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ACCOMPANIST Tutorial --------------------- This is a tutorial document which gives a gentle introduction to ACCOMPANIST. Introduction ------------ ACCOMPANIST is a MIDI Sequencer. It is a program that runs on the Atari ST, and controls one or more MIDI boxes. There are many different kinds of MIDI box, but most of us have just one Keyboard + Synthesiser. This has a simple keyboard, together with some clever electronics to produce different kinds of sounds. It may also have some built-in drum sequences. From now on, I shall use the word Synthesiser to refer to your MIDI box. If you haven't bought your MIDI equipment yet, you can still have fun with ACCOMPANIST by using the ST sound channels for output. Skip to Start-Up. Choosing MIDI equipment is not easy, so I have included a few hints at the end of this tutorial. Connecting Up ------------- The first task is connect the ST to the Synthesiser, using two MIDI leads. Connect the MIDI OUT socket on the ST to the MIDI IN socket on the Synthesiser, and the MIDI OUT socket on the Synthesiser to the MIDI IN socket on the ST. A further MIDI box, such as an Expander, which has no keyboard, would need a third MIDI lead, which should connect the Expander's MIDI IN socket to the MIDI THRU socket of the Synthesiser. Start-Up -------- Start ACCOMPANIST by double clicking on SEQUENCE.PRG. After a few seconds ACCOMPANIST'S desktop appears on the screen. A Dialogue box appears. Read this to find out about what you get when you register as an ACCOMPANIST user. Click on OK. Switch on your Synthesiser, and play a few notes to check that the Volume is turned up to a hearing level. Load & Play ----------- Now you can listen to some music. Use the mouse to select Load in the File Menu. Use the standard File Selector to select a piece of music with a .MID file extension. If you have a Synthesiser connected, choose any piece, otherwise load the Entertainer (ENTERTN.MID), or Well Temper'd Clavichord (WELLTEMP.MID), which only use the ST sound channels. You will see lines of music appear in the Map box at the top right of the screen. Click on PLAY in the Play/Record box at the bottom centre of the screen. You will hear the Metronome coming from the ST Monitor. Your Synthesiser should start playing. If not, check the connections and volume levels. If this still fails, your Synthesiser may be set up to recieve on a different MIDI Channel, see below. Changing the start point ------------------------ You can start the music playing anywhere by changing the start time, called the Marker. This is under the PLAY icon. Click on the bar number, which is the left hand number, and roll the mouse while holding the left button down. Try different directions and see what happens. You will see the bar number changing, and the Time Cursor moving across the Map box. When you release the mouse button, you will see the little Marker box move under the Map. Alterations while Playing ------------------------- You can change the Tempo while playing. Click on the up or down arrows in the Conductor box to the left of the PLAY icon, and hold the button down. You can also switch Voices off and on, by clicking on the Voice number to the left of its name. When the number is dark, the Voice plays, and when it is feint, the Voice is silent. Now Load and Play some of the other pieces of music. Simple Recording ---------------- Now you've heard ACCOMPANIST playing, you will want to record your own music. First clear out what you have previously loaded, by selecting Clear in the File Menu. Now select the first Voice in the Voice box at the top left of the screen, by clicking on its name. It appears inverted. Click on RECORD, wait for the Metronome to sound the one bar count-in, then start playing. When you have finished, click on STOP. You will see some music lines in the Map box. If not, check the connection between the ST's MIDI IN socket and your Synthesiser's MIDI OUT socket. Click on PLAY to hear what you recorded. If you like what you hear, then click on COMMIT in the Commit box, at the bottom left of the screen. Otherwise, click on UNDO then COMMIT. This allows you to choose whether to keep what you have recorded. Many different operations in ACCOMPANIST can be viewed before and after, by clicking on UNDO/REDO. When you have finally chosen which you like, then click on COMMIT. Quantization ------------ When you have recorded something that you like, you can tidy it up by selecting Quantize in the Blocks Menu. A Dialogue box appears. If you have been playing crotchets and quavers, then click and roll the /4 in the bottom left box to /8, in the same way that you changed the Marker's bar number. Click on OK. When the Dialogue box has disappeared, click on PLAY to hear the result. If you like it, click on COMMIT as before. Editing Music ------------- What usually happens to me, is that after Quantizing, the music sounds much better, except for a few bad patches. These are where my playing was so bad that the Quantizer moved the notes the wrong way, or I have forgotten that there were some