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16.1 Accent
Volume and Dynamics
Volume ff
Decresc Off 5
G / Gm / * 5
will cause the last 5 bars of your music to fade from a ff to silence.
The initial velocity of a note is set in the pattern definition (see chapter 4). The following commands set
the master volume, track volume and random volume adjustments.
In addition to the note velocities generated by MmA your MIDI device can also change the mix between
channels. See the discussion for MIDIVOLUME (page 127).
16.1
Accent
“Real musicians”3 , in an almost automatic manner, emphasize notes on certain beats. In popular Western
music written in 44 time this is usually beats one and three. This emphasis sets the pulse or beat in a piece.
In MmA you can set the velocities in a pattern so that this emphasis is automatically adjusted. For example,
when setting a walking bass line pattern you could use a pattern definition like:
Define Walk W1234 1 4 100; 2 4 70; 3 4 80; 4 4 70
However, it is much easier to use a definition which has all the velocities the same:
Define Walk W1234 1 1 90 * 4
and use the ACCENT command to increase or decrease the volume of notes on certain beats:
Walk Accent 1 20 2 -10 4 -10
The above command will increase the volume for walking bass notes on beat 1 by 20%, and decrease the
volumes of notes on beats 2 and 4 by 10%.
You can use this command in all tracks.
When specifying the accents, you must have matching pairs of data. The first item in the pair is the beat
(which can be fractional), the second is the volume adjustment. This is a percentage of the current note
volume that is added (or subtracted) to the volume. Adjustment factors must be integers in the range -100
to 100.
The ACCENTs can apply to all bars in a track; as well, you can set different accents for different bars. Just
use a “{}” pair to delimit each bar. For example:
Bass Accent {1 20} / / {1 30 3 30}
The above line will set an accent on beat 1 of bars 1, 2 and 3; in bar 4 beats 1 and 3 will be accented.
You can use a “/” to repeat a setting. The “/” can be enclosed in a “{}” delimiter if you want.
3 as
opposed to mechanical.
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