maxWerk - Copyright 2000-2007 Amanda Pehlke
Published by RedMoon Music - www.RedMoon-Music.com
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difference is the much larger drum notes display. It is bordered on
the right with GS default drum note numbers and accommodates a
much wider value range. Here, step values represent actual note
numbers rather than scale steps, and a note placement guide bar
can help you mark the right spots for hits before you make manual
note entries. As in the Note Editor, velocities have a set all to value
menu with an associated refresh button. There is also a repeat a
velocity series button. An octave display is not necessary for the
Drum Loops, and octave wrap step values aren't needed either
since transposition does not come into play. To maximize graphic
display space, the buttons to open the Controls A and B, Bend, and
phatWerk windows are placed along the top edge of the window .
Each Drum track is monophonic, and the Drum pattern generator
works with only one note (kit sound) at a time. Pattern generating
involves setting three menus below the note display and using the
buttons in the right margin that add and undo beats. Once you have
set the loop length and number of steps, the generator will decide
how many of up to six beats to give you, or it can try to give you
exactly as many beats as you want, so long as the step locations it
picks are not already occupied by hits. The default setting of the
beats add menu tells maxWerk to pick a random number of hits,
and specific options for one through six of them follow. Note that
once you have entered some beats into the display, depending
upon the number of available loop steps remaining, fewer new hits
may appear than you request.
The second setting, in the pattern length menu, takes effect if your
loop covers more than one bar. When you direct new hits to 1 bar
that repeats, the pattern is identical in all bars of the loop. The
selection across all bars spreads out the generated pattern field.
The third, in the beat placement menu, defaults to letting new
generated hits fall on empty eighth-note steps, whatever the loop
resolution. The alternate selection jogs placements by a sixteenth-
note to add rhythmic interest. When you first make this selection, a
new set of empty slots equal in size to the first becomes available.
maxWerk does not pick the drum instrument number to be entered
by the Drum pattern generator--it's up to you to select the sound