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╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Q S E Q : QUICK SEQUENCER ║
║ ║
║ Copyright 1993-1994 by David HAUBENSACK ║
║ All Rights Reserved ║
║ ║
║ version 1.1b, 03 june 1994 ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│00 - Author, Copyright, Money, and all this kind of things...│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Read this, it contains lotsa info !!!
Hi there,
First-of-all, let me tell you that,... I'm French. So don't be scared off
by some of the language booboos you will probably notice in this doc-file.
So forget about Shakespeare and Hemmingway, just learn French and call me.
This piece of software was (and probably still is) developped by:
David HAUBENSACK
97, L'Oree du Golf
04860 PIERREVERT
FRANCE
home phone: (+33)-92729177
work phone: (+33)-42254292
work fax : (+33)-42252780
email : hbsk@h2o.cad.cea.fr (not hbsk@hostsit anymore !!!)
You must not: sell, copy, nor give away the fully functional version of this
program, except to your baby sister, provided she is less than three years old
but I doubt if she will thank you for it,... especially if you just have one
brother and a cat. You may not use it for private, nor commercial purposes,
unless you have purchased and received an explicite licence from me.
The price for a licence of the "FULL-FEATURED" version 1.1 is 300.00 Francs or
$60.00 US. That's cheap, believe me. Yes, believe me ! If you can't pay in
french francs nor in dollars, use today's currency rates and convert 350.00FF
to your currency (350.00FF = 300.00FF + 20.00FF for my bank [their commission]
plus 30.00FF for international shipping). Don't cheat on the conversion, OK ?
Anyway, I will check it out in the financial section of my newspaper. All that
cash-money will then be integrally wasted into the purchase of a musical MIDI-
instrument of some kind. I promise !
If you want to buy "QSEQ" send me a postcard with your exact name and address,
and a check or a money order made out to my name. If you can't find a pretty
postcard, don't worry, the check will do nicely. Remember to tell me what
kind of floppy-disk you need (either: 3.5 or 5.25"). Registered users will be
able to buy future releases for a special friendly price. Did I say:
"friendly"? I'm feeling so generous today! I must have caught a cold or
something. Future release means changes in the major or minor version number...
You'll be able to get correction versions for free, if you're on Internet or if
you send me a floppy with your address on it. Correction version numbers are
followed by a lower-case letter (e.g. qseq v1.1b). To get an upgrade, don't
forget to tell me your name, address and your previous licence number.
For the "DEMO" version, you can run it for your private use, then give away
copies of it to whoever you want. Just don't sell it, unless you are a crook.
Beware, that demo version is not the full version... You cannot save music files
with it! Tough luck, unless you own "2" PCs, and "2" MIDI-cards like a good
friend of mine (he says he's not a crook, should I believe him?...). Anyway,
even this DEMO version can be used as a very good midifile player and a sysex
dumper, that's why I don't consider it as a real crippleware.
For those who hate those kind of crippled demo, let me tell you my story:
"Once upon a time, I upload freeware of mine on the Internet. Then I get back
a lot of calls from a lot of people that were just curious about the software
or who didn't understand what it was about (cos they didn't even read the doc).
Some of them were very rude because they seem to think that I have to help
them with the software, as if I was a commercial hotline! I get buzzed about
this. Now I'm asking for a little money ($60.00 US is really small in comparison
with comparable commercial products), and I can tell you that it is a very good
filter: now I mostly get in touch with motivated people who dare to read the
documentation and invest time in seriously testing the product. I'm ready to
help those kind of people. End of the story. Conclusion of the fairy tale: they
were happy and conceived a lot of baby-midi-softwares together..."
The date of birth of this version is written at the beginning of this document.
But if today is 22/10/2028, there is probably a new release coming soon. Just
ask me. Next major version will probably wait for a year to come, depending also
on the success of this one... God, let me become a millionnaire with this
marvellous program. Amen.
You can probably find the latest demo version of qseq-*.zip on Internet via
anonymous ftp in one of the following SIMTEL servers/directory:
Rochester, Michigan: OAK.Oakland.Edu (141.210.10.117)
/pub/msdos/sound
St. Louis, MO: wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
/systems/ibmpc/msdos
Corvallis, OR: archive.orst.edu (128.193.2.13)
/pub/mirrors/simtel/msdos
Australia: archie.au (139.130.4.6)
/micros/pc/oak
England: src.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.2.10)
/pub/packages/simtel
Finland: ftp.funet.fi (128.214.248.6)
/pub/msdos/SimTel
Germany: ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.2.32)
/SimTel/msdos
Hong Kong: ftp.cs.cuhk.hk (137.189.4.57)
/pub/simtel/msdos
Israel: ftp.technion.ac.il (132.68.1.10)
/pub/unsupported/dos/simtel
Poland: ftp.cyf-kr.edu.pl (149.156.1.8)
/pub/mirror/msdos
Sweden: ftp.sunet.se (130.238.127.3)
/pub/pc/mirror/SimTel/msdos
Switzerland: ftp.switch.ch (130.59.1.40)
/mirror/msdos
Taiwan: NCTUCCCA.edu.tw (140.111.1.10)
/PC/simtel
Thailand: ftp.nectec.or.th (192.150.251.32)
/pub/mirrors/msdos
If you don't have access to ftp, qseq can be automatically emailed to you,
uuencoded and split in 5 pieces of 40Kb. Just send a message to
hbsk@h2o.cad.cea.fr , with the keyword "SEND-QSEQ-PROG" in the subject line of
the message. If you just want to receive this help to know which is the latest
available version of QSEQ, use the keyword "SEND-QSEQ-HELP" in the subject line.
Notice that the main chance to retrieve the very last version is to use this
mailserver.
Let me tell you one good thing. SoundBlaster is a trademark from Creative Labs.
But their MIDI port is so simple that it is quite hard to program it
efficiently.
And MSDOS and Windows are trademarks from Microsoft Corp. But I do not use
Windows.
┌──────────────┐
│01 - Contents:│
└──────────────┘
00 - Author, Copyright, Money... (are you sure you red this one?)
01 - Contents (you're in, dude!).
02 - Quick description to make you dream.
03 - Future releases.
04 - Bugs, oh no there is no bugs... (see chapter 40)
10 - What installation ? (READ THIS ONE, PLEASE, BEFORE CALLING ME !!!)
11 - Philosophy.
12 - Keys conventions.
13 - The status line.
20 - GLOBAL view.
21 - VARIABLE view.
22 - NOTE view.
23 - EVENT view.
24 - FILE view.
25 - SYSEX view.
26 - INFO view.
27 - STATISTICS view.
30 - How to record and play.
31 - Special keys.
32 - Command-line options.
40 - Releases, sub-versions, and atomic changes...
41 - Conclusion.
42 - "Cul Sec".
50 - That's all folks !
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│02 - Quick description, to make you dream:│
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
This sequencer is a text-mode one, written in C and assembly and its
size gives you an average 400Ko free memory for your music, if you are
running MSDOS 5.0. The upper memory is not used if you have more than 640Ko.
Its main purpose is to be very easy and quick to use, with most of the
features that any good sequencer offers. Here are these features:
- PC compatible, with MSDOS 3.0 or greater.
- Support the SoundBlaster MIDI interface.
- 80 x 50 color text display, using direct video memory writing for speed.
- Highly secured and reliable MIDI playing kernel, totally independant from
the user-interface activity (I worked for this!).
- Two recording modes: overwrite preexisting material or append.
- Punch in/out while recording.
- 40 tracks, with many real-time parameters for each track, including
selective MIDI events filters, fine delay, key and velocity transpose, etc...
- Recordable tempo change on any track.
- Each track contains up to 16000 MIDI events.
- Each track can be looped a given number of times.
- Time resolution is 1/192th of a beat.
- Each track is individually mutable or archivable, or can be set to solo mode.
- Powerful graphic manipulation of tracks and beats (copy, cut, paste,
paste-over, join, transpose, etc...), thru a buffer.
- Powerful graphic edition of any MIDI event in a track (notes, control
changes, aftertouch, bender, program changes, tempi, etc...).
- Tool to smooth continuous MIDI events variations and to filter out
useless events by linear interpolation.
