MacMM Manual

Music Mouse - An Intelligent Instrument



		Table of Contents _____________________________________________________________________ 3 Why Music Mouse? - An Introduction _____________________________________________________________________ 4 What Music Mouse Is _____________________________________________________________________ 5 Setting Up and Running Music Mouse 5Using Music Mouse with the Macintosh's Internal Sound 5Setting Up for MIDI 6Using Music Mouse with a MIDI Instrument 7Changing MIDI Channels for Music MouseOutput 7Playing Along with Music Mouseon an External MIDI Instrument 7Patching MIDI Through Music Mouse 8Recording Music Mouse's Output 8Other Setup Considerations _____________________________________________________________________ 9 Playing a Music Mouse 9The Mouse 9The Polyphonic Cursor and Pitch Display 9The Keyboard 10The Menus 10In General _____________________________________________________________________ 12 Music Mouse Keyboard Controls _____________________________________________________________________ 13 Types of Keyboard Controls _____________________________________________________________________ 14 Music Mouse Keyboard Usage 141 - General Controls 152 - Type of Harmony 163 - Transposition 174 - Addition of Melodic Patterning 195 - Voicing 206 - Loudness, Muting, and Articulation 227 - Tempo 238 - Rhythmic Treatments 249 - Internal Sound Selection 2410 - MIDI Sound Selection and Control _____________________________________________________________________ 27Using Music Mouse with Other Software 27Switcher[TM] 27MultiFinder[TM] 27Tempo[TM] 27Recording Using the TempoDesk Accessory
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		_____________________________________________________________________ 30 An Idea Bank and Short Course on Composing and Playing with Music Mouse _____________________________________________________________________ 31Mouse Excercises and other Things to Try 31Moving the Mouse 32The Mouse Button - Supprussing and Repeating Notes 33Value Oscillations and Grouping 33Articulation 33Some Keyboard Chops 34Tempo 35Loudness 35Using Timbre 37Harmony Handlers 39Transposition 39Automated Melodic Patterning 41Symmetries 42Some Two Part Counterpoint 42Combining Music MouseControls into Compositions 44MIDI Manipulations 44Why Music Mice Have Big Ears _____________________________________________________________________ 45Music Mouse Keyboard Controls - A Quick Reference List 45General Controls 45Pitch Content Controls 45Voicing 47Temporal Placement 48Sound Selection and Characteristics _____________________________________________________________________ 50Macintosh[TM] Music Mouse Keyboard Map
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Music Mouse -- An Intelligent Instrument Why Music Mouse? -An Introduction Up to this time, of the new powers which computers bring to music, commercially available music software has focused mainly on precision and memory. These are wonderful attributes, but one of the computer's greatest strengths remains barely touched. Logic, the computer's ability to learn and to simulate aspects of our own human intelligence, lets the computer grow into an actively participating extension of a musical person, rather than just another tape recorder or piece of erasable paper. I firmly believe that logic, when used well, does not conflict with intuition, emotion, or other aspects of music which are often considered contrary to it. Rather than constraining musicality, logical structures can serve to support, extend, and amplify our ability to express and embody the undefinable qualities of aesthetic meaning which we are forever trying to capture. This is a very exciting time for music. With the advent of computers, many of music's past restrictions can begin to fall away, so that it becomes possible for more people to make more satisfying music, more enjoyably and easily, regardless of physical coordination or theoretical study, of keyboard skills or fluency with notation. This doesn't imply a dilution of musical quality. On the contrary, it frees us to go further, and raises the base-level at which music making begins. It lets us focus more clearly on aesthetic content, on feeling and movement in sound, on the density or direction of experience, on sensuality, structure, and shape -- so that we can concentrate better on what each of us loves in music that lies beyond the low level of how to make notes, at which music making far too often bogs down. This simple program hopes to provide an introduction to the vast and still-barely- explored realm of musical intelligence in software which doubtless includes possibilities beyond anything we conceive of now. For those who have wanted to do music but have lacked the background, computer intelligence may make it possible. For those of us who have already gone a long way in music, it may let us go further than we ever imagined before. This program is a small beginning, written to some extent as a pointer.
