Tunesmith     The Interactive Algorithmic Phrase generator
The Technoids dream

Tunesmith is one of the most facinating Algorithmic Programs to appear for the
Atari, and in my opinion , unequaled on any platform. With todays rave on Techno
and pattern based Instruments (such as the Roland Mc505,Yamaha RM1X)) Tunesmith would
feel right at home. It is capable of complex yet pleasing phrases of
exotic beauty with complete control in the hands of the user. Algo-comp at
it's best.

Just a little background on Tunesmith. It came out at the time when algorithmic
programs were the "big thing"..late 80's. Actually Dr T kicked it off with the
"Algorithmic Composer" package for the Commadore 64. A Certain Jan Hammer found
out about it and had to purchase a Commadore 64 system to put next to his
$30,000 Fairlite just to run Algorithmic Composer! He used it on his Miami Vice
scores. Then Jim Johnson, the Author, decided to upgrade his ideas and the
result was Tunesmith for the Atari. Also Dr T (Emily Tobenfeld) put out
"Fingers", another algo-comp program.Both could be used as modules for the MPE
system on Dr T's KCS sequencer. Also "M" (Intellegent music) and Ludwig(Hybrid
Arts)came out at the same time along with Music Mouse (Laurie Spiegel)

Quoting from the manual:"Tunesmith is a program for generating Musical themes
and variations. Themes my be played using Hundreds of different scales, and an
accompaniment generator allows the creation of an infinite number of
accompiments based on these themes.Themes can be linked to form a complete
song."

Basically (in musical terms) It takes a scale (such as a C-major scale) and
creates a "theme" from the scale using parameters you specify. Variations of
the main theme can be created as well.The theme then can be transformed into a
5 part Accompaniment, with controls for patch change, octave,articulation,
velocity, with "algorithms" for harmony "types" and more. The settings can be
saved as presets for later recall when you "play" the themes into a module called
the Arranger which makes it into a "song". Much like taking "patterns" in a
sequencer and linking them together to form a song. What makes it interactive
is that you can click on any of the parameters while it is in "record " mode
and it saves it in the arrangement. Much like "M" which captures your
"performance" as a "movie"and saves it as a midi file. In Tunesmiths case, you
can save it as a Tunesmith file, or save it as a KCS sequence file, OR..it
operates within the MPE and records right into KCS!

Using The TUNESMITH DEMO

This demo version will only run for about 20 minutes and the save option is not
available (of course!) But you will be able to get a flavour of Tunesmith. If
you have a second sequencer/computer you can try recording Tunesmith's output
that way. Tip: on the Menu, do not open the Options selection. It crashes the
program. A bug in the demo. The "real" version is very different and offers so
much more. I have been trying to convince Jim Johnson to rerelease it.Jim has
his own web site with some very interesting software for PC. Check it out at
http//: www.technotoys.com

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Tunesmith Tutorial
A Session with Tunesmith.

1. Double click on the TUNEDEMO.PRG. the program opens. Once you get to the
main screen, press the space bar, or click on "PLAY". You will hear an
Acending scale.
2.Press any of the QWERTY keys or the numbered keys above QWERTY to hear a
scale that is assigned to that particular key stroke. Notice the Number keys
contain more "normal" scales such as Major, oriental, ect. The other key
contain scales based from other sources.
3.Press some of the function keys. these effect "model" changes in Tunesmith.
4.Press some of the 10-Key numeric keys. These change the Keys and Octaves of
the scales.Press " ( " key to get back to "C".
5.Go to the Themes Generator Window and RIGHT Click on TA. You will hear an
Algorithmic variation of the scale that you previously been hearing.
6.Go to the Theme and Varaition Parameter Window. Set Microbeat to "6", Pulse
to "2", Rest probability to "0", Rythm Algorithm to "1", and Variant to "1".
7. RIGHT Click on TA again. You will hear a more constant phrase being
generated.
8.Go to the Accompaniment window to the Status line and click on the second Mute
Button to Un-mute it. You will hear an identical line coming out in unisyn.
9. Go to Harmony on the same window , click on the first line and change it to
"4". You should hear some harmonies being generated from the  original phrase.
10. go to Program in the same window and change the values of channels 1 and 2
untill you find an interesting combination.
11. Click in the letter "B" on the Accomplanament Preset Window. This saves the
accompaniment you have just created to a preset for later recall.
12.On the Themes and Variation window, click on VA1. You should now hear a
variation of TA. Click into TB. This will create another Phrase or Theme.
13. EXPERIMENT: Change parameters in the theme and variation parameters
window.Then click into TC to TE areas in the Theme and Variations window to
hear what Themes (Phrases)your new settings create. Unmute more voices and
experiment with program changes, types of harmony, octave, velocity, accent,
and articulation. Save your settings as a preset in the Accompaniment preset
window..Try changing the channel number to 10 (drums) and the harmony types to
get different drum patterns going. Click into anything to see what happens
14. Hit backpace to stop playing, or use the mouse at the botton of the screen.

Have Fun with Tunesmith!

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Applications

Most of the time I record Tunesmith's out-put directly to Cubase on my Atari
TT030. Tumesmith sends midi clock, so I am able to syncronise it to Cubase
using the External sync option on Cubase. Once I get a pleasing Tunesmith piece
into Cubase, I add other "lead" instruments, perhaps more percussion, whatever
seems to fit the piece. So I mainly use it as a Techno background for melodic
exploration. I did try a piece where all I did was minipulate only the
Tunesmith Parts. The copy and paste commands as well as track copying to other
midi channels came in usefull to accent certain "phrases" of the piece.

Within Tunesmith is the ability to create custom Scles that you can assign to
any QWERTY keystroke.Also you can save indevidual scales to disc so you can
have a library of scales to choose from. I have created some of my own scales,
however instead of creating acending or decending scales, I input a pattern of
notes. A melody or phrase of my own design. Then THAT is used to create themes
in Tunesmith. Fancinating results are obtained.

Sometimes I use KCS (Dr T's keyboard controlled sequencer) along with the MPE
(Multi Program Environment so that Tunesmith loads up right along side of KCS.
So anything I generate in Tunesmith goes to a Sequence track in Open mode of
KCS.Once I do a few short pieces in Tunesmith, I go to the Open mode playback
screen and I am able to play my Tunesmith pieces by selecting QWERTY keys,
starting and stopping any Tunesmith piece at will. I can even play them ALL at
once for a very wierd effect!

There is so much more to this program that I am only at the foot of the
mountain of all the possabilities.

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Tim Conrardy  10/23/99



