Using The Composer
The Composer is where you cue events that will occur during playback.
Machines: At the top right of the composer tab is the machines list. This shows all machines that are in the audio chain in the router. If you select a machine from the list, you can see the patterns that are defined for that machine in the pattern list immediately below. Note that if you have two machines of the same type, patterns are shared between the machines.
Patterns: A pattern is a block of event cues such as notes, parameter changes or commands. Two buttons near the pattern list allow you to create and delete patterns. When you select a pattern from the list, it will be displayed in the tracker, the large area at the left of the composer tab.
Typically a pattern will consist of some number of bars in the time signature of your composition, and would contain for example the melody of the chorus for your composition or the commands to change a machine parameter over time during a passage. Each row in the pattern represents one beat of a bar in the current tempo and in the time signature of the pattern.
The Tracker: The tracker area is where you manipulate patterns. When you click on the tracker you can place the cursor, which you move with the arrow keys. Entering data into the pattern is generally done with the number keys, with delete or backspace clearing a cell to empty. For entering notes the keyboard is laid out like keys on a piano, and there is no restriction on how things may be entered for future track types so a description of the current cell will show below the tracker area if you are stuck.
The Master Pattern: The master pattern is the timeline on which patterns are arranged into the overall score. Each row in the master pattern represents one bar in the composition. The time signature of the patterns being played can vary from pattern to pattern, but the bars are always the same length.
Tracks: While rows in patterns always represent time, the columns represent tracks. For each machine, the tracks will represent the parameters that a machine exposes. There are several basic types of tracks which you will become familiar with working with, however each machine will name the parameters it exposes so you can look at the column heading to see which parameter on the machine you are manipulating.
Some machines allow simultaneous handling of multiple event cues for the same parameter, meaning several events may be cued for the same point in time for a single parameter. Although technically it is possible to have multiple tracks for any parameter on a machine, in some instances such as note cues it is actually necessary to have the ability to cue events simultaneously - without this it would not be possible to play chords without having a separate machine for each note.