MSG
The Make Module
Tutorial

Tim Conrardy


When you first open MSG you are presented with the MAKE module. A lot of
interesting music can be generated with this one module.

1.First decide how many events you want to generate. The dialog at the lower
left determines this. For the sake of this tutorial, left click into the box
until it reaches 50 events. A right click will decrease this mount.

2.Next, decide how many midi channels will be used. The next dialog over allows
you to input this data. Select 1 to 6. This function is similer to
the YAMAHA TX81Z parameter of ALTERNATE mode.It will alternate the notes
between the midi channels. You can use up to 16 channels to alternate notes.

3.You will see MAKE devided into 3 sections: PITCH,VELOCITY, and LENGTH.
Lets look at PITCH

4.At the top you can see LOWER LIMIT and UPPER LIMIT. This dialog allows you to
set limits to the pitch distribution when MAKE generates a sequence. The
default is C2 to C5. This gives a good range to work with. Just keep as is for
now.(or change it if you want )

5.Next you will see MODE. Clicking into this box, you can scroll thru many
Modes already set up for you. These are the scales of pitches that MAKE will use when
generating sequences. The default is Minor/eolic/asawari.For the sake of this
tutorial, scroll to penta major 1.

6.Below the MODE dialog is KEY. You can select the root key the sequence will
be generated. For the sake of this tutorial, left click untill you change it to
the key of D. This means our pentatonic major scale will be in the key of D.

7.Below KEY is a graphic of the scale being used. Clicking into THAT will bring
up another dialog allowing tou to edit the scale and save it into 6 presets.
For now, click on cancel. You can explore this later.

8.Below the scale graphic is a dialog for EDIT PROBAB TABLE. Clicking into that
will present the table used for pitch generation. This is an advanced sub
module. Referance the manual for this. For now, leave it alone, just as long as
you know it is there for further exploration.Click on Cancel.

9.Next we come to FUNCTION. The default is RANDOM. Clicking into RANDOM, you
will see many more possabilities.(melody, math,arpeggio,fractal, ect)Reset it
to RANDOM.

10. Below that are the PARAMETER tables.This is used for the Function
generator.

11. Finally we come to ENV or ENVELOPE parameters which allow more control
over upper an lower limits.Clicking into EDIT ENVELOPE brings you to a graphic
dialog where you can graphically change the envelope settings. See chap 4 of
the manual for more explanation. For now select Cancel. You know it is there
now.

12.Looking at the VELOCITY and LENGTH sections we can see the same type of
parameters used in PITCH, with a few parameters left out. For now, keep the values the same as the default (of
course you can change them if you want)


13 We now come to the point of creating a sequence. To do this simply hit
RETURN (not ENTER )The dialog at the bottom right : SEQUENCE: will now show 50
of 256.

14. Next, lets hear something of what it sounds like. Hit F1. You are switched
to the EDITOR which resembles Steinbergs pro24 editor.Click on the PLAY button.
You will now hear the sequence play. Nice heh? It might sound different when
exported to a real sequencer however. Click on PLAY again to stop it, or simply
hit the SPACE BAR on the computer keyboard.

15. Now lets save it as a midi file. Hit CONTROL F, and the file selector comes
up for you to name your file. Name it PENTA1.MID. MSG goes thru the creating
writing process. When it stops, you see the writing dialog still on the screen.
Hit ALT M to get back to the Make Module.You could also select it from the menu
under PROCESS.

16. Lets create another sequence. Chamge the mode in the Pitch window. Try
changing other parameters. Remember, this program is to experiment with
different possabilities, so now you can try things out. Once done, hit RETURN.
You are presented with another dialog with choices to merge or insert. To start
a NEW sequence, select DELETE OLD, and the parameters you just set will replace
the previous selections.

17. Hit F1 again and play back your sequence, then save it as a midi file as
before.

18. Keep on generating new sequences until you have several midi files. then
QUITE MSG by hitting ALT Q. (or from the menu under process)

19. Now boot up your sequencer program and load one of your sequences generated
from MSG. It will sound a little different, but still interesting. Using the
tools in your sequencer develop the MSG generated sequences(or several MSG
sequences) into a larger piece.

20. One suggestion is to load many MSG sequences into KCS Omega Open Mode and
play the sequences right from the QWERTY keyboard.

21.Last but not least: have FUN. Try also going into the other modules in MSG,
the MIDI SEQUENCE GENERATOR

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