RedMoon Music maxWerk Musical Instrument manual

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Çikira Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com RedMoon's maxWerk ~ m ad sci enti st 's m usic compo si ng t o ol ~ Users' Guide Revised March 2007 Application and documentation by Çikira -- Amanda Pehlke Copyright 2000 - 2007 All rights reserved RedMoon Music evolutionary elect[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 2 C o ntents Meet maxWerk / System Requirements I. Concepts and a Tour 1. Global Setup 2. Menu Items 3. The Main Screen 4. Features to Note 5. Automute 6. Basic Loops 7. Drum Loops 8. Controllers 9 The Transposer 10 Melody 11. The Block Map 12. Improv 13.[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 3 M eet maxWerk maxWerk is a loop-based MIDI composition tool that gets its name from the Max programming language with which it was built. It can give endless musical suggestions, but it also encourages entirely original ideas. Using tracks set up in GS [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 4 • Two control patterns and pitch bend. Control destinations are freely selectable, and pattern choices include various generated or hand-drawn sweeps, which can retrigger with new notes. You can enter step-synced patterns, and you can have patterns dy[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 5 You can use external hardware or software as a MIDI clock source or destination. Your fini shed Werk plays in a locked-tempo mode as it records its output to a standard midifile for export to a full-featured sequencer. Support for an optional Peavey PC-[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 6 • A MIDI sound module compatible with the Roland GS standard is highly recommended. Alternatively, you may address multiple polyphonic and multi-timbral synthesizers. Bear in mind that maxWerk allows up to sixteen polyphonic parts, and you are likely [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 7 I . C o nc ep t s and a T ou r It's fine to explore maxWerk without first reading this Guide, by simply entering som e notes and playing with its various functions as a voyage of discovery. The material that follows covers almost everything you&apo[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 8 be the target for each of maxWerk's tracks and your live “Noodle” play. maxWerk creates a list of available preset names for GS mode use according to the GS module model parameter setting in this file. You can find the GS mode MIDI channel layo[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 9 existing file, you will find copies of alter native template files in the "maxWerk Filing Cabinet" folder that can save you having to make many tedious associated editor window changes. Once you are used to maxWerk, you might wish to use these[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 10 progress command restor es your sound generating setup to match the current state, saved or unsaved, of maxWerk's MIDI message- based settings and patches, according to the Global Setup. Revert to last save lets you go back to your last-stored set[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 11 these work, bu t using them comes easily once you get a feel for making looping tracks. While maxWerk supports only one Meter choice per Werk, but tracks based on step numbers that are multiples of 6 and 8 counts are compatible in the same Werk, and ma[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 12 contributions. Important dynamic indicators in the lower left section of the Main Screen show the four elements that contribute to maxWerk's transposition status at every bar: a Key number from 0 through 11 representing A though G# with an offset [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 13 Pairs of arrow-shaped "Go-to" bar buttons appear in many edit windows. Some edit functions take effect beginning at or only on the last "go-to" bar you manually set. To go to any bar quickly, hold an arrow button or one of the co mm[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 14 where you can enable or mute all 128 bars of the track at once from any point in the Werk, depending on the status of the window's control button. Double-clicking the track label brings up a pattern- entry dialog , where you can enter a binary pat[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 15 relative to data present in any other track. Keep in m ind that processing always begins from the "go-to" bar. Automute has a global end bar setting , a refinement to which is found for each track in the lower panel of the Note Editor. There [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 16 the number of bars it contains. The length of a Basic or Drum Loop with no change of play direction can be from one to four bars. In order to be able to tell what is going in a multi-track Werk and to be able to edit loops easily, it is a good idea not[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 17 either stored or played live) from a transposition engine that is separate and independent of the one triggered by values 1 through 7. Although an 8-step has the appearance of being “larger” than the other values in the display because its vertical[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 18 The data in the octaves display , the third of the set, defaults to a value of 4. This initially places all the notes you enter into the octave that includes middle C. While maxWerk sto res Basic Loop pitch step information in the default middle sound [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 19 forward direction, but