- Tool to create MIDI events by linear/curved/random progression.
- Tool to split a track according to notes heigth.
- Tool to split one multiple-channels track in several single-channel tracks.
- Tool to humanize a track.
- Tool to quantize a track, with a strength percentage.
- Tool to change note velocities according to a linear and/or random function.
- Tool to change MIDI event values according to a linear and/or random function.
- Sysex files capabilities.
- Info screen to memorize useful information about a sequence, with templates.
- Real time visualisation in hours/minutes/secondes/hundredth of seconds.
- Load, merge and save MIDI files or QSEQ format files.
- Easy manipulation of files and directories.
- Metronome click on the PC speaker or thru MIDI notes.
- Use of real-time messages START/CONTINUE/STOP.
- Tool to compute current MIDI controllers and tempo when you start playing
at the middle of the song (powerful, hu ?).
- Statistic computation to count and sort MIDI events for each track.
- Numerous command-line options that can be stored in a DOS environment
variable.
- And many many others features that I hope you'll like...
┌─────────────────────┐
│03 - Future releases:│
└─────────────────────┘
In the future, I plan to integrate new features:
- Support of the MPU interface, as soon as I have the money to buy one.
- Support of the synchronization for tape recording, as soon as I have the money
to buy a MPU interface supporting sync.
- Support of multiple MIDI ports, as soon as I have the money to buy a MPU
interface supporting sync and having two MIDI ports to use 32 MIDI channels.
- New tools to manipulate blocks. No money nor hypergalactic MPU card necessary
for this one...
- Library of sysex requests, in order to receive sysex dumps without
manipulating synths' panels. Have to think about a clever way to implement
this one.
- A C library to manipulate QSQ format files to allow creation of batch tools
that would increase too much QSEQ size if they were included in it.
- Increase the number of tracks. It is easy but I don't need it and it
can slow down the MIDI output if you have a real slow machine (like mine).
Gimme a 486/DX2-66 as a gift and I will do this one!
- Customizable colors and keys for those who are tasteless because my choices
are obviously the bests!
- Any other feature that I need for myself, because I am the first and main
user of this piece of software. The only difference between you and I is
that I get it for free money but not free work!
If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to send them to me on a letter or an
email. But remember that I want to keep the program quite small and rapid to
use. So I probably won't use any graphic interface with mouse and all this
stuff if it is what you're thinking about.
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│04 - Bugs, oh no there are no bugs...│
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
I tested this software on a PC-AT-286/12 MHz with a SoundBlaster Pro card.
It also perfectly works with my MIDI gear (Roland U20 synth, Quadraverb+ unit,
Casio RZ-1 drum machine, Proteus/1 expander). I also tested it on a PC-486/33
of a friend of mine, with YAMAHA synths and a Roland SCC1 card (used as a synth,
not as a MPU interface). I noticed no problem, or if I noticed some, I corrected
them. I also tested it on a PC-386 without MIDI interface. It also works.
But as I am not perfect nor divine for the moment, you could find a bug. I'm
sure I forgot some weird case. Don't hesitate to send me a letter or email to
the address above if you find one. Please describe it as precisely as possible,
cos I already noticed it is sometimes hard for me to put the finger on them...
You can notice that, according to chapter 40, there are already a certain
number of subversions, due to a certain number of bug corrections but also
pure improvements. Thanks to whoever helped me discovering these bugs. They
know who they are.
┌────────────────────────┐
│10 - What installation ?│
└────────────────────────┘
Files provided in the package are:
- READ.ME : a file to read.
- QSQ.TXT : this document, i.e. the user's manual.
- QSQ.EXE : the QSEQ program itself.
- TEMPLATE : an example of template for the INFO view.
- WHATISAY.QSQ and WHATISAY.MID : sample music file under QSEQ format and
standard MIDIFILE format. I'm not the creator of this example I found on
the net. I just modify it to make it an obvious example. Thanks to Ray
Charles. I am giving this MIDIFILE, not selling it, so please Ray, if you
read this (ooops excuse me!), don't ask me for any money... ;-)
- DEMO.BAT : a DOS script to run QSEQ demo (run it and press space).
Read it, it contains examples.
This program needs at least a PC AT/286 with a VGA card and a version of
MSDOS greater than v3.0. It's better if you have a color screen because colors
are not customizable for the moment and I don't know what is the result on
a monochrome display... Maybe YOU can tell, hu hu hu...
It also needs a SoundBlaster card as a MIDI interface.
QSEQ can read the BLASTER environment variable if it is correctly set in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file (see SoundBlaster's documentation for further informations).
ex: set BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
You can also enter these values online, when launching QSEQ:
ex: qsq -A220 -I7
If you don't have a SB card, you can test the program interface anyway. When
you record, a MIDI IN input is even simulated. Everything except the MIDI IN
and MIDI OUT routines are working normally.
The only useful file is "qsq.exe". Just type "qsq" to enter the program.
You can also type the name of a file on the command line if you want it to be
loaded at the beginning.
You should store qsq.exe somewhere in your DOS search path if you want to be
able to run it from any directory.
You can also set two others environment variables:
- MUSICDIR that contains the path to your most used music files directory.
- SYSEXDIR that contains the path to your most used sysex directory.
they will be used as default search pathes.
ex: set MUSICDIR=c:\qsq\music
set SYSEXDIR=c:\qsq\sysex
Don't forget to switch LOCAL CONTROL off on your synth, because QSEQ takes care
about redirecting what is entering its MIDI IN to MIDI OUT, after a little
treatment. If you can't do this, you can run QSEQ with a "-0" argument that
means that QSEQ won't provide any MIDI THRU. If your synth understand LOCAL
CONTROL, you can send this message automatically at the beginning of the
session, using the "-l" command-line option. You can get other command-line
options by typing "qsq -h" at the DOS prompt. Read chapter 32 for more (you
can even use the QSEQCMD environment variable to set command-line options by
default).
If you synth uses to send Active Sensing messages every 300ms, you'd better
disable this option if it is possible cos' it can slow down QSEQ, even if QSEQ
ignore them (and don't echo them to MIDI OUT).
I don't guaranty that this program works with TSR programs. The results may be
weird because I change the frequency of the timer (without loosing system timing
information of course, I worked for this...).
I am not responsible of any damages QSEQ could create on your PC. But it is
just a formula because nothing happened to mine.
┌────────────────┐
│11 - Philosophy:│
└────────────────┘
The Wise Man said:
QSEQ is separated in several views. The main view is the GLOBAL view. Each
view will be described in the following chapters.
At the bottom of the screen, there are 3 lines that are reserved for
menus and interactive questions. The first line is the main menu,
telling you in what view you're in. The current view first letter is
hilighted in a different color that the others. To change from one view
to another, just type the letter of the new view. Notice that every
view main short-key is a capital letter.
The second line is a submenu that depends on the view you're in. It
works in the same way: just type the hilighted letter of the item you
want to activate.
The third line is either for a subsubmenu or an interactive question
or a sequencer message (report or error).
┌──────────────────────┐
│12 - Keys conventions:│
└──────────────────────┘
In this document, we will use the following notation:
- ^A for Ctrl-A.
- aA for Alt-A.
- sA for Shift-A.
That's all for this chapter. Short isn't it ?
┌─────────────────────┐
│13 - The status line:│
└─────────────────────┘
At the top of the screen, there is the status line, that contains from the left
to the right:
- the name of the current edited file.
- the counter (see "Specials keys - aU" for the different availiable units.
- the tempo in number of beats per minute.
- the signature in number of beats per measure (in the whole sequencer, I
assume that one beat equals one quarter-note).
- the sequencer mode flag:
(E): edit mode.
(P): playing mode.
(R): recording mode.
(S): step recording mode.
- the recording mode flag:
(O): overwrite.
(A): append.
- the punch-in mode flag:
(P): on.
(p): off.
- the metronome flag:
(M): on.
(m): off.
- the midithru flag:
(T): midithru on.
(t): midithru off.
- the memory left. In recording modes, it gives the number of free events
available in the track, assuming one MIDI event uses 4 bytes and each beat
uses also 4 bytes, and assuming one track contains a maximum of 16380
events. In every other mode, it gives the total number of thousands of free
events available.
