LITTLE SOUND DJ
(C) Johan Kotlinski, 2000

www.littlesounddj.com





                    [ D O C U M E N T A T I O N ]







____THE SCREENS________________________________________________________________


---* SCREEN CONCEPT *---

Little Sound Dj is built out of several screens. You can navigate between the 
screens by using SELECT+CURSOR keys.


---* SONG SCREEN *---

The song screen is the highest level of the sequencer. It contains 4 columns, one
for each channel. The columns contain lists of chains, which will be played in
piano-roll style, up to down. The number of rows in the song screen is limited to
256 (hexadecimal: 100).

For selecting a chain, go to the step you wish to edit and press A+CURSOR key.
To edit a chain, move the cursor to the chain number and press SELECT+RIGHT.


---* CHAIN SCREEN *---

Here, you can edit chains. Chains are used for linking together several tiles into 
one unity. The chain concept is good, because it adds flexibility while saving
memory and button presses.

The chain screen contains 2 columns. The first column contains the list of tiles 
that are to be played in this chain, while the second column transposes the tile 
that's on the same row. For example, a row like this...

 03 05
 04 00
 05 00
 06 00

...will play tile 3, adding 5 half-notes to each note, and then play each of the
tiles 4, 5, 6, without transposing.

To edit a tile, move the cursor to the tile number and press SELECT+RIGHT.

The number of chains is limited to 128 (hexadecimal: 80).


---* TILE SCREEN *---

The tile screen is where you enter the actual note data. It has four columns: the
note column, the instrument select column, the command column and the command
value column. A tile is always of the length 16 steps, even though you can make
the sequencer jump to the next tile end earlier by using the HOP command.

The number of tiles is limited to 255 (hexadecimal: FF).


---* GROOVE SCREEN *---

In this song, you can edit your grooves. The grooves decide by which rhythm
tile sequences and arpeggiatos should be played.

You can select the groove you wish to edit by pressing B+LEFT/RIGHT. The default 
groove is groove number 0, but you can switch to use another groove for playing
by issuing the GROOVE ("G") command.

For understanding the groove concept, you have to understand that the sequencer's
time handling is based on a period of time named "ticks". One tick is approximately 
1/60th of a second. In the groove screen, you can specify how many ticks each note 
step should be played. 

This groove:

6

...would make the sequencer spend 6/60th of a second on each note step.

You can also use the groove screen to create more advanced rhythms.

This groove:

7
5

would make the sequencer spend a little less time playing the 2nd, 4th, 6th, ...,
notes. This creates a more live, swing feeling. Grooves can also be used to create
triplets, and other custom rhythms.

The number of grooves is limited to 16 (hexadecimal: 10).


---* ARPEGGIATOR (ARP) SCREEN *---

The arpeggiator screen contains 5 columns. First out the transpose column, which
contains the numbers of half-notes with which the notes being played should be
transposed. The other columns are command colums, as the one in the tile screen.

A typical use for the arpeggiator is to do "fake" chords, by changing the
transpose values very fast. An arpeggiato like this:

00 --- G0A
04 --- ---
07 --- ---
00 H00 ---

...would emulate striking a C major, provided that the groove number A is very fast.
(As a default, the A groove is set to 1, the fastest possible setting.)

The arpeggiator can also be used as a kind of micro-sequencer, since it implements
all of the commands found in the tile screen. It allows for creating complex
instruments, envelopes and effects.

The number of arpeggiatos is limited to 32 (hexadecimal: 20).


---* WAVE SCREEN *---

In this screen, you can edit wave frames that are supposed to be played by channel 
2, by using the cursors. Select the wave frame you wish to edit by pressing B+CURSOR
keys.

Copy/paste works well in this screen. An useful trick is drawing the first half of
the wave, copying it and pasteing to the other half. You can then mark the other half
and press A+DOWN in order to reverse it vertically. A+RIGHT reverses the marked portion
of the wave frame horizontally.

When you are done editing, you can select the wave frame you wish to play using either 
the instrument editor or the SET WAVE FRAME ("F") command.




_____SCREEN MAP________________________________________________________________

          ________         
         |        |
         |  WAVE  |
 ________|________|________
|        |        |        |
|  SONG  | CHAIN  |  TILE  |
|________|________|________|
|        |        |        |
| GROOVE |  ARP   | INSTR  |
|________|________|________|

        
        
NAVIGATE BY PRESSING SELECT + CURSOR KEY!




____KEYPRESSES_________________________________________________________________



---* TILE SCREEN *---

A: touch note
A&RIGHT: note up
A&LEFT: note down
A&UP: octave/+10 up
A&DOWN: octave/-10 down

B&A: cut note to clipboard

SELECT&B: start marking
SELECT&(2xB): mark row
SELECT&(3xB): mark all
|(when notes are marked)
+--A&RIGHT: all note up
+--A&LEFT: all note down
+--A&DOWN: all octave/-10 down
+--A&UP: all octave/+10 up
+--SELECT&A: cut marked block
+--B: copy marked block

SELECT&(4xB): copy all
SELECT&A: paste

B&RIGHT: next tile
B&LEFT: prev tile
B&UP: prev tile in chain
B&DOWN: next tile in chain

START: start/stop playing tile
SELECT&START: start/stop playing in song play mode
B&SELECT: live mute

The other screens work pretty much like the tile screen. Nice & clean!





____COMMANDS___________________________________________________________________


M: set master volume
Ex.
 M77: max volume
 M35: medium, panned slightly to the right
 M00: very quiet

K: kill note after n frames
Ex.
 K00: kill note instantly
 K03: kill note after playing 3 frames

H: hop
Ex.
 H00: hop to next tile
 H03: hop to next tile and start play at pos 3

O: set outputs (left,right)

R: retrig with a period of n frames
Ex.
 R02 - high speed retrig

V: vibrato (channels 0, 1 only)
Ex.
 V42 - period=4, depth=2

T: tempo
Ex.
 T80 - tempo = 80 hexadecimal BPM = 128 decimal BPM

G: select groove
Ex.
 G04 - select groove 4, 0=don't recalc tempo
 G13 - select groove 3, 1=recalc tempo
       (usually, you don't want to recalc tempo since that affects
        all channels!)
      
E: envelope (channels 0,1,3 only)
Ex.
 E53 - 5: attack (0-F), 3: release (0: off, 1-7: decrease, 9-F: increase)

A: arpeggiato
Ex.
 A03 - run arpeggiato 3, 0=don't reset arpeggiato
 A13 - run arpeggiato 3, 1=reset arpeggiato

W: set wave (channels 0,1 only)

S: set sweep (channel 0,3 only)

(the "sweep" command is too complex to be explained here... just try out 
different values and hear what happens. sorry)

F: set wave frame (channel 2 only)

P: change pitch (channel 0,1 only)
Ex.
 P02 - slide up pitch with speed 2
 PFE - slide down pitch with speed -2 (hexadecimal FE=-2)