	--Laurie Spiegel New York City, 1986-8
_____________________________________________________________________ Music Mouse was written by Laurie Spiegel for Apple Macintosh[TM] computers in 1985-6. The Amiga[TM] version of Music Mouse was implemented by David Silver and Laurie Spiegel in 1986-7. This update for the Macintosh was released in June of 1988.
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		What Music Mouse Is Music Mouse differs from other music programs currently available for small computers in that it is not designed for the storage, editing, and replay of musical compositions using keyboards or involving notation. Instead, it turns the computer itself into a musical instrument which you can play. Unlike traditional musical instruments, however, Music Mouse doesn't require years of practice, or knowledge of music theory or notation. It has a variety of options built into it for harmony and melodic patterning, freeing its player to focus on the movement of melodic lines, the shape and density of their elaboration, their electronic "orchestration", and on the overall form and expressive content of the music itself. It is a controller program designed to let your computer function either as a stand-alone musical instrument, using Macintosh Internal Sound, or as a control interface for MIDI synthesizers, or both. Though a great deal of attention has been given in recent years to the sonic side of instrument invention, and much variety and wonderful stuff has become available for audio synthesis, there are still very few alternatives for the other half of what we consider a musical instrument to be. That "other half" consists of the structures an instrument provides by which we can interact to control the sounds it makes in musically expressive ways. A musical instrument consists of not only a unique characteristic type of sound, but also of a unique "human interface" to that sound. A keyboard gives a lot of freedom, but it also has its limitations and aesthetic biases. So does each instrument in its own way. Music Mouse is no different in this regard. It has its limitations and biases, its personal strengths and weaknesses. Within its realm of possibilities, however, there is room for an infinite variety of individual player's own statements -- your personal sensitivities and ideas, and orchestrated with the endless variety of sounds for which this interface can provide control.
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		Setting Up and Running Music Mouse Using Music Mousewith the Macintosh's Internal Sound You will probably want to connect the Macintosh's audio output jack (below the AC power cable in the back) to your sound system rather than using the speaker in your Mac. The sound quality will be greatly improved. The treble and bass controls on your amplifier can then be used as an extension of this instrument, for control of tone quality. If you have an equalizer, filter bank, reverb or delay line, tape recorder, modular analog synthesizer, or other audio post-processing equipment, you may want to run the Macintosh's output through them for greater control and variety sound. One of the reasons for intelligent instruments is that they let you play a lot of music with one hand, so that the other hand is free to do such other things as controlling timbral post- processing. The Macintosh puts out a lot of audio level, so if you are connecting it through external audio equipment, you should set the Mac's audio level to 3 or 4, using the "Control Panel" desk accessory. Also, if the level is set low on the Macintosh, it will sound smoother when you fade loudness up and down with the <and >keys. The program assumes you are using MIDI when you first enter it. To activate the internal sound, select it on the "Output" menu at the right. Setting up for MIDI Music Mouse will run with any hardware MIDI interface currently on the market for any Macintosh computer up through the Mac Plus, SE, and Mac II. For those older interfaces or MIDI synthesizers which use other than the now-standard 1 MHz MIDI clock rate, select the appropriate option on the "Output" menu, at the right, after entering the program. Connect the MIDI OUT cable from your Macintosh MIDI interface to your synthesizer's MIDI IN. (The MIDI cable from your synthesizer's MIDI out running back into the Macintosh is not needed, though it won't bother anything by being there.)
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Using Music Mouse with a MIDI Instrument

