Roland Musical Instrument instruction

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke

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

Like the other editor windows, the lower portion of the Phrases window contains a quick mutes window button, useful when Automute is disabled to prevent distraction by other tracks as you develop your Melody. The Idea window button lets you bring in the specialty track described earlier. Engage the Improv and Idea tracks if you find them helpful, or add helpfully MIDI-mapped Noodle input.

You can enter Phrases using only the mouse, without any help from maxWerk. Alternatively, keyboard step entry is available, as it is for Basic Loops. (See the section pertaining to it above to read more about entering notes into Phrases by means of your MIDI controller.) A difference between the Editors for Notes and Phrases is that quantizing on entry to a Phrase step resolution higher than 16ths is not possible. Melody lines are always heard in play- changes mode, with note-offs triggered by changing pitches.

To have maxWerk's help coming up with a Melody, use the Phrase Generator, 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 generate new Phrase notes without disturbing notes already present, be sure there are rests (empty pattern slots) to be filled, and mark the checkbox option to keep existing notes. This lets you try decorating a simple Melody figure in various ways until you have a keeper.

Generated Phrases occasionally include rests, and you can use the add a random rest button to break up long tied notes. Because of the two-octave range structure there is no use for an independently transposed Scale note. Using the set of edit 2nd bar buttons you can repeat, reverse pitch order, or expand the first Phrase bar to cover two. Alternatively, you can substitute scale-inverted chordal tone variation notes for values 2 through 6 in the second bar.

A pair of pattern menus below the Phrase displays automatically imposes a two-step sequence of pitch order direction to fill the