The Conductor
**The Conductor**
The Conductor was designed and built by the OpenOctave team. It performs a very important function as part of the overall workflow, and that is the management and automation of bank and program changes. For experienced Midi writers and users, the handling of extremely large and complex sample libraries is always an important consideration in workflow. For an orchestral writer, who might insert several hundred, or thousands, of program changes in a project, often with repetitive sequences, i.e. Up and Down bows for strings, the workflow process is often extremely time consuming. The Conductor is built to take as much of the "donkey work" out of program change data input as possible.
This page contains the following sections:
- So how does it work?
- Shortcuts
In the Performer Orchestra Pit, select The Conductor Tab. The top panel is the banks and program changes listed in the Instrument Set loaded for this track.
Select a program change in the top panel, and add it to the bottom panel, by double clicking on it.
Add any additional program changes you want to use. (You can add additional program changes at any time.)
The Conductor engine is a sequencer, so in keeping with the idea of a sequence of events, check the boxes of the program changes you want in the sequence. They will alternate in the order you add them, so ensure you sort the order as you want it to be. From the bottom panel, the sequencer itself, select the first program change you want to add to the timeline, and once you've set the playback cursor where you want the first program change to be inserted, press Backslash to add it. A green flag will appear in the top of the ruler at the playback cursor location, and the patch sequencer will automatically change the highlight to the next program change in the sequence.
If at anytime you wish to add a single program change, which is not in the sequence, highlight it, add it to the ruler, and then highlight the program change in the sequence you wish to restart the sequence with.
In the gif, we've added 3 program changes, which are 2 legato , up and down bow, and a third, non-sequenced program change, Expressive. Follow the sequence as the 3 program changes are loaded into the sequencer, the program changes to be sequenced are checked, and the process commences. We've clipped some of the sequence to keep the gif short, but you can see the sequencer change in turn to insert correct program changes in the ruler.
At the middle of the sequence, we've halted the automated process, and added the third program change, Expressive, manually, then moved the playback cursor to the position at which we plan to start the sequence again. We select the program change we want to restart with, and the process of sequence begins again.
You can change the sequence at anytime by unchecking the program changes and rechecking either existing, or new program changes in the order you want them to follow.
User tip. For those of you who use round-robin type program changes, where there are multiple options for articulations like staccato, intended to be used by beat, with a selection for each, then The Conductor is indeed your friend. Create the sequence you want, to any number of program changes, and let the sequencer take the hard work out of adding them to your project.
At the top right of the window, you can see a text display which shows the program change name as it's added, and if you move the playback cursor back and forth over the flag, you'll see the change take place, as a confirmation you've added the right program change, and where you are in the sequence.
Remember:
The sequencer always works from the highlighted program change in a set that are checked.
Editing program change position
If you put a program change in the timeline a little off the position you want, simply position the cursor over it, and click, then drag it left or right.
The shortcuts for this feature are:
I inserts a program change from the patch list into the sequencer, when the focus is in the patch list.
Backslash inserts a program change in the timeline at the PB cursor, when a program change is selected in the sequencer, and can be added whether the sequencer or the main canvas has the focus.
CTRL + Backslash removes an existing program change at the PB cursor position. Although there's a "lazy Select" value in the PB positioning, you'll still need to be reasonably precise.
CTRL + ENTER rotates the focus between the main PR canvas, the patch list, and the sequencer. When the patchlist, or the sequencer have the focus, the boundary of the panel turns yellow, as a clear indication of where you are.
The Conductor is a powerful tool for the user, that with practice, will considerably reduce midi editing time, and let the user get on with more individual editing tasks.
We hope you enjoy using it.