
Why I Wrote Fingers, and What You Might Want to Do With It 
A Personal Note from Dr. T

In the fall of 1985, Jim Johnson sent me his Series program for the 
Commodore 64, which became part of our Algorithmic Composer package.  I 
immediately liked the program.  Working primarily from intuition, I could 
type in a few numbers and pitch values, and generate pulsating musical 
lines that went on for a long time without repeating.  There was something 
in the structure of the program that reminded me of my homebuilt analog 
synthesizer/sequencer setup, which could do many things that even my own 
sequencer program could not, but which I had abandoned due to its unwieldy 
nature and lack of memory.

As work on the Atari ST version of the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer 
progressed, I began to think about features that I might want in an ST 
version of the Series program.  I decided eventually that what I most 
wanted was an interactive program, one that can be "played" in the same 
sense as one plays a keyboard or a guitar or a sax, though obviously with 
different technique.  One of the things that I liked about my analog setup 
was that any aspect of the system could be changed by turning a knob or 
flipping a switch, without interrupting the flow of the music.  This 
philosophy has been carried over in the design of Fingers, since almost 
all of the parameters that control the music produced by the program can 
be altered while the music is playing.

Part of the reason for this approach was that I wanted an instrument for 
my own use.  I do not have the coordination or ear training necessary to 
play a conventional musical instrument well.  An instrument that does not 
require these skills, but that is flexible enough to produce serious music 
will allow me to perform as well as a more conventionally trained 
musician.  At the same time, such a program might appeal to other people 
who, like me, love music but are not capable of playing a "normal" 
instrument.  My reasoning was that if I made the interface simple enough, 
anyone who knew how to use a computer could sit down, start fooling 
around, and quickly start enjoying the results.  If I also made the 
interface flexible and powerful enough, with some work even an untrained 
person would be able to come up with some interesting music.  What I 
wanted was something that acted in some ways like a computer game, in 
other ways like a musical instrument, and in still other ways like a 
complex algorithmic composition tool.  Of course, I wanted the program to 
be able to save the music that it created so that users of a sequencer 
program could modify and enhance the music created with Fingers.

Playing the Fingers program is quite different from playing a conventional 
instrument.  With a conventional instrument, one usually has to perform a 
specific action (pressing a key, blowing into a mouthpiece, striking a 
drum) for each sound produced.  Fingers produces sound continuously.  The 
player's role is in some ways analogous to a conductor's.  The program 
produces up to four lines of music at once, and you can interact with them 
in a variety of ways.  You can simply turn them on or off, change 
synthesizer presets, transpose pitch or dynamics, or speed up or slow down 
the lines all at once or independently.  You can also dynamically alter 
the "score" of the piece, changing the pitch, rhythm, and dynamics values, 
or moving the lines about within the score.

There are a number of ways to use Fingers.  You can use it strictly as a 
compositional tool, creating a Fingers setup that is a complete piece of 
music in itself, perhaps playing itself without user intervention, or 
perhaps requiring specific actions from the human player.  The music 
produced by Fingers need not be considered the finished piece, as Fingers 
is capable of saving any music it creates in files that can be read by our 
Keyboard Controlled Sequencer and MIDI Recording Studio programs.  You can 
then use the sequencer to do further editing, overdub additional parts, or 
make any other necessary changes to the piece.

The aspect of Fingers that interests me the most is its use as a tool for 
improvised performance.  Fingers continuously records the music that it 
produces, so any time you decide you like the music you just heard, you 
can save it to disk so it can be replayed or edited by your sequencer 
program.  A simple approach to improvisation with Fingers is to create a 
starting setup that you like, interact with the program as it plays, and 
save performances that you like to disk for further sequencing.  You can 
use the sequencer to edit a whole performance, or to expand on an 
interesting section, or to combine sections from several different 
performances.

Fingers does not deal directly with MIDI continuous controller data (foot 
pedals, wheels, pitch bend, etc.), but it will merge any messages coming 
through the computer's MIDI input with its own output data, and can record 
the two sources of data together.  Thus you can be playing Fingers, and 
adding controller data from some other instrument at the same time.  I 
find this an interesting challenge, but it can quickly leave you with more 
happening than you can keep in your head at once.  Fingers can also in a 
new kind of improvising ensemble, in which one person plays Fingers, one 
or two others play MIDI controllers that modify the timbres of the notes 
played by Fingers, and perhaps another player manipulates the sound mix.
You can also use Fingers, with or without additional controllers, in a 
more conventional performance ensemble, with other musicians playing 
conventional instruments.  In this case, you might want to restrict 
yourself to one or two lines at once, to leave room for the other 
players.  You can even use Fingers in an ensemble that includes other 
interactive algorithmic musical instruments such as M, Jam Factory, or 
Music Mouse, all of which I recommend to people with the appropriate 
computer.
However you choose to use Fingers, I'm sure you'll find it an intriguing 
alternative to conventional musical instruments, and one that will provide 
you with many hours of musical enjoyment.

Chapter 1

Overview

Welcome to Fingers! Fingers is a member of a new class of musical 
instruments known as "intelligent instruments", which combine traditional 
and/or unusual musical procedures, or "algorithms", with the interactive 
features of a computer video game.  As such, the program has a dual 
identity - first, as a musical game which allows people with no previous 
musical experience to create interesting music, and second, as a tool for 
experienced musicians and composers who want to explore alternate methods 
of composition.

Before reading this manual, check your disk directory for a file entitled 
README.  If one exists, double click on its icon and click on Show or 
Print when the dialog box appears.  This file contains any corrections or 
additions to this manual which were made after it went to press.  We have 
made every effort to test the program and eliminate serious software 
bugs.  Still, there is always some possibility that bugs exist.  We 
suggest that you become thoroughly familiar with Fingers before using it 
on stage.  Dr. T's Music Software assumes no responsibility for losses 
caused by software errors or other problems in using the program!

How It Works

In Fingers, the basic algorithm used to create a piece of music is quite 
simple.  The MIDI output from Fingers consists of up to four monophonic 
lines.  Each line is equivalent to a single musician, such as a horn 
player or singer.  Each line plays one note at a time, which is created 
from four note parameters - time, pitch, velocity, and articulation.  The 
time of a note is the amount of time between the start of the previous 
note and the start of the current note, pitch sets the note value, 
velocity sets the dynamics, or accent level, of the note, and articulation 
controls the phrasing, or length, of each note.

The parameters for each note in a line are selected from a set of 
parameter series.  There are four series types, which correspond to the 
four note parameters mentioned above: Tim, Pit, Vel, and S/L (which stands 
for staccato/legato, or short/long).  The series are arranged in vertical 
columns in the upper portion of the main screen.

Each line has four line icons, which are red digits that step through the 
parameter series in time with the master clock.  The locations of the line 
icons determine which series elements will be used to set the parameters 
for the next note in that line.

The movements of the line icons through the parameter series are affected 
by the series control elements.  The series control elements are 
represented on Fingers' main screen by red letters to the left or right of 
certain series elements, and are used to skip a series element, or repeat 
a group of series elements, or other similar functions.  The series 
control elements, line icons, and the series themselves make up the score 
of a Fingers piece, which occupies the upper two thirds of Fingers' main 
screen.

Beneath the score are the line displays, which are used to affect the 
individual lines.  Each line can be paused, muted, transposed advanced, 
delayed, or affected in a number of other ways from its line display.  The 
two bottom lines of the Fingers screen contain the series options, which 
determine how mouse operations will affect the score, and the master 
controls, which control the overall tempo and other global functions.
Using the Mouse and Edit Windows.  The ST's mouse is the primary input 
device for Fingers.  While some functions may be performed using the ST's 
keyboard or an external MIDI controller, it is possible to completely 
control the program using nothing but the two mouse buttons.

Throughout this manual, we will use the term clicking to refer to a single 
press on either of the mouse's buttons, and left or right clicking to 
refer to a click on a particular button.  Double clicking, which is used 
in many ST programs, is not used in Fingers.  Generally speaking, the two 
mouse buttons perform the same functions in most situations, except that 
the right mouse button has a greater effect than the left.  The actual 
changes made, as well as the amount of change, depends on the particular 
area of the score or line display that is being altered.  For example, 
when the Edit series option is active, left clicking beside an element in 
a Tim series will increase that value by one unit, and right clicking will 
increase it by three units; but right clicking beside an element of a Pit 
series will raise that element by an octave (twelve units), which is more 
appropriate for a large pitch change.

Fingers uses a system of what we call edit windows for data entry on the 
main screen and all auxiliary screens, which should be familiar to users 
of our Keyboard Controlled Sequencer.  An edit window contains three types 
of elements: data fields, select buttons, and action buttons.  Data fields 
contain numeric data, or, in the case of the Pit series, MIDI note values, 
and can be adjusted either by typing the data on the ST keyboard, or with 
arithmetic icons, which take the form of single or double left and right 
arrows (<>).  If a number on the screen is bracketed by arithmetic icons, 
then clicking on > will raise the value, and clicking on < will lower the 
value.  Each element in every series is bracketed by two invisible 
arithmetic icons, which perform the same functions as the arithmetic icons 
in the line displays, but are not shown in order to leave room for other 
data on the screen.

The select buttons are the cyan (blue-green) text areas which describe the 
various operating conditions within an edit window, and are highlighted 
when selected.  Some buttons are used to turn an option on or off (called 
toggling), while others are used to select one or another of a set of 
mutually exclusive choices (such as one of the eleven series options on 
the main screen).  Whether a button is a toggle switch or a selector 
switch is usually obvious from context, and is easily determined through 
experimentation.

Action buttons are used to initiate a procedure, such as starting or 
stopping the instrument, or moving to another edit window.  Action buttons 
are white.  In some edit windows, data can be entered using the arithmetic 
strip, which is a row of red arithmetic icons at the bottom of the edit 
window.  After clicking on a data field, clicking on different parts of 
the arithmetic strip will change the value there.  Clicking on the 
leftmost diamond sets the entry to its lowest legal value, the right 
diamond selects the highest value, and the middle diamond selects the 
center of that parameter's range.  Clicking on the >> or << symbols 
increases or decreases the entry by some large amount, while > and < 
change the value by one unit.

Messages

For certain operations, Fingers will issue a message at the bottom of the 
screen with simple instructions for selecting an option.  If the program 
seems to halt after you select an option in the MENU, check the bottom of 
the screen for such messages.  Disk error messages are also issued at the 
bottom of the screen, and require that you press a key on the ST before 
the program will proceed.

Equipment Hookup and Loading the Program

Fingers produces up to four lines on four MIDI channels, so for best 
results, use a multi-timbral instrument with at least four voices.  If 
your synthesizer isn't multi-timbral, set its receive mode to Mode 1 (Omni 
On/Poly).  Normally, you only need to connect your synthesizers to the 
MIDI Out jack on the Atari ST, but if you want to enter pitch and velocity 
values from a MIDI keyboard, connect that device to the ST's MIDI input as 
well.

When connecting your equipment, be careful of MIDI loops from the ST's 
MIDI output back to its input.  Such loops will cause Fingers to 
immediately latch up, until the loop is broken.  MIDI loops are usually 
caused by MIDI mergers or synthesizers with a merge or echo feature, so be 
careful when using such devices.

After you've got your system ready, run Fingers by double clicking on 
FINGERS.PRG.  When the program is finished loading, the main screen will 
appear.  At this point, you will probably want to run through the tutorial 
in the next chapter to get a better idea of how Fingers works, then refer 
to the remaining chapters while you continue to explore the possibilities 
opened up by even the simplest Fingers scores.

Chapter 2

If you've read Chapter 1, you should be ready to proceed with the Fingers 
tutorial.  In this chapter, we'll take a look at a very simple Fingers 
score, and demonstrate the use of some of the more important controls on 
the screen.

After loading the program as described in Chapter 1, the Fingers main 
screen will appear.  Click on MENU, in the lower right corner of the 
screen, and then click on Load when the menu appears.  A GEM file 
selection window will appear, showing the names of the demonstration files 
included with the program.  Click on FINGTUTR.FIN, followed by OK, to load 
the score for the tutorial.

