Saturday 28 October 2023

Page R - Pattern Mode editing - Fairlight - CMI

The Fairlight CMI IIx Page R has two settings.
1. Pattern Mode
2. Song Mode

This post covers the Pattern Mode.

The pic below is a pattern.

A PATTERN is a 1-bar SCORE for 8 monophonic keyboards.
It consists of eight individual sequences of musical notes
The sequences are numbered from 1 to 8, corresponding to the KEYBOARD MAPS
that are provided on PAGE 3 (below pic)



Your final musical piece is developed by creating up to 255 different patterns
and playing these patterns in different combinations.

The PATTERN EDITOR is used to display, create or modify
the musical patterns.
To select  the PATTERN EDITOR either
type: E<return>
or use the lightpen: and touch <PATTERN>


All of the patterns and the playing order for a single piece are stored together on disk in one 
FILE with an " RS" suffix. 


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Firstly, you can have up to 255 patterns saved in a .RS file
Choosing the PATTERN NUMBER:

There are 4 ways to select a pattern for display:
1) TYPE: P=n<return> where: n is any pattern number (1 to 255)
   
2) Move the CURSOR to the number opposite the word Pattern
(either press down-arrow key three times or use lightpen)
   Type n<set>       where: n is any pattern number (1 to 255)

3) Move the CURSOR to the number opposite the word Pattern
    (either press down-arrow key three times or use lightpen)
     use the <add> & <sub> keys to increment or decrement the pattern number by 1

4) Use the BAR command.
    This displays the bar number related to the linking of patterns in the Song Editor. (p42 of manual)
    
    Type:
    B(AR),n<return>
    n=1 to 65535

As an example, to look for & display the 9th bar in a song type:
    B,9<return>

--------------------------

Next, open a keyboard.
There are 8 virtual keyboards.



One of the 8 keyboards must be OPEN before notes can be
inserted or deleted or RECORDED.
When a keyboard is open, it is illuminated.
There are three ways to OPEN a keyboard ...
i) TYPE: Kn<return> where n = 1 to 8 as on all other CMI pages
e.g., K4<return> will open Keyboard 4.
2) Press the down arrow key repeatedly until the cursor
reaches the keyboard area.
3) Point the lightpen at the voice names or one of the big numbers 1 to 8 to the left of the actual note area.

Quantisation / Timing resolution

TIME RESOLUTION may be changed in two ways:
1) by pointing the light-pen at the collection of eight notes
in the bottom right-hand corner of tne screen.
Notes with triangles signify
"triplets" i.e., three notes played in the time of two.



2) by OPENING a keyboard and then repeatedly pressing
"+" or "-" on the alphanumeric keyboard to lower
or raise timing resolution.
--------------------

The NOTE Cursor.
This is the location on your editor timeline where you will enter the notes.


There are three ways to move the note cursor:
1) use the light-pen 
2) TYPE: > to shift the note cursor right 
    OR   < to shift the note cursor left
3) put the CMI in the RECORD mode. 
   The note cursor follows music keyboard performance in real time.


-------------------

VOICE display :
To the left of the screen is the voice display
showing whicn voices are loaded into the eight
sequencers. The voice display also contains
the NOTE EDITING TABLE.


The NOTE EDITING TABLE is "behind" the
Voice names. This shows
KEY (pitch) , VEL(ocity) , and DUR(ation) .

You can toggle between the two tables by
pointing the light-pen at any voicename or pressing the left/right -arrow
Keys
Use the <add> or <sub> keys to raise or lower
values for KEY, VEL and DUR by one.

--------------------------------------------------------
INSERT  (inserting notes into your patterns)

There are two modes of creating new patterns:
 record mode (real time) or  write mode. The same as in most modern drum machines.

There are three ways to insert notes into patterns:
1) type I <return>
2) point the light pen at the word "INSERT"
3) put the CMI into RECORD mode. 
    Insert is automatic while the music keyboard is played.

Note: The music keyboard can be used as a selection device for pitch and
key velocity of individual notes

Sequences can be COPIED from one or more patterns to others.



DELETE (removing notes from a pattern)

There are two ways to delete a note in a pattern after
positioning the note cursor:
1) TYPE: D<return>
2) point the light pen at the word "DELETE"


----------------
==================================
Basic Play/record commands:
TYPE: P[LAY] [, <thing>[,<count>] ] [,#<bar>] [;<options>] <Return> 
  or
REC[ORD] 

where: 

<thing> is one o£ these... 
                       *                            - SONG 
                        A or B or ... or Z  - SECTION 
                        !                           - CURRENTLY DISPLAYED PATTERN 
                        1 or 2 or ... 255    - PATTERN NUMBER 

<count> is a number from 0 to 127. 0 signifies infinity. 

#<bar> is the start bar number from 1 to 65535 of <things>

;<options>  w - wait for any key on the alphanumeric keyboard to 
                          be hit before starting. 
                    F - free-run mode - maximum timing accuracy. 
                          Used when finally recording onto tape. 
                          Use when EXT ernal syncing. 

At least 3 letters of the word RECORD need to be typed. ie REC
If using the lightpen point to "PLAY" or "RECORD".

------------------

To display a specific pattern :
P=n<return>

To play a specific pattern:
P,n<return>   (where n= the pattern number)

To play a specific pattern a specific number of times (loop):
P,n,x<return>   
(where n= the pattern number)
(where x= the number of loops)
Note, if you want to pattern to loop infinitely , x=0

To play the past played pattern ,  type:
P<return>

Type S<return> to stop the loop.

---------------
copying patterns

1. Go to the pattern you want to copy to.
2. Type: C,<number> RETURN
    C=copy
    <number> = the pattern number you want to copy

Thus to copy pattern 1 to pattern 2, 
you need to go to pattern 2 and then type:
 C,1 (return)

----------------------------------------------
Playing Songs

P,*<return> 
Play whole SONG. (start at bar 1, * = song)

P,*,0 <return> 
Play whole SONG forever. (start at bar 1, * = song, 0 = infinite loop)

To stop type:
S<return>
or hold down<ctrl> & press Escape. 

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Index

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