Conference napalm::commusic_v1

154.0. "MSQ-100 Folklore" by SIVA::FEHSKENS () Tue Sep 24 1985 18:03

I've lived with my MSQ-100 for a while now and understand it a lot better
than when I started.  There are a few things that the owner's manual is
a little vague about, so I thought I'd share what I've learned with the
notes community for the benefit of MSQ-100 owners or prospective buyers.

Most of what I've learned recently is about the legato facility in step
mode loading.  The owner's manual seems to imply that the legato trick only
works when the resolution is 16th notes, and it leaves questions about what
happens to legato phrases after insertions and deletions.

First, the legato technique works regardless of resolution - i.e., it works\
the same with eighth notes and eighth note triplets.  I didn't try it with
quintuplets, triplet 16ths and 32nds, but I assume it wwill work the same
for these resolutions.  As the manual notes, you get the legato effect by
holding down the TIE button while you key the notes.  This results in the
MIDI note on message for the next note being sent before the note off message
for the previous note is sent.  Without the legato effect there is a noticeable
break between the note off and note on messages; the effect is of clearly
articulated playing.  (If it's too articulated for your taste, go to a
smaller resolution and use more TIEs to extend the note to its correct length.
If that's not enough, you can increase the effective resolution by duobling
the tempo and the note values together (i.e., 8ths at 240 BPM is "the same as"
16ths at 120 BPM - the MSQ-100 goes to about 280 BPM, so this technique will
work for tempos up to about 140 BPM.)

Deletions that cut ties across bar lines result in note offs in the bar
preceeding the deletion and note ons in the bar following the deletion.
Inserting a bar in place of the deletion (e.g., to make a correction) will
tie to the previous bar if the first buttoin you hit is TIE.  However, the
note on that got put into the bar follwing the deletion will still be there,\
so correcting a legato phrase requires that you rekey all the legato stuff
after the deletion.  Also remember that even in legato mode, if you tie the
first note of an insertion to the preceeding bar, even if the note's the same 
the note on will still be sent.  Depending on the voice/program you're using,
this note on may be heard as an additional attack in the middle of your
"legato" phrase.  The only solution, as I noted earlier, is to rekey the
entire legato phrase, starting at a bar that doesn't tie to a previous bar.

The MSQ-100 "beeps" as each step is entered during step mode loads.  Warning -
it won't beep during an insertion until you hit a note; if you start with a
tie, no beeps.  This can be confusing if you rely on the beeps to let you know
if you were "heard".  Also, don't forget that you need an extra TIE preceeding
the note you want to append to a legato phrase.  E.g., if I want to insert a
a 4/4 bar that ties to the last note of the previous (to the insertion) bar
(call it C), and then on beat 3 goes legato to a B held for 1 beat, then a
rest, assuming my resolution is 8ths, I key in INSERT, LOAD, TIE, TIE, TIE,
TIE, TIE/B, TIE, REST, REST, END-MEASURE.  I may (depending on the synth and
program) hear an additional attack on the C of the inserted bar; if that's
unacceptable, I have to go back to the bar the C began in and rekey from there.

My keyboard technique leaves a great deal to be desired, so discovering how
to exploit this legato effect has been very useful to me.  I wish the MSQ-700
had a similar facility.

Anybody know how to transpose sequences?  All it takes is adding a fixed
offset to the note number field of the MIDI messages, but I know of no
sequencer capable of doing so.  The MSQ-100 will can "transpose" the MIDI
channel of INCOMING (ONLY!) messages, but it can't do the analogous operation
on note numbers.  Transposing keyboards don't help, because they only transpose
keyboard input, not MIDI input, or if they do, they don't send the transposed
data to the MIDI THRU or OUT ports.

len.