LiveSlice Commands Guide

-- there are 72 Arrangements, arranged in three banks of 24; by default, these are triggered by MIDI notes from C1 upwards
-- each arrangement can consist of 1 to 64 tracks
-- each track be up to 64 beats long and can contain up to 256 slices

-- "event" is the term used for a slice in an arranger track

Arrangement Lengths and Time Signatures

-- you can set the track length by editing the [bars] value or [beats] value or both
to set the number of bars - click the value and select the number wanted (0-16 bars),
or scroll mousewheel over the value away from/towards you
to increase the number of bars to 2, 4, 8 - right-click the value
-- after 8 this goes back to 1

to set the number of beats - click the value and select the number wanted (0-31 beats),
or scroll mousewheel over the value away from/towards you
to increase the number of beat by 1 - right-click the value
-- after 7 this goes back to 1

-- -you can also set the Time Signature, in the form [4 / 4], that is the number of notes and length of notes
to set the number of notes in a bar - click the first value and select the number wanted (1-16),
or scroll mousewheel over the value away from/towards you
to change the number of bars to 2, 4, 8 - right-click the value
-- after 8 this goes back to 2
to set the length of each note - click the second value and select the number wanted (2-32 in multiples of 20),
or scroll mousewheel over the value away from/towards you
to increase the number of bars to 2, 4, 8 - right-click the value
-- after 8 this goes back to 1

	this shows a loop loaded into the Slicer, you will see it has [24] slices, -- some slices have been colour-coded so that they can be located more easily in the following Arrangement screenshots
	this is the loop in an Arrangement track, at [4/4], all [24] events are played back, the same as the original loop
	at [3/4] only the first [18] events are played back,
	at [5/4] all [24] events are played back, followed by the first [6] again,
	at [4/8] only the first [12] events are played back,
	and finally, at [4/16], only the first [6] events are played back

Managing Tracks

to add a track - click [Add track]
to delete a track - click [x] in the track's top right corner
to scroll up/down the tracks - drag the scroll bar to the right of the tracks up/down,
or scroll the mouse wheel over the Arranger panel towards/away from you
to select a track - click anywhere on the track
- -the track header of the selected track will be highlighted
-- it is recommended that you click on the empty area to the right of the track header buttons
-- if you click an Event, it will be selected,
-- if you click an Event when a Parameter is selected, the parameter value will be set
to select the next/previous page of Arranger tracks - press Page Down/Page Up on your keyboard

to set the length of the tracks to 4, 8 or16 beats - right-click the [beats] value
to increase/decrease the number of beats - scroll the mousewheel over the [beats] value away from/towards you,
or drag the [beats] value up/down
-- tracks can be up to 32 beats long and contain 256 events

to undo the last editing action - click [undo], or press [Ctrl]+x
-- Undo is multi-level

Controlling Tracks

to mute/unmute the track - click [m]
to solo/unsolo the track - click [s]
-- when a track is soloed, all Unsoloed tracks in the arrangement are muted
to lock/unlock a track - click the Padlock button
-- locking a track prevents accidental editing

to alter the start position of the track - click the [<] or [>] buttons
-- the events are moved to the left or right by the number of steps between the last event and the first one

Editing Events

to undo the last editing action - click [undo], or press [Ctrl]+x
-- Undo is multi-level

Snapping and Quantizing Events

to set the Snap resolution - click the [snap] value and select the desired setting from the drop-down list
-- the Snap grid is shown as dotted lines in the tracks
to enable/disable snapping - click the [snap] button
-- when enabled inserted or moved events are positioned at the nearest snap position on the grid
to snap all events to the grid - click [Quantize]

Select Events

-- an Event is the LiveSlice term for a Slice at a position in an Arrangement track

to select an event - click it
to select the next or previous event - press [Right] or [Left] on your keyboard
to select several events - press [Ctrl]+click them
to select all events - press [Ctrl]+a
to unselect one event of several - press [Ctrl]+click it
to unselect all selected events - click one of them
to select a series of events - click the first, press [Shift]+click the last, or
click the first, press [Shift]+[Right] to the last