┌─────────────────┐
│20 - GLOBAL view:│
└─────────────────┘
Type 'G' to go to this view or ESC.
The zoom:
─────────
The GLOBAL view represents the global content of the 40 tracks of the sequencer,
with or without a zooming feature. So the horizontal direction represents time.
The zoom status is shown at the upper right corner: 'Z' for zoom, 'z' for
unzoom. Use key 'z' to toggle between both modes.
In the zoomed mode, each dot represents a beat (one quarter note or 192 ticks).
In the unzoomed mode, each dot can represent either:
- a measure, if the zoom is based on the signature: each measure contains a
number of beats equal to the signature shown in the status line. Remember
that the signature is use for the metronome accent, and for saving in
MIDIFILES. It is a musical variable. The signature is set with the aS key.
- a group of a user-definable number of beats, independant from the signature.
We will call this number the zooming number. This number is usefull when you
want to have an invariant signature but when you still want to vary the
display (e.g. if you have a 4/4 signature, choosing a zooming number of 24
will give you a larger - but less precise - view on your sequence if you are
in unzoomed mode). So remember that this zoom number is only a display
variable, with no repercussion on the music. The zoom number is set with the
aZ key.
You can toggle between these two display modes with the ^Z key.
In the zoomed mode, the upper horizontal scale counts beats. Notice that steps
on the scale depends on weither you use the zooming number or the signature
as the number of beats per group.
In the unzoomed mode, the upper horizontal scale counts measures or zooming
number based groups: it depends on weither you use the zooming number or the
signature as the number of beats per group.
Left part of the screen:
────────────────────────
On the left part of the screen, you can read:
- the track name (17 characters max).
- the channel number. If it is used, each event in the track is forced to
this channel, otherwise each event keeps the channel it had when it was
recorded or inserted.
- the optional initial program number which is send when the sequence is
played back from beat 0.
- the status mode:
'-' for an empty track.
'' for a normal non-empty track.
'L' for a looped track.
The followings are overwritting the previous ones when used:
'M' for a muted track.
'A' for an archived track.
'S' for a track in solo mode (only one soloed track at the same time).
Difference between a muted and an archived track: a muted track can be
de-muted while playing, not an archived track. An archived track is
totally ignored while playing, so the performance is better on slow
machines, especially when the archived track contains a lot of events
such as benders, etc...
Right part of the screen:
─────────────────────────
The right part of the screen represent the content of each track. A '.'
means that the beat/measure/group of beats is non-defined. A '-' means that
the beat/measure/group of beats is defined but empty. See "secondary menus,
v(f)il" to understand the meaning of every other symbols.
The end of a track is shown by a '|'. If it is a '<', it means that you are
in unzoomed mode and that the last measure/group of beats does not contain
a number of beats equal to the signature/zooming number.
If the track is looped, every repetition points of the loop are shown by a 'L',
and the last 'L' shows the real end of the track when it is played. If you
press the aL key, you can also see looping points: a 'L' appears on the beat
where the track is looped, and also at the end of the track. If you want to
hide this looping information, use aL key again.
A 'M' at the beginning of a track means that the track is muted.
A 'A' at the beginning of a track means that the track is archived.
Secondary menus:
────────────────
You can use the following secondary menus:
- (m)ute: mutes the current track, or unmutes it.
- (s)olo: sets the current track in solo mode: every other track is
muted since you select this menu again.
- (a)rch: archives the current track, or unarchives it.
- (l)oop: sets the current track to loop mode. See the VARIABLE screen
to set the looping beat and the number of loops. Use the same menu to defeat
loop mode.
- (i)nsN: inserts n beats or n measures at the cursor position, with or
without cuting notes that stands on a limit. The INS key is a shortcut
to do (i)ns1 without cuting.
- (d)elN: deletes n beats or n measures at the cursor position, cuting
notes that stand on a limit. The DEL key is a shorcut to do (d)el1.
- (b)lock: a block is a group of consecutive beats of the same track.
There's one buffer that you can be used to store one block and to
copy it in another position. The following subsubmenus appear when you
select this submenu:
* (c)opy: copies the marked block in the buffer. You can also use aF4 key.
* (p)aste: pastes the content of the buffer at the cursor position,
insering the correspondant number of beats. You can repeat this operation
a given number of time. You can also use aF5 key.
* (k)ut: copies the marked block in the buffer and deleted the block from
the original track. You can also use aF3 key.
* (o)ver: pastes the content of the buffer over the cursor position,
erasing any material under the buffer area. You can repeat this operation
a given number of time. You can also use aF6 key.
* (j)oin: pastes the content of the buffer over the cursor position, merging
the new material with the old one. For notes, old notes are not erased
by newer ones, for safety reasons. You can repeat this operation a given
number of time.
* (d)el: deletes the marked block from the track. Same as (k)ut but leave the
buffer intact.
* (w)ipe: simply erases the content of the marked block.
* (b)egin: sets block begining, and also by the way the block's track.
You can also use aF1 key.
* (e)nd: sets block end, and also by the way the block's track.
You can also use aF2 key.
* (z)ero: unmarks the current marked block.
* (g)lide: moves the block begining to the current cursor position, keeping
the same block size.
* (s)ize: asks for a new block size, keeping the same block beginning.
* (m)anip: special manipulations on the marked block.
- (.)..: use this special point submenu to toggle to next (m)anip submenu.
- (c)ontinbeat: makes notes continuity for notes contained in the marked
block. At the beat limit notes that ends at the tick 191 and start back
at tick 0 of the next beat are tied together. This feature is useful when
you use block cut/paste/insert/etc.. that often cuts notes at a beat
limit.
- (s)etchannel: changes the MIDI channel of every MIDI events contained in
the marked block.
- (t)ranspose: transposes every notes contained in the marked block of a
positive of negative number of semi-tones. Notes transposed out of the
usual 0-127 range are erased.
- chg(v)elocity: changes the velocity of every notes contained in the
marked block, according to a linear and/or random function:
newvelo=A+(B/100*oldvelo)+-[0..RND].
The random factor can be used to "humanize" a group of notes of the same
velocity. If the result is out of the usual 0-127 range, velocity is
either set to 0 or 127.
- chg(e)vtVal: changes the value of every event of a specified type
contained in the marked block, according to a linear and/or random
function: newvalue=A+(B/100*oldvalue)+-[0..RND].
The random factor can be used to "humanize" a group of notes of the same
velocity. If the result is out of the usual range, it is rounded to the
nearest boundary.
- (q)uantize: rounds off the starting point of notes to a resolution you
choose. You can also give a roundoff rate (or strength percentage),
between 0 and 100. If this rate is equal to 100, notes are kept unchanged;
if this rate is zero, notes are precisely rounded off. Imagine what gives
a medium rate...
- (h)umanize: adds or substracts to the starting point of every notes a
random value between 0 and the given number of ticks. When notes are
entered with the keyboard, it is useful to add a little chaos... It
"humanized" the way notes are played or it avoids mechanical way of
playing.
- split(n)ote: creates two tracks from one track. The first new track
contains every notes between both given limits. The second new track
contains every other notes (strictly outside limits). Others events can
be duplicated in none, first, second or both tracks. The original track
is not modified. New tracks herit of the name of the original track with
either "(1)" or ")2(" at the end of the name. They also herit of the
original track's parameters (see "VARIABLE view").
- split(c)hannel: creates several tracks from one track. Each new track
contains every notes of the original track related to a same MIDI channel.
Then a maximum of 16 tracks can be created. The original track is not
modified. This feature is useful when you load a format 0 standard MIDI
file, that contains all channels merged together in one track. New tracks
herit of the name of the original track with a "Cnn" at the end of the
name, where nn is the number of the isolated MIDI channel. They also herit
of the original track's parameters, except the MIDI channel parameter
that is kept empty.
- (t)rack: in this menu, a track is considered as the content of the track and
also every parameters or variables related to the track. The buffer used in
this operation is the same as the buffer used in beats operations, so be
careful not to loose beats or tracks ! The following subsubmenus appear when
you select this submenu:
* (i)ns: inserts one track at the current position. Every tracks behind this
position are translated one step down. Not possible if track 39 is not
empty.