When the score is loaded, the main screen will return.  At this point, 
clicking on Start would start Fingers playing, but we need to make a few 
adjustments first.  Look in the middle of the lower part of the screen for 
four controls that look like this: C< 2>.  These controls are the MIDI 
channel MIDI channel; select controls for the four lines, and must be 
adjusted to match your syystem before the music from the program will make 
any sense.  The channel for each line is adjusted by right or left 
clicking on the arithmetic icons on either side of the channel number.  
Set the channels for the first three lines, and the programs on your 
external synthesizers, so that lines 1 and 2 are assigned to a piano-like 
voice, and line 3 is assigned to a horn voice.  If you're using a single 
timbral synth in Omni mode, just use a piano voice.

Now we're ready to go.  Click on the Start button, and a rather monotonous 
little sequence should start to play on the piano voice.  If not, adjust 
the channel settings on the Fingers screen, as well as the programs on the 
external synth, before going on.  The repeating phrase being played by 
Fingers at this point is something that could be programmed into any 
sequencer, but it serves as a good starting point for exploring the 
program.

One of the most basic Fingers operations is editing the score.  Check the 
lower part of the screen to see that the Edit button is highlighted, and 
click on it if not.  When Edit is activated, data can be entered in the 
score directly from the ST's keyboard.  In the first Pit column, left 
click on (not beside) the D#4 series element, and type C4.  The melody 
being played will change slightly when this replacement is made.  Now 
press the Undo key on the ST's keyboard, and the original D#4 will 
return.  Any of the series elements in the score can be edited the same 
way, but don't do any more at this point.  (We don't want to wander too 
far from the original score.)

Note that the Tim and Pit series that contain the line icons for line 1 
each have six elements, which means that the melody created by this line 
repeats after six notes.  To spice this up a bit, let's temporarily change 
the length of the Pit series.  Click on Skip, and then left click on one 
of the elements in the first Pit series.  A red S will appear beside that 
element, but more important - listen to the change in the music! The 
melody should now change slightly on every repetition.  (If it doesn't, it 
will probably be playing the same note over and over.  If this happens, 
don't worry; just right click somewhere else in the same Pit series, and 
you'll be back on track.) Watch the two line icons in the Tim and Pit 
series, and you'll get a better understanding of the reasons for this than 
any amount of explanation would bring.  Click on the same element again, 
and the S will disappear, and the melody will settle into another stable 
pattern.

The red S is called a Skip element, and is an example of a series control 
element.  Series control elements are placed in the score to alter the 
paths that the line icons take through the score.  Another type of series 
control element is the Column Link element, which links two or more 
columns of the same type.  Click on the header of the first Tim column, 
and a red arrow will appear to the right of the label.  Look at the Tim 
line icon for line 1, and listen to the change in the rhythm.  The red 1 
should be moving back and forth between the two columns, due to the link 
between them.  Click on the header again, and the link will disappear.

At this point, depending on exactly when you deleted the Column Link 
element, the red 1 may be in either the first or second Tim series.  
Either way, it can be easily moved from one series to the other without a 
Column Link element, by redirecting the line with the mouse.  Right click 
on (not beside) any element of the Tim series, and the line icon will 
immediately jump to that location.  Any of the line icons for line 1 may 
be redirected to a different series of the same type, or to a different 
spot in the same series, in the same way.  Experiment with redirecting the 
other line icons, then return them to their original series.  (Note that 
since there is only one S/L series, the line icon in that series can't be 
redirected - yet.)

There are many other things that can be done to a single line in the 
score, but most are similar to what was covered above.  The behavior of 
the lines is also influenced by the controls in the line displays, just 
beneath the score.  The line labeled L1 contains the controls for line 1.

Click on the first red arrow from the left end of the line 1 display.  The 
arrow, which had been pointing down, now points up, and the icon for line 
1 is now moving backwards through the Tim series.  The red arrows are 
called the direction arrows.  Separate direction arrows exist for each 
line icon - experiment with these, and note the effect each has on the 
music.

Another typical control in the line displays is the pitch transpose 
control, labeled PT.  Right click on the arithmetic icon to the right of 
the pitch transposition value, and the pitch of each note played by line 1 
will go up an octave.  After listening to this for a bit, left click on 
the left arithmetic icon, and the pitch will be transposed down by one 
unit.  Continue left clicking on this icon until the pitch transposition 
reads 0.

To the right of the pitch transpose control is the velocity transpose 
control, which has a similar effect on the velocity of each note.  If your 
synth is velocity sensitive, left or right click on the icon to the right 
of the velocity transposition amount, and each note will be a little bit 
louder and/or brighter, depending on your instrument's characteristics.

Now that we've covered the basics of controlling a single line, let's 
start a second line.  The PA button near the left end of each line display 
is used to pause that line.  When this button is left clicked, the lin 
will start to play immediately.  Click on the PA button for line 2 now, 
but be careful to press the mouse button in time with the music - 
otherwise, the two lines probably won't play in time with each other (or 
"sync up", as computer musicians put it).  Fingers has ways of dealing 
with such errors, but it's better to try and get it right in the first 
place.

With two lines playing, the possibilities for making interesting changes 
to the music with a single mouse click are substantially greater.  Try 
making some of the same changes to the score that were made earlier, but 
this time, change the series that contain the line icons for line 2.  If 
you try to redirect line 2 with the mouse at this point, you'll find that 
line 1 is still controlled by the right mouse button.  A line is selected 
for control by the right mouse with its line select button, at the left 
end of the line display.  When L1 is highlighted, as it is now, line 1 can 
be redirected by the mouse.  Click on L2, and the right mouse button will 
be assigned to line 2.

But wait - there's more! In addition to the line controls you can see on 
the screen, Fingers has a number of control keys that let you make changes 
to more than one line at a time.  The numeric keypad has a number of these 
controls.  Try pressing any of the keys in the top three rows of the 
numeric keypad, and listen to the change in the music while you watch the 
PT displays for each line.  These keys are used to set all the lines to 
the same semitone transposition value.  Press the ( key, in the upper left 
corner, to return the lines to their original transpositions, and press 
some of the keys in the lower two rows of the numeric keypad.  As you can 
tell, these keys have a similar effect, except that they change the 
transposition by octaves, rather than semitones.

By now, you should be getting a feel for some of the ways in which Fingers 
can be used to manipulate a piece of music in real time.  Before letting 
you go to explore the program on your own, there is one more very 
interesting control in the line displays which merits some attention.  To 
the right of the velocity transpose controls are the time adjust (Tm) 
controls for each line.  Place the mouse cursor on the arithmetic icon to 
the left of the time adjust value, and click the right mouse button in 
time with the music.  The time adjust value should drop to 8, and line 2 
will be playing twice as fast as it was before, creating a completely 
different rhythmic feel.  Experiment with right clicks on the other time 
adjust icons (avoid left clicks, for now) a few times.

This tutorial has touched on many of the controls on Fingers' main screen, 
but there are many more which we haven't discussed.  Even so, you now know 
enough to find your way around the Fingers' screen, and to begin creating 
music over which you have at least some control.  At this point, we 
suggest that you continue to work with the example score for a while, and 
that you refer to the remaining chapters in this book as you become 
curious about other features of the program.  Before you know it, you'll 
be creating entire pieces of your own with Fingers, and probably staying 
up all night to do it!

Chapter 3

The Score

The score of a Fingers composition is the information contained in the 
upper two-thirds of the program's main screen.  The score normally 
contains thirteen parameter series, any of which can contain data of any 
one of the four parameter types.  The score also contains series control 
elements, which alter the motion of the line icons through the series, as 
well as the line icons themselves.

Fingers has many options for creating, editing, and performing a score in 
real time.  In this chapter, we discuss the details of the score and its 
components, and the interactive features of the score.

Series and Columns

The parameter series are arranged in columns of up to sixteen elements.  
Each column is five characters wide, with space for three characters of 
data in the middle of the column, and a single character space for the 
series control elements, line icons, and invisible arithmetic icons on 
either side of the data field.

The type of data contained in each column is shown at the top of the 
column.  Pit columns contain pitch information, in the same format used in 
Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer.  In our system, the lowest key on a 
standard five octave MIDI keyboard is C2, and the low octave, normally 
C-1, is referred to as C- to save space.  Note that some manufacturers, in 
particular Yamaha, refer to the low note on the keyboard as C1.  Tim 
columns contain rhythmic information for each note.  Normally, a Tim value 
of 12 will produce an eighth note (that is, a note that is twelve MIDI 
clocks long), but this is affected by the Tm (time adjust) setting in each 
of the line displays, as explained in the next chapter.  Time values may 
range from 1 to 999.

The elements of columns labeled Vel are MIDI velocity values, and as 
such, may be between 1 and 127.  The values in the S/L columns affect the 
articulation, or phrasing, of individual notes.  An S/L value of 1 creates 
a short, or staccato, note, and a value of 15 creates a note that sustains 
until just before the next note, also called a legato note.  A value of 16 
or above will create overlapping notes, which may cause problems on 
certain instruments, especially CZ-101s, but which may be used to good 
effect on other machines.

Normally, each column contains a single series, but there are two series 
control elements (which are discussed in greater detail later in this 
chapter) which can change this relationship.  If a column contains one or 
more End of Series elements, then the column will be split into two or 
more separate series.  If a column contains a Column Link element, then 
the bottom of that column is linked to the top of the next column of the 
same data type to the right of that column, even if they are not 
adjacent.  These two features allow the creation of many short series, or 
a few long series, from any number of columns of the same type.

The series type for the thirteen columns defaults to Tim, Pit, and Vel for 
the first three sets of four columns, and S/L for the last, but this can 
be changed to any combination desired using the Config/Clear option on the 
MENU, as described in Chapter 5.

Series Control Elements

Fingers has a total of eight different series control elements which 
control the motion of the line icons within each series.  In addition to 
the End of Series and Column Link elements mentioned above, there is a 
Loop element, a Skip element, two types of rests called Rest and rest, and 
two Auto-randomize elements.  Most of the series control elements are 
located in the blank space to the left of the associated series element, 
except Skip, which is placed to the right, and Column Link, which is 
placed at the top of the first of the linked columns.

Loop elements cause all the series events above the location of the Loop 
(the loop point) to be repeated for the number of times specified in the 
data field to the right of the Loop element.  The top of the loop is 
either the start of the series containing that loop, or the preceding Loop 
element in that series, if present.  Loop elements are ignored by any 
lines whose icons are moving backward through the series containing the 
Loop element, as described in the next chapter.  Loop elements are 
represented by a red L in the score.

A Skip element is shown as a red S on the right of the series element it 
affects, and causes any line icons in that series to skip that series 
element.  If a Skip is placed beside a series element that is already 
associated with a Loop, Rest, or rest element, the Skip will override the 
other series control element, which means that Skips can be used to make 
either minor and major changes in the structure of a Fingers composition, 
depending on where they are placed.  A Skip placed beside an End of Series 
element will not override the End of Series, though it will cause the 
series element itself to be skipped.

Rest and rest elements are used to create rests in a Fingers series.  When 
either is encountered in a series, the next note in that line will not be 
played.  The difference between the two types of rests is subtle, but 
important.  If a Rest is placed next to a series element, then the line 
icons for that line in the Tim series and the series containing the Rest 
will advance, and the remaining icons will remain at their current 
locations.  If a rest element is used, the line icons in all series will 
advance.  The Rest and rest elements are displayed as a red R or r, 
respectively.

The Auto-randomize elements are used to create some sort of random change 
in a series element, either every time it plays, or only occasionally.  
The amount and type of random change, as well as the probability that a 
change will occur, is set on the Options  screen, as described in Chapter 
6.  The Auto-randomize elements are represented by a question mark (?) and 
an inverted question mark.  The only difference between the two symbols is 
that each has its own probability setting on the Options screen.

The End of Series element is used to break a column into one or more 
separate series of the same type.  Normally, this element is shown as a 
reverse video E in red to the left of its associated series element, but 
since it is sometimes desirable to place an End of Series element at the 
same location as some other series control element, such as a Loop, the 
end of a series can also be shown as a reverse video L, R, r, ?, etc.  
when the appropriate element is used at the end of a series.  End of 
Series elements are placed in or removed from the score by left clicking 
on the appropriate element while holding down the Control key.

Column Link elements cause Fingers to treat two or more linked columns as 
a single, continuous column.  This element is shown in the score as a 
right arrow, to the right of the column heading at the top of the first of 
the linked columns.  Columns are always linked to the next column of the 
same data type to their right.  If a column is the rightmost column of 
that type, the link will wrap around the screen to the leftmost column of 
that type.  Column Link elements are placed in or removed from the score 
by left or right clicking on the header of the appropriate column.