There are several MIDI instrument types listed on the Output menu. The only difference between them is the way they respond to Music Mouse's uand i keys in moving through the preset sounds stored in the instrument. These options are:

Generic MIDI:This is usable for any instrument which steps through its preset numbers sequentially (without numerical gaps like the CZ-101 has) and which doesn't get hung up doing disk accesses along the way (like the Mirage). You have a full range of presets # 1 to 128 ( actually 0-127).

Casio CZ-101:The uand ikeys will move you through all 32 internal sounds (0-15 and 32-47, in machine talk), then through the 16 cartridge- resident sounds (actually64-79) and then wrap around back to 1. If you don't have a cartridge, the CZ-101 will interpret 64-79 as 0-15 so you'll seem to cycle through the Preset Sounds twice before getting to the Casio's Internal Sounds.

Ensoniq Mirage:The uand ikeys will step you in sequence through the 4 Mirage programs for the currently loaded sounds. Shift-u and shift- ilet you load sounds from your Mirage disks (3 upper / lower sound combinations per disk).

The availability of certain features may depend on the nature of your MIDI instrument. For example, the program's "velocity" fader keys will have no effect on the Casio CZ- 101 which is not velocity-sensitive and whose oscillators are not amplitude-controllable. The program will work with any MIDI synthesizer, but certain features or code usages differ among manufacturers. I welcome any information which would help in customizing Music Mouse for additional MIDI instruments.

The results of your actions may also vary with the specifics of the MIDI "voice" (sound definition) you are using. For example, if the breath controller values weren't connected to some parameter of a sound when it was defined, changing the breath controller value from the Macintosh's keyboard will have no audible effect.

Try to be familiar with each MIDI sound you play before you use it. Some Music Mouse control values may produce unexpected consequences. For example, if a sound has a very slow attack rate, it may not be audible at all when staccato is selected (with the /key) or if you are playing very fast (and this program can play fast!) because the note releases could occur before the envelope has time to get loud enough to be heard. Some DX7 sounds are only audible above a certain breath or foot controller value, so they'll be silent if these controllers are set too low. A low velocity level may produce a gentle timbre in one sound but may render a different sound completely silent. The program doesn't know how your sounds are defined, so if you don't hear them, before deciding that something's broken, check these values: velocity, loudness, spacebar, legato, breath controller, foot controller, aftertouch, and modwheel(set the various MIDI control values high with the shift-bm>jl'keys.). If this doesn't work, you should also try restoring Music Mouse to its initial state (press the helpkey or select "Re-Init" on the "Exit" menu). This should make just about any sound hearable. Also try pressing u then ito reset the sound program in the synthesizer and re-initialize the preset, because sometimes MIDI synths lock up to external control.

The program will work with any number of voices, but it expects your MIDI instrument to have a minimum of 8 voices, which are dovetailed with each other for a true legato
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(that is, in its default "legato" mode, it releases each of its 4 voices only after another note has been sounded in that same voice). Users of the CZ-101, which can be configured as having fewer than 8 voices, may find that the release stages of some sounds get chopped, a problem which can be fixed by adjusting the CZ's "Line Select" parameter to "1" or "2" so that all 8 of its oscillators are separately triggerable.

Continuous (non-quantized) frequency space and microtonal intervals are not available in MIDI unless your hardware synth has its own way of doing these things local to the instrument itself.

Changing MIDI Channels for Music MouseOutput

When you start Music Mouse, all 4 voices will be sent out (polyphonically) on MIDI channel 1. To change the MIDI channel of any of the 4 voices, place the arrow cursor on the MIDI channel number for that voice on the screen display, press the mouose button, and drag the number to the right or left to raise or lower the current output channel. If it's not currently shown, the arrow cursor will re-appear when you move the mouse toward the top of the screen. You may want to press the deletekey to disconnect the mouse before changing channels, remembering the position of the arrow cursor so you can return to the same location.

Playing Along with Music Mouseon an External MIDI Instrument

Music Mouse was designed so that it can be used as a completely self-contained stand- alone controller for MIDI synthesizers which have no keyboards or other input devices (e.g. the Yamaha TX series or other rack mount units). However, if you prefer to manipulate certain values from your keyboard unit while playing the Music Mouse, both sets of controls are "live" at all times. Because your external MIDI keyboard remains "live" in parallel to this program, two people can use it to play together on a single keyboard synthesizer. You can also use Music Mouse to amplify your powers as a soloist, playing a full accompaniment with one hand, using the mouse and Macintosh keyboard, to whatever you're playing with the other hand on your MIDI synth keyboard.

Keep in mind that Music Mouse only knows about the changes it makes itself, not those you enter on the synthesizer directly. If you move to preset 3 with Music Mouse's i key then select preset 7 on your unit, when you press iagain for "next sound", the software will move you to preset 4, not 8 because the program won't have any way of knowing what you changed directly on the instrument.