semi- quavers, and I have quantized into quavers. If there are several wrong notes in a bar, the simplest way to change them is to play the bar again using PUNCH in the punch box, at the bottom right of the screen. Before you do this, you have to set the start and stop times for the time interval to be replaced. Click on the music line in the Map for the Voice to be changed under the bar number to be replaced. A black box, called the Fragment appears, and the Punch-In & Punch-Out times below the PUNCH icon change. If you get it wrong, try again. Try dragging a box as well. Now click on PUNCH. The Metronome counts in the bar before the Punch-In time, also playing what you have recorded previously. When it reaches the start of the bar you want to change, play it again. To hear the result, click on AUDITION, and if you like it then click on COMMIT. Otherwise UNDO it, and have another go. Editing Notes/Chords -------------------- If only a single note or chord is wrong, then AUTO-PUN(CH) is a simple way to change it. If the note is a quaver, then change the Map resolution by rolling the /** at the top of the Voice box to /8. The Map expands. Click on AUTO-AUD(IT) in the Punch box. Now click on the line of music in the Map box, where you think the bad note is. The Fragment's black box appears, and the times in the Punch box change. You hear the Fragment being played. Keep clicking on the line of music until you have found the Note/Chord that is wrong, then click on AUTO-PUN(CH). Now play the correct Note/Chord. Use AUDITION, as above, to hear the result. Sections -------- Under the Map, you see the word Section. Click on this, then select Change in the Section Menu. The Section Dialogue box appears. You can alter the Time signature, Tempo as you wish, by clicking and rolling the mouse. Try changing the Time signature, click on OK, then PLAY. You will see the new Time signature in the Conductor box. Some pieces of music have several sections with different Time signatures and Tempi. You can open a new Section for each one. Voice Copy ---------- It is often convenient to make a copy of a Voice in order to try something new. To do this, select Copy in the Voice Menu. Set the source and destination Voices on the left hand side, then click on OK. Use UNDO/REDO as required before COMMIT. You can merge many Voices into one, and copy parts of one Voice to another. Block Editing ------------- The Block Menu contains various features for copying, moving, transposing all or parts of a piece of music. Select Transpose, and put the music up a tone by changing the To note at the bottom to D. MIDI Channels ------------- You should be able to get quite a long way without having to worry about MIDI channel numbers. However, if your Synthesiser wont play, then it may be because it is set up to recieve on a different MIDI channel. All ACCOMPANIST's music uses channel 0. Also, you may have a Multi-Timbral device, which means that it can play several different instruments at the same time. You can change the MIDI channel that a Voice outputs, by clicking on the Voice name, and selecting Change in the Voice Menu. The Voice Dialogue box appears. The output MIDI channel is at the top right, and is currently set to **, which means use the input channel. Click and roll to get channels from 0 to 15. Unfortunately, different people talk about MIDI channels in different ways. Some use 0 to 15, others use 1 to 16. Selecting Midi-base in the Options Menu allows you to tell ACCOMPANIST which to use. More about MIDI --------------- If you want to learn more about MIDI, the Sound on Sound magazine gives a good coverage of the MIDI scene. They also have an excellent list of books about MIDI and related matters. You can contact them on 0480 61244. Buying a Synthesiser -------------------- If you are thinking of buying a MIDI Synthesiser, prices for new models start at under £200. You will be overwhelmed by jargon, and its worth clarifying a few terms here:- Polyphony - this means how many notes can be played at the same time. Multi-timbral - this means that more than one instrument can be played at once using different MIDI channels, eg my CASIO HT3000 is 3-Timbral. I can play 4 notes together on a Piano, plus 3 notes on a Harpsichord, plus 1 note on a Bass. So, in total it has a polyphony of 8. This is fixed polyphony. Some Synthesisers can allocate notes to channels flexibly, as required. Velocity Sensitive - this means the harder you hit the keys, the louder it sounds. Weighted keys - this means that the keys should feel like proper Piano keys (they never quite manage it). You must decide what combination of these features you want. Needless to say, the more you want, the more it will cost! Conclusion ---------- This tutorial has introduced the basic features of ACCOMPANIST, and should allow you to have a lot of fun. Now you can try other features such as Filters, or changing the Metronome. If something unexpected happens and you can't work it out, then as the saying goes 'If all else fails, read the instructions!'. The manual is in the MANUAL.TXT file on the disk. Good luck.