* (d)el: deletes current track. Every tracks behind this position are
translated one step up. Be careful, no way to get it back !
* (c)opy: copies the whole current track in the buffer.
* (k)ut: copies the whole current track in the buffer and perform a
"track del" operation.
* (p)aste: pastes the content of the buffer in the current track, if it is
empty, and if the buffer contains the result of a "track kut" or "track
copy" operation. Variables of the current track are modified.
* (j)oin: joins the content of the buffer with the current track. Variables
of the current track are not modified.
* (e)rase: erases the content of the current track. Variables of the current
track are not modified. If you insert something in the track, they will
all appear again.
* (m)ark: marks the whole current track.
- p(u)nch: this feature allows you to record with automatic punch-in and
punch-out points. When you are in punch mode and when you hit record, you
stay in playback mode since you reach the punch-in point, where you are
automatically transfered in record mode. Then when you reach the punch-out
point, you are coming back automatically to playback mode. This allows you
to re-record a precise number of beats within an existing, without loosing
peripherical material.
* (u)on/off: switch punch mode on or off. You can also use aP key.
* (i)n: set punch-in point to the current beat.
* (o)ut: set punch-out point to the current beat.
- (j)oker: you can use special items to mark a beat, that I call "jokers". They
are numbered from 'A' to 'Z' and appear on the horizontal scale. They are not
associated with text for the moment, but you can use them to clarify the
structure of your sequence and to mark turning points (intro, chorus, ending,
etc...):
* (i)ns: inserts a joker at the current beat. You can also use ^INS key.
* (d)el: deletes any joker at the current position. You can also use ^DEL key.
* (n)ext: goto next joker. You can also use ^F5 key.
* (p)revious: goto previous joker. You can also use ^F6 key.
* (r)ightTrans: translates one step right every jokers at the right of the
current point. You can also use ^F7 key.
* (l)eftTrans: translates one step leftt every jokers at the right of the
current point. You can also use ^F8 key.
* (c)learAll: clear all jokers.
You can also use aJ to make jokers visibles or invisibles and ^J to go to a
specified joker.
- (g)oto:
* block (b)egin: go to the begining of the marked block.
* block (e)nd: go to the end of the marked block.
* punch (i)n: go to the punch in point.
* punch (o)ut: go to the punch out point.
* (j)oker: go to specified joker.
* (l)oopingbeat: go to the looping beat of the current track if there's one.
- v(f)il: allows you to set an event-type based filter in the global view.
You can choose what type of event will be shown by a character different from
'-'. For example, if you choose 'note', the global view will only show you
beats or measures containing notes by putting a 'n' on them. Any other
beat or measure does not contain any notes (but maybe other events such as
controllers or tempi).
* (n)ote: tags beats or measures containing notes with a 'n'.
* poly(A)ote: tags beats or measures containing polyphonic aftertouch with
a 'A'.
* (c)trl: tags beats or measures containing controllers with a 'c'.
* (p)rog: tags beats or measures containing program changes with a 'p'.
* (a)ft: tags beats or measures containing channel aftertouch with a 'a'.
* (b)end: tags beats or measures containing benders with a 'b'.
* (t)empo: tags beats or measures containing tempo events with a 't'.
* no(f)ilter: tags beats or measures containing any event with a '■'.
- *: the current cursor position become the center of the screen.
┌───────────────────┐
│21 - VARIABLE view:│
└───────────────────┘
Type 'V' to go to this view or F9.
This view gathers informations about each track. You can edit this information
depending on the sequencer running mode or the emptiness of the track.
You can move in this view using the four arrows, PGUP and PGDOWN, HOME and
END (test their meaning by yourself), but also by using the secondary menu
that brings you directly in the column you choose. Use ENTER to edit any field.
For numeric variables, you can just type in a new figure. You can also use
F5, F6, F7 and F8 to increase or decrease the hilighted value of one or
several units.
Secondary submenus are, from left to right:
- (n)ame: name of the track using 17 characters maxi.
- (c)h: MIDI channel of the track. If none, each MIDI event contained in the
track uses its own channel value when sent to MIDI out. You cannot change
this value while the sequencer is running...
- (p)rg: original program change. Not available if there is no MIDI channel
specified above. When playing the sequence from beat 0, the original program
change is sent at the beginning. Changing this value while the sequencer is
playing sends the corresponding program change to MIDI out in real-time. If
recording, this program change is recorded if concerning the record track.
- v(o)l: original volume controller. Not available if there is no MIDI channel
specified above. When playing the sequence from beat 0, the original volume
controller is sent at the beginning. Volume controller is number 7 in the
MIDI norm. Changing this value while the sequencer is playing sends the
corresponding volume change to MIDI out in real-time. If recording, this
volume change is recorded if concerning the record track.
- (b)al: original balance controller. Not available if there is no MIDI channel
specified above. When playing the sequence from beat 0, the original balance
controller is sent at the beginning. Balance controller is number 10 in the
MIDI norm. Changing this value while the sequencer is playing sends the
corresponding balance change to MIDI out in real-time. If recording, this
balance change is recorded if concerning the record track.
- (k)+: on-the-fly transpose value. Any note of the current track is transposed
using this positive or negative number of semi-tones. This is not affecting
the note stored in the memory. You can change this value while the sequencer
is running ! This transposition affects any note coming from MIDI in, even if
the sequencer is running. If you want a hard transposition that affects notes
in the memory, use the "GLOBAL block manip transpose" feature.
- (v)+: on-the-fly velocity change value. This positive or negative amount of
velocity is added to the velocity of any note of the current track. This is
not affecting the note stored in the memory. You can change this value while
the sequencer is running ! This transposition affects any note coming from
MIDI in, even if the sequencer is running. If you want to change multiple
notes velocities in the memory, use the "GLOBAL block manip chgvelocity"
feature.
- (d)ly: on-the-fly time translation. The whole track is translated in
real-time using this neagtive or positive amount of ticks (=1/192 beat). It
is not affected the track as it is stored in the memory. A positive value is
making the track late in comparison with a normal one. This feature is useful
when you want one track to have the priority (for example the drum kit
track): if several notes occure at the same time, you can be sure that the
note of a minus-one-transalted track will occure before the others... You can
also use this feature to create a MIDI echo effects if you copy one track
in an empty one and translate one from the other.
- (g)oto:
- (x)loop:
Both variables are used to set a looping feature: at the end of a track, you
can automatically loop to a previous beat. This beat is set with the (g)oto
submenu or directly in the GLOBAL view with the ^L key (see "Special keys").
You can repeat this feature a given number of time. This number is set with
the (x)loop variable (column called "x"). This number is in the range 0..99.
A number 100 set an infinite ("hi") number of loop. This feature is working
in any case, even when you start the playback after the end of a looped track.
A looped track end is shown by a 'L' in the GLOBAL view. When you toggle
the looping mode in the GLOBAL view, you don't loose the loop number value,
which is just temporarly set to zero.
- (f)ilter: this feature allows you to filter events by type for each track.
It does not affect the track as it is stored in the memory. It is only a
real-time feature used during playback. You can filter out:
* (n)ote: any notes.
* poly(A)ft: polyphonic aftertouch events.
* (c)trlchg: any control changes.
* (p)rgchg: program changes.
* mono(a)ft: channel aftertouch events.
* (b)ender: bender events.
* (t)empo: tempo changes.
- (i)nfo: this field cannot be edited. It just contains different informations.
You can switch from an information to the next one using this submenu.
Available informations are:
* size of the track in number of QSQ events, assuming that a MIDI event is
a QSQ event, but also a beat limit and a tempo change. Each QSQ event uses
4 bytes in the memory.
* number of beats in the current track.
* other informations, for my private use. Try to guess...
┌───────────────┐
│22 - NOTE view:│
└───────────────┘
This view is used to edit notes in the current track. The horizontal direction
still represents time, but more precisely than in the GLOBAL view. Infact,
this view displays a number of beats equal to signature/zooming number (you
can still use ^Z key to toggle between both values). The vertical direction
represents notes in semi-tones (from 0 to 127, assuming that 60 stands for
middle C).