Patching MIDI Through Music Mouse

When you select "MIDI Thru" on the Output menu, any MIDI data which comes into the computer via its MIDI interface will be merged into Music Mouse's MIDI output.

The data produced by your MIDI keyboard, guitar, sequencer, computer, or other MIDI control device will maintain its own MIDI channel when it goes through the program, whether or not that channel is used by any of the Music Mouse voices. If Music Mouse and the MIDI data which passes through it are not on the same channel, very confusing things can happen if your synthesizer is using "running status" mode, so it is not advisable to use it. If you find problems with "hanging notes" (notes that don't turn
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off when they should) or missing data, this may be the problem. If you don't have a synthesizer which can be used without "running status" mode, you can get around this problem by playing the synth and Music Mouse one at a time, instead of both simultaneously. Recording Music Mouse's Output On the Macintosh,Music Mouse's output can currently be recorded in 3 ways:
	1. 2.	On tape, like any old fashioned pre-MIDI instrument. Using any MIDI sequencer (recorder) external to the Macintosh - on another computer, any stand-alone MIDI sequencer, or the sequencers built into some keyboards. Using the Desk Accessory Tempoto record Music Mouse input for later replay (see the section on Tempoat the end of this manual) using either MIDI or the Mac's internal sound.
	3.
The program's MIDI output can also be run through any external MIDI delay or other MIDI post-processing device. In short, this program turns the Macintosh into a MIDI instrument which can be used in all the same ways as any other stand-alone MIDI instrument. While Music Mouse in itself does not currently generate MIDI or SMPTE sync, these sync codes can be superimposed on the program's MIDI output by external equipment which provides them, such as the Emulator II's built-in sequencer or various stand-alone MIDI sequencer, sync, or effects units. Other Setup Considerations I recommend using a trackball instead of the standard Macintosh mouse for two reasons. First, a trackball gives finer control and can be moved more smoothly. Second, the regular Macintosh mouse can be connected to it,chaining through, so that 2 people can play music together, one playing on each axis (melody against chords), alternating moves with each other, or in other ways, for example, making up musical games. There are two major reasons why Music Mouse does primarily stepwise melodic movement (as opposed to being able to jump around in the pitch matrix). One is the idea that this melodic bias makes it easier to play lines which sound traditionally melodic than does jumping around. (Stepwise movement tends to sound more traditionally melodic than does jumping around.)The other is the nature of the mouse input device itself, which is the real constraint. This device moves value by value, continuously, as you push it around. (You canget non-stepwise movement by holding down the mouse button between notes, but this overrides the mouse's basic nature. What it does is to signal position changes to the computer, one pixel at a time, in any of 4 directions.) If anyone wants to build them, alternative control devices which would plug into the mouse port, such as a pitch matrix tablet with a random-access stylus, or a touch sensitive screen overlay, could provide alternative methods of movement for the 8



		program's pitch space. Any device which you can buy or make and which plugs into the Macintosh's mouse port and which provides similar values to the mouse should work, and may give you truly alternative ways to play this instrument, to move around in the musical space which Music Mouse provides. The fade rates, on all the fader keys, depend on the Macintosh's repeat-key rate which you can set by using the "Control Panel" desk accessory.
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Playing A Music Mouse

The Mouse

Music Mouse is designed to let you play melody and harmony by moving the mouse with one hand while changing control and interpretive parameters from the Macintosh's keyboard with the other hand. The x-axis and y-axis of the mouse each move a separate and completely independent melodic line, and the software supplies 2 additional melodic lines of music, for a total of 4 voices. The 2 software-supplied melodic lines move in various ways relative to the 2 lines directly under control of the mouse, depending on which keyboard options are currently selected.

If you want to move from one pitch place to another without generating all the notes along the way, hold down the mouse button. This will suspend the playing of notes until the button is released in whatever new location you choose. Pressing and releasing the button will cause the repetition of whatever notes were played the last time the mouse was moved.