As a very loose rule of thumb, the End of Series, Loop, and Column Link 
elements are most useful when you are first creating the score for a 
composition, and the other elements are more useful for improvisation.  By 
using a combination of the first three elements, one or two Pit or Tim 
columns can be used to create a long and complex pitch or rhythm 
sequences, which might contain abrupt changes in meter or key at specific 
points.  (The same technique can also be used to create accent and 
articulation sequences, of course, but this is less exciting.) Adding (or 
removing) Rest, rest, and Skip elements is an effective way to alter a 
piece when improvising.  For example, try placing Skip elements beside all 
of the notes of one flavor (all C#'s for instance) in one or more series 
before you start the piece, and then remove these Skips as the music 
plays.

In Dr. T's view, the Auto-randomize elements can make the difference 
between a piece that is interesting for a little while, and a piece that 
is interesting for hours on end.  One neat trick is to set up a line that 
is playing a single note repeatedly, and then add an Auto-randomize 
element that creates a small change in the pitch value only rarely, (say, 
a probability of 5 or so).  With a few of these placed in each Pit series, 
you can create a piece that changes its tonal center over the course of 
many minutes.

Series Options and Editing the Score

The various elements of the score are entered, edited, and otherwise 
manipulated using the mouse, the ST's keyboard, and optionally, an 
external MIDI controller.  The way in which these input devices affect the 
score is determined by one of eleven series options.  The series option 
selector switches take up most of the second line from the bottom on 
Fingers' main screen.  When the program first boots the Edit series option 
is automatically selected.  This option is used when making changes to 
individual series elements.  The other series options include Rest, Skip, 
and Loop, which are used when editing the corresponding series control 
elements; Ran, which randomizes the selected series element; Copy, Swap, 
and Adj, which are used to move series elements from one place to another; 
Rec and Rep, which are used to read pitch and velocity data from a MIDI 
keyboard; and Shad, which is used to access a set of alternate series that 
we call "shadows".  Details of each series option are discussed below.

Edit

When the Edit series option is active, series elements can be directly 
entered in the score from the ST's QWERTY keyboard.  Left clicking the 
mouse on any series element or blank spot in the score will cause a box 
called the edit cursor to appear at that point.  Data may be entered or 
changed at the edit cursor location by typing, or with the expanded 
arithmetic icons, explained below.

When typing data in a Pit column, the program expects to see three types 
of characters - the letters A through G, the numbers 0 to 9 or a minus 
sign, and an optional # (sharp) symbol.  These characters will be 
automatically placed in the appropriate spot in the three digit data field 
as they are typed, no matter where the edit cursor is placed in that data 
field.  The first digit typed in a blank field must be a letter, but after 
that, the three elements of a pitch can be entered in any order.
Entering numeric data in the Tim, Vel, and S/L columns is a little 
different than described above.  Since these parameter series use only 
numeric data, the three digits of the series element data field are 
directly associated with the three digits of that element, and typing a 
number in any of the three slots will cause that digit to change 
immediately.  As an example, suppose the edit cursor is placed in the 
middle of a blank series element in a Tim column, and a 1 is typed.  The 
middle, or second, digit in the data field represents the 10's place, so 
the value of that series element immediately becomes 10, rather than 1.  
This makes it a little easier to make large changes in a series element, 
without the moment-to-moment ambiguity of a calculator-style entry system, 
but it does require a bit more care when positioning the edit cursor.

The series element under the edit cursor can also be changed using the 
expanded arithmetic icons, located at the left end of the second line from 
the bottom of the screen.  Left clicking on either single arrow will raise 
or lower the value of the selected series element by one unit and left 
clicking on the double arrows changes the value by three units.  Right 
clicking on the single arrows cause a change of 12 units, and right 
clicking on the double arrows changes the value by 24 units.

Series elements can be inserted in or deleted from any series using keys 
on the ST's keyboard when Edit is selected.  The Insert key will open up a 
blank space at the location of the edit cursor, where new data can be 
entered using the methods described above, and the Delete key will delete 
the series element under the cursor.  Clr Home will erase the data in the 
selected series element, but will leave a blank spot in the series where 
new data may be entered, and the Return and Enter keys will simply advance 
the edit cursor to the next element in the series.

Rest and Skip

When one of these series options is selected, left clicking on a series 
element will place the appropriate series control element at that 
location, if there is none there already.  When Rest is active, left 
clicking once on a location will place a Rest element in that location, 
left clicking twice will replace that with a rest element, and left 
clicking a third time will remove the series control element.  If Skip is 
active, left clicking on a series element will add or remove a Skip 
element to the right of that series element.

Randomize

When Ran is the active series option, left clicking on a series element 
will randomize that element (that is, replace the element with a randomly 
generated value), according to parameters set on the Options screen, and 
described in Chapter 6.  These parameters allow the randomization for each 
of the four parameter series to adjusted independently.

The Ran series option is also used to place Auto-randomize elements in the 
score.  Holding down the Shift or Alternate key when selecting an element 
will cause either an inverted or a normal question mark (?) to appear 
beside the element.  These two symbols represent two separate 
probabilities that the element will be randomized.  The probability level 
associated with each symbol is set in the Options screen.  If the 
probability for a particular element is set to 100, then that element will 
be randomized every time it is played; if the probability is 33, it will 
be randomized approximately once every three times, etc.  Auto-randomize 
elements may be removed by left clicking on their host series elements.

See the section on "Randomization", in Chapter 6, for more on the Ran 
series option.

Copy, Swap, and Swap Adjacent These three series options are used to move 
series elements from one location to another.  Series elements can only be 
swapped or copied to new locations of the same data type; a Tim value 
cannot be copied to a Vel column, for example.

When Copy is active, left clicking on a series element will highlight that 
element, and clicking on a second element of the same type will copy the 
first element to the second.  Swap is similar, except that the first and 
second elements are exchanged.  Swap Adjacent, which is abbreviated as Adj 
on the screen, exchanges the selected element and the next element in the 
same series.  Note that Adj only requires one mouse click, while the 
others require two.

Loop

When Loop is the active series option, left clicking on a series element 
will convert that location to a Loop point.  The series option will 
immediately revert to Edit when a Loop element is placed, and the loop 
count (which defaults to 0) may be entered using any of the data entry 
methods mentioned earlier.  The loop count may be any value from 0 to 999. 
 A value of 0 causes the program to loop indefinitely.

Loop elements may only removed from the score by deleting the series 
element with the Clr Home key, as described in the section on the Edit 
option.  A consequence of this is that placing a Loop element on top of a 
series element effectively deletes that element, so you may want to open 
up a space in the series with the Insert key before placing the Loop 
element.

Record and Replace

The Rec and Rep series options allow Pit and Vel series elements to be 
entered from a MIDI keyboard.  When Rec is selected, a single pitch and/or 
velocity value in any series can be highlighted with the mouse.  Playing 
notes on the keyboard will place a string of MIDI note and velocity values 
in the series starting at the highlighted series locations.  Only one 
pitch value and one velocity value may be highlighted at any time, but 
they can be changed independently at any time by clicking on a new series 
element of the same type.  Clicking on Rec after highlighting one or two 
series elements will clear the highlighting.

Rep is similar to Rec, except that as many pitch and velocity values as 
desired can be highlighted at once, and any note played on the keyboard 
will replace all the highlighted elements with that note's MIDI note 
number and velocity.  Further notes received at the ST's MIDI input will 
be placed in all the highlighted locations, as long as Rep is 
selected.  Clicking on Rep after highlighting a group of series elements 
will clear the highlighting.

The Rec option can be used either in composition or performance to enter a 
short phrase on the fly.  Rep could be used during composition to quickly 
try out different pitch or velocity values for any notes which you want to 
be the same, or to change a large group of elements simultaneously in live 
use.

MIDI merging of note data only will be temporarily disabled when Rec or 
Rep is on, and if Fingers is playing.  Other MIDI data types are sent on 
with no changes.

Shad

In addition to the series which are displayed on the screen, Fingers has 
another set of hidden series called "shadows".  These series cannot be 
used directly in a performance, as the visible series can; instead, they 
act more like an set of alternate values for the visible series.  When 
Shad is selected, clicking on a series element will replace that element 
with its shadow value.  Clicking on an element while the Shift key is held 
down will copy the visible element to the shadow, and clicking with 
Alternate pressed will swap the visible and shadow values.

All of the elements in every series may be copied to the shadow series 
with the Save Shadows command, found on the MENU, and described in Chapter 
6.

There are a number of applications for the shadow series, none of which 
are immediately obvious.  At the simplest level, you could use them as 
backups for real time performances.  After you've created the score for a 
piece, use the Save Shadows command to place a duplicate copy of that 
score in the shadows.  Then, if you find that certain elements in the 
score have strayed too far from their original values during the course of 
an improvisation, you can immediately retrieve the original values by 
selecting Shad and clicking on the offending elements.

The shadows are also handy for creating an alternate version of a Pit 
series in a different key.  For example, suppose you have a pitch series 
containing the notes C4, E4, and G4.  If you're at all familiar with music 
theory, you'll recognize these as the notes of a C major chord.  This 
series can be transposed to some other major chord with the transposition 
controls discussed in the next chapter, but suppose you want to change it 
to a minor chord? The answer is simply to copy the series to its shadow, 
either element-by-element using the Shift-click method, or by copying all 
series to their shadows with the Save Shadows command.  Once the series is 
copied, replace all the wrong notes in your series with the corresponding 
notes from the new key.  In this example, you would replace all the E4's 
with D#4's, which makes the series into a C minor chord.  When you've 
prepared your series and shadows in this way, all you need to do to change 
to the new key is to select Shad, and drag the mouse pointer down the 
series while holding down the left mouse button and the Alternate key.  
This swaps all the altered values with the originals (or vice versa), and 
leaves the unshadowed pitches unchanged.

Chapter 4

The Line Displays

The line displays provide separate control over each of Fingers' four 
output lines.  Any line can be stopped and started, transposed, or 
modified in many other ways, by changing the values in the line display.  
If the score determines what will be played by each line, then the line 
displays determine how that material will be played.

The line displays occupy the five lines immediately below the score on 
Fingers' main screen.  The line directly below the score is called the 
advance/delay line, and is used to adjust the timing of each line relative 
to the others.  Beneath this are separate displays for each of the four 
lines, which contain the line select buttons, pause and mute switches, 
transposition controls, channel and program selectors, and other 
controls.  In this chapter, we will discuss the use of each of the 
controls in the line display.

Line Selection and Redirection 

At the far left end of each of the four line displays is a switch labeled 
L1, L2, L3, or L4.  These buttons are called the line select buttons, and 
are used to determine which of the four lines will be controlled by the 
right mouse button.  Clicking on a line select button will highlight that 
button, or pressing one of the functions keys F1 to F4 will perform the 
same function.

When a line has been selected by highlighting its select button, a right 
click on any series element will immediately move the appropriate line 
icon to that element.  This process, called "redirecting the line", is a 
fundamental Fingers performance technique.  Generally, line redirection is 
used to move a line icon from one series to another, in order to make some 
sort of fundamental change in some aspect of the music.

When redirecting a line, be careful that the mouse pointer is actually 
over the series element itself, and not the blank space on either side.  
Such clicks will be interpreted as a click on the invisible arithmetic 
icons, rather than a line redirection.
If a line is redirected to a Loop element, the line icon will jump to the 
element immediately after the Loop point as soon as it completes its 
current loop, if it is in one.

Pause and Mute

Immediately to the right of the line select buttons are the Pause and Mute 
buttons, labeled PA and MU.  If PA is highlighted, that line's icons will 
not advance, and the line will not play.  If MU is activated, the line 
icons will continue to step through the score, but the line will not play.

Usually, if you want to turn a line on or off and don't care too much 
about the moment-to-moment relationships of every line icon, it's better 
to use the MU buttons.  The PA buttons are a little tougher to synchronize 
to the beat of the music.

The function keys F7 through F10 duplicate the functions of the MU 
buttons.

Fixed Values and Direction Arrows The next set of controls in the line 
displays are used to change the direction of motion of any line icon, or 
to set any note parameter to a fixed value.  To the right of the Mute 
button in each line are four data fields.  Each of these fields contains a 
letter (T, P, V, or S) which associates that field with one of that line's 
icons, a data field for a fixed value, and a red direction arrow or 
asterisk.  If the direction arrow for a particular parameter points down, 
that line icon will move forward through the score, and if the arrow 
points up, the line icon will move backward.  Clicking on an arrow will 
reverse its direction.  If the direction arrow is replaced with an 
asterisk (*), that parameter will be set to a fixed value which appears in 
the field to the left of the asterisk.  This value can be entered or 
edited from the QWERTY keyboard when the Edit series option is selected, 
in the same way that series elements are entered.