One note is represented by a segment '▄▄▄▄'. Its length represents the duration
of the note. If the note is continued after the left or right edge of the
screen, the cuting point is shown by a ''. If the ending point of one note is
graphically mixed to the starting point of another note, the first note ends
with a '▄▄▄┐'.
The following keys are used:
- LEFT/RIGHT: moves one step left/right.
- INS: inserts one note at the cursor position.
- DEL: deletes the current hilighted note.
- TAB: goto next note.
- BACKTAB: goto previous note.
- sLEFT/sRIGHT: moves one beat left/right.
- HOME: goto the left edge of screen.
- END: goto the right edge of screen.
- ^HOME: goto the beginning of the track.
- ^END: goto the end of the track.
- UP/DOWN: moves one semi-tone up/down.
- PGUP/PGDOWN: moves one octave up/down.
- ^UP/^DOWN: moves one track up/down (according to the track order used in the
GLOBAL view).
- ^PGUP/^PGDOWN: moves five tracks up/down.
- *: adjust the cursor vertically in order to be in a zone containing notes.
- aF1: sets block begin here.
- aF2: sets block end here.
Notice that in NOTE screen, marked block limits are give in beats/ticks. These
limits are used as default starting and ending points in functions such as
(p)rog or e(x)tract. In the GLOBAL view, marked block contains only full beats
(it means you cannot copy half of a beat...).
In this screen, you can also move vertically the cursor using an external
MIDI keyboard. The cursor just follows notes you hit on the keyboard !!!
For this screen, you have a secondary status line. Some submenus are used to
shift from a currently edited field (highlighted in blue) to another one. F5,
F6,F7 and F8 keys can be used to change the currently edited field. You can
also just type in a new value. From left to right, fields of the secondary
status line are:
- the track number and the track name.
- UNIT/INC: UNIT gives the type of unit used for in following timing fields:
* tick: each of the following timing values is given in beats and ticks
(remember that one beat equals 192 ticks). INC represents the number of
ticks contained in one horizontal cursor jump (using left or right arrows).
* div: each of the following timing values is given in beats and number of
division of one beat. INC represents a given number that divides one beat
in equal segments, and is also used as the basic horizontal cursor jump.
If the INC value can be followed by a 'b' for binary or a 't' for ternary.
Examples:
* UNIT=tick, INC=048. It means that a cursor jump contained 48 ticks, i.e.
the quarter of a beat. The START field and the LENGTH field are given in
beats and ticks.
* UNIT=div, INC=04b. It means that a cursor jump contained 1/4 of one beat,
i.e. 48 ticks as in the previous example. The START field and the LENGTH
field are given in beats and 1/4th of beats. It can be easier to read that
in the previous example, even if the result is the same.
* UNIT=div, INC=04t. It means that a cursor jump contained (1/4)*2/3 of one
beat, i.e. 1/6. It is useful if you want to play with triplets...
Use the (u)nit submenu to toggle between 'div' and 'tick' and the (i)nc
submenu to change the INC value.
- ECHO: if it is on, when the cursor is touching a note, this note is issued
to MIDI out, with the correct length and velocity (using 'key+' and 'vel+'
offset values of the VARIABLE screen if they are non-zero). Toggle echo
on or off with the (e)cho submenu.
- MODE: When the cursor is on an existing note, this note is hilighted and
the MODE field contains 'cur': it means that START, LENGTH, KEY, VEL, OVL
and CH fields contains values describing the current hilighted note. Any
change of these fields is affecting the hilighted note. You cannot insert
a note on an existing one with the INS key, but you can delete a highlighted
note with the DEL key...
If the cursor is on no existing note, the MODE field contains 'ins': it
means that you can insert a note using default values that stand in START,
LENGTH, KEY, VEL, OVL and CH fields. These default values can also be
changed and are not affected by the cur/ins MODE switching. In this MODE,
you can insert one note with the INS key.
In the 'cur' MODE, you can memorized values of the current note in default
values of the 'ins' MODE by using the (m)emo submenu.
- START: starting point of the current edited note or of the note to be
inserted. Use the (s)tart submenu to make this field the edited field.
- LENGTH: length of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted.
Use the (l)gth submenu to make this field the edited field.
- KEY: heigth of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted,
in semi-tones. Use the (k)ey submenu to make this field the edited field.
- VEL: velocity of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted.
Use the (v)el submenu to make this field the edited field.
- OVL: off-velocity of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted.
Use the (o)vel submenu to make this field the edited field.
- CH: MIDI channel of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted.
remember that the channel value of the VARIABLE view, if it exists, has the
priority... Use the (c)h submenu to make this field the edited field.
Other available submenus are:
- sc(a)le: toggles between three representations of the vertical note scale
(MIDI numbers from 0 to 127, notes in anglo-saxo notation A, A#, B, C,...
or A, B-, B, C,...).
- (d)isp: toggles between three types of display: show whole notes, notes-on
only or notes-off only. Sometimes useful. Notes-on are shown with a '(',
notes-off with a ')'. If two or more notes-on or notes-off are overlapping,
a 'x' is shown.
- (t)ag: enables or disables a gadget that makes the cursor reflect the name
of the note in anglo-saxon notation. If the letter is in upper case, the note
is just. If the letter is in lower case, the note is raised.
- (p)rog: tool to create automatically a simple note progression. You give
starting and ending points in beats/ticks, the number of steps, the MIDI
channel, first and last note, first and last velocity, a curve rate and
a random range. If the curve rate is positive, the curve is upside the
simple linear progression.
Can be useful with tuned percussion, as wind chimes... Note that starting and
ending points values are set by default to block begin and block end (it
is the same for each other tool in the NOTE or EVENT view).
- e(x)tract: tool to erase a precise range of notes. You give starting
and ending point in beats/ticks, note range (upper and lower value) and
the channel concerned. Useful if you want to erase very precisely.
┌────────────────┐
│23 - EVENT view:│
└────────────────┘
This view is used to edit events such as MIDI controlers, benders, program
changes, monophonic aftertouch and tempo changes. You can edit only one
event type at a time. The current event type is shown in the EVENT field of
the secondary status line.
The horizontal scale is the same as in the NOTE view. The vertical scale
represents events values. The boundaries are:
- for controlers 0 to 127: 0..127
- for benders: -8192..8191
- for program changes: 0..127
- for monophonic aftertouch: 0..127
- for tempo changes: 1..239 bpm
An event is represented by a black square and events are linked to each other
by gray lines. If several events coexist on the same vertical row, a 'x' appears
at the bottom of the row.
The following keys are used and are sometimes the same as in the NOTE view:
- LEFT/RIGHT: moves one step left/right.
- INS: inserts one event at the cursor position.
- DEL: deletes the current hilighted event.
- TAB: goto next event.
- BACKTAB: goto previous event.
- sLEFT/sRIGHT: moves one beat left/right.
- HOME: goto the left edge of screen.
- END: goto the right edge of screen.
- ^HOME: goto the beginning of the track.
- ^END: goto the end of the track.
- UP/DOWN: moves one step up/down.
- PGUP/PGDOWN: moves one big step up/down.
- ^UP/^DOWN: moves one track up/down (according to the track order used in the
GLOBAL view).
- ^PGUP/^PGDOWN: moves five tracks up/down.
- aF1: sets block begin here.
- aF2: sets block end here.
Notice that in EVENT screen, marked block limits are give in beats/ticks. These
limits are used as default starting and ending points in functions such as
interpo(l), (p)rog or e(x)tract. In the GLOBAL view, marked block contains only
full beats (it means you cannot copy half of a beat...).
For this screen, you have a secondary status line that shows from left to right:
- the track number and the track name.
- UNIT/INC: same as in the NOTE view.
- EVENT: current event type:
* c-000 to c-127: MIDI controler 0 to 127.
* aftch: monophonic aftertouch.
* prog: program changes.
* bend: benders or pitch wheel.
* tempo: tempo changes. Notice that you can include tempo changes in any
track which can be useful but also dangerous to control. Use the GLOBAL
view filter to watch only tempi if you are lost...
Use the (n)event submenu to make this field the edited field.
- MODE: When the cursor is on an existing event, this event is hilighted and
the MODE field contains 'cur': it means that START, VAL and CH fields contain
values describing the current hilighted event. Any change of these fields is
affecting the hilighted event. You cannot insert an event on an existing one,
but you can delete an highlighted event with the DEL key...