The Polyphonic Cursor and Pitch Display

When you move the mouse to change the pitches, you'll see 4 bars on the on the screen moving with you. These bars are what I call a "polyphonic cursor". (Traditionally in music, the word "polyphonic" refers to multiple independent lines of motion, not just multiple sounds at the same time). Each of these 4 cursor bars points to one of the 4 pitches you are hearing, as displayed on the piano keyboard images which form a border around the screen. The lowest notes are at the bottom and on the left of the screen and the highest are at the top and right.

The standard arrow cursor will magically appear when you need it, when you move to the top of the screen to use the menus.

The Keyboard

Musical instruments should put as little time or effort as possible between you and where you want your music to go, and Music Mouse is an instrument played with both mouse and keystrokes. (In fact, you can make a lot of interesting music just pressing keys without moving the mouse at all, and I often play primarily from the keyboard.)

Since use of key combinations or menus would reduce your ease and speed in playing music, the use of the Shift and Command keys has been kept to a minimum, and I have tried to reserve them for less frequent or time-critical functions. If you have an "Extended Keyboard", you will find single-stroke equivalents for most key- combinations. (Menus are reserved for purposes primarily of overall configuration rather than performance.)

In designing the keyboard layout for Music Mouse, I assigned certain keys certain meanings because the characters printed on those key made mnemonic sense (made their meanings easier to remember). If these happened to be uppercase usages, it didn't matter. "<" and ">" make more sense for loudness controls than do "," and"." but the samephysical keys are involved either way.When this manual refers to keys by their letter-names, it is talking about the physical key on which that letter name is found,

not the actual letters. When the "shift" key is needed in combination with any other key, this manual will explicitly say so by referring to the key character as "shift-x".

The Macintosh keyboard is a "dumb keyboard". That is, it has no internal intelligence of its own, and only keeps track of one key at a time. If you're holding down a fader key (see "Types of keyboard Controls" below) or an oscillating switch and you hit a second key, the fade or strobing will suddenly stop as control goes to the new key. If you want to do a crossfade, or continue a fade-up after changing some other option, you'll need to release the fader key and press it again, to make it the last key down again.

The fade rates on fader keys and the oscillation rates on of toggle switch keys all depend on the Macintosh's key repeat rate. You can adjust this on the Macintosh's Control Panel.

The values and states of the various options present on the keyboard (see below) are shown on the left side of the screen.

The Menus

Unlike other kinds of computer applications, musical instruments need to give their users immediate moment-to-moment access to all controls, and pull-down menus are too slow and indirect. Also, the mouse is always in use for pitch selection, so using itat the same time as trying to get options which are on menus could force you into some very strange melodies. If you do need to change something on a menu after you've started playing, you can silence the voices with spacebartemporarily disconnect the mouse using the deletekey.

In General

Each of Music Mouse's features is fairly simple to comprehend, memorize, and operate by itself, but their many possible combinations can produce a tremendous amount of variety, and it can seem complicated or become confusing if you aren't sure what each of the controls does by itself in the first place. It's a good idea to try each of the controls (keys) listed in this manual, one at a time (you might try running through them pretty much in the order in which they are described below, to get a clear idea of what each key does individually). This program - by its unusual nature - may suggest new musical ideas to even the most experienced musicians.

Although this software instrument is easy to play from the very first, it is also a real instrument that can be played better or worse, and on which real expertise can be achieved by thorough exploration and extensive practise.

It's a good idea to practice moving the mouse slowly and gently at first, until you get a musical feel for how the sounds respond. Move in small motions, listen to the way the musical voices move in relation to each other, and go in the directions the sounds seem to want to lead you. Fade the faders up and down to get a feel for their rates and curves (start with <and >). Practice playing a melody against a drone by moving the mouse up and down without moving sideways. (This is not as hard as it sounds because the mouse's movement is quantized by the software). Try moving slowing and smoothly along a rambling diagonal toward the upper right or lower left, moving roughly staircasewise, alternately in the horizontal and vertical directions most of the time. Try repeating patterns (small circles or other shapes) until you feel like breaking out of them
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		and moving freely. Try the same one-dimensional pattern first on one axis then on the other (alternating, for example, left 2, right 3, down 2, up 3, or others). After you've studied the list of controls below and tried each of them, try such motion exercises with each of the harmonic modes selected, with different sounds, and at different tempos. Whatever you do, the software will do what it can to make the pitches you hear work together and sound musical in terms of harmony, and to get them to lead you further. Music Mouse is essentially an instrument for logically supported improvisation, and in improvisation, at least as much as in any other form of musical art, a vital part of the art is in developing your ear and listening. To the degree that this instrument makes playing lots of notes absurdly easier than traditional instruments do, the art of playing it well has that much more to do with its player's moment-to-moment sensitivity, awareness, and openmindedness to what the sound of the moment suggests. Listening to the music as it happens, and pacing - timing - what you do moment to moment in response, are much more essential parts of an art which presumes technical mastery of note playing. The choice and timing of what to generate are everything.
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Music Mouse Keyboard Controls

