Keyboard Entry | Roland Musical Instrument specification

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke

Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com

You can assign Line B, labeled “scalic”, a base scale-step Tonic transposition value different from the original, and you can shift it by octaves relative to the original and adjust velocities. You can delayLine B by any number of steps, as you can Line A. The last Line B intervals menu item inv affords an interesting contrast to the offset pattern of notes that does not by itself cause any dissonances: scale steps 2 through 6 are inverted, i.e. flipped, before pitch is offset. Step 4 pitches unchanged along with tonic and seventh notes.

Line C, labeled “chromatic”, lets you transpose the note line by any chromatic interval relative to the original notes, instead of transposing by a certain Scale step. This one is for the adventurous! Line C’s randomizer conservatively sticks to a choice between tonics, fifths and (+)Notes, but of course you can change the setting. Experiment with other chromatic steps for dissonant effects. 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. You can minimize velocities of the original note line so that the displayed pattern is in effect merely a template for the others, as long as you bear in mind the polyphony limitations of your sound module. All three lines may be set to play on alternate repetitions. Line A's menu items prefixed alt1 and alt2 and the similar play settings for B and C let you set any pair of Lines to trade off on loop passes.

2.8 Keyboard Entry

For some, auditioning and editing of maxWerk-generated loops in combination with randomized Offset Note Lines may prove to be an invaluable creative strategy. But if you already have a motif in mind and would like to enter it yourself via MIDI, you can use the keyboard step entry switch-buttonor its associated key command to prepare the displays of Basic and Drum Loops or