If the cursor is not no an existing event, the MODE field contains 'ins': it
means that you can insert an event using default values that stand in START,
VAL and CH fields. These default values can also be changed and are not
affected by the cur/ins MODE switching. In this MODE, you can insert one event
with the INS key.
In the 'cur' MODE, you can memorized values of the current note in default
values of the 'ins' MODE by using the (m)emo submenu.
- START: starting point of the current edited event or of the event to be
inserted. Use the (s)tart submenu to make this field the edited field.
- VAL: value of the current edited event or of the event to be inserted.
Use the (v)alue submenu to make this field the edited field.
- CH: MIDI channel of the current edited note or of the note to be inserted.
remember that the channel value of the VARIABLE view, if it exists, has the
priority... Use the (c)han submenu to make this field the edited field.
Other available submenus are:
- interpo(l): tool to make a linear interpolation on a subset of events.
You give starting and ending points in beats/ticks, the size of the step
in ticks. At the end, you only get one event for each step, which is
calculated with a linear interpolation using neighbours values.
It is useful to interpolate between two events separated by a
large gap or, on the contrary, to find a clever way to delete events when
they are too numerous. Notice that some steps may finally not contain any
event because the process does not allow two successive equal events.
Use this especially for benders that often generate more events than needed.
Oh yes, a last parameter is a question about if you want to keep large empty
gap free of any event: when a large gap of more than 2 steps is encountered,
the interpolation is not done. It is useful for events such as benders:
benders are often grouped together in some area, with empty gaps beetween:
using this option will allow you to disable interpolation within these gaps.
- (p)rog: tool to create automatically a simple event progression. You give
starting and ending points in beats/ticks, the number of steps, the MIDI
channel, first and last values, a curve rate and a random range.
Can be useful to create smooth volume increasing for example, with a
parabolic increasing, or a random variation of the panoramic distribution.
- e(x)tract: tool to erase a precise range of notes. You give starting
and ending point in beats/ticks, note range (upper and lower value) and
the channel concerned. Useful if you want to erase very precisely.
If you forgot the number of major MIDI controllers, here they are. Note that
some of them may not be recognized by your synth.
#000-031: continuous controllers 0 to 31 least significant byte.
#001: modulation wheel.
#002: breath control.
#004: foot controller.
#005: portamento time.
#006: data entry.
#007: volume (level).
#010: pan controle (balance).
#032-063: continuous controllers 0 to 31 most significant byte.
#064-095: on/off switches (0:off, 127:off).
#064: damper pedal (sustain).
#065: portamento on/off.
#066: sustenuto on/off.
#067: soft pedal on/off.
#096: data entry +1 (v=127).
#097: data entry -1 (v=127).
#098-121: Undefined
#122-127: Reserved for Channel Mode messages.
#122: Local Control (v=0="Local Control Off", v=127="Local Control On").
#123: all notes off (v=0).
#124: omni mode off, including all notes off (v=0).
#125: omni mode on, including all notes off (v=0).
#126: mono mode on, including poly mode off and all notes off
(v=M, where M is the number of channels,
v=0, the number of channels equals the number of voices in the
receiver).
#127: poly mode on, including mono mode off and all notes off (v=0).
┌───────────────┐
│24 - FILE view:│
└───────────────┘
The FILE view is used to deal with music files. If you use a file with a ".MID"
extension, it will be considered as a standard MIDIFILE. Any other extension
will make it considered as a QSEQ file, but QSEQ files extension are ".QSQ"
by default.
A QSEQ file can be a little bigger than standard MIDIFILE (+20%), but it
contains more informations and it's really quicker to load and save. Here is a
list of what is saved:
- version of QSEQ file format.
- initial tempo and signature.
- contents of the INFO view.
- contents of the SYSEX view (names of any linked raw sysex file).
- jokers positions.
- for each track:
- name of the track.
- variables described in the VARIABLE view.
- increment of NOTE and EVENT views.
- any MIDI events with a 1/192th resolution.
- any others events (tempo changes, etc...).
An example is included in the package. It's a file I found on the Internet,
called WHATISAY.MID. It's a transcription of a tune from Ray Charles. I loaded
it originally under MIDIFILE format, added my changes to make it an obvious
example and save it under QSEQ format and under MIDIFILE format again, to
allow you to make comparisons. Notice that INFO and SYSEX view information are
not saved under MIDIFILE format, and that, according to MIDIFILE standard,
every tempo changes are stored in track 0. In the WHATISAY.QSQ example, you can
visualize "jokers", the result of the looping feature, tempo changes mixed with
the drum track, etc...
Available submenus are:
- (l)oad: loads a file, forgetting the previous one.
- (a)ppend: loads a file by adding it to any previously loaded file. It is
done by filling available empty tracks... The values of the VARIABLE view
are not overwritten. Neither are the initial tempo and the signature.
- (s)ave: saves a file, with the possibility to change its name if it has
already one. You can use F2 at any time to save the current file under its
name. By default, QSEQ creates a backup copy of any file to be saved, using
a ".BAK" extension. If you don't want this behaviour, you can disable it
thru the command line.
- (d)elete: deletes a file on the disk.
- (c)learmem: erases the file currently edited, but do not delete it on the
disk.
When you enter any of the four first submenus, it only prompt you for a file
name. Then you have several possibilities:
- type the name of the file. If you are performing a "save", the file is saved.
The current musicfiles path is used if you don't include a path of your own.
Note that this current musicfiles path is set to the content of the MUSICDIR
environement variable when you start QSEQ. If you are performing a load,
the corresponding file is searched in the current musicfiles path or in the
path you specified. If it is found, it is just loaded. If it is not found,
read the next case...
- if you want to see the content of a directory and pick a name in a list of
existing files, you can either:
* enter nothing: it displays .MID and .QSQ files contained in the current
musicfiles directory, and you can pick a file name or even move in the
disk tree or on others disks.
* enter a DOS name including wildcards '*' or '?'. It displays the content of
the given directory if you include a path or the content of the current
musicfiles directory, using the given filter.
See chapter 32 if you want to know how to load files from the DOS command line.
┌────────────────┐
│25 - SYSEX view:│
└────────────────┘
With this view, you can create a list of sysex files to send thru MIDI OUT.
This list is saved with the sequence. It contains sysex files names possibly
including a path. When no path is included, the file is assumed to be in
the current sysex directory. The current sysex directory is set to the content
of the SYSEXDIR environement variable when you start QSEQ.
A sysex file contained one or several sysex dumps. A sysex dump is a subset
of bytes. The first byte is F0(hex) and the last is F7(hex). All other bytes
have bit 7 clear. So it is a very simple format. You can use it with other
programs.
Available submenus are:
- (s)end: send the currently selected file thru MIDI OUT.
- (r)eceive: receive a sysex dump from MIDI IN. First you are prompted for a
sysex file name (You can use the same facilities as in the FILE view). Then
prepare your MIDI gear to send a sysex dump. Press a key to put QSEQ in
waiting mode and send the sysex. It is recorded on the disk and the file
is added to the list. If there's already a file with the same name on the
disk, QSEQ asks you if you want to overwrite it, and the old file is backup
with a ".BAK" extension, if you did not disable this option on the
command-line.
- send(a)ll: send all sysex files from the SYSEX view. You can make the same
by typing ^A from any view when the sequencer is not running.
- (i)nsfile: prompt you for a sysex file name to add to the list.
- (d)elfile: delete the selected sysex file from the list but not from the disk.
- re(n)name: change the name of the selection. Does not affect files on the
disk.
- send(p)ause: prompt you for a number of 1/100 of second to wait between each
sysex groups that may be contained in a single sysex file. Useful for big
sysex dumps that must be sent to slow synth. Am I thinking to my poor
Roland U20 ? Maybe... Anyway, this value can also be set on the command-line
with the "-s" option.
┌───────────────┐
│26 - INFO view:│
└───────────────┘
In this view, you can type any information about the current sequence.
The editor is a simple one. It is always in insert mode. Keys that can be
used are:
- arrows, PGUP, PGDOWN to move around.
