Note Duration	Number of Steps
1 bar	960
3/4 bar	720
1/2 bar	480
1/4 bar	240
1/8 bar	120
1/16 bar	60
1/32 bar	30

Table 1: Note durations expressed in steps at a 960 steps per bar setting.

If you are using a midi keyboard Tiger's piano-roll screen may well be a more attractive and intuitive way of editing note durations, but for the purposes of this article, we're concentrating on Open mode, so the above table will probably come in handy.

If you look at the main data display for the track sequence you'll see that the midi data is arranged in a series of columns.

Screenshot 1: KCS Open Mode. The highlighted section contains the column headings, detailed below.

Each column is labeled thus:

MSR -BT: ST this as pretty much equivalent to the absolute midi location, expressed in measures, beats and steps.

EVNT Each entry in a sequence is consecutively numbered.

TIME The number of steps between the current event and the preceding one.

CH The midi channel on which the event occurs.

TYP The type of midi event. This can be ON for a midi note on message, or as will be seen later can be a range of proprietary midi types unique to KCS.

NOTE Normally a musical note.

VEL Normally the velocity of the note.

DUR Normally the duration of a note.

As will become clear because of the proprietary midi events unique to KCS the above is only a general guide and there are some variations to these general rules.

Don't worry if you don't understand this now, it will become clearer as you work through the example.

5. Left click under the TIME column, left of the DE event. You'll see that the data here is highlighted. This data is 0 at present, and we don't wish to change this, so just type in 0 until you move to the CH column, where we set the midi channel. Type in 1, then hit the space bar until you get to the TYP column. As we want to add a midi note on message, type in ON. Under the NOTE column, type in C2. Under the VEL column type in 100, and finally in the DUR column type in 60.

If all has gone well you should see this:

Screenshot 2: Our work in progress

What this means is that as soon as this sequence starts, a midi note C2 will play with a velocity of 100 for 1/16 bar.

6. Using the same technique as above, add a DE event 960 steps after the note on event.

This stage completes the work on sequence 3 for now. You've created a sequence, 1 bar in length with a single 1/16th note C2 at the start of the bar. Time to check out this masterwork.

7. Go to the Open mode play screen by left-clicking on the box next to the words Play Screen. You'll see a series of numbers, corresponding to the sequence numbers, next to which are the names of the sequences.

8. Press 3. Sequence 3 will start playing. You'll hear a single C2 repeat every bar. If you don't hear anything, check all your midi and audio settings until you do hear something.

9. Press 3. The sequence will stop. I'm sure you'll agree, it's the ultimate in minimalism. All the same, the ability to trigger off sequences at will from your QWERTY keyboard might suggest novel ways of performing music. Using the rather obscure align function, it's possible to get sequences to start bang on time...but that's beyond the scope of this article.

10. Left-clicking will get you back to Open mode edit page. Make sure you are back with sequence 3.

11. Left-click the clone sequence box. This brings up a dialogue with the default setting of cloning the present sequence to the lowest numbered available sequence, in this case sequence 4. Choose sequence 4, open up sequence 4, and rename it D2.

12. Using the edit procedure outlined above, edit sequence 4, changing the note C2 to D2. Don't change anything else.

When I'm writing in Open mode I often check my progress by listening to sequences in the play screen after each sequences has been completed. It saves a lot of debugging later if you try things out as you go along. I'll assume that you'll be doing this from this point onwards. If you try out sequence 4. you should hear a 1/16th note D2 play every bar.

In the next stages we're going to play with some of the unique KCS event types, and introduce the random features promised at the outset.

13. Go to the Starter sequence, i.e. sequence 2.

14. Replace the DE event with a RA event, then in the next column type in 2.

The RA event is a random event. It always has a value associated with it. The RA event chooses one event from a set number of following events. So in the above example, following the RA event, only one of the next 2 events will be chosen at random.

15. Underneath the random event, at zero time off set, insert an ST event, NOTE = 3, VEL = 0, and DUR = 1.

The ST event is used to start a sequence.

In the above example, sequence 3 is to be started, and it is set to play only once.

16. Under the previous event, at zero time offset, insert an ST event, NOTE = 4, VEL = 0, DUR = 1.

17. At TIME = 960, insert DE event. If everything has gone well you'll see:

Screenshot 3: The Starter sequence in all its glory.

What this means is that each time sequence 2 plays, it will trigger off either sequence 3, or sequence 4 at random.

18. Try this out by using the Play screen, and pressing 2 once. OK, so it's hardly musical genius, but by now you should be getting a feeling for how the Open mode system works, and ways in which you could adapt these techniques.

It would be a good idea to save this work as a .ALL file now, as we'll work on this some more soon.

Taking Stock

What I suggest you do now is muck around with this file a bit.

For example:

Adjust the file so that you get a random note every 16th. (Hint - adjust the length of the Starter sequence.)

Adjust the starter sequence so that there is a 1 in 3 probability of C2 sounding, and a 2 in 3 probability of D3 sounding.

What about incorporating some sequences containing controller information to run concurrently with the note data?

If you've had a go at the examples, then you're well on the way to understanding the KCS system, so it's time to reveal all the proprietary commands.

Event Type	Function
AC	Accelerando
CU	Wait until cue
DC	Decellerando
DE	A deleted, silent event
MS	Mute sequence
PT	Transpose sequence pitch
RA	A random event
SM	Steps per measure
ST	Start a sequence - specify times to play in the DUR column. If you append the times to play with a W, then the triggering sequence will pause playing until the triggered sequence has played through the correct number of times.
TM	Absolute tempo value
US	Un-mute sequence
VT	Velocity transpose
XL	Sequence stop at end of loop
XX	Sequence stop

Table 2: The special KCS control events

Up to now all the work we have done concerns calling up sequences at random. There is no particular relationship between the sequences, and so all we are getting is random notes. In the next section we'll create some algorithmic music which is a lot more musical. Hopefully this will give food for thought about a completely different approach to music. I'm going to assume that you've got a feel for how you type in and edit data, in order to cut down on the repetition. To save you a lot of time, I suggest you make plentiful use of the clone function.

The Ups and the Downs

In this example we're going to take the notes from the scale of C major, and rather than just have them play at random, we're going to impose some sort of order on them. The question I ask myself when starting a KCS algorithmic composition is 'what sort of system do I want to create?' The KCS is virtually unique in that it is very open-ended, unlike the vast majority of algorithmic aids, which have to be approached with the attitude 'what will it let me do?'

In this instance the simple requirement is that each note will be followed by a neighbouring note in the scale. Therefore this music will be generative in the sense that the past shapes the future. Alternatively, this level of composition is akin to micro-programming. The results of our simple exercise won't be the most exciting music ever heard, but using just the techniques outlined below, it is possible to create fully-fledged, complex pieces.

The Plan

In order to achieve the desired effect we're going to set up a sequence for each note in the scale. Once the note has sounded we're going to use the RA event in conjunction with the ST event to set another sequence, and hence note sounding, and so on. I've outlined the overall system below in table form, a practice that can be useful when you want to get an overview of the system As we are starting with the .ALL file obtained from the last example, we will be able to knock this one out very quickly.

Sequence Number	Note	Next seq. to play
3	C2	4
4	D2	3 or 5
5	E2	4 or 6
6	F2	5 or 7
7	G2	6 or 8
8	A2	7 or 9
9	B2	8 or A
A	C3	9

Table 3: Outline scheme for Ups and Downs piece.

1. Go to sequence 3.