applies a note-scrambling function that causes a fresh shuffle of existing step values at each new loop-start, while leaving unchanged the pattern of durations that gives the loop its rhythmic feel. The next play direction is ran[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 20 The fourth item is random retrig , and at this setting note values of zero produce note-offs as always, but repeating values 1 through 8, which would tie notes in play-changes mode, instead trigger new notes randomly, so that each repetition of the pit[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 21 patterns are best if you intend your final MIDI tracks to play patches that have a lot of programmed movement! In the Note Editor's lower panel you can give your loop a track name of up to 12 c haracters. Newly assigned track names always update t[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 22 sound-shaping, sending values just ahead of note information to create distinct rhythmic changes or stepped effects. The Control and Bend windows differ from the main Note Editor in that once you enter values, to have them transmit you must enable MIDI[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 23 apply it to filter cutoff, resonanc e or pitch bend. If you use the latching checkbox, there is no need to enter a starting pattern because maxWerk creates a new one at the start of each loop. The window's step mode indicator changes to read rdm, [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 24 graphically displayed Transposer values, to arrive at the chord information in the Leadsheet and the chord names you see displayed on the Main Screen. Unlike other Transposer elements that can be disabled, Global Offsets are always in effect. To make t[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 25 the h armonically useful ones for you. The user scale available at value 0 is for the adventurous, offering a seven-pitch set of definable intervals that you can add as part of your Werk file. You can repeat or re-order the pitches in this scale any wa[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 26 Transposer before you try out real-time transpos ing. Otherwise, you will find that stored values override your input at the start of each bar. The spacebar toggles the timing engine that stops and starts play. You can stop and reset the whole Werk wit[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 27 buttons in the Patterns window advance the edit loc ator, and when maxWerk is not in play, mouse clicks that change display values always cause the Arpeggiator to report the combined information from all four value sets. By means of a repeat control sw[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 28 in both Transposer sub-windows enable 1-bar looping buttons , a button mode that disables the arpeggiator and lets you hear instead the current Werk bar repeating as long as you hold the button down. When 1-bar looping is disabled, the Arpeggiator work[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 29 If all of this seems like a lot to stay on top of, let's outline the possibilities of composing purely by trial-and-error, using live scalic transposing from the computer's QWERTY keyboard. Transposing can trigger arpeggiated feedback if maxW[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 30 lets you deal separately and independently with loop-making, Automute, Melod y, and Improv functions. Notice that you can enable playback of all stored data types at once with the single key command or the Main Screen button-press that engages Performa[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 31 represent definitive pitches unless you disable Block transposing. By default, they behave like the values in the Basic Loops' Note Editor in that they initially represent starting Scale note positions without any transposing, and their played pit[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 32 --> --> --> <-- <-- <-- <-- --> To give an example, the second menu choice --> <-- means th at when bars 3 and 4 of the four-bar Block repeat the seed Phrase, a contrasting pitch order direction is imposed and layered over[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 33 that is among the Basic Loop Note Editor's options. Since we brought up the subject: when you use the similar function in the Note Editor by enabling the invert alt. loops checkbox, the value set: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 …changes to 1-7-6-5-4-3-2 …on a [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 34 The Phrase generator menu offers new starting patterns at one of four levels of complexity on a press of the generate button. This creative assistant and some more Block outp ut-modifying features in the main Melody Editor window are described in Part [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 35 1.12 Improv To round out this introductory description of features, we'll describe one more specialty track whose settings become part of a Werk file and whose output is recorded in midifiles. maxWerk's Improv player looks for inspiration to [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 36 1.13 Noodle You may enjoy playing and recording your controller keyboard along with your Werk. A MIDI device/channel through the program is reserved for this purpose, complete with basic controller and GS phatWerk settings. More about phatWerk is comin[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 37 I I . m axWerk I n D ep t h We have seen that maxWerk's eleven Basic Loops and two Drum Loops can play patterns up to four bars long. Add