Normally, a note parameter is set to a fixed value by clicking in the 
center of the blank fixed value data field.  The fixed value takes on the 
value of whatever series element the appropriate line icon is beside.  
There are a few circumstances in which Fingers will force a particular 
note parameter to a fixed value, if the motion of that parameter's line 
icon is interrupted by certain events.  For instance, if a series element 
is deleted while a line icon is on that element, the line icon will 
disappear from the screen and be replaced by a fixed value.  This may be 
confusing if it happens and you're not expecting it, so watch for it.
To remove a fixed value and return the line icon to the score, select that 
line and redirect the line icon to the appropriate series with the right 
mouse, as explained in the last section.

MIDI Channel and Program Number
 
The MIDI channel and program selectors for each line are located to the 
right of the fourth direction arrow, and each consists of a numeric data 
field bracketed with arithmetic icons, labeled C or P.  Left clicking on 
the arithmetic icons will change the channel or program number by one, and 
right clicking produces a change of four units.  Entries can also be typed 
from the ST's keyboard if the Edit series option is selected.

Program numbers are sent by Fingers when the Start button is pressed, or 
immediately if the program is already playing.  If the program number is 
set below zero, the data field will go blank, and no program change will 
be sent for that line.  If a program change message on any line's channel 
is received at the ST's MIDI input, it will be reflected in the line 
display.  For more on MIDI program changes, see the discussion of the 
program change table in Chapter 6.

Pitch and Velocity Transposition

The portions of the line displays labeled PT and VT, to the right of the 
program selectors, are used to transpose, or shift, the pitch and velocity 
of each line.  Left clicking on a pitch transposition arithmetic icon 
changes the transposition by one unit, and right clicking changes it by 
twelve units, or an octave.  The increments for left and right clicks on 
the velocity transposition icons are four and sixteen units, respectively.

If either pitch or velocity is transposed outside the permissible range, 
the program will adjust the results back into the legal range.  If a 
transposed velocity is less than 1, it will be set to 1 by the program 
unless the Mute Zero Velocities switch is selected on the Options screen, 
in which case that note will not be played.

The Transposition Keys

The PT and VT settings for selected lines can be changed with the numeric 
keypad and the cursor control (arrow) keys, depending on the settings of 
certain switches on the Options screen.  The numeric keypad is used to set 
the PT value for the selected lines to a specific octave and semitone, 
while the cursor keys are used to transpose either the PT or VT settings 
for the selected lines by a pre-determined amount.  The primary difference 
between the two sets of controls is that the numeric keys set the PT 
values to some absolute value, (regardless of the current setting), while 
the arrow keys make relative changes in the transposition value.

The keys on the numeric keypad work as follows: The twelve keys at the top 
of the keypad (from the ( key to the + key) are analogous to the twelve 
keys (C through B) in a single octave of a synth keyboard, and force the 
PT setting to a particular semitone within the current octave.  The ( key 
sets the semitone transposition to 0, so all affected PT values become 
multiples of 12; ) sets the semitone transposition to 1, which sets the 
affected PT values one higher than the nearest multiple of 12, etc.  The 
six keys at the bottom of the numeric keypad (from 1 through the Enter 
key) set the octave of the transposition.  The 0 key sets the octave 
transposition to 0, so that all affected PT values fall in the range of 0 
to 11.  The 1, 2, 3, .  (period), and Enter keys select octave 
transpositions of 1, 2, 3, -1, and -2 octaves, respectively.

The arrow keys are used to change the current PT or VT setting in the 
affected lines by a fixed value.  The amount of the change caused by the 
two horizontal arrows and the two vertical arrows can be programmed 
separately on the Options page, and each set of arrows can be programmed 
to transpose either pitch or velocity.  The effect of the numeric keypad 
and the two sets of arrows can be turned on or off for each of the four 
lines with a set of switches located on the Options page.  See the section 
on "Line Transpose Selectors" in Chapter 6 for details on these switches.

Time Adjustment

Each line's Tm (time adjust) control is located to the right of its 
velocity transposition control.  Time adjust is used to adjust the time 
base of each line, in relation to the other lines.  Each Tim series 
element encountered by a line icon is first multiplied by that line's time 
adjust value, then divided by 16, to determine the actual time used by the 
note.  A Tim series element of 12 will yield a note that is 12 steps long 
if Tm is 16, or a 6 step note if Tm is 8, etc.  The range of this 
parameter is from 1 to 999.

Left clicking on the arithmetic icons beside the Tm value will raise or 
lower that number by one unit, and right clicking will double or halve 
that value.  For instance, right clicking on the right hand icon will 
change a Tm value of 8 to 16, etc.  This is handy when performing a 
Fingers composition, since a line can be quickly double timed or half 
timed with a single mouse click, which can lead to some very interesting 
textures.

The [ and ] keys can also be used to double or halve the Tm values of 
selected lines.  As with the transposition keys discussed in the previous 
section, the effect of these keys can be toggled on or off independently 
for each of the four lines with switches located on the Options screen.  
The [ key doubles the affected Tm values, while the ] key halves the time 
values, thereby doubling the speed of the line.  Note that this is the 
opposite of the way that the arithmetic icons that bracket the Tm values 
work, where the left icon halves the time, and the right icon doubles the 
time.

Save Starting Points, Play, and Reset

The last three buttons in each line display, S, P, and Re, are momentary 
switches which make subtle adjustments to the status of the line.  S 
stands for Save Starting Points, and clicking on this button will tell 
Fingers to treat the current locations of that line's icons as the line's 
starting points.  The next time you click on Start, that line's icons will 
immediately jump to the locations they occupied when S was last selected.

The P button causes Fingers to immediately play the next note in the 
line.  This is most useful if a very long note is playing, and you would 
like to cut it short.  A right click on any P button will cause all four 
lines to play the next note immediately.  This can be handy if two or more 
lines get out of synchronization, for one reason or another.
Re {xe "Reset"}stands for Reset, and causes the line to immediately start 
over.  A left click will cause only the line icon in the Tim series to be 
reset, and a right click will reset all of that line's icons.

Advance and Delay

The advance/delay line, located just beneath the score, is divided into 
four sections, one for each line.  Each section consists of three parts - 
the delay setting for that line, two adjust buttons, and five advance 
buttons.  The delay setting sets an initial delay which will occur any 
time Fingers is started.  Each line will wait for the delay period before 
starting to play, after Start is clicked.  This is especially useful if 
you're working on a composition, and want one or more lines to 
automatically come in after a certain amount of time.  Left clicking on 
the delay arithmetic icons will change the delay setting by one unit, and 
right clicking by six.  If the Control key is held while clicking, then 
left and right clicks produce changes of 24 and 96 units, respectively.

To the right of the delay control are a plus and minus sign, which 
function as timing adjust buttons.  Clicking on either of these symbols 
will advance or delay the line while it is playing, so these buttons can 
be used to compensate for any minor timing errors that may occur in the 
course of a performance.  Left clicking shifts the line forward or 
backward by one unit, and a right click shifts the line by three units.  
Note that the +- symbols don't affect the initial delay setting - they 
simply make adjustments in the time of the note that is currently playing.

The +- buttons can also be used to adjust the feel of one part relative to 
another, which is especially handy if you're playing a part with a slow 
attack (a string voice, for example) along with a more percussive 
sound.  (After you've established which sounds you'll be using with a 
piece, it's best to program these minor timing offsets into the delay 
setting for the appropriate lines.) An interesting effect can be created 
by repeatedly left clicking on either the + or - buttons, so that line 
first drifts out of sync with the other lines, then back in sync, but in a 
different relationship to the other lines.

The advance buttons are represented by the letters TPVSA at the right side 
of each line's advance/delay area.  Left clicking on one of these letters 
will cause the appropriate line icon for that line to move one step in the 
direction of the red arrow beside the advance buttons.  The A button at 
the far right advances all icons together, and left clicking on P, V, or S 
while holding the Control key advances the Tim icon in addition to the 
selected icon.  The primary use for the advance buttons is to adjust the 
relative positions of the four line icons while the music is playing.  
This could be done by redirecting a line, but this can be difficult to do 
with any kind of precision if there is much activity on the screen.  Right 
clicks on the advance buttons will cause the line icons to jump to the 
next (or last) series of that type, as soon as they reach the end of their 
current series.  The direction of the jump is determined by the direction 
of the arrow in the advance/delay line.

Chapter 5

The Master Controls and Menu

The master controls for Fingers are located in the line at the bottom of 
the main screen.  This line contain the tempo strip, which sets the speed 
at which Fingers plays; the UNDO button, which undoes the last change made 
to the score; the <> and Shift buttons, which affect the way score editing 
is done; the Start, Stop, and Con (continue) buttons, which perform the 
obvious functions, and the MENU button, which is used to access many 
program functions which aren't shown on the main screen.  Some of the 
simpler menu items are discussed in this chapter, and others are discussed 
in the next chapter.

The Tempo Strip

The tempo strip is located in the lower left corner of the main screen.  
The vertical indicator in the tempo strip is used to set the tempo at 
which Fingers plays, over a range of 25 to 400 BPM (beats per 
minute).  Clicking anywhere on the strip will set the tempo, or you can 
"grab" the tempo indicator by clicking on it, and then move it as if it 
were a slider on an analog synthesizer or some other pre-MIDI 
relic.  Directly above the tempo strip, beside the letters Ck (which stand 
for clock), the tempo is displayed in BPM.  Left clicking on the 
arithmetic icons that bracket the tempo will cause a 1 BPM change, and 
right clicking will change the tempo by 12 BPM.  Holding down the Shift 
key while clicking on the left or right tempo icon will double or halve 
the tempo.

UNDO, <>, and Shift

These buttons affect the interaction between the mouse and the score.  
UNDO will undo the most recent single edit, randomization, copy, swap, or 
shadow operation.  Clicking on UNDO again will retrieve the altered 
value.  This button can be used to correct mistakes, or to quickly switch 
between two values for a single series element in a performance.  The Undo 
key on the ST's keyboard has the same effect.

The <> button activates the invisible arithmetic icons located beside each 
series element, that were discussed in Chapter 1.  When this switch is on, 
left or right clicking in the space on either side of a series element 
will raise or lower the value of that element.  Left clicking will change 
the value by one unit for Pit, Tim, and S/L elements, or four units for 
Vel, and right clicking will change these data types by twelve, three, 
four, and sixteen units, respectively.  If you are sure you won't need the 
invisible icons during a performance, or if you're just getting started 
with Fingers, leaving this switch off will remove one possible source of 
mistakes and confusion.

Shift changes the way values in the Tim series respond to changes caused 
by the arithmetic icons and randomization.  If this switch is on, any such 
change in a Tim series element will have the opposite effect on the 
following element.  For example, suppose two adjacent Tim elements are 
both 24.  If Shift is on and the first element is changed to 28, then the 
second element will become 20.  This allows changing the start time of a 
single event, without affecting the total length of that series.  Shift 
will not permit any changes that would change the length of a series, 
including any changes to the final Tim element in a series.  Note that 
Shift does not apply to changes that are typed in from the keyboard, when 
Edit is the active series option.

Start, Stop, and Continue

The Start, Stop, and Con buttons, located in the lower corner of the 
screen, perform functions similar to those of equivalent buttons on a tape 
recorder or conventional sequencer.  If Start is selected while Fingers is 
playing, all the line icons will jump to their programmed starting points, 
and Fingers will start to play all unpaused lines.  (The starting point 
for each line icon is set with the S button in each line display, as 
described in the last chapter, or with the Reset Starts menu option, 
described later in this chapter.) If any line has a delay programmed in 
its advance/delay line, Fingers will wait for that number of clock steps 
before starting the line.

If Fingers is already playing when you click on Start, all four lines will 
be reset to their starting positions.

Con is similar to Start, except that the line delays are not executed, and 
the line icons continue from their current locations, rather than being 
reset to their start points.  Con and Start also differ slightly in the 
way that they affect the recording of Fingers performances.  See Chapter 6 
for details.

