Sequencer

The Mixer Board

  Generally one can be mixing while creating a MIDI, or even just set some initial chorus and reverb before recording a note. But, also generally, this is one of the last things one does before declaring the song 'ready to ship'. You play the song over and over again, adjusting the dials and sliders to get just the right mix and blend of instruments. In can involve going into the Controller view to redo some controllers like pitch bends, or tuning up the velocities for various notes, and so on. It can mean redoing the SysEx to get various instruments to sound better. But it'll be here where the final mix is going to be determined. And if it's a MIDI you found on 'the net', it can mean a lot of hours with this mixer, trying to find just the right patches/instruments, just the right mix of chorus, reverb and the rest before it'll sound halfway decent on the particular synth you're using.

  This sequencer shows on the mixer window the first 16 tracks with something playing on them; even if it's just setting the instrument/patch for the channel (program change), and nothing else, it'll be shown here. If more than 16 tracks are used, then you bring up a second mixer, and it shows the rest of the tracks. Here track 1 has nothing on it, and track 2 just contains some SysEx commands, so neither is shown on the mixer. Track 10 is selected, here, which you can read at the bottom has a track name of, Bass, and is using the 34 Fingered Bass patch. You see also the pan, chorus, reverb (effects depth), and volume controller values at this particular point in the song; these can all be changed at any point, whatever measure. Since this is just a pop-up window, other parts of the display, seen in Track view for example (as up in the upper left), tell you where you are in the song, what measure, what time. These four boxes at the lower right of the mixer are the most precise way to change the values, but really aren't meant, perhaps, for on-the-fly changes as the song plays. Instead, you'd use the sliders above, which show the same thing shown in the boxes.

  Any controller can be assigned to the sliders/boxes. Instead of using the pan, one might want to change expression controllers (sort of a second way to set volume, without changing the overall volume for the channel). And if the sliders are too clumsy, this sequencer has an option to change the top three to dials, virtual potentiometers (pots) really, which can be more accurate as one can swing the mouse way out to the side to get accurate changes down to a value of 1.

  Changes can be recorded as the song plays, as implied by the Record Live check box, there. But that might get a little messy sometimes. I prefer using the Controller view for finessing pitch bends and other stuff. Instead, you can play the song through, changing the chorus, reverb and such, so it sounds just right (for the moment), before then getting back to the beginning of the MIDI in order to save the changes - by just pressing that 'Store Values' button at the lower left. But only those tracks with the check mark will be updated, here just tracks 5 and 7. The new controller values will be saved at the point one is at in the song. If it's up to 1 minute, then the controllers are stored at the one minute mark, when store values is pressed. To set these controllers once at the beginning of the song, which is mostly how I myself use this mixer, it might be that you would not go right to the beginning, at 1.1:000, but maybe up a couple of beats, say to 1.4:000. That way, SysEx could be stored before the 4th beat, and wouldn't override the settings stored here (because SysEx can also change instruments, set chorus, reverb, and so on).