There are 11 main groups of controls available on the keyboard. The specifics of each group are described in the following sections.

Throughout this manual, keys will be referred to by what's printed on them. For users with extended keyboards, single-key equivalents are given for certain functions which would require key combinations on the standard Macintosh keybaord. These extended keyboard equivalents are given in parentheses after the standard keyboard key combination.

Group

1- General Controls

2-Types of Harmony

3 -Transposition

4 -Additionof Melodic Patterning

5 - Voicing (relationship between
the 2 mouse axes or added patterns
and the 4 melodiclines)

6 - Loudness, Articulation,
and Muting

7 -Tempo

8-Rhythmic Treatments

9-Internal Sound Selection

10 -MIDI Sound Selection
and Control

Member Keys

help

deletecmd-a

tab qwertycmd-qwerty

zxccmd-zxc

a 1234567890

shift-zxc

s d f g cmd-d cmd-f

spacebar<>/shift-/ shift-1234~ `

- +[ ]

\

shift-\

cmd-1 cmd-2 cmd-3 cmd-4 (F1F2F3F4)

u i o

vb hj nm kl ;' ui op shift-(any of)vb hj nm kl ;' ui op

Look at your Macintosh keyboard and visually locate each of the above groups on it. Some of the choices as to which letters represent what musical meanings may seem a bit arbitrary and difficult to remember at first glance, but the functions were placed and grouped on the keyboard so that related controls fit well under the hand for performance. You'll find they are actually very quickly memorized and easily used.

In general, the keyboard is laid out so that pitch content determining options are toward the left and orchestrational (sonic) controls are toward the right.

You'll probably want to look at the Keyboard Map which was enclosed with your copy of the program while going through this manual and tutorial, and to keep it in front of you until you've memorized the controls (which usually doesn't take long!).



		Types of Keyboard Controls Different keys on the Macintosh keyboard are programmed to act in different ways, in simulation of different kinds of physical control devices. Each key or key group described on the following pages is identified as being of one of these types:
		selector						Selector keys are members of "multiple choice" groups, for choosing one of a group of possibilities. Only one member of any selector group is in use at any time. A selector group functions similarly to a menu but is faster to use. A switch key moves some value back and forth between two states on alternate key-presses (it toggles). Some switches turn their option alternately on and off, much as a light switch does. Others switch between two states (see /, f, dor others, below). Holding a switch down for more than the duration of a normal keypress will produce a rapid alternation, which may be musically useful in some cases, and musically undesirable in others. For example, you can get a very nice tremolo by holding down f, but if you hold down the spacebar for more than a normal key-hit's-worth of time, you won't know until you move the mouse again whether you've left yourself in a "sound" or "silent" state. A fader moves a value one step higher or lower if pressed once in normal text-typing fashion. If held down, it will continue to move the value further in the same direction until it is released. Faders always occur in pairs on the keyboard, with the left key decreasing and the right key increasing the value. Faders clip, rather than wrapping around, at their extreme values. (That is, they will stay at their highest or lowest value after they've reached it even if they're still held down). Because of the Macintosh keyboard's design, (alas) only one fader can be active at a time. When a second fader is pressed while another is still held down, control is immediately transferred to the second one. True crossfades are not possible, but must be done by alternately pressing and releasing the two faders involved. The program's fade rates are designed for slow smooth transitions. Their fade rates are changeable from the Mac's "Control Panel". Faders always occur in pairs on the keyboard, with the left key decreasing, and the right key increasing, the value controlled by the pair. The uppercase (shift-key) version of a fader will set its value to its extreme:to zero for the left shift-key combination of the fader pair and a high or maximal value for the right key of the pair. Cycler keys move values repeatedly through a range. When a cycler reaches the extreme value in whichever direction it is moving (to the bottom or top of its range), itdrops back to a less extreme value so it can continue moving in the same direction, and it will do this over and over as long as it is held down. Like faders, cycler keys move only one step each time they are pressed in a normal typewriting manner, and they continue moving as long as they are held down. A specifier sets a parameter to a specific pre-defined value -- for example, to restore it to where it started after it was changed by action on other keys. 14
		switch
		fader
		cycler
		specifier