The functions of the Start, Con, and Stop buttons are duplicated by the 
Shift-Space, Tab, and Shift-Return keys, respectively.  (The Shift keys 
make it a lot tougher to accidentally start or stop the program, and the 
keys are close enough together that you can still do either with one 
hand.) 

The Menu

Clicking on the MENU button, to the right of the Stop button, will cause 
an edit window to appear in the right half of the screen.  This window 
contains a number of action buttons, some of which.i.MENU; access other 
edit windows.  The details on each menu item follow.

Play, Quit, and Back to KCS The Play button is used to return to the main 
screen from the menu.  Clicking on Quit will exit the Fingers program.  A 
GEM dialog box will confirm this choice before leaving the program.

If you started Fingers from within the KCS, Quit will be replaced by Back 
to KCS.

Load, Save, and Save Seq

These buttons are used to load or save Fingers scores, or to save a 
Fingers performance in a file that is compatible with the Keyboard 
Controlled Sequencer or MIDI Recording Studio.  See Chapter 6 for details.

Config/Clear

Clicking on this option will bring up another edit window, in which the 
configuration of the columns on the main screen can be changed.  In the 
upper part of the window, the parameter series types for sixteen columns 
are listed.  Clicking on 16 Series, at the bottom of the window, will 
change the Fingers main screen to a sixteen column display, by removing 
the vertical lines that separate the columns.  This will add more series 
space, which experienced Fingers performers might need, at the expense of 
screen clarity, which beginning Fingers users (Fingerers? Fingerists?) 
will need.  We suggest sticking with the thirteen column display, until 
you find that you have a need for sixteen columns.  If 13 Series is 
selected, the last three columns in the list will be ignored.

The series type for each column is displayed next to the number of that 
column in the upper part of the window.  Clicking on Time, Pitch, 
Velocity, or S/L will change the type for that column, and clear the data 
in that column.  Clicking on Clear simply clears the data, without 
changing the type.  The OK button will make the changes, and Cancel will 
leave the Config/Clear window without making any changes.  The MENU button 
is much like OK, but the program will return you to the menu rather than 
the main screen.

If any line icons are located in a column that is cleared or reconfigured, 
the appropriate parameters for those lines will be set to fixed values, 
determined by position of the line icon.  (The best way to look at this is 
that the line icon "drops down" to the fixed value portion of the line 
display, whenever it finds that its current location is no longer valid.)

Options

Selecting this button will bring up the Options edit window, where a 
number of the program's operating options can be altered.  See Chapter 6 
for details.

Copy and Swap

The Copy and Swap options are used to move entire columns of data around 
the score.  Copying a column will create a duplicate of that column in 
another column, and swapping two columns merely rearranges their screen 
positions.  Clicking on either will cause a message to appear at the 
bottom of the screen, asking you to select a source column.  Click on the 
header of the column you want to copy or swap, and another message will 
prompt you for the destination column.  Columns may be copied to or 
swapped with any other columns, regardless of the type of data they 
contain.  Copying a column to a column of another type will set the 
destination column to the same type as the source.

If line icons exist in a column which is being copied to (and therefore, 
overwritten by the copy), they will drop down to the fixed value portion 
of the line display, as described in the Config/Clear section.

Prog Change Table

This option accesses Fingers' program change table.  This table contains 
40 sets of four MIDI program changes each, one for each line.  A program 
change preset is selected with one of ten keys in each of the four rows of 
the QWERTY keyboard (1 - 0, Q - P, A - ;, and Z - /) Pressing one of these 
keys will send program changes for all four lines, as long as the Edit 
series option is not selected.  (When Edit is selected, the QWERTY 
keyboard is used for entering series elements, so it is not available for 
program changes.)

Entries in the program change table are made using the standard methods 
for edit windows.  The Cursor Left and Cursor Right keys can be used to 
move from one line to another within a key.  If a blank space is left, no 
program change will be sent for that line.  Remember that the valid 
numbers for MIDI program changes are 0 - 127, but that many manufacturers 
use different program numbering schemes.  See your instrument's MIDI 
implementation guide, for information on how its program numbers relate to 
true MIDI program numbers, as used by Fingers.

The current values of the four program selectors in the line displays can 
be added to the program change table from the main screen by pressing and 
holding Esc, followed by the key you want to save the program changes 
under.

While you can store program changes for all four lines in any of the 
program presets, we have found that sometimes it's more useful to store 
only one program in each preset, and call the programs up independently 
for each line.  The program change preset selectors are arranged in four 
rows of ten, which allows you to use the first row for line 1's programs, 
etc.

Reset Starts and Restore Last Start

These options are use to change the status of certain items on the main 
screen.  Reset Starts will reset the starting locations of all the icons 
to their current positions.  This is the same as clicking on the S button 
in all four line displays, as described in Chapter 4.

Restore Last Start is used to return all the settings on the main screen 
to the values they had when Start was last pressed.  This includes all of 
the series elements, so this command will undo any changes in the series 
caused by editing or randomization.  Clicking a second time on this button 
will undo the operation.  This is convenient if you've made changes during 
a performance or recording, and want to go back to your original screen 
settings.  Note that if you have a particular screen status that you would 
like to return to several times in the course of a single session, you'll 
need to select Restore Last Start before you start the program each time, 
or the initial conditions will be lost.

Change Colors

With a color monitor, clicking on Change Colors will bring up an edit 
window in which the four colors used on the Fingers screen can be 
changed.  Each color is specified as a mixture of red, green, and blue, 
using a system that will be familiar to anyone who has used Atari's 
Control Panel desk accessory.  After you click on OK, the edit window will 
be displayed in the new colors, and the new colors can be stored by 
selecting OK a second time, or the original colors will be restored if you 
select CANCEL.  The RESTORE button restores the original 
black/green/red/white color scheme that the program was shipped with, and 
like the OK button, will display the new colors before returning to the 
main screen.

If you're using a monochrome monitor, clicking on Change Colors will 
invert the color scheme (substitute black for white, and vice versa).
The colors are saved with every Fingers file, but they are only loaded if 
the name of the file is DEFAULT.FIN.  See chapter 6 for more on the 
default file.

Save Shadows

The Save Shadows command will copy all elements in every series to their 
"shadows".  The shadows, and their uses, are discussed in detail in 
Chapter 3.

Backup Series and Get Backups

These two commands are similar to the equivalent commands in the KCS, and 
are used to make and retrieve backup copies of one or more series.  After 
you select Backup Series, the program will ask you to click on the series 
you want to backup.  If the Shift key is held down when you select the 
series, the program will allow you to select another series to backup.  
Press Return instead of clicking on a series if you want to backup all of 
the series.

The Get Backups command swaps the selected series with its backup series.  
If a series' type was changed (on the Options screen) since it was backed 
up, the swap will not occur.  If a series has not been backed up, 
performing a Get Backups for that series will swap the series with a 
"null" series consisting of one element.

Internal Sounds

This menu option brings up a GEM dialog box, where you may "connect" the 
ST's internal sound chip to Fingers' MIDI output.  This chip provides 
three monophonic voices, each of which may be assigned to any MIDI 
channel, or turned off.  Only one voice may be assigned to any given 
channel; if more than one voice is assigned to any channel, problems will 
occur.  The voices are velocity sensitive, and will follow an external 
keyboard if one is connected to the ST's MIDI input.

The sounds used by this portion of the program were created using GIST, a 
sound editor from The Catalog (544 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 
94107).  When Fingers boots, it automatically loads the files MELODY.SND, 
BASS.SND, and DRUM.SND into the internal sound chip.  You may load your 
own GIST sounds for any voice by clicking on the appropriate box at the 
bottom of the dialog box.  If you want to have the program load your 
sounds upon booting, simply rename your sounds to the three file names 
given above.
The Internal Sounds option is not available when running Fingers in the 
Multi Program Environment.

Copy From KCS

This option, which only appears when running Fingers in the Multi Program 
Environment, is used to copy a sequence or range from the KCS into 
Fingers.  This is discussed in detail at the end of Chapter 6, in the 
section on "Fingers and the MPE".

Chapter 6

Options, Disk I/O, and Recording

The Options edit window is used to set a number of global operating 
conditions of the Fingers program, including parameters for recording 
Fingers performances, MIDI operation, and randomization.  Data may be 
stored or retrieved from disk using the Load, Save, and Save Seq buttons 
on the menu.  All the data on the various screens used by Fingers may be 
saved in a single file, or recordings of Fingers performances may be saved 
as sequences for later use in Dr. T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer or 
MIDI Recording Studio programs.

Options

Clicking on Options on the menu will bring up the Options edit window.  
All of the settings on this screen are saved along with the score, except 
the setting of the disk drive selector switch and the RECORD disabled 
switch.

MIDI Switches

The MIDI switches are used to set a number of optional parameters that 
affect Fingers' MIDI operation.  The Send MIDI Clock switch is used to 
enable the MIDI clock output from Fingers.  If you need to synchronize an 
external drum machine or sequencer to Fingers (for recording a Fingers 
performance on another sequencer, for example) turn this switch on.

MIDI Slow adds a slight delay between each MIDI data byte.  This helps 
clear up MIDI reception problems experienced by certain early MIDI 
instruments, DX7s and MIDIed Drumulators in particular.  If you have a 
problem with one of these instruments, set MIDI Slow to the lowest value 
which seems to work; otherwise, leave this control set to 0.  Running 
Status is used to "thin out" the MIDI data stream from Fingers, by 
removing redundant MIDI status bytes.  This may help if you are 
experiencing data overload or timing problems, but should not be needed in 
most cases.  Be careful about changing MIDI routings or patch bay settings 
when Running Status is on, as this could result in stuck notes.

Mute Zero Velocities determines how the program will respond to velocity 
values that are transposed below one.  If this switch is on, such notes 
will not be played.  If Mute Zero Velocities is off, notes with velocities 
of one or less will be played with a velocity of one.  Depending on the 
velocity response of the voice(s) you're using, you may be able to fade 
individual notes out completely by lowering their velocities to one; if 
your instruments don't respond in this way, you can achieve a similar, 
though less smooth, effect by activating the Mute Zero Velocities switch.

If Send Programs at Start is highlighted, Fingers will send a program 
change for each line whenever Start is selected.  Since many instruments 
have problems with program changes that are immediately followed by note 
messages, you might want to leave this switch off, or alternatively, 
always program a short delay for each line to give your synths a chance to 
settle after receiving the initial program changes.

Recording Switches

Normally, Fingers automatically records all note data generated by all 
four lines, for storage in a KCS compatible file.  The recording switches 
are used to enable the recording of other data types.  If Record Tempo 
Changes is on, all adjustments to the tempo via the tempo strip or 
arithmetic icons will be recorded as TM events.  Record Program Changes 
has a similar effect on the recording of PG (program change) events.

Fingers has a built-in MIDI merge capability, which merges all MIDI data 
received at the ST's MIDI input with the output generated by the program, 
before sending it all to the MIDI Out jack.  If Record External MIDI is 
on, such data will be recorded and saved in the sequence file, along with 
the music produced by Fingers.

If the RECORD disabled switch is activated, Fingers will not record either 
internal or externally generated MIDI data.  When the program first boots, 
this switch is always off (that is, recording is enabled), so if you are 
using Fingers from within the KCS, you may want to get in the habit of 
turning this switch off each time you start the program, to remove the 
risk of accidentally over-writing an existing sequence.  (This is 
discussed more fully later in this chapter.)

Mouse Debounce and Cursor

The Mouse Debounce setting determines the amount of time that a mouse 
button may be held down before it starts to repeat.  The maximum value of 
200 corresponds to one second.  If this setting is too low, the mouse will 
respond very quickly, but may also produce false clicks that could have 
severe consequences, while a high setting will improve the mouse's 
immunity to false clicks, but may make the program seem sluggish.  You may 
find that different pieces of music call for different debounce values.

The Cursor parameter is used to select one of the ST's eight default mouse 
pointer shapes.  This parameter may be set to any value from 0 to 7, but 
in practice, the only mouse pointer shapes that are of much use are cursor 
0 (arrow), cursor 3 (pointing hand), and cursor 5 (crosshairs).

Steps per Beat and S/L Time Limits

Steps per Beat is used to adjust Fingers' timing resolution.  This switch 
only affects two aspects of Fingers' operation: the time values saved in 
KCS or MRS compatible sequence files, and the precision with which time 
adjustments (controlled by the Tm controls in the line displays) are 
calculated.  Note that the Tim values in the score are always interpreted 
in terms of a 24 steps per beat setting, no matter what the setting of 
this switch is.

