Controlling Massachusetts Geophonic

Controls

• Click and Drag Up or Down to increase or decrease value of number boxes.

  • Note: Dragging in the left side of the box changes the value by larger increments, dragging in the right side changes the value by smaller increments.

• Map

  • Drag the Endpoint of a loop with the mouse to position it on the map

  • Shift-Drag a loop to move both endpoints at once

  • Click and Drag on a loop's middle section to move its playhead

  • Data > Sound Mappings: choose which data layers are mapped to sound. Turning on a mapping or clicking it's name displays the most relevant data view.

• Global controls – affect all Loops/Transects

  • Master Length: The length in seconds of a loop with a speed of 1.0

  • Scale Type: Type of musical scale pitch is quantized to. Default is Quartertone.

  • Tonic: set root note of musical scale (does not transpose)

  • Transpose: transpose all pitches by this many semitones

• Loop/Transect Controls (four individual sets of controls)

  • Play: turn on or off a loop/transect

  • Rst: Reset the playhead to the loop's beginning

  • Loop Speed: speed multiplier for this transect/loop

  • Note Trigger: set whether notes are generated by crossing of contacts or by rhythmic patterns

  • Rhythm A and B: Two rhythmic divisions of the loop that can be turned on or off. Can be used together to create polyrhythms. Only active in rhythmic trigger mode.

  • Pitch:

    • Transpose: offset the pitch of notes by this many semitones

    • Curve: the exponent of the Rock Age > Pitch mapping curve. 1 is linear mapping.

  • Sync: how the loop syncs to the master time.

• The Mixer window allows you to:

  • Adjust the volume of the four loops, reverb, the overall volume

  • Edit reverb settings. The included reverb is TAL-Reverb II from Togu Audio Line.

  • Reset loops/transects to default state

  • Change color scheme

  • Toggle click-to-google of geology terms in interface

  • Use a MIDI interface to control mixer and Master Length

  • Toggle audio processing (must be on or you'll hear nothing). Turn off to save CPU cycles when MA Geophonic is open but not in use.

    

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Q, W, E, R: start/stop loops (transects) 1-4 (Q = 1, W = 2, E = 3, R = 4)

• + / - : double or halve the Master Length

• A, S, D, F: end any notes currently being held by the corresponding loop (A = 1, S = 2, D = 3, F = 4)

• Number Keys: after clicking in a number box, you can type a value for speed, rhythm, etc

• Cmd-F (mac) / Ctrl-F (win): fullscreen

• Cmd-I (mac) / Ctrl-I (win): Show Mixer