- DEL: deletes current character.
- BACKSP: deletes previous character.
- ^BACKSP: deletes current line:
- HOME: goto beginning of line.
- END: goto end of line.
- ^HOME: goto beginning of text.
- ENTER: inserts a carriage return and goto next line.
For example it is useful to enter:
- the tittle.
- the author.
- teh date of creation.
- electronic instruments used.
- any comments (on the analog part of the mixdown, effects used, etc...).
The F1 key can be used to insert a text file in the text, e.g. a template
file. A template file called "template" is included in the package as an
example.
┌─────────────────────┐
│27 - STATISTICS view:│
└─────────────────────┘
QSEQ can display statistics on the current track. Just press ^S. It gives
you the number of events in each types and others values. Type ESC to quit
this view.
┌────────────────────────────┐
│30 - How to record and play:│
└────────────────────────────┘
You start playing back a sequence by pressing SPACE. The playback starts at the
current beat. If starting at beat 0, initial controllers from the VARIABLE view
are sent to MIDI OUT. If you start anywhere else, be aware that controllers
may not be in their logic position because you didn't play the sequence until
the beginning. To solve this, use the ^F key to determinate and send these
controllers last logic values (see "Special Keys"). While playing, the
sequencer status becomes 'P' in the status line.
While playing, you can start recording by pressing ^R. The record is assumed
to start at the tick 0 of the current beat of the current track. Remember this,
because it is important when you are in overwritting recording mode. While
recording, the sequencer status becomes 'R' in the status line.
Yes, there are two recording mode: "overwritting" and "appending". You can
switch from one to another with key aR. The current mode is shown on the
status line ("Ov" or "Ap").
In overwritting mode, new material overwrites old one. This is always done
using full beats. It means that if you start recording while playing at the
middle of one beat, the material of the whole beat will be lost. Same thing
for the end of the recording: the whole last beat is lost. See also that I
speak about beats and not measures...
In appending mode, new material is just appended to old one, but new notes
cannot erased old ones at the same position, for safety reasons (in this case,
these new notes will be lost).
You can also start recording directly when the sequencer is not running. Just
press ^R to set the sequencer in recording mode. Press SPACE when you want the
record to begin. If you are using a non-zero countdown value, the playback
is beginning before the current point to let you hear previous beats, but the
record begins only when the current point is reached. This coutdown value is
set with the aC key; it is a number of beats.
There is also an interesting feature if you want to insert new material between
two beats and not anywhere else. It is the punch in/out feature. Use "GLOBAL
p(u)nch" menu to switch in on and to set the starting and ending beats. Then
go before the starting beat and press ^R and space to start recording. The
sequencer will set itself automatically in record mode between the punch-in
beat (included) and the punch-out beat (excluded). Anywhere else, it will
stay in playback mode and leave old material untouched.
Remember that in any case, only one track is recorded: the one that was
selected when you hit ^R. After begin recording, you can move the cursor
vertically from one track to another: it won't change the recorded track. This
allows you to mute tracks while recording or use any other display features
while recording.
Notice that in any running mode, when a message is entering QSEQ thru MIDI IN,
the memory field (upper right corner) blinks. It is a good test to verify that
your MIDI cables are correctly set. You can also disable this feature using a
command-line option.
QSEQ can use realtime MIDI messages: when you start playing, a START
message or a CONTINUE message is sent to MIDI OUT, depending if you are playing
from beat 0 or from somewhere else. When you stop playing, a STOP message is
issued to MIDI OUT. These messages can be used by others sequencers or
rhythm machines. If you want QSEQ to use these messages, you should specify
it on the command line or using the aE key.
┌──────────────────┐
│31 - Special keys:│
└──────────────────┘
Some features are not accessible thru a menu but thru short-keys:
Normal keys:
────────────
SPACE: play/stop. When playing from the first beat, initial controllers from
the VARIABLE view are sent first and a little pause is made, allowing
slow MIDI gear to be ready when the sequence begins.
F2 : Saves current file, with optional automatic backup to ".BAK".
F3 : Switches metronome on/off (see also key "aM").
F4 : Switches to next unit mode for the counter in the status line.
(see also key "aU").
F6/F5: increases or decreases of one unit any value.
F8/F7: increases or decreases of a "big step" any value.
ESC : go back to GLOBAL view.
F9 : Switches to VARIABLE view.
F10 : Switches to NOTE view.
F11 : Switches to CTRL view.
F12 : Switches to BENDER view.
Alt keys:
─────────
aF1 : sets block begin here.
aF2 : sets block end here.
aF3 : cuts block.
aF4 : copies block.
aF5 : pastes block.
aF6 : pastes block over.
aX: to quit, type aX again to confirm.
aT: If the sequencer is stopped, it is used to change the initial tempo
value. If the sequencer is running, use it to enter tempo change mode.
If you are recording, tempo changes are also recorded. Use ESC key to
exit this mode.
aR: toggles between both recording modes. The current recording mode is
shown by the second flag of the status line: (O)verwrite / (A)ppend.
aP: toggles punch mode on/off.
aC: to choose the countdown value: prompts you for a number of beats to
playback before any record. Then you can listen for these beats and get
the rythm before playing like a maestro.
aS: to choose the signature. Sets the number of beats per measures, and so
the metronome variation. Also useful to set the number of beats per
view in the NOTE view or the events views.
aM: toggles metronome click on/off while playing/recording. The current
mode is shown by a flag in the status line: (M) for on, (m) for off.
You can choose the metronome type (beep or midi note) on the command-
line.
aU: to choose the unit of the counter in the status line. You can choose
in menus between the following:
- (b)eats: beats/ticks.
The label of the display is "beat-xx", where xx is either the signature
or the zooming number.
- (m)eas: measures/subbeats/ticks.
The label of the display is "m-xx" where xx is the signature.
- (z)oomnum: zooming number based groups of beats/subbeats/ticks.
The label of the display is "z-xx" where xx is the zooming number.
- (t)ime:
approximative time in hours/minutes/seconds/ hundredth of seconds.
This value is interpolated using the initial tempo value, so it
can be a bit false if you use tempo changes, but it gives a good
idea of the approximative timing.
- (c)hrono:
exact time in hours/minutes/seconds/ hundredth of seconds. This value
is exact but is reset to zero at any time you start playing or
recording. If you start from the first beat, it gives you the
absolute exact timing of you sequence. If you start anywhere in
the sequence, it gives you the relative exact timing from the
beginning of the playing. To use as a chronometer.
For the three first modes, you can also have a total value for the
whole sequence.
a0: toggles midithru feature, i.e. sequencer local control on/off. The current
midithru status is shown on the status line ('T' for on, 't' for off).
aF: sets or defeats flashing of the "mem" field on the status line when a MIDI
byte comes in while the sequencer is running. It does not concern sysex
bytes or active-sensing bytes (FEh).
aE: sets or defeats real-time MIDI messages START/STOP/CONTINUE.
aZ: to choose the number of beats per unit in GLOBAL view. This is also the
number of beats per screen in the NOTE and EVENT view.
aJ: makes jokers visibles or invisibles in the GLOBAL view.
aL: makes looping points visibles or invisibles in the GLOBAL view.
Ctrl keys:
──────────
^INS : insert a joker.
^DEL : delete a joker.
^F5 : goto previous joker.
^F6 : goto next joker.
^F7 : translates one step right every jokers at the right of the current point.
^F8 : translates one step leftt every jokers at the right of the current point.
^R: enters recording mode and wait. Press SPACE to begin recording or ESC
to abort before it's too late...
^E: step-record mode: when you are in this mode, any key entered thru MIDI
IN is used to insert one note in the current track (if you are in NOTE
view) and to make a step forward. The size of the step is given by the
INC value in the NOTE view. The length of the note is determinated by
the default "note length value" in the NOTE view.
^P: midi panic: sends all notes off messages, off damper switches, zero
modulation controller and zero bender on every MIDI channel.
^O: sends alternatively a local control on or off message to your synth, to
enable or disable their internal loop via MIDI. The MIDI channel on which
this message is sent is given with the command-line option "-l". If it is
omitted, channel 1 is used.
^Q: sends initial controllers from the VARIABLE view thru MIDI OUT.