If Steps per Beat is set to 24, all time values saved in a KCS file will 
be equal to the corresponding Tim values in the score (depending, of 
course, on each line's Tm setting).  The default value is 24, though we 
recommend a setting of 48 or 96 for most purposes, due to the increased 
resolution.  Whichever you use, be sure to use the same setting when using 
the file in your sequencer program.

The Steps per Beat setting also affects the precision with which time 
adjustments are made.  For example, suppose you have a Tim series 
consisting of one element, say 3.  If you double the speed of any line 
that uses that series, by changing the Tm value from 16 to 8, and the 
Steps per Beat setting is 24, then the line will try to play a note that 
is 1.5 steps long, which will result in timing errors.  However, if Steps 
per Beat is set to 48, the precision will be twice as great, and the 
program will be dealing internally with a note that is actually three 
steps long, which doesn't present a problem.

The four data fields under S/L Time Limits are used to set the maximum 
duration of any note, for each of the four lines.  Normally, the length of 
a note is equal to the Tim value for the next note (remember, Tim sets the 
amount of time that goes by before a note plays), multiplied by the 
current note's S/L value and divided by 16.  If you want to program a line 
which consists of long notes interspersed with even longer gaps, this 
formula could result in some notes sustaining through the gaps.  Setting 
the S/L Time Limits setting for that line to the maximum note length 
desired will keep Fingers from playing notes that are longer than this 
limit.

Line Transpose Selectors

The switches in the center of the Options screen determine how each of the 
four lines will respond to the transposition and double/half time keys 
discussed in Chapter 4.  Each of the switches labeled L1 through L4 turns 
that control on or off for that particular line.  For the Vertical and 
Horizontal Arrow Transpose keys, selecting the Velocity switch sets that 
pair of keys to affect the VT setting for the affected lines, and if this 
switch is not turned on, these keys will change the PT values.  The amount 
of pitch or velocity transposition for each pair of arrows is set in the 
data field to the left of the Velocity switch.

Randomization

The data in the Randomization section of the Options window determines the 
type of random change that will be made to a selected series element when 
Ran is the active series option.  Each of the four types of series 
elements have separate settings.

The amount that an element will be randomized by is set by two parameters 
for each type of series element, called Amount and Type.  If Type is 
greater than zero, then the random changes to the affected elements will 
always be a multiple of Amount that is less than or equal to Type.  For 
instance, if Amount is three and Type is two, then the random changes for 
that parameter could be -6, -3, +3, or +6.  Each of these values is 
equally likely to occur.

If Type is zero, the amount of the random change will be based on a 
Gaussian, or normal, distribution.  This is the infamous "bell shaped 
curve" which so many high school and college professors use in their 
grading systems.  In this case, small changes are more likely to occur 
than large changes, and the average value of the changes will be roughly 
equal to the value of Amount.  For example, if Type is zero and Amount is 
four, a typical sequence of randomization values might be 1, 4, 3, 7, 2, 
and 4.  Positive and negative changes are equally likely.

The two columns labeled ? and with an inverted question mark (alas, our 
font cartridge does not contain that symbol) set the probability that an 
element will be randomized if it has an Auto-randomize series control 
element to its left.  The element will be randomized according to the 
Amount and Type settings discussed above.

The Pitch Limit and Minimum Time parameters are used to restrict the 
pitches and times that will be created when either a Pit or Tim element is 
randomized.  Minimum Time works exactly as you might expect - the 
randomizing routines will not create any Tim values that are less than 
this amount.  Pitch Limit is somewhat more complicated.  When Fingers 
first starts to play, it analyzes the range of each Pit series, and when 
randomizing, will not create any Pit values that would fall more than 
Pitch Limit semitones outside that range.  For example, suppose you have a 
series consisting of the pitches C4 and C5.  If Pitch Limit is 7, then 
Fingers will only create notes in the range F3 (C4 - 7) to G5 (C5 + 7).  
By coordinating the setting of this parameter with the Amount and Type 
parameters, it is possible to restrict the output of the pitch randomizer 
to one of only a few different pitches.

Disk Drive

The Disk Drive selector switches are used to set the default disk drive 
for all subsequent disk operations.  This setting defaults to the drive 
that Fingers was loaded from, and is not saved in a Fingers file.

Disk I/O and Recording

Data is saved to or loaded from a disk drive using the Load, Save, and 
Save Seq buttons on the menu.  Load and Save are used to access Fingers 
files, which contain all the information needed to play a Fingers 
composition, including the score, the settings in the line displays, the 
starting locations of each line icon, the program change table, the column 
configuration, and the settings on the Options screen.  The only Options 
settings that are not stored in a Fingers file are the disk drive 
selection and RECORD disabled switch, as mentioned above, and the series 
option selection.  The backup series, shadows, and internal sound settings 
are not saved to disk.  Fingers files are automatically given a .FIN 
extension.

When Fingers is first booted, the program looks on the disk for a file 
called DEFAULT.FIN, and loads it if it is found.  You could create a file 
with this name that contains your favorite Options settings and column 
configuration and save it on your program disk, and it will be loaded 
automatically each time you run the program.

NOTE: Due to the copy protect system we use, saving a data file on the 
Fingers program disk may render the disk unusable.  Provisions have been 
made to allow saving the DEFAULT.FIN file on the program disk, but other 
than this, you should NEVER save your data files on your program disk! We 
recommend leaving the write protect tab on the program disk in the 
"protect" setting at all times, to prevent accidents.

If Save Seq is selected from the menu, an edit window will appear, which 
is used to save Fingers performances as KCS or MRS compatible 
files.  Performances are automatically recorded by the program whenever 
Start is selected.  Chapter 6 has full details.

The left side of the edit window contains a list of up to nine sequences, 
plus their lengths in events.  The sequence labeled Sequence 1 is the most 
recent performance.  A new sequence is recorded each time you start the 
program by clicking on Start, or if you click on Con after returning from 
the menu.  Clicking on Con without going to the menu will cause the 
program to continue recording your performance, without starting a new 
sequence.  This can be particularly handy when creating a composition that 
requires many simultaneous changes in the score, since you can click on 
Stop, make the changes, then click on Con, and the resulting sequence will 
sound as though the changes were made while the program was playing.

In the right side of the window are five action buttons and one adjustable 
parameter.  Clicking on Clear will clear all nine sequences, and clicking 
on Exit will cause a return to the main screen.  Selecting Save 1 as .SEQ 
will save one sequence in a KCS compatible single sequence file.  The 
sequence to be saved is determined by the Save 1 value at the bottom of 
the edit window.  Save 1 as .ALL will save the sequence in the first five 
tracks of a KCS or MRS compatible .ALL file, with each channel going to a 
separate track, and all tempo change events going to track 1.  Save .ALL 
saves all nine sequences in the first nine Open mode sequences of a KCS 
compatible .ALL file.

If you are using some other brand of sequencer program, we have a utility 
program available which will convert any of the preceding file types to 
the standard MIDI data file format.  Contact us for more details.

Fingers and the MPE

Thanks to Dr. T's exclusive Multi Program Environment (MPE), Fingers can 
be directly interfaced to the KCS, resulting in a full-blown algorithmic 
composition system of a complexity undreamed of just a few years 
ago.  Sequences created within Fingers are automatically stored in the 
sequencer, and KCS sequences can be copied into Fingers' series, allowing 
you to use the program as the musical equivalent of an effects box!

Fingers may be loaded into the MPE on any Atari ST with 1 meg or more of 
memory, according to the procedures outlined in the KCS owner's 
manual.  After the program is loaded, Fingers' main screen will appear.  
You may return to the KCS via the MENU button, as in normal operation.
When Fingers is used with the MPE, secondary sequences 16 through 25 in 
the KCS are used when recording Fingers' output.  For this reason, any 
sequences you may have recorded in sequences 16 to 25 may be lost when 
using Fingers in the MPE.  Back up these sequences before loading Fingers!
Whenever Start is selected on Fingers' main screen, Fingers records a new 
sequence in secondary sequence 16, and sequences 17 through 24 are moved 
up one notch, and sequence 25 is lost.  Sequences 26 and above are 
unaffected.  For example, suppose you were using sequences 16, 17, 33, and 
26 in the KCS before entering Fingers.  If you were to record two 
sequences in Fingers, and then return to the sequencer, sequences 16 and 
17 would contain the Fingers performances, and sequences 18 and 19 would 
be the original sequences 16 and 17.  The original sequence 24 would be 
lost, and sequence 26 would be unchanged.

The first sixteen notes of the current sequence, track, or highlighted 
range in the KCS can be copied to selected series with the Copy From KCS 
menu option.  After selecting this option, a message will appear at the 
bottom of the screen, with simple instructions.  To copy the sequence data 
into a single series, click on that sequence, or hold down the Shift key 
to copy the data to multiple series.  You may copy any or all of the four 
parameter types to the appropriate series.

If any events in the series being copied have times of 0, they will be 
replaced by the value 1 in the series, since this is the minimum time 
value Fingers deals with.  If you are copying an entire sequence or track, 
rather than a range, the time of the final DE event will be added to the 
first Tim element in the series.

If your source sequence is no more than 16 notes long, has no zero time 
values, and if you copied the entire sequence, as explained above, the 
sequence should sound exactly the same in Fingers as it did in the KCS.  
Once you've copied such a sequence to Fingers, you could play it as is, 
and simply overdub a Fingers performance to that sequence, or you could 
process the sequence with Fingers to create a mutant version of the 
original sequence.

Chapter 7

Using Fingers

One of the nicest things about Fingers is that it does not have an 
established traditional performance method, so there is no one to tell you 
what to play and what not to play.  On the other hand, the worst thing 
about Fingers is that it does not have an established traditional 
performance method, so there is no one to tell you what to play and what 
not to play! Either way, Fingers presents a bit of a quandary for those of 
us who would teach you how to make music with the program, since there 
really is no "right" way to play it.  Still, our experiments with the 
program have given us some insights as to how to approach Fingers as a 
musical instrument.  Many of the suggestions and rules of thumb presented 
in the next few pages may be contradictory, but that's simply because each 
of us has found a different method for creating music with Fingers.  Feel 
free to ignore any or all of these suggestions, if they conflict with your 
view of what music should be.

Rhythmic Sensibility

The fundamental elements of any piece of music, from Bach to Morton 
Subotnick to the Meat Puppets, are order and disorder.  Order is imposed 
on music through the use of repeating patterns, and disorder by means of 
variations on the patterns.  Fingers is well suited to manipulating both 
of these elements, since order is naturally imposed by the looping of the 
lines through the series, and disorder can be introduced by the performer 
at any point.  The "art" of playing Fingers lies in knowing how to create 
a meaningful order in the score, and then finding interesting, logical, 
surprising, disturbing, or otherwise entertaining variations on and 
contrasts to that order.

Order is especially important in regards to rhythm.  What the human brain 
perceives as normal or "rational" rhythms are those consisting of time 
values that are related by small integer ratios, especially ratios of two 
and three.  Even those not familiar with traditional music theory or 
practice have probably heard the expressions half note, quarter note, and 
eighth note.  These terms describe time intervals that are related to one 
another by ratios of two to one, and as such form the basis of 90% of all 
rhythms we hear in everyday music.  Another less commonly used, but vital, 
set of rhythmic elements are triplets, or times that are related to one 
another by a ratio of three to one.  Ratios of five and seven are almost 
never heard in popular music, but are a wonderful playground for those who 
like to create perplexing music.

The prevalence of two's and three's in Western music (meaning the music of 
Western civilization, not cowboy songs!) is reflected in the design of the 
MIDI timing standard, as well as Fingers' timing notation, where a single 
quarter note is broken into 24 steps, or clocks.  Twenty-four is evenly 
divisible by two, three, four, six, and eight, so all of the important 
rhythmic ratios are covered with this system.  Most pop music these days 
is based around the eighth note, which corresponds to 12 in a Fingers 
score, so it's a safe bet that the Tim values in the first Fingers Top 40 
hit will consist mostly of the numbers 6, 12, 18, 24, and other multiples 
of 12.  Even if this is not your ultimate goal, this is still a good place 
to start.  Triplets are created using Tim values of 8, 16, 32, etc, and 
are normally grouped in sets of three in traditional music.

