P3 v4.00 beta firmware notes ============================ P3 v4.00 beta is a major revision of the P3 OS. It was originally intended only as a way of trying out ideas for the data structures and UI of a new sequencer, but after using it for a while, it seemed like it might prove popular with existing P3 owners too. Usage Notes: ============ P3v4 is not memory compatible with any version 3 release of the firmware. P3 Tools v2 has been written specifically for v4, with a dump conversion utility that allows v3 dumps to be loaded and translated for use in v4. A full memory initialisation should be performed the first time you boot this OS, by holding F1 + 7 at power on, then pressing F1 and F2 to confirm. This beta is provided to allow users to try out features which may be implemented in a future release version of this OS, and provide any feedback. It is supplied "as is", and without any warranty or implied fitness for purpose. The main changes are as follows: There is a fixed memory layout of 16 banks, each of 8 parts Playlists have been removed Each part can hold a unique, multi-bar pattern for each track, subject to a common pattern storage limit Pattern storage is allocated dynamically to parts as required, from a central pool shared across all banks, increasing flexibility and memory efficiency Pattern edit mode provides direct access to each bar of a pattern Patterns can be "ghosted" as many times as desired, to any other part or track in a given bank Ghosted patterns play the same pattern data as their source track, but aux events are processed independently for each ghost, so any randomisation of pattern data will vary on ghosted tracks. Playlist functionality is provided through properties of each bar in a pattern, that allow the user to consider each bar as a 'playlist step' v4 UI Differences ================= The most obvious difference is that playlist edit mode is gone completely. In play mode, the bank number is no longer shown in the form "x/y", for bank x of the total number y available. There are always 16 banks. Bank selection uses the step keys as before. A new sfot-key for pattern delete can be found on play mode page 4. Instead of entering playlist edit mode, the FUNC + combination now shows an information display about the pattern on each track. An initialised bank will have all patterns. Pattern edit mode is entered as before, by holding PLAY/EDIT and pressing a track key, 1 to 8. But the pattern being edited can now be up to 16 bars long - with all bars directly accessible in edit mode. Pattern edit mode has some changes to the display pages. Edit page 1 has changed to this: ---------------- | 16 forward E| |tbase drctn last| ---------------- Here, the F1 key is used along with the step keys to directly select the tbase setting. The F2 key does the same thing for setting direction. Note that so far, the tbase and direction settings must still be set for each bar in the pattern. Automatic assignment of the same tbase and direction to all bars in a pattern is TBI, along with per-bar override. The 'last' softkey sets the bar last step as before. Pages 9 - Bar Edit Mode ======================= When edit page 9 is selected, you enter a sub-mode of pattern edit - bar edit. The step LEDs show the current pattern length in bars using green LEDs, with the bar currently selected for editing shown in red. The currently playing bar LED will flash. The step keys can be used to select any bar for editing. At any time in pattern edit mode, the DATA knob can also be used to scroll through the bars in a pattern. The bar edit page looks like this: ---------------- |R: 1 Xpos: 0 E| |leng GbH:x bcopy| ---------------- Here the 'leng' softkey is used along with the step keys to set the length of the pattern in whole bars of 16 steps. Note that last step can still be set within each bar as before. R: indicates the 'repeat' count for this bar. Xpos: indicates a transposition that will be applied during the selected bar only. GbH: is short for Gbar Hold, and if active, will cause the bar to repeat automatically until a Gbar reset occurs, at which point the pattern will advance to the next bar, or restart the current one in a single bar pattern. The Reps value for each bar is edited using the UPPER knob above the step keys. The Xpos value is edited using the NOTE knobs. To toggle GbH setting for the currently selected bar, press F2. Bcopy is used to copy the current edit bar into another bar - select the destination bar number using the step keys while holding bcopy (F3). Holding FUNC along with bcopy will *swap* the contents of the edit bar and destination bar. If you hold bcopy, and select a bar number that *is not* within the current length of the pattern, the pattern length will be extended, and the current bar copied into all the new bars added at the end of the pattern. Bar Loop Points =============== Bar loop points allow a range of bars in a pattern to be defined as a loop. When first started, or a new part selected, the pattern will play from bar 1, but once the end of the loop section is reached, the pattern will reset to the first bar of the loop section. This allows 'intro' sections to be created that only play once, before the pattern settles into a repeating loop. Or a pattern can be made shorter without losing some bars at the end that you may want to add back to the pattern later. Selection of the loop points is made in bar edit mode. Hold the FUNC key, then press the step keys for the start then end bars of the loop section. Bars outside of the loop in a pattern are shown with amber LEDs rather than the usual green shown in bar edit mode. Other Edit Mode Changes ======================= The save options in pattern edit mode have changed. When PLAY/EDIT is pressed to exit pattern edit mode and return to play mode, the usual save / back / lose softkeys are joined by a display of the track and part number for the current pattern. Or if the pattern being edited is ghosted from another location, the real pattern source will be shown. At this point, the destination track and part that the edited pattern will be saved to can be changed by pressing keys 1 to 8 to select another track, and keys 9 to 16 to select an alternative part. Once the save key has been pressed, a further prompt may appear: ---------------- |save save &| |new back ghost| ---------------- This prompt will not be shown when a new pattern has been created, as a new pattern must be saved for real before it can be ghosted. It will also not be shown when a real pattern is being saved back in its original location. If the 'save to' destination has been changed, or the pattern being edited was already a ghost, these options appear. Pressing the 'save new' soft-key will create a new, real pattern in the chosen destination. Pressing 'save & ghost' will save any changes to the ORIGINAL source of the pattern, and will also create a 'ghost' pattern in the chosen destination if it does not already have one. A 'ghost' pattern is simply a pattern that uses no storage space of its own, but points to the same pattern data for another track and/or part. By ghosting patterns across tracks, you can very quickly layer the same pattern on multiple instruments for composite sounds. By ghosting patterns between parts, you can re-use an unchanging pattern in several parts without using any extra space. If you edit a pattern in any part it is ghosted to, you can easily choose to save those changes as a new pattern, just for that part. The original pattern, and any other ghosts of it will continue to play the original data before editing same. Note that tracks being edited play back their data from an edit buffer, so changes you make to a ghost pattern will NOT apply to the source pattern being played on the original track unless you save the data back there. The layout and operation of pattern edit mode may well change in future betas. If you have any comments on the beta, feel free to discuss them on the Yahoo group. Colin Fraser Sequentix Music Systems Ltd http://www.sequentix.com