^F: searches for the last value of each controllers/benders/program changes/
tempo changes before the current beat and send them thru MIDI OUT. It is
useful when you don't play back the whole track from the beginning but from
a random location. This function is very acurate and it even takes care
about loops.
^A: sends all sysex from the SYSEX view to MIDI OUT.
^S: enters the statistic view that counts the number of events in each
MIDI category in the current track.
^C: makes notes continuity between the current beat and the previous one,
for notes that ends at the tick 191 and start back at the tick 0.
Useful when you use block cut/paste/insert/etc.. that often cuts notes.
^L: shortcut to set the looping beat of the current track to the current
beat (also available as a parameter in the VARIABLE view).
^Z: toggles between signature or zooming number based global view.
^B: goto beat.
^T: goto track.
^J: goto joker.
^K: frees the buffer.
^V: refreshes any view, if you have any doubt about what QSEQ displays.
┌──────────────────────────┐
│32 - Command-line options:│
└──────────────────────────┘
When you run QSEQ from the MS-DOS shell, you can use the following options:
qsq [-h] [-Iiii] [-Aaaa] [-tnnn]
[-m] [-mb[lll,hhh]] [-mm[cl,nl,vl,ch,nh,vh]]
[-x] [-0] [-r] [-f] [-b] [-lcc] [file1] [file2]...
-h : display this little help.
-I : set SoundBlaster interrupt to iii (2/5/7/10).
-A : set SoundBlaster address to aaa (220/240).
-t : force initial tempo to nnn bpm.
-m : force default metronome on.\n"
-mb : force beep metronome on with optionnal low beep and\n"
high beep frequency in Hz.\n"
-mm : force MIDI metronome on with optional low and high\n"
MIDI note (channel/note/velocity).\n"
-x : don't use the SB card, just simulate: useful if you don't have a SB
card but still want to test QSEQ interface.
-0 : force midithru off.
-r : send MIDI realtime messages like START/CONTINUE/STOP.
-f : force MIDI IN flash off.
-b : force automatic backup off.
-l : force QSEQ to send a "local control off" at the beginning of the session,
on channel cc, to avoid the internal loop of your synth. If cc is
omitted, channel 1 is used.
-s : set the length of the sysex pause to nnn 1/100s (Cf SYSEX view).
File "file1" is loaded normally and next files are appended to the first one.
If you always want to run QSEQ with the same options, you can set the DOS
environment variable QSEQCMD to whatever you want in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
ex: set QSEQCMD=-m -l -t100 whatisay.qsq
With this QSEQCMD variable, QSEQ will always run with metronome on,
local control off, initial tempo 100 and loading whatisay.qsq as a first
working file.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│40 - Releases, sub-versions, and atomic changes...│
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Here are the different historical versions of QSEQ. Between each
release, a list of remarks shows what was the modifications for
one version to another. Some remarks are obviously reserved to my
personal understanding. Some bugs or illogic behaviours was
discovered by QSEQ's users. I also included some of QSEQ's users
suggestions. Thanks to all of them.
For each release, you can read the date of the release and the size
of the QSQ.EXE demo file in bytes.
------------------
- I spent 6 monthes writting the program in my spare time.
-> version 1.0 (01/01/1994, 175254 bytes)
This was the very first release, to test the market...
It was a success in my opinion, because a lot of person tested this
demo version seriously and reported problems.
------------------
- accepts NOTEON with nul velocity as NOTEOFF when coming from MIDI IN.
Some synths like YAMAHAs use this convention if they don't use
off-velocity.
- changes in the look, menus and short-keys.
- tool to smooth continuous MIDI events variations and to filter out
useless events by linear interpolation.
- tool to create MIDI events by linear or curved progression.
-> version 1.0b (03/02/1994)
------------------
- implementation of jokers, to hilight the sequence's construction.
- portable change in the QSEQ file format to support jokers.
- humanize tool.
- split-note tool.
- split-channel tool.
- basic improvements in the MIDI kernel.
- correction of the MIDI IN bug after a SYSEX receive.
-> version 1.0c (15/02/1994, 179318 bytes)
------------------
- correction of a bug in the display of GLOBAL view (end of track).
- correction of the track name error in the split-note tool.
- correction of the starting-playing-beat error in the GLOBAL view.
- correction of an illogic thing in the mark track command.
- correction of the make_note_on/make_note_off error (see what it is ?...).
- separation of mute between IN and OUT (understand ?...): it means that
while playing, if you mute a track, notes you are playing live are not
cut...
- correction of older notes-on at the beginning of a record.
- send initial controlers even for empty tracks.
- extension and speed gain in the split-note tool.
- speed gain in the split-channel tool.
- extension of the change-velocity tool.
- correction of a bug when accepting multiple NOTEON messages with nul
velocity as NOTEOFF messages (especially on YAMAHA synths).
-> version 1.0d (01/03/1994, 181878 bytes)
------------------
- correction of a problem when loading some MIDIFILEs (some MIDIFILE contains
an ending message with a very weird time stamp...).
- improvment of the SB card detection at the beginning of the program.
-> version 1.0e (01/04/1994, 182006 bytes)
------------------
- implementation of active-sensing recognition: any FEh byte is simply
ignored. Active-sensing is used on some synths (but alas, for some QSEQ
users, not mine) to check out MIDI connexions.
-> version 1.0f (18/04/1994, 182038 bytes)
------------------
- correction of a (last?) bug in the humanize tool.
- you can press on 'y' (and also on space bar) to keep a recorded track.
- use of realtime MIDI messages START/CONTINUE/STOP.
- new command-line options.
- little bug when changing initial tempo after tempo changes.
- one increment per track in NOTE and EVENT views, saved in QSEQ files.
- easy and automatic manipulation of QSEQ files versions.
- correction of a subtile random lack of screen refresh.
- new tool to change MIDI event values.
- introduction of the QSEQCMD variable, more command-line options and
no more OPTION view.
- introduction of a "jokers" submenu in the GLOBAL view.
-> version 1.1 (18/05/1994, 184502 bytes)
I decided to go from 1.0x to 1.1, because it seems that QSEQ is now stable.
I can now go on thinking about very new improvements... People who already
have a licence for version 1.0x can get a free upgrade.
------------------
- improvements in progression tools: addition of a random range.
- improvements in the way simple MIDI messages are sent.
- local control on/off implementation (command-line and short-key).
- modification of the licence number crypting in QSQ.EXE (one is crypted
and the other clear for easily readable information purpose). Modification
of the licencing software.
-> version 1.1b (02/06/1994, 185158 bytes)
------------------
┌────────────────┐
│41 - Conclusion:│
└────────────────┘
So here is the whole thing. I hope you find QSEQ interesting enough to use
it for your musical work. Remember: 1) if you don't like Windows, 2) if you do
like quick and easy to use software, 3) if you look like an elephant - I mean
if you don't like mice but shortkeys and all this kind of stuff - , 4) if you
don't want to spend a lot of money buying a big sofware and the PC-486-DX2-66
it needs, 5) if you don't hate french people even if they eat frogs legs - it's
good, it tastes like a very delicate chicken - , 6) if you were very upset when
you discovered that the demo version didn't save anything,...
... one solution: buy me, you won't regret it.
┌───────────────┐
│42 - "Cul Sec":│
└───────────────┘
Just a short note about the name of this program: "QSEQ". You don't know me,
so maybe I should also explain my skewed sense of humor for those non-french-
people out there...
"QSEQ" (or Quick Sequencer), can be pronounced "Koo Seck" in french. It's a
(sort-of) "play-on-words" which might well "tickle the funny-bone" of anybody
who knows a few slang words from french,... because, "Koo Seck", sounds like:
"Cul Sec", which in french, means, "Bottoms Up!". So, go out and buy yourself
a nice bottle (red wine) like a "Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape"... then,...
Raise your glass, and shout: "Koo Seck" - in the company of one of your most
musical friends! Bottoms up!
P.S. Thanks to the "Keyboard Cowboy" (my american beta tester, he too lives in
France - lucky guy, eh?) for helping me to explain this valuable bit of
silliness for all you english speakers out there.
┌───────────────────────┐
│50 - That's all folks !│
└───────────────────────┘