Insert, Move, Copy and Delete Events

Empty (placeholder) Events

to create 8,16 or 32 empty events - right-click the [events] value
to increase/decrease the number of events - scroll the mousewheel away from/towards you,
or drag the [events] value up/down
-- empty events are useful as placeholders, especially as you can drop slices onto them
-- for example:

set [beats] to 4 and [events] to 11,
replace the empty events by hits of your choice
result - a 11 beat sequence in 4 "beats" (that is 1 bar)

Insert Events

to insert all the slices in the Slicer into the track - click [Lock to loop]
- -while [Lock to loop] is On, then changes made to the number and position of slices will be reflected automatically in the track
-- when it is Off, changes made to the position of slices will be reflected in the track, but if you add or remove a slice, then the slices used in the track will change accordingly,
-- this happens because the events reference the slice as a slice number (that is, the n'th slice from the start of the loop)
-- this can lead to some interesting changes of rhythm, give it a go.

to select a slice in the Slicer - click it
to select a slice and keep it selected - press [Shift]+click it
-- in this way you can add multiple events using the same slice
-- selecting a parameter releases any current slice selection
to unselect a selected slice - click it again

to insert any slice as an event - drag the slice from the Slicer to the Arranger track

to insert the selected slice as an event - click at the desired empty position in the track
-- if Snap is On, then the event will be positioned at the preceding Snap point
to insert the selected slice as an event ignoring Snap - press [Ctrl]+click at the desired position in the track
-- when you insert an Event it takes the parameters values of the preceding event

to replace an event by the selected slice - click the event to be replaced in the track
-- Snap is ignored when replacing an event
-- when you replace an event, the new event takes the parameter values of the replaced event
to insert the selected slice as an event overlapping an existing event - press [Ctrl]+click at the desired position in the track
-- to prevent the existing event being replaced

to find the slice that is mapped to an event - click [locate slice], click the event
-- the Loop containing the slice will be selected in the Loops browser and the slice will be highlighted in the Slicer

Move Events

to move an event - hover over it (you will see a hand pointer), drag it to the desired position
-- you can move an event only if no event parameter (e.g. volume) is selected, although you can insert or clear events
-- if Snap is On, then the event will be positioned at the nearest Snap point
-- if you move the event to be exactly over an existing event then the existing event will be deleted
to move an event ignoring Snap - hover over it (you will see a hand pointer), press [Ctrl]+drag it to the desired position

Copy Events

-- you can copy and paste events into other positions within a track or into another track
to copy selected events to another track press [Ctrl]+c, select the destination track, press [Ctrl]+v
-- the events are pasted at the same positions in the destination track
-- existing events on the destination track are overwritten
to copy selected events into other positions press [Ctrl]+c, select the destination track, left-click+press [Ctrl]+v
-- hold down the left-click
-- the events are pasted in the same relative positions

to "duplicate" a track - press [Ctrl]+a then [Ctrl]+c to select and copy all the source events, select the destination track, press [Ctrl]+v

Delete Events

to delete an event - hover over the event, you will see an [x] button in the top left-hand corner, click it,
or middle-click the event
or press [Ctrl]+right-click it
-- middle-click or press [Ctrl]+right-click delete the event only if no parameter is selected
or click it to select it, then press [Ctrl]+x
to delete all selected events - press [Ctrl]+x
to delete all events - click [Clear]

Randomising Events

to set the random mode - drag the [mode] setting,
or scroll the mouse wheel over the [mode] setting

to swap events around - set mode to "swap" and click the Dice button On
-- swapping events keeps the existing start positions, keeping the rhythm but changing the sound
to change the order of the events - set [mode] to "reseq" and click the Dice button On
-- resequencing events keeps the event lengths, keeping the sound but changing the rhythm
to reset the events - click the Dice button Off

to keep the randomisation - right-click the Dice button
-- this will turn off the Dice button but keep the rearranged events