Music Mouse Keyboard Usage

General Notes:The x's under the words MIDIand Macintoshin the charts below indicate whether each option is present for that kind of output. (Macintoshrefers to the Macintosh's internal audio, which has different capabilities from MIDI and therefore has different controls.)

The keys listed in the following tables are all single-keystroke lowercase keys unless explicitly prefixed with shift-or another combination key.

A lot of very interesting music can be made by just using the keys listed in groups 2 through 6, with hardly a mouse move at all at any time. You'll find that use of the possibilities available in doing this do benefit considerably from practice and familiarity, and (particularly) from listening.

1 -- General Controls

Initial Setting:

Mouse = Active (connected). Pattern cursor = ON.

Key

delete cmd-a help

MIDI

x
x
x

Mac

x
x
x

Type

switch switch selector

Parameter

Disconnect mouse from music. Display mode.
Re-Initialize all program values.

The deletekey de-activates the mouse for playing notes. It effectively disconnects the mouse from the music, so that you can lock in what what you have happening musically, such as a pattern playing, and can move around and use the menus without dragging the music along with you. Though disconnected from your mouse movement input, Music Mouse will still be running and can go on playing music, and the alphanumeric keyboard will remain live. You can see when the mouse is de-activated: the music display area on the right side of the screen is inverted in color. To reconnect the mouse just press the deletekey again.

The Display Mode switch on the cmd-akey lets you see either where the mouse is or the individual notes you hear as they are played (your input into the program or the program's output). With Added Patterning (the akey) turned on or using any rhythmic treatment besides Chord mode, these will not be the same. Normally, you'll probably look at the output, the notes you hear.

There are 2 main reasons to look at the notes at your current mouse position. First, if you want to run Music Mouse at very high speeds with the added patterns on, you'll want to turn it offbecause the extra graphical display work slows the program down considerably. You can't show all the notes and still go full speed. Second, you'll be able to more accurately control the harmonic content of the melodic pattern textures if you look at your mouse position, which shows the base chord on which the patterns rest, rather than looking at the musical output built over that base chord.

2 -- Type of Harmony

Initial Setting:

KeyMIDI

Harmony= r(tonal).

Mac

Type

selector

Parameter

Pitch quantization defeat. For microtonal frequency space, and pitchbend using left mouse button.

Equal tempered scale, Chromatic harmony. Octatonic mode.
Middle Eastern scale(non-microtonal approximation)
Diatonic scale, Tonal harmony.
Pentatonic scale, Modal harmony. Cycle of fourths, Quartal harmony.

Same as qwertybut will not cause the notes to be played.

tab

q w e

r t y

x x x

selector selector selector

cmd-(any of qwerty)

Each of the keys in this group will change the current harmony type, figure out the new notes for the current mouse position, display them, and - unless doubled with the cmd key, also immediately play the new pitches in any voices whose pitches have changed (or in all voices, if gis on - see below).

To make the order of the above easier to remember, notice that they are organized on the Macintosh's keyboard from left to right in order of decreasing resolution, with more pitches per octave toward the left and fewer per octave toward the right.

Pressing the currently-selected harmony key will repeat the current notes (the last notes played). Holding it down will create a tremolo effect (a fast even repetition).

Extremely interesting harmonic sequences can be produced by going back and forth among the different types of harmony, between or during mouse moves, especially after you get a feel for how the harmonies move, when you change from mode to mode, on each of the different scale degrees.

