Window 49

=  Midi out options =

Open MIDI out now
This opens automatically when you play notes or open midi in...

The reason for adding this here as an option is so that you can see whether the out devices are open or not.

You can also use this it to switch off midi out in FTS if it is open and you need to close it e.g. to use in another program.

You may also sometimes want to use this to open midi out in advance before you play a note, to avoid short delay that may happen when you open Midi Out while FTS sends all the midi out resets etc.

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Options for Midi Out...

Close midi out when you switch to another app. (if not playing)
This makes it easier to share out devices with other programs...

If you have this selected, and another program also works the same way then it saves opening and closing midi out when you go from one to the other - it all happens automatically. As soon as FTS detects that you are working with another program, it will close Midi out so long as there are no notes currently sounding. So then the other program will be free to open it.

This is necessary because normally only one program can open the same out device at the same time. Sometimes out devices permit themselves to be shared with a midi merge - that needs care anyway with programs that use pitch bend retuning as they adjust the pitches - and also expect the pitch bends to stay as they had set them in every channel.

Close midi out when you stop play
Auto closes after fractal tune stops, or after scale, chord progression, seed

Output Channs for Parts Polyphony....
Set which midi out channels to play for each part...

You have sixteen midi channels to share out between the parts. On some devices however, the same instruments can share channels, so that you can have a flute and oboe say playing at once in the same channel, while with others you need to share the channels out between all the parts in play.

Notes at (12) equal tempered intervals with each other can all be played on the same channel. However in other tunings, unless you use tuning tables, often notes for the same part will need to be played on different channels.

How many you need to set aside for each part depends on the scale and the level of polyphony. For instance, quartertone music can be played on just two channels with the normal level of polyphony in Midi, one channel for the ordinary notes and another for the same notes a quarter tone sharp (or flat).

You can play notes in a pentatonic scale, whatever the tuning, with at most five channels without any extra limitations on polyphony. Also any octave repeating twelve note scale can be played on twelve channels with no extra polyphony limitations.

You can manage with less channels if you have less polyphony. If you have at most eight note polyphony say, then you may need only eight channels - that means polyphony involving eight separate scale degrees in octave repeating scales, as notes an octave apart can be played on the same channel. It is often good to have spare channels or so in addition to requirements, however because if you go right up to the limit of the number of channels and then change the chord, you can get pitch bend artefacts with the resonances of notes that continue to sound when they are switched off - or else they get abruptly stopped by an all sound off if you have that option selected. In that case sixteen channels would be safer for eight note chords and eight channels for four note chords - i.e. four notes ignoring any voices at octave intervals with each other.

Parts for devices...
Set which parts from the Parts window to play on which out devices

Notes in play...
Shows all the notes currently in play - midi channels and cents values...

Really, you only need this if curious to see where they are relayed too, and what the pitch bend values are in cents - some musicians like this information to be at hand for sequencing.

Most will probably find Bs | Notes in Play more useful.

This just shows the notes currently playing at this very moment - though you can also set it to refresh only on note ons so it then shows the situation as it was last time there was any activity.

Stereo Pan - position left or right...
Pans notes for parts. Use to set position to left or right for each part

Skip Instrument Selections for selected Out device(s)
Just plays the notes without saying which instrument to play them on

Pitch bend retuning opts...
Pitch bend ranges, adjust scale as you play, pitch bend ripples, etc

Use Tuning tables with currently selected Out device (s)
Tune this out device with MTS sysexes - or assume tuned with .TUN tables...

You can set the way this works from the .Tun and MTS sysex options.

.TUN tables

You can load a .TUN tuning table in FTS to tell it how your synth is tuned so that it doesn't need to send the notes on separate channels. You can then select which of the out devices are already tuned in this way. This switches off the pitch bend channel remapping for those devices, and the tuning table you loaded is used to choose which midi notes to send to the device to achieve the desired pitch. Notes not in the tuning table are ignored. You can see what is happening from Out | Notes Currently Playing (Ctrl + 47) | More

Midi Tuning Standard Sysexes

This is an ideal way to tune a device in midi because a program like Tune Smithy can tune it directly and you don't need to keep loading the tuning yourself in the other program or changing its selection if you change the tuning.

Unfortunately only few devices so far implement the standard way to do this - but they include some of the synths from Native Instruments such as the FM7.

Many hardware synths have tuning tables but unfortunately they are specific to the model of synth and it is a lot of programming effort to implement all the variations. Manuel Op de Coul has done that however in Scala so you can use SCALA to tune most hardware synths.

Tuning Table Opts...
Here you can load .tun tuning tables or configure the MTS sysexes

More >>
Shows this window with either more space, more options, or alternative layout

Help = F1
Click for help for this window. Or F1. Other opts: Shift, Alt, Ctrl + click...

F1 or click shows the help for the current window in your web browser.

Some windows may have no help yet in which case the help icon is shown crossed out with a red line.

Shift + F1 or Shift + Click brings up the tool tips extra help window (this window) to show any extra help for a tool tip.

You can tell if a tool tip has extra help if it ends ... like this one.

Ctrl + F1 or Ctrl + click takes you to the list of keyboard shortcuts for Tune Smithy.

Alt + F1 or Alt + click (alternatively Caps lock physically held down + F1 or Click) takes you to the on-line page at the robertinventor.com web site about the current main window task - which gives a short introduction to it for newbies to the program. If there is no on-line page specific to a task, takes you to the main tune smithy page on the web site.

Since the help for Tune Smithy is currently a bit out of date and needs to be redone completely for the new 3.0 release, then you may find the on-line page for some of the newer tasks particularly useful.

Organise Windows = F2
Or F2 - Reset / save / open for individual windows, right click for cat. list...

Shows the Organise windows window - which you can use to reset all the parameters for the current window - or save them all, or open previously saved parameters for just this window. Also has a drop list of all the windows and their shortcuts.

You can also right click on this icon as a quick way to get the floating drop menu of all the Tune Smithy windows organised by category

Midi Out Dialog Star
Tip of the day - Midi Relaying category - right click for neighbouring windows...

Left click for a tip of the day in this category.

Right click to see a menu of neighbouring windows.

The neighbours are the ones you most often move to after this one or within a minute of this one, arranged by popularity.

So as you continue to use FTS, it will learn your habits, and the neighbouring windows listed here, should be the ones you most often visit after this one.