Program Overview
Welcome to Vermilion Desktop Composer!
Please note that this program is currently in alpha development. This means it is not yet ready for continued use. So for now, thanks for checking it out. You can find news and post suggestions or bugs on the forum at the SourceForge Project Site.
Vermilion Desktop Composer is an application for composing music. It is a modular audio chain with a pattern-based event cueing system, similar to Buzz or Psycle.
Getting Started: Getting started with Vermilion consists of 3 steps. First, it is advised that you read the glossary of terms below, otherwise the rest of the documentation will be very hard to read. Second, you need to configure Vermilion for audio output so you can begin to use the program. Finally, you should follow the tutorial to familiarise yourself with the different parts of the program and how they fit together.
System Design: Vermilion Desktop Composer consists of 3 layers. The first layer is Vermilion, an application framework providing audio mixing, plugin loading, and document handling. The second layer is Vermilion Desktop, consisting of a canvas where audio processing plugins can be connected to form an audio chain. The third layer is Vermilion Desktop Composer, an event cueing system for composing musical scores and controlling audio plugins in Vermilion Desktop.
Quick Glossary: The rest of the documentation will make much more sense if you quickly read these definitions.
Composition or Document refers to the file you currently have open in Vermilion, and consists of your audio chain, your event cues, and any other data that is part of what you are composing.
Plugins are parts of Vermilion Desktop Composer that are loaded while the program is running. This allows other people to create new parts of Vermilion, and allows entire systems of Vermilion to be replaced even while Vermilion is running.
Machines are plugins which process audio data. A machine can create audio allowing you to synthesise notes or other noises or to play back sampled sound, or a machine can process audio allowing you to apply effects to sounds as they are played.
Parameters are controls that machines expose to allow their behaviour to be modified. A parameter for a machine could be a filter cutoff value, a reverb on/off switch, or other such control. Technically, melodies are composed of muscial note 'parameters'.
The Router is where you connect machines together to make an audio chain. Audio signals that flow to the Mixer are played through the audio device.
The Composer is where you cue the events that make up the playback of your musical score. You can cue notes to play, control machines, and issue commands to change things like the playback tempo.
The Master Pattern is the timeline of the overall score. Events are not cued directly on the master timeline, but are arranged in blocks.
Patterns are blocks of event cues which apply to a certain machine. Patterns allow short parts of the overall score to be written separately and then reused and arranged throughout the score. A pattern might consist of a few bars of melody or a gradual change in a parameter over time.
Tracks are used by some machines to allow duplication of their parameters into multiple separate instances. This simply means a machine can (for example) provide space in a pattern for entering multiple notes that are to be played simultaneously.
Bachowny: Quabescore.