Tutorials: How to set FTS up to compose music for the Lambdoma

Preliminaries
Go to the tasks folder, and start up the Lambdoma task.

Switch off the drone.

Make sure you have a virtual midi cable installed to relay the notes from your notation software to FTS.

Select the virtual midi cable from the In menu in FTS, e.g. Midi Yoke or Maple Sound.

Set your notation software to use the same device for Midi output.

How to set up FTS to retune your score
In the In As menu in FTS - select whether you want to compose for the single quadrant or 4 quadrant Lambdoma. It's best to start with the single quadrant.

Still in the In As menu in FTS, choose how you want to interpret the staff notes. The option to play Lambdoma notes from consecutive white keys is the easiest one to start with. You can compose using just notes corresponding to the white keys - the score is easier to read without all the accidentals you'd need to use to get some of the pitches if you use All keys.

Remember the score is what I call scordatura keyboard - there is no connection between the displayed notes and the actual notes you hear. Instead, the line which is usually interpreted as middle C will play the first note in the fourth row of the Lambdoma (assuming you have everything set at its preset settings in FTS).

Every four lines of the score will correspond to one row of the Lambdoma.

How to set up the score in your notation software
For the single quadrant Lambdoma, and the option to play from white notes, you will need to set up a score with two treble staffs and two bass staffs. One of the treble staffs should be transposed in pitch upwards by two octaves, and one of the bass staffs transposed down two octaves.

You should now be all ready to compose in the Lambdoma.

Here is an example score

... (to be completed, with images, and sound clips)

How to compose for the full four quadrant Lambdoma
First set up FTS to play notes on the four quadrant 16 by 16 Lambdoma using the "Entire 16 by 16" button.

This has 256 notes, too many to be able to notate them all using the 128 notes in a single midi channel.

So, from the In As menu in FTS, select the option to set up FTS to play notes from the four quadrant Lambdoma.

In your notation software you need to set it up as before, but do it four times, so you will have the two treble staffs, and two bass staffs arrangement, but do this four times. Each of those has to play on a different midi channel - send notes on channel 1 for the first quadrant, channel 2 for the second and so on.

So you will need a score with sixteen staffs.

Alternative approach for the four quadrant Lambdoma
You can make the score more compact - but it will be harder to read. To do this, use the option In As | Play Lambdoma notes from All keys. You then may be able to compose using just two staffs for each quadrant - a total of eight - though with lots of ledger lines.

You will then need to use accidentals in your score to obtain some of the notes on the Lambdoma. These aren't functioning as pitch shifting type accidentals - it is just a way to send a particular midi number to FTS.

For instance, C sends FTS the number 60 which plays the first note of the fourth row. To play the second note, with the option to play from the white keys, you need to send FTS a 62, i.e. send a D.

To play the second note of the fourth row with the option to play from all keys, you need to send FTS a 61 from the notation software. The way to do this is to set your score to play a C#, which will send a 61 via midi in which FTS will interpret as desired.