to these the three special-purpose tracks - Melody , automatic Improv , and the Noodle track for accompanying[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 38 When maxWerk is not in play and the Arpeggiator is enabled, both presses and releases of the left hand keys trigger two-oct ave chordal tone sets. The (+)Note-triggering black keys, however, remove their changed chordal values and restore the (+)Note t[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 39 2.2 Patch Changes GS patch names selected for your Werk appear below the track name labels on the Main Screen for each of the eleven Basic Loops and the two Drum Loops, as well as in the Improv, Melody Sound, and Noodle windows. A patch button is found[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 40 2.3 User Scales We have seen how various scales , also called modes or pitch sets, are available for audition in the Scales window so long as the Transposer is not overriding your setting, and how t he enabled Transposer calls on one of the stored scal[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 41 the default values of all at once. A play-defaults button in the lower right window section serves to restore all the settings that determine how you hear the displayed patterns, but it does not change the graphics. Initializing is therefore a three-st[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 42 repeats of the pattern to fill added bars. (Use the editor's 'repeat a series' function in the generator panel to copy-paste patterns within one bar.) You can overwrite or build a pattern from scratch using the uniform time interval edit[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 43 useful for doubling the length of a loop, and a rdm ends-in var iation that also alternates with normal passes. Next to the direction menu, the note triggering modes menu makes four principal options and six variations available for Basic Loops' b[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 44 and automatically moves to the gate-off position . This mode is good for pads and special effects. Be careful about adding Offset Note Lines (described below) in this mode, for they can greatly increase the demands on your sound module for polyphony (n[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 45 has a value of 1. A checkbox at the bottom of the Note Editor lets you defeat all forms of transposition for a Basic Loop. You may wish to disable transposing in order to produce a drone, or to avoid pitch shifts if you have a track dedicated to a perc[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 46 There are sets of arrow-buttons above and beside the Note Editor displays that let you rotate their contents one step at a time. The horizontal step rotator buttons have a menu letting you shift values in all four displays at once (the default) or just[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 47 the displays. You can have mutations occur o nce every bar to once every four bars via the mutation control menu . The revert menu tells mutation-enabled loops to go back to their original play pattern after a certain number of bars. Make in/out bar se[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 48 A setting for the end bar is next in line as we move toward the right side of the play parameters panel. A similar end bar setting in the Automutes window determines the point after which maxWerk automatically stops playing all tracks, and for convenie[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 49 necessary to give interesting definition to a mix. The step-split function lets you direct individual scale steps of a single pattern (the values in the note graphic you are editing) separately or in groups across a selected set of target tracks. They [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 50 setup-enabled Basic Loops is always a vailable, regardless of the function's status. It always reflects the current setup, and this can be handy even if you aren't using the step-split function in your Werk. Step-split track values other than[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 51 within conservative delay and octave limits, initially using the random note retriggering mode. Once you add a note line, it uses the loop's gate time setting, but by means of its thru part menu you can route its notes to any Basic Loop's MID[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 52 You can assign Line B , labeled “ scalic ”, a base scale-step Tonic transposition value different from the original, and you can shift it by octaves relative to the original and adjust velocities. You can delayLine B by any number of steps, as you [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 53 Melody Phrases to capture incoming MIDI notes. You can enter step values from your controller or the computer's QWERTY keys, so long as you are careful to release each note before playing the next and remember to repeat-enter notes in order to ext[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 54 2.9 The Idea Track An alternative to keyboard step entry that you can use to help create Basic and Drum Loops or Melody Phrases is the live- recorded, no-frills Idea track. This is a non-editable midifile recorder and player of non-transposing sequence[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 55 difference is the much larger drum notes display . It is bordered on the right with GS default drum no te numbers and accommodates a much wider value range. Here, step values represent actual note numbers rather than scale steps, and a note placement g[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 56 you want by indicating a step value (note) using the vertical slide r to the right of the display. As you move it up and down, you'll hear a hit on each kit sound at the corresponding display position. The arrow- shaped test buttons move the slide[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 57 these are stored together in your Werk file. As with program changes, however, maxWerk transmits only the type of control messages appropriate to each track's globally set instrument mode. Creating Control A and B patterns begins with a set up of [...