of this function just beneath the tempo indicator in the Main Screen Tempo scroll The dash key and the equals sign keys respectively decrement and increment maxWerk s play tempo unless overridden by Tempo Map activation in Performance mode Text see Leadsheet Transpose Shift ...

Page 74: ...the other step values These keys assign current scale pitches from 1 through 7 to all the Note data at value 8 without changing the current Tonic Releasing the held key restores the Note to its default which is always the same as the current Tonic value 0 Zero normally restores both Tonic and Notes to their default value of 1 During keyboard step entry it temporarily enters a skipped step creating...