Midi Square Tutorial

There are TWO versions of the program. One works in the ROOT dir of a floppy or hard disc, but not in a folder. Then david Snow made a new version that corrects this called misiSquare2, in which you can put it into a folder. There is a slight bug in the new one, but it still works, so take your pick.(can't remember what the bug was)


1. When you open the program, you are presented with a grid and many dialogs.Lets have a look at them:

2. MIDI MODE: here you can choose if it's polyphonic (one midi channel) or MONO which will enable you to play 4 midi channels at the same time with two different sounds.

3.TEMPO: very obvious. Using the up an down arrow keys you can change the overall tempo in which the Mouse action is played.

4.TRANSPOSITION: This allows you to change keys. You can also use the Ten key part of the computer keyboard to change keys. This is the same as other algo-comp apps such as Tunesmith,Fingers and also Pulsar. A very FUN and interactive element.

5.Midi Channel: sets the midi channel. Default is 16, but you can set it to anything you want. A fun feature is to set it to channel 10 and play percussion instead of melodic lines.

6. DIATONIC INTERVAL: sets up the harmonies for each axis (Horizontal and vertical.)A good one to try is -5 and +5 which is 5ths.

7.VELOCITY: allows two types of velocity settings: A and B
Velocity is achieved by RIGHT clicking on the grid as you move the mouse.
Setting A: SOFT to LOUD moving left to right on the grid
Setting B: LOUD to SOFT moving left to right on the grid.

8.DIATONIC SCALE: allows you to change the scale you are using simply by clicking on a note in the scale.

9. UNIT: changes the quantized ratio of the notes played. It is a Sub-division of the TEMPO control.

10.MIDI FILE RECORDER: by simply selecting START, you start a recording.Then play into the grid. Selecting STOP will give you the file selector to save your performance as a midi file. From there you can import the midi file to another sequencer for further enhancment.

11. LEFT clicking into the grid will produce PITCH. RIGHT clicking into the grid will produce changes in Velocity according to the velocity switches.(A and B)

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Techniques Tutorial

1. Go to Midi Mode and select MONO. This will output to 4 midi channels: 2 for each vertical and hotizontal axis and two for the harmony axis's (set in DIATONIC INTERVAL)

2. Set the TEMPO to 90

3.on the DIATONIC INTERVAL, set horozontal to +5, the vertical to -5

4.On the DIATONIC SCALE dialog select F# to it is highlighted.

5. Select START on the MIDI FILE RECORDER

6.LEFT click into the grid, hold the left mouse button down and go in samll circular motions in the center of the grid. Then go to the right bottom corner of the grid, still doing circular motions. You will hear the pitch go up.Then go back to the center,RIGHT CLICK and hold down BOTH mouse buttons, then make wide circular motions around the whole grid. Then go horizontal, then vertical in a L fashion.You will hear changes in velocity as well as pitch. Start doing circular motions again.Now select 4 on the 10 keypad on the computer keyboard. The pattern will change keys. Then select 0 (zero) and it will return to the original key. Release both Mouse buttons.

7. Select STOP on the midi recorder. You are presented with the file selector to save your midi file of your performance. Give it a name and also add the .mid extension.You can now quite and bring the MID file into yopur favorite sequencer or application (like MSG) for adding or modifying.

This is one example. Try experimenting with creating your own scales.Try a different setting for UNIT, as it works with the TEMPO control as well. Also read the TXT file that came with Midi Square (by David Snow) for more explanation of the functions.

Tim Conrardy
4-7-01