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 58 unusual pattern by hand with perfect timing, use the guide marker menus to create temporary evenly- spaced value entries to help your freehand drawing. When you ask for one to four instances of a 96-step waveform , you can choose between sawtooth, sine[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 59 range of non-GS sound modules must be adjusted outside of maxWerk. In all three of these windows, you can have maxWerk generate a set of step-synced random values by pressing the button labeled randomize/latch , and these appear in the display. When yo[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 60 before copying or importing data, as these changes overwrite destination data and can't be undone! 2.14 More Melodizing We have seen that melodies have 16th-note resolution, and therefore global Meter affects the total number of steps in Melody Ph[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 61 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 th[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 62 currently selected Block, followed by a two-step variation pattern discussed fully in Part I. When you make menu choices, the Phrase data for the full Block is immediately re-processed and sent to the main Melody Editor. These menus apply the second-ba[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 63 Improv plays, so that Improv takes the spotlight in your mix. You can have maxWerk automatically generate time-base-dependent auto- modulation , which can take the form of either Controller 1 (mod wheel) or Aftertouch. Values will ramp towards an adjus[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 64 through 16 on MIDI channel 16, and buttons to send Program Changes 1 through 16 on any MIDI channel. PC-1600 maxWerk-control layout: Faders 1-11 control volume of Basic Loops 1-9 and Drums 1 and 2. Fader 12 controls volume of Improv on MIDI channel 12.[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 65 Chord files , which may be saved and imported to the Transposer, consist of data for any or all of the four graphically represented transposition types along with any mid-bar changes. Chord files may be up to 128 bars in length. maxWerk can make Standa[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 66 The third type of data file you can save of your Werk is a Leadsheet file , which is a text file made available when you call up the Leadsheet window from the Extras menu. From here, you can save information that may be useful when your midifile is imp[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 67 I I I . K ey C omm and s Re f erenc e (+)Notes - see Transpose 1-Bar Looping Buttons - see Arpeggiator Accent - see Automute Added notes - see Transpose Apostrophe - see Click Arrows - see Key, Mute, Reset Arpeggiator - [ Shift 7 ] toggles a function t[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 68 BPM - see Tempo Bar 1 - see Reset Bar locators - [ Shift s ] opens the Scales window, which includes the Bar Locators Editor. Bar scroll - [ ] The square bracket keys, h eld down one at a time, move quickly up or down through the bar numbers. Beat cloc[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 69 Commands - see Key Commands Copy & save progressions - This window has no key command, and is accessed thr ough the Transposer. Copy/Import - [ Shift c ] opens the Copy/Import window for transfer of selectable data types from any track in the curre[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 70 Increment - see Bar scroll Key Commands - [ Shift k ] opens this reminder list window. Key shift - When the Transpose function is disabled, the up and down arrow keys shift the Key number (not the Global Offset) by semitones. Keyboard mapping – [ Shi[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 71 Main Screen - [ Shift f ] brings the Main Screen to the front of other open windows. Map - see Keyboard mapping, Block Map Markers - see Bar Locators Melody - [ Shift m ] opens the Melody Editor and enables Melody play. Melody block select - [ Shift fo[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 72 Play (and Stop) - The spacebar starts and stops maxWerk's internal MIDI clock and all enabled functions. After they stop, maxWerk flushes all held notes for each track and follows up with an All Notes Off command. The Ar peggiator for testing prog[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 73 Scales - [ Shift s ] opens the Scales window, which also contains a sub- window for User Scale setup and the Bar Locators Editor. Scroll - see Bar scroll, Tempo scroll Setup - see Globals Spacebar - see Play Step - see Keyboard step entry Sync - [] Th[...]

maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com 74 [ Shift x ] toggles the Transposing function. When the Transposer is disabled, the following key commands are operational, enabling ma nual changes of mode: The number keys 1-7 transpose within the current scale by shifting the Tonic pitch, or root, an[...]