Remember that the timing of each line is also affected by the time adjust 
setting for that line, which can create fascinating cross rhythms if used 
properly, or a horrendous mishmash of sound if not.  Which of these you 
prefer is, of course, up to you, but if you want to make music that won't 
make the family cringe, here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind when 
altering the time adjust settings during a performance.  First, never left 
click on the arithmetic icons for time adjust while a line is playing, 
since the oddball time ratios that result will throw that line slightly 
out of sync with the others.  If you want to change the Tm setting by some 
ratio other than two (which is done by right clicking on the arithmetic 
icons), it's best to pause the line, change the time adjust setting, and 
start the line again.  You should also be very conscious of the beat of 
the music when clicking on any button that affects the timing a line, 
especially the Tm icons and the PA and Re buttons, since a timing error on 
these operations can make the music sound somewhat lopsided.  Minor errors 
can be corrected by ear using the +- control in each line's advance/delay 
display, but it's best to avoid the problem in the first place.  Finally, 
if you're adjusting the value of a Tim element, be sure that there are no 
approaching line icons near or on the element when it is in transition, 
since the partially entered value will throw the line out of sync with the 
others.  Turning on the Shift button will help avoid such problems.

If your rhythms do get out of sync for some reason, one quick and dirty 
way to force them back together is to right click on one of the P buttons 
in the line displays.  This causes all four lines to immediately jump to 
the next note, and incidentally resynchronizes the line.

One easy way to ensure that the rhythms you create with Fingers are not 
too strange is to make sure that each separate Tim series has a total 
length that is harmonically related - that is, related by a simple integer 
ratio - to the length of a measure, for instance, 24, 48, 96, or 192 for a 
"normal" measure length of 96 steps.  As with the lengths of the notes 
themselves (as set by the Tim elements), Western ears like to hear music 
in "phrases" whose lengths are related by simple ratios.  Of course, part 
of the reason that Fingers was created was to break musicians' and 
listeners' minds away from such arbitrary limitations, so don't be afraid 
to try unusual series lengths.

Slight variations from the ideal rhythmic ratios mentioned above can add a 
pseudo-human feel to a Fingers performance.  Changing a pair of 12's in a 
Tim series to 11 and 13 will cause the first note of the pair to be 
slightly shorter than the second.  The easiest (and safest) way to get 
such "offsets" in your rhythm is to turn on the Shift switch, as mentioned 
above, and edit the appropriate elements with the invisible arithmetic 
icons or the randomizer.  Try placing Auto-randomize series control 
elements at a few locations in your Tim series, with Amount and Type both 
set to 1.  If you let this go for a while, a rhythmically tight line will 
slowly mutate into a lurching parody of its original self, which is still 
in sync relative to the other lines, over its entire length.

Melody

While pitch and melody are really secondary considerations in most of the 
music that Dr. T composes, they are of prime concern to most composers, 
and are usually all that is discussed by most music theorists.  The 
importance of pitch and melody are, of course, strictly up to you when 
composing a Fingers piece, but most users of the program will probably 
want to give at least some consideration to the relationships of the notes 
entered in the Pit series.

Like rhythm, the melodic structures used in most Western music are based 
on ratios, but these ratios can be so complex that they are usually not 
taken directly into consideration by most composers and musicians.  It 
would be impossible, as well as counterproductive, to cover all the 
aspects of traditional harmonic theory in this short space, but it is 
possible to present a few general ground rules that will be helpful to the 
beginning Fingerist.  First of all, don't use every possible note in a 
particular section of a piece; instead, restrict yourself to only a few of 
the twelve available notes at any given time.  Many wonderful pieces of 
music have been written using only five notes, so this is not as much of a 
restriction as you might think at first.  As the piece progresses, adding 
one or two new notes to the Pit series will give the music a slightly 
different flavor.  If you do insist on using as many notes as possible, 
try using one set of notes in one group of series, and the remaining notes 
in another, and redirecting all four lines from one series group to the 
other at critical points in the piece.

Not only are the notes themselves important, but the patterns created with 
the notes are as well.  Try to create pitch series that have some sort of 
relationship to one another, whether that relationship be similarity (two 
series identical except for one or two notes, for example), or contrast 
(one series that goes up in pitch, and another that goes down).  Many such 
relationships can be created quite easily using the line displays and the 
placement of the line icons.  For instance, if the line icons for two 
lines are directed to two different locations in the same Pit series, and 
use identical Tim series, the result will be two musical parts that are 
identical, with one playing a few beats later than the other - a musical 
form called fugue, which will be familiar to anyone who has sung "Frere 
Jacques" in school.  Reversing the direction of one of the line icons in 
the Pit series will create a new musical part that, to the listener, is 
obviously related to the original part, though the nature of the 
relationship may not be immediately apparent.

To Phase or Not To Phase 

The original idea behind Series (Fingers' progenitor, from our Algorithmic 
Composer package) was to create a tool for creating internally consistent 
patterns, that repeat only after a very long time.  As you probably know 
by now, this is very easy to do with Fingers (in fact, it's hard to 
avoid!) Sometimes, though, it's nice to create a line that repeats 
consistently, perhaps to provide a foundation for more adventurous lines, 
or as a starting point for creating more complex parts.  The trick here is 
to simply use the same number of elements in each of the four series for 
that particular line.  Of course, if some lines are set to constant 
values, the line will repeat consistently, as it will if some series 
lengths are multiples of others.  For example, if the length of the Pit 
series containing the line icon for line 4 is eight elements long, and the 
other three series are one, two, or four elements long (in any 
combination), the line will loop after eight notes.

This technique is especially useful with the Copy From KCS function.  If 
your source sequence is sixteen notes long or less, it will play in 
Fingers exactly as it would in Open mode in the KCS.  This allows you to 
add Fingers parts to previously sequenced material, without using an 
external sequencer.

Using Randomization

Depending on your approach to music, Fingers' randomization features may 
initially seem to be either the neatest thing since sliced bread, or about 
as useful as a screen door on a space station.  In particular, if you're 
doing tonal music, the idea of throwing in random notes in a piece 
probably holds no appeal.  Not to worry, there are plenty of other 
applications for randomization.

For example, try randomizing one or two elements in a Vel or S/L series by 
placing Auto-randomize elements in the series.  If you use a Gaussian 
distribution (Type = 0), and a small Amount, along with an intermediate 
probability (say 33% to 50%), this will add a natural "shifting" quality 
to the accents in a part.

When randomizing rhythms, try using a fairly large Minimum Time value 
along with small, infrequent Gaussian changes (say, Minimum Time = 22, 
Amount = 3 for a Tim series consisting mostly of 24's) to create a 
slightly shifting rhythm that never drifts too far from the original.  At 
the opposite end of the scale, try creating a Tim series containing only 
12's and 24's, and add Auto-randomize elements with a Type of 2, an Amount 
of 6, and a Minimum Time of 12.  If Shift is on (as it should be, when 
randomizing Tim elements), the rhythm will gyrate around its original 
self, while staying locked in to a sixteenth note grid.

Percussion Parts

Fingers is especially useful with percussion sounds, either sampled or 
synthesized.  Due to the complex rhythm patterns created as the different 
lines loop, it is possible to create polyrhythmic textures previously only 
obtainable through the efforts of four or more sweaty percussionists.  As 
with any Fingers application, though, it's easy to get carried away at 
first when programming percussion parts, so it's a good idea to set some 
limits on your creativity at first.

MIDI drum machines generally use a separate note for each drum, with all 
drums occupying a single MIDI channel.  This means that a single line 
could play every drum in the drum set, if you like, but this leads to drum 
parts that sound chaotic and thoroughly unnatural.  A better approach is 
to treat each line as if it were a single, extremely limber arm on a 
drummer, and use a score and line icon placement that lets each line play 
only one or two complementary drums.  For example, if you want to create 
an unusual but still "sensible" bass drum/snare/hi hat part, you might 
assign line 1 to play only the bass drum by using the appropriate constant 
pitch value in the line display, assign line 2 to a pitch series which 
contains only snare hits and some other snare-like sound, such as 
handclaps, and line 3 to another series consisting of only open and closed 
hi hat sounds.  Or, if you're simulating a crazed Latin percussion 
section, you might use one line to play two different cowbells, another to 
play two or three timbales, a third for one or two conga sounds, and the 
fourth line to play woodblocks, rimshots, and other click sounds.

One very interesting application of Fingers to pop percussion programming 
is to program a regular bass/snare beat into your drum machine or 
sequencer, and then use Fingers to overdub the remaining parts, as 
described in the next section.  If the bass/snare part is a nice, plain 
4/4 dance drum beat of two or four measures, it will provide a solid and 
familiar foundation that will keep the beat firmly rooted in the Top 40 
dance tradition (none dare call it "disco"), while the unusual rhythms 
created by Fingers pull the music in a new direction.  Once the Fingers 
parts have been recorded in the drum machine or sequencer, they will loop 
in time with the "normal" drum parts, which helps bring the beat back 
toward the realm of traditional music.

Using Fingers with an External Sequencer

Fingers performances can be saved directly to disk for use with our 
Keyboard Controlled Sequencer or MIDI Recording Studio programs, or any 
other sequencer program that supports the MIDI sequence file standard, but 
many musicians may want to use Fingers with an external hardware based 
sequencer, such as the Roland MC500 or the Ensoniq ESQ1's internal 
sequencer.  In this case, the two instruments must be synchronized using 
the MIDI clock output from Fingers, since the program doesn't allow for an 
external sync source.  Select External MIDI clock, or its equivalent, on 
the external sequencer, and turn on the MIDI Clock Out switch on Fingers' 
Options screen.  After connecting the computer's MIDI output to the 
sequencer's MIDI input, the Start, Con, Stop, and Ck controls on Fingers' 
main screen will control the external sequencer in the same way that they 
affect Fingers itself.  Fingers performances may also be recorded on the 
external sequencer, as long as the sequencer is capable of recording while 
synchronized to MIDI clock, which may be a problem on some older 
machines.  When recording in this manner, simply treat Fingers as a 
keyboard player with a built in MIDI clock source.

Depending on the characteristics of your external sequencer, there are a 
number of different approaches that you could take when recording Fingers' 
output.  If your sequencer only records on one channel at a time, you 
could create very complex pieces by overdubbing.  Restrict yourself to one 
or two lines, playing fairly sparse parts on a single channel, since four 
or more tracks of all four lines makes for an awfully dense piece of 
music.  This method gives you more control over the details of your piece, 
since you can devote more attention to each individual part as it plays, 
and is also good practice for using Fingers in a performance ensemble.

Try using your sequencer's editing or recording features to capture a few 
small sections (say, two to four bars) of a pulsating Fingers tapestry, 
and then use the sequencer's transposition, editing, and chaining 
functions to turn these fragments into the basis for a song.  When doing 
this, it's often a good idea to record five or ten times as many different 
sections as you think you'll use in a song, each with subtle or severe 
variations, and then toss out all but a few during the course of the 
composition.

Improvising with Fingers

The possibilities for improvisation with Fingers are enormous, and, at 
this stage of the instrument's development, still largely unexplored.  As 
with other musical instruments, we have found that there are certain 
actions that can be taken when improvising with Fingers that usually sound 
good, others that usually sound bad, and still others that only work at 
the right moment.  We do have a few suggestions on improvisation, though, 
and encourage you to take time to explore and develop ideas of your own.

The key to hassle-free improvisation on Fingers is the preparation of the 
score.  While it is possible to create an entire piece in real time, it's 
usually easier and less risky to fill your series with elements prior to 
performance.  Leave room to record new Pit and Vel elements, if this is 
something you like to do when improvising, and place End of Series 
elements at the ends of any series that you don't plan to extend, so you 
can use the remainder of that column for new material.  Group together 
series that you plan to link with Column Link elements, and if you have a 
series which fills or almost fills a single column, it may be easier to 
insert elements in the series if it is broken into two linked columns, 
each containing room for expansion.

The line displays provide many different ways to make interesting changes 
to a piece.  Doubling the speed of a line, either by right clicking on the 
left side of a Tm icon or with the ] key, is a very good way to heighten 
the rhythmic tension of the music, as long as you observe the precautions 
mentioned earlier in this chapter.  If you have a line icon that is moving 
within a Pit series containing a rising or falling arpeggio, try using 
that line's pitch direction arrow to periodically reverse the direction of 
the line icon, or position the mouse cursor over the arrow and press the 
left mouse button every few notes, to "trap" that line icon in a small 
section of the series.

