A Sequence is built up with "events".
The most known type of event is a Note event. Another event type is Pitch Bend, which changes the pitch while a note is playing.
The Sequence Editor consists of 2 sub-editors: the Note Editor where you can draw and edit the note events, and the Event Graph Editor below the Note Editor, where you can edit note velocities and controller and parameter curves.
There is a horizontal splitter between the two that you can drag up and down, so you can divide the workspace as you whish.
The below picture demonstrates what you can do with the mouse:
Sequence Loop
Each sequence can have its own independent loop. This means you can build up a composition with a sequence looping every 8 beats while another sequence is looping every 12 beats. This also allows for nice poly-rhythmic music.
To set a sequence loop, popup the timebar's context menu and choose "Set Loop Start" and "Set Loop End", or drag the loop locators around.
By default, when drawing a new sequence part, the sequence is looped over the part length, as you drew it.
Once you got a sequence loop, you can also change the length of a sequence loop by dragging the loop/end locators around.
But you can also extend a sequence loop via the loop start/end locator's context menu -> "Change Loop Length". This way, you get a lot of interesting options.
The part start locator defines where the part starts playing the sequence. By default a sequence part starts playing at the loop start, but for example when splitting parts, the part start locator will be set at the split point. You can change the part start locator as you like.
More Info
- To pan/zoom the editor, use the standard editor navigation methods.
- You set the sequence loop locators via the timebar's context menu.
- Click the piano keyboard to play a key.
- A lot of operations can be done on multiple notes at once. Just select the notes you want to include in the operation.
By clicking on the left side of the Event Graph Editor, you can select what you want to edit.
The Event Graph Editor can work in 2 different modes: Bar mode, e.g. to edit velocity bars, and curve mode, e.g. to edit a MIDI controller or parameter curve. MuLab automatically selects the proper mode.
The below picture demonstrates what you can do with the mouse in bar mode:
The below picture demonstrates what you can do with the mouse in curve mode:
| Using multiple MIDI channels | |
MIDI channels come into play when you want to address the different sub-sections in a module, for example a multi-timbral synth.
A multi-timbral synth can generate different sounds at the same time, each controlled by its own MIDI channel. But there are more situations where the use of MIDI channels can be handy.
By default, tracks play on MIDI channel 1. You can change this via the track's context menu -> Choose MIDI Channel.
By default, sub-tracks use the same MIDI channel as their parent track, but you can change this too.
You can also set a track's MIDI channel to "Per Part" so you can define the MIDI channel per part via the part's context menu -> Choose MIDI Channel.
And if you set a part's MIDI channel to "Per Event", well then you can define the MIDI channel on event level.
In this case new drawn notes get the focused MIDI channel which can be changed via right-click on the sequence editor background -> Editor -> Choose Focussed Channel.
You can also use the Sequence->Functions->Change MIDI Channel function.
Note about the sequence editor's context menu
When you popup the sequence editor's context menu, you'll see that there is a "Part" menu group, a "Sequence" menu group and an a "Editor" menu group.
A part is not a sequence, it are two different types of objects, and therefore they each have their own context functions, both accessible via the sequence editor's context menu.
So if you want to change the MIDI channel for a bunch of events, then don't use the Part->Choose MIDI Channel function as that will set the MIDI channel for the whole sequence part!
Instead use Editor->Choose Focussed Channel to define the MIDI channel for new dran notes, or use Sequence->Functions->Change MIDI Channel to change the MIDI channel of existing notes.
| 