Keykittutorial

KeyKit − Musical Fun with Windows, Tasks, and Objects Tutorial for Version 6.5a Tim Thompson AT&T San Jose, California tjt@nosuch.com Introduction KeyKit is a programming language and graphical interface for manipulating and generating music. This tutorial covers the basics of using its multi-window graphic interface, which is completely implemented by a user-accessible library of code written in the KeyKit language. A detailed language reference manual is contained in another docu- ment, but you don’t have to read it right away since the graphic interface is complete enough to use without having to understand the underlying language. User-extensibility is a primary motivation behind the system, however, so if you become an active user, you should at least peruse some of the code in the user-defined library to see if you might be interested in adding features of your own to the system. KeyKit is supported on a variety of computers. You should obtain installation instructions when you receive the KeyKit executables. The most widely accessible version runs under Windows 95 and Windows NT, so some details in this tutorial will be tailored to that version. In general, though, the user interface acts identically on all systems, including the behavior of pop-up menus and window manipulation. An Initial Test Start KeyKit (for example, under Windows, double-click the keykit icon in the Program Manager). A large white window should appear, and after a few seconds you should see a box at the bottom containing a key> prompt. This box is the Console, and contains an interpreter that will read and execute KeyKit statements. Type print(44) and it should print 44 followed by another key> prompt. Type and you should hear that 5-note phrase played on your MIDI output device. Press a few notes on your MIDI input device, and then type print(sizeof(Recorded)). You should see some number other than 0, and if you play more notes and type the same statement, the number should increase. You’ve now verified that MIDI input and output are working. The default behaviour of KeyKit is to echo all MIDI input directly to MIDI output. This is appropriate when you have your keyboard controller plugged directly into the MIDI input of your PC, and your MIDI output directly drives your synths (or your soundcard). If you have your MIDI routing set up so that your controller is already send- ing its output to your synths, then your synths will be getting two copies of each note (which may not be immedi- ately obvious except for a slight chorus effect in the sound). To disable KeyKit’s echoing of MIDI input, you should execute Merge=0 , by typing it in the Console window. You can make this change permanent by modi…