Stretching and Pitching Events

to stretch all events such that their durations match the project tempo - click [Autostretch]
-- for example, with a loop tempo of 120 and a host song tempo of 108, the events would be autostretched by 11% (= 120 / 108 -1)

to repitch all events - right-click [Autostretch]
-- the repitching depends on the host and event tempos
-- here are a couple of graphs showing how the pitch (in semitones) would change for a change in tempo,
-- the first graph is for a base tempo of 120 bpm,
-- and the second expresses the tempo in percentage terms

Editing Event Parameters

-- 11 parameters are associated with each event, they can all be changed
-- if an event parameter is selected, you cannot move or delete events although you can insert and clear events

-- the 11 event parameters are:

Volume (default -2dB, range +2dB to -100dB)
Attack, Hold and Decay (an AHDSR envelope with Sustain and Release set to 0)
Pan position
Probability - of being played or gated
Reverse - yes or no
Pitch - +/- 48 semitones
Stretch - the length, up to 8 times
MIDI 1 and MIDI 2

Selecting Parameters

to select a parameter for editing - click its icon
to select a parameter from the PC keyboard - press one of the numeric keys [1] ... [0]
-- the [Stretch] parameter cannot be selected using a numeric key
-- the current values for the parameter for the events are shown as horizontal bars,
-- and, for selected events, the value is shown at the top or bottom of the events
-- selecting a parameter releases any current slice selection
to select a parameter for editing and enable [lock] - right-click the parameter icon
to select a parameter from the PC keyboard and enable [lock] - press [Alt] and one of the numeric keys [1] ... [0]
-- the [Stretch] parameter cannot be selected using a numeric key
-- when Lock is On, changing the parameter value for any event changes the values for the other events by the same amount

Setting Parameters

to set the parameter value for an event - drag the value bar up/down or click at the desired level. or
press [Up] or [Down] on your keyboard
-- as you drag the value bar, the value is shown at the top or bottom of the event
-- and you can select the next or previous event by pressing [Right] or [Left] on your keyboard
to set the parameter value for a series of events - drag the mouse through them
to reset the parameter value for an event - middle-click the event
-- middle-click deletes the event if no parameter is selected

to undo the last editing action - click [undo], or press [Ctrl]+x
-- Undo is multi-level

Common Controls for all Parameters

-- all the event parameters have four standard controls:

Lock - when set On, changing the parameter value for an event changes the values for the other events by the same amount
Reset - resets the parameter values for all events to their default settings
Rnd - set the parameter values to a random setting, within the random range
Rnd range - controls the range of the random values

to lock the values for a single parameter to each other - click [Lock]
to reset the values for all events for a single parameter - click [Reset]
to reset the values for all parameters on the track - right-click [Reset]

to set random values for the parameter - click [Rnd]
to set the lower end of the random range - click the [Rnd range] bar at the desired position,
or drag the [Rnd range] bar
to set the upper end of the random range - right-click the [Rnd range] bar at the desired position,
or right-drag the [Rnd range] bar
-- clicking in the random range area will set whichever end of the current range is closer to the mouse pointer
to move the random range upwards/downwards - scroll the mousewheel away from/towards you

Specialist Controls for Parameters

- some parameters have additional controls

For the Attack parameter

-- the default maximum range is 100ms
-- the possible ranges are 1ms to 999ms
to set an absolute attack range - drag the mode to "absolute", or click "relative"
to set the maximum value - drag the value upwards/downwards,
or scroll the mousewheel over them
to set a maximum value of 10, 25, 50, 100 300 or 500 ms - right-click the value
to set a relative attack value - drag the mode to "relative", or click "absolute"

For the Hold parameter

-- the default absolute hold range is 100ms
to set an absolute hold range - drag the mode to "absolute", or click "relative"
then drag the time (in milliseconds) upwards/downwards,
or scroll the mousewheel over them
to set a maximum value of 10, 25, 50, 100 or 300 ms - drag the mode to "absolute", right-click the time value
to set a relative hold value - drag the mode to "relative", or click "absolute"