The standard polyphonic cursor disappears in non-quantized (tab)pitch space (Macintosh sound only) because there exists no alignment between the pitches you can play and the equal-tempered chromatic scale represented on the screen. In this mode, your ear is the best guide.

In tabmode, you will get microtonal pitches wherever you move. For more perceptually continuous pitch movement, try this using legato instead of staccato articulation, and with the tempo set fast (hold down "+").

3 -- Transposition

Initial Setting:Transposition = zero (C major / A minor), Interval of Transposition = 1.

Key

z

x

c

shift-z shift-x shift-c

MIDI

x
x
x

Mac

x
x
x

Type

cycler

specifier

fader
fader specifier

Parameter

Transpose down by semitones and play new notes.
Transpose up by semitone and play new notes.
Return to zero transposition (tonal tonic = C-natural) and play new notes.

Reduce interval of transposition by 1. Increase interval of transposition by 1. Reset interval of transposition to 1 semitone.

cmd-z

cmd-x

cmd-c

(quiet transition)

Same as zbut does not cause the new notes to be played.
Same as xbut does not cause the new notes to be played.
Same ascbut does not cause the new notes to be played.

The "interval of transposition" is the number of semitones you will move each time you press zor x, to transpose the music up or down in pitch. Starting in C natural, if you press xonce, you will have moved to C-sharp if your interval of transposition is 1. If it is 2, you will have moved to D natural.

These keys do actual transposition, not just retuning, as in keyboard synthesizers which slide the pitches of the notes you hear back and forth relative to the black and white keys you use to play them. For example, after you press the xkey 3 times, when a cursor beam points to middle-C on the screen-border pitch display, you will still be hearing middle-C, not some other note. But that C will function as the tonic of the key of C Minor instead of C Major. The triad based on D, which was minor before, will now be diminished, and the next chord higher than that will now be E-flat major, instead of E- natural minor, as before. (C Minor is the relative minor key of E-Flat Major, whose tonic is 3 semitones higher).

Because the shift-key version of each of these keys changes the number of semitones by which the harmony template will be moved on each single normal lowercase (or cmd-) keypress, some wonderful harmonic-melodic effects can be achieved by use of these keys. If you want to transpose by fourths instead of semitones, for example for normal modulation to (traditional) harmonically related keys, do 4 shift-x's, and the next time you press either zor xyou will move down or up by a perfect fourth. Then do 1 shift-x, hold down zor x, and you'll be scanning up or down augmented triads.

These shift-combination keys will have no audible effect until one of the other keys in this group is pressed, as they modify the behavior of other keys instead of directly affecting the music.

4 -- Addition of Melodic Patterning

Initial Settings:

Addition of patterns = OFF. Pattern = 6.

Key

a
0...9

MIDI

x
x

Mac

x
x

Type

Parameter

Add melodic patterning.
Select melodic pattern to be heard if "add patterns" is on.

switch selectors

The akey turns on and off a mode in which a series of pitch intervals is added, one at a time, to the notes at your current mouse position. This is done at the current tempo.

If ais off, pressing any of the number keys will have not have any effect on what you hear until ais pressed to switch added patterning on.

You can play phrases and ornaments by turning aon briefly for just a very few notes, then turning it off again, or you can let the patterns run, and create variety by switching among them, changing Harmony Type, rhythmic Treatment, Voicing, timbre, or in other ways.

Some of the Treatments in combination with this afeature, particularly cmd-3 (F3) and cmd-4 (F4), allow Music Mouse to act like a generative system (a process that can create music on its own). But it's still basically a performance instrument, and the challenge of playing it is fundamentally the same:What to change and when. A major difference between playing notes by hand with the mouse and interacting with an automatically generated note stream is that when the problem of keeping the music going has been taken care of for you, the emphasis falls on the problem of creating meaningful change through your performance on a compositional level, on how and when you vary this ongoing music stream. The materials which Music Mouse generates on its own are meant for human interaction. Though often pleasing for a while when left running, they are not expected just to be left running indefinitely. There is nothing within this program to create overall compositional form or spontaneously change things. That's up to you.

Because Music Mouse works in 4 part harmony, the patterns selectable on the number k