The numeric keypad transpose feature was designed especially for use when 
improvising with other musicians, who may require that you play in the 
appropriate key, or that you not play at all.  Remember that the numeric 
keypad must be turned on separately for each line on the Options screen; 
usually, you should turn this on for all pitched instrumental lines, and 
off for any percussion lines.  When working with the stick-in-the-mud 
musicians mentioned above, it will help if you restrict the contents of 
your pitch series to only a few appropriate chord tones in the key of C, 
and then transpose the lines as needed from the numeric keypad.

Almost all of the series control elements can be useful when improvising 
with Fingers, with the exception of the Loop elements, which are a little 
tricky to insert in a series on the fly.  Try inserting multiple End of 
Series elements in the middle of a long Pit series that contains line 
icons from more than one line.  As the series is broken into smaller 
chunks, each line icon will become trapped in a small group of notes, and 
as the End of Series elements are removed, each line will return to the 
original range of pitches.  Adding or removing a single Column Link or End 
of Series element is a good way to temporarily "append" a rhythm or pitch 
figure to another series.

Using Fingers with the Casio CZ-101

The Casio CZ-101 and 1000 are very popular with both professional and 
amateur musicians, thanks to their unusual sound generating system and 
four channel multi-timbral capability.  The latter feature makes them 
especially useful with Fingers, since each of the four lines can be 
assigned to a different sound.

The CZ-101 is placed in multi-timbral mode (also known as Mono mode) by 
pressing the SOLO button.  The MIDI channels for the CZ's four voices 
default to channels 1 to 4, so adjust the channel settings for lines 1 
through 4 to match.  The CZ's preset, cartridge, and internal programs can 
all be selected from Fingers as described in Chapters 4 and 6, though the 
program numbering system used by Casio is perhaps the strangest we've 
seen.  Each sound in the instrument is assigned to two MIDI program 
numbers, as shown in the following table:
	Fingers Program #	CZ Program

	 0 - 15	  Presets 1 - 16
	16 - 31	  Presets 1 - 16
	32 - 47	 Internal 1 - 16
	48 - 63	 Internal 1 - 16
	64 - 79	Cartridge 1 - 16
	80 - 95	Cartridge 1 - 16

These synthesizers do not respond to velocity data, so you will probably 
want to delete the Vel columns from your scores using the Config/Clear 
function, to make room for other series types.  The CZs can be very 
sensitive to variations in note length, depending on the sound being used, 
so experiment with the S/L series.  Be careful not to set any S/L series 
elements higher than 15 when using a CZ-101 or 1000 in Mono mode, since 
this can lead to nasty note chopping effects.

You can also use these instruments in Poly mode, where up to eight voices 
play on a single channel.  This can be useful for creating dense sonic 
textures, especially when used in combination with other instruments.  The 
CZs power up in Poly mode, or Poly mode can be selected manually by 
pressing the SOLO button again while in Mono mode.  See the sections below 
for more on this approach.

The CZ-230S is a consumer version of the CZ101, and has a similar MIDI 
implementation, as well as a built-in drum machine that can be 
synchronized to Fingers by turning on the Send MIDI Clock switch on the 
Options screen.

Using Fingers with the Yamaha DX100

These synthesizers are scaled down versions of Yamaha's enormously popular 
DX7 FM synthesizer.  Both are velocity sensitive, and can play up to eight 
notes of a single sound.  The primary difference between these 
instruments, as with the CZ-101 and 1000, is the size of the keyboards; 
the DX100 has mini-keys, while the DX27 has a full sized keyboard.

The DX synths can respond to MIDI data in either Omni On mode, where the 
synthesizer plays all four lines, no matter what their channel settings, 
or Omni Off mode, where the synth only plays lines that are set to the 
channel shown on the DX's MIDI screen.  Omni On is most useful when you 
only have one synthesizer, though striking effects can be achieved by 
using one synth in Omni On mode in combination with one or more 
instruments set to Omni Off.  Omni Off mode is most useful when using 
multiple synthesizers, since this allows you to assign each line to a 
different instrument by adjusting their individual MIDI channels.

The DX100 and DX27 each hold 216 sounds, but due to the strange program 
bank arrangement used by Yamaha on these instruments, not all of them can 
be accessed at once.  It is well beyond the scope of this manual to 
explain the details of this system, but you should be aware that while it 
is possible to select some sounds on these machines from Fingers' line 
displays, the results may sometimes be hard to predict.  Program numbers 
on Yamaha instruments are numbered one less than the equivalent program 
numbers on most other instruments.  For example, a setting of 0 in the 
program portion of a Fingers line display will select program 1 on a 
Yamaha machine.  Even though these DX synthesizers are velocity sensitive, 
many of the preset sounds are not programmed to respond to velocity, so 
you may want to either edit such sounds, or perhaps reduce the number of 
Vel columns in your scores.

The Example Files

The disk which contains Fingers contains a number of sample Fingers pieces 
that we have created.  Each piece has a .DOC file associated with it, 
under the same file name, which describes the piece and gives suggestions 
for voicing and improvising.  While many of these files were created with 
specific instruments in mind, you should be able to get equivalent sounds 
out of most instruments.

Appendix 1

Glossary

The following is a short glossary of some of the terms used in Fingers.  
Some of these are traditional music theory terms, others are new terms 
brought about by the advent of MIDI, and still others are normal English 
words that we have twisted for our own purposes.

Algorithmic composition: The use of specific rules or procedures in 
creating a musical composition.  In current usage, algorithmic composition 
usually refers the use of a computer program that makes musical decisions 
which might have been made by the composer in an earlier age.

Articulation: The phrasing of a musical part.  In Fingers, articulation is 
variable from staccato to legato, and is controlled by the S/L series.

Duration: In the KCS, the number of clock steps between a note's beginning 
(note on) and end (note off).

Key: The key of a piece of music is a rather nebulous quality that 
describes what notes will sound "correct" in that piece.  When used 
rigorously, the key of a piece usually specifies the "pitch collection" 
used in that piece (for example, the key of C major, or the key of D flat 
minor), but in this manual, we have used the term "key" simply to mean the 
overall tonality, if any, of a piece of music.

Legato: Italian for "long".  In traditional musical practice, a legato 
note is one that is held, or sustained, until just before the beginning of 
the next note.

Line icons: In Fingers, the line icons are single digits between 1 and 4, 
that indicate the current position of each line in the score.

Line: In Fingers, one of four "players", and is analogous to a single 
musician playing a monophonic instrument.

Meter: The overall pattern of rhythmically strong and weak beats in a 
piece of music.

MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface - the reason we're here today.

Mono Mode: A MIDI reception mode, in which each voice in an instrument 
responds to data on it's own individual MIDI channel.  Also called MIDI 
Mode 4.

Monophonic: Literally, "one voice".  In electronic music, this term 
denotes an instrument, or a portion of an instrument, which can only play 
a single note at a time.

Multi-timbral: "Many sounds".  A multi-timbral instrument is one that can 
create a number of different instrumental sounds simultaneously, each of 
which may be independently controlled over it's own MIDI channel.

Octave: An octave is the musical distance (interval) between two adjacent 
notes of the same name, for example, C4 and C5.  On a keyboard, there are 
12 keys between the two notes of an octave, which is why a pitch 
transposition value of 12 corresponds to an octave.  An octave corresponds 
to a frequency ratio of 2:1.

Omni Mode: A MIDI reception mode, in which the instrument responds to MIDI 
data on all 16 channels.  Also called MIDI Mode 1.

Poly Mode: A MIDI reception mode, in which all voices of an instrument 
respond to data on a single MIDI channel.  Also called MIDI Mode 3.

Polyphonic: "Many voices".  The opposite of monophonic.  A polyphonic 
instrument is capable of playing more than one note at a time.

Polyrhythm: A rhythm created by simultaneously playing two parts in 
different meters.  For instance, if one instrumental part repeats after 
every seven beats, and another simultaneous part repeats after six beats, 
the resultant rhythm would be called a polyrhythm.

Program: In MIDIspeak, a program is the collection of parameter values 
(control settings) that determine the sound that a synthesizer will 
make.  Also called a "patch", "timbre", "voice", or other name, depending 
on the manufacturer of the instrument.

Score: In Fingers, the series and series control elements.  In traditional 
music jargon, a score is a physical manuscript of a piece of music, like 
those produced by Dr. T's Copyist.

Semitone: The musical distance between two adjacent notes on a 
keyboard.  This interval is sometimes referred to as a half-step, or a 
minor second.  There are 12 semitones in an octave.

Sequence: In current MIDI parlance, a sequence is a list of musical 
events.  In Fingers, the term refers either to a track or sequence in the 
KCS.

Series: In Fingers, a list of pitch, time, velocity, or articulation 
values.

Shadows: In Fingers, a shadow is an alternate value for a series element, 
so named because it is normally hidden behind the series element itself.

Staccato: Italian for "short".  A traditional musical term which indicates 
a short note.

Tempo: The "speed" of a piece of music, usually expressed in beats per 
minute (BPM).

Velocity: In MIDI jargon, the digital representation of how hard a key was 
struck.  Most MIDI instruments use velocity information to control volume, 
brightness, and/or related parameters.

Appendix 2

Service and Support

This program and the associated documentation are copyright (C) 1988 by 
Emile Tobenfeld.  This program is licensed to be used on a single machine, 
by the original purchaser of the program only.  It may not be copied 
without explicit written permission.

The diskette on which the program is furnished is warranted for ninety 
(90) days from the date of delivery.  The program is not guaranteed to 
meet your requirements, and operation of the program is not guaranteed to 
be uninterrupted or error free.  In no event will Emile Tobenfeld or Dr. 
T's Music Software be liable for any damages, including any lost savings, 
lost profits, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of 
the use or inability to use this program, even if we have been advised of 
the possibility of damages.  Dr. T's Music Software and Emile Tobenfeld 
shall not be responsible for any damages claimed by any other party, 
resulting from the use or attempted use of this program.  All warranties 
implied are with Dr. T's, not your local dealer.  If problems arise, call 
Dr. T's directly.

Copy Protection and Backups

The disk which  contains FINGERS.PRG, is copy protected, and must be 
inserted in drive A: when running the program from either the hard or 
floppy disk.  We regret the necessity for copy protection, but experience 
has shown this to be the only way to deal with unauthorized distribution 
of our programs.  Software piracy is a crime and deprives your fellow 
artists of their rightful income.  Because of this problem, we are much 
more fun to deal with if we have your completed warranty card in our hands 
when you call for technical support.

Backup disks may be obtained from Dr. T's for $15, when you send in your 
warranty registration card.  You must include either your completed 
warranty card or your diskette serial number and a copy of the sales 
receipt with your request for a backup.  There is a $15 charge for the 
replacement of program disks that become defective more than 90 days after 
the date of purchase.  We will only sell one backup disk to each customer, 
and you will be required to return either your backup or original disk 
when ordering updates or replacement disks.

When returning disks for replacement or updates, please send the disk by 
UPS, Federal Express, Express Mail, or some other service that will allow 
you to trace the shipment.  We're sorry, but we cannot be held responsible 
for packages sent via regular US mail.

Dr. T's reserves the right to make improvements to the program without 
notice, and to make what we consider to be reasonable charges for updates.

What To Do If Problems Arise

If you have problems with Fingers that you are unable to solve with the 
help of the manual, Dr. T's maintains a customer service line staffed by 
experienced MIDI musicians.  We are happy to help you with questions 
regarding Fingers and any of our other programs, but due to the incredible 
variety of MIDI products available today, we cannot answer questions 
regarding other manufacturer's hardware or software, including questions 
on the basic operation of GEM, the Atari ST, or any other computers.

When calling Dr. T's for customer service, there are a number of things 
that you can do to help us help you, which can also save you money on your 
long distance bill.  Here is a check list of things to have ready when 
calling Dr. T's: 

1 - Your diskette registration number
2 - Your manual
3 - Computer turned on and Fingers booted
4 - Any data related to the problem
5 - Information on your computer's disk configuration, monitor type, 
printer type, etc.
6 - Paper and pencil

When you call us, we will walk you through the program and ask you 
questions about what happens, so it is very important that you have this 
material at hand when calling.  If you don't have this ready, we will ask 
you to call back later with the required information.  After you've 
completed the checklist, call us at (617) 244-1524 between 10 AM and 4 PM 
Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday.