For the Decay parameter

- the default maximum range is 500ms
-- the possible ranges are 1ms to 500ms
to set an absolute decay range - drag the mode to "absolute", or click "relative"
to set the maximum value - drag the value upwards/downwards,
or scroll the mousewheel over them
to set a maximum value of 10, 25, 50, 100 or 300 ms - right-click the value
to set a relative decay value - drag the mode to "relative", or click "absolute"

For the Pitch parameter

to set the pitch range to 2, 12, 24, 36, 48 semitones - right-click the [range] value
to increase/decrease the pitch range - drag the [range] value up/down,
or scroll the mousewheel over the [range] value away from/towards you
to snap the pitch shift to the nearest semitone - click [Snap]

For the MIDI parameters

to increase/decrease the MIDI channel number - drag the [midi ch] value up/down,
or scroll the mousewheel over the [midi ch] value away from/towards you
-- [--] means that the MIDI is disabled
to increase/decrease the MIDI CC number - drag the [cc] value up/down,
or scroll the mousewheel over the [cc] value away from/towards you

The Vol, A, H and D Parameters

-- together these 4 parameters form the volume envelope,
-- the envelope is derived from a traditional AHDSR envelope, with Sustain and Release both set to 0
-- Attack, Hold and Decay can be shown as absolute values, in ms, or as relative values, as a % of the event duration
-- switching between relative and absolute mode on the envelope recalculates the AHD parameters to preserve the duration of events
-- Automatic adjustments

when Attack or Decay is increased, if the event's duration would be exceeded then Hold is reduced automatically
when Hold is increased, , if the event's duration would be exceeded then Decay is reduced automatically, followed by Attack
if you hold down both mouse buttons when changing Attack, Hold or Decay, then the other properties will not be reduced automatically, instead the change will stop when the sum of [A], [H] and [D] reaches the event's original duration.

-- here's a sine wave of 1000ms, showing the effect of the Attack, Hold and Decay parameters

with Hold set to 50%, dropping the volume to 0 after 50% of the slice,
with Attack set to 300ms, and Decay at 50%,
with Hold at 50% and Decay set to 1000ms, the actual decay period is recalculated to 500ms so that the sound does not exceed the original slice's duration (1000ms),
with Attack at 300ms, Hold at 50% and Decay set to 1000ms, the actual decay period is recalculated to 200ms.

-- and this shows the effect of changing the parameters on a real slice:

the original slice,
with Vol set to -12 dB,
with Attack set to 100ms (that is, 80% of a 1/16th), fading in the slice,
with Hold set to 50% relative, dropping the volume to 0 after 505 of the slice,
with Attack and Hold, note that the Hold period starts after the Attack period, so more of the slice is played,
with Attack and Hold as above, plus a Decay period of 80ms, fading out the slice over a further 80 ms.

Preview

to audition an event - right-click it
-- the parameter values are applied to the slice, enabling you to preview the effect of the event's parameter settings

Exporting MIDI and Slices

-- this section is new for v1.5.0

-- the tracks in the Arranger can be exported; as MIDI patterns, audio tracks and events, or both.
to export a MIDI pattern of the events - click [Export], select "MIDI", browser to the desired destination folder, enter a name and click [OK]
to export the audio tracks and events - click [Export], select "Audio", browser to the desired destination folder, enter a name and click [OK]
to export a MIDI pattern of the events and the tracks and events themselves - click [Export], select "Both", browser to the desired destination folder, enter a name and click [OK]
-- the arrangement name is the default for the start of the file names

Export File Naming conventions

-- the arrangement name is the default for the start of the file names

exported MIDI files will all have the name you entered, followed by T[TrackNumber].mid,
exported track files will all have the name you entered, followed by T[TrackNumber].wav - and on Mac it will be an AIFF file instead,
exported event files will all have the name you entered, followed by T[TrackNumber]-[EventNumber].wav - and on Mac it will be an AIFF file instead.