Playing

This page covers what a player does at the console: drawing stops, couplers and tremulants, the organ’s own pistons, the player’s own combinations and sequencer, the crescendo and the swell boxes, the transposer, temperament and pitch, the metronome, the recorder, and what Masterpiece remembers between sessions. Each section says how the feature is reached. The window itself is described on A tour of the window.

Drawing stops, couplers and tremulants

A stop, coupler or tremulant is drawn from any of these:

• its drawstop on the console, or its rectangle in a panel or tile in the stop list (see A tour of the window);
• a MIDI message mapped to it, or a computer key assigned to it in its MIDI window (see MIDI and consoles);
• a piston, a general, a divisional, the crescendo or the sequencer.

Drawing goes through the organ’s own wiring: the click moves the knob a player would move, and the stops, couplers and noises that the wiring joins to the knob follow it.

A key that is down answers to the registration as it changes. Drawing a stop while a key is held makes that rank speak, and pushing it in silences it. A coupler drawn or pushed in while keys are held reaches, or stops reaching, the divisions it couples at once. A tremulant switch that swaps a stop’s rank for its alternate recording sounds the held notes again on the other rank.

A tremulant shakes the pipes only when the engine runs its detailed path. The Tremulants box in Settings > Organ settings…, tab Loading, is on by default, and the No DSP box in the top bar bypasses tremulants together with the wind model, enclosure shading and voicing.

A stop that was left out of the load, and a locked stop of a demo set, are described under Stops that make no sound.

Drawing every stop

The program has no button that draws every stop. The command line draws them for a scripted take: --draw-stops all, described on Command line. The opposite is the general cancel, which pushes in every stop, coupler and tremulant of the registration (see Generals and cancels).

Panic

Panic in the top bar releases every key on every channel, as a console’s cancel does. An organ pipe has no decay, so a note left down by a lost MIDI note-off, or by a coupler changed in mid-chord, sounds until something releases it.

The organ’s own pistons

An organ declares the pistons its builder put on the console, and the console draws the ones the set draws. They work as follows.

• A piston fires on the press and lets itself out again, as a button does.
• Which combination a piston fires is declared by the organ, either directly or by a type code (101 for General 01, 100 for General cancel).
• The organ’s setter is the switch with assignment code 12. While it is engaged, a press on any piston stores what is drawn into that piston, and recalls nothing. The setter of the organ and the Set button of the Combinations window follow each other: pressing either lights both.
• A capture reads the state that results from the wiring, which is what is seen and heard. A stop pulled by a coupler or by another piston is stored as drawn.
• A combination the organ marks as fixed does not capture. A cancel disengages and never engages; a combination marked so engages and never disengages.
• Stored combinations belong to the player. They are kept in the combination file described under Combination sets, and never in the sample set. A combination that was never captured recalls what the organ declares for it.
• A drawn Set, GC and cancels that are wired to the organ’s real switches work from the drawn picture.
• The General cancel of GrandOrgue organs is the player’s own general cancel.
• Option General Cancel also puts the keyboards back on their own manuals (Settings > General settings > MIDI, off by default): the cancel then also returns every keyboard moved by a manual button to the manual it started on.

The player’s own combinations

Every organ has generals, divisionals, cancels and a sequencer of the player’s own, whatever its file declares. They are the same on every organ, answer the same setter as the organ’s pistons, and are saved per organ in the player’s data.

What a registration holds

A registration holds the drawn state of stops, couplers and tremulants and nothing else. The blower, noises, action sounds and page switches are not part of it, so a general cancel never stops the blower. A stop whose name contains noise or blower, a stop in a division with noise in its name, a stop that sounds only noise ranks and a stop worked from a switch named blower are left out.

On an organ with a drawn console, the registration holds what has a drawstop on the console. An organ that draws no console offers every stop, coupler and tremulant.

A divisional covers one division: its stops, the couplers that feed it (counted to the division of the keyboard they are played from), and the tremulant that shakes it. A coupler or tremulant whose division the file does not make clear belongs to the generals only. The Combinations window lists the divisions that hold at least one element, the pedal first and then by manual number.

The Combinations window

View > Combinations shows or hides the window. It is a window of its own, resizable in height, with a close button that hides it. The first time an organ opens, the window is closed; after that it opens as the player left it, at the position and size saved with the organ. On the first showing it sits at the bottom right of the main window.

The counts are saved with the combination set. A piston button is dim when it was never set, lighter when it holds a registration, and amber when it is the one whose registration is drawn now. Any hand-drawn change unlights every piston. Recalling a general replaces every lit piston; recalling a divisional lights it and unlights only the general.

Capture

There are two ways to store a registration.

1. Turn Set on, then press the piston. Pressing a piston while Set is on stores what is drawn into it. Set stays on until it is turned off again, or turns off after the store when Set turns off after storing is ticked.
2. Press the piston, draw the stops, then press Set in the top bar. Set in the top bar is momentary. It stores what is drawn into the piston or the step chosen last, which is the last general, divisional or frame pressed or reached, and the status line reads Stored in <name>. With nothing chosen it reads Choose a piston or a step first; then Set stores what is drawn into it. When capture is on from the console or the Combinations window, Set lights, and a press on it lets capture go (Set is off: pistons recall again).

Names of targets read General 3, Pedal divisional 2 (the division’s name) and Step 12.

Recall

Pressing a general sets every element of the registration to its stored state. Pressing a divisional sets the elements of its division. A registration stored with nothing drawn recalls as a cancel. A piston that was never set does nothing and clears nothing; pressing it chooses it as the target for Set.

Generals and cancels

GC pushes in every element of the registration. Each division’s 0 pushes in the elements of that division. A cancel leaves the blower, noises and page switches alone.

The sequencer and its frames

The sequencer holds up to 999 frames, each a registration of the whole console. It is walked with two pistons, previous and next, and is meant for the pistons of a piece: one press, no looking.

• The frame readout in the top bar reads Frame 3 / 12 and the one in the Combinations window Frame 3 of 12. The second number is the last frame that holds anything, or the current frame if that is higher. With no frame stored the readouts read No frames; the window shows - of 12 with stored frames and frame 0.
• Stepping forward stops after the last frame that holds anything, and stepping back stops at frame 1. It never wraps. Stepping from frame 0 goes to frame 1.
• With Set on, stepping captures what is drawn into the frame it lands on, and may run past the last frame to frame 999. Hold Set, walk forwards and set each frame as you go: that is how a sequence for a piece is built.
• |< goes to frame 1, >| to the last frame that holds anything, -10 and +10 move by ten frames and stop at the ends. The digit buttons go to a frame without leaving the keys; outside capture they stop at the last frame that holds anything.
• A click on the readout, in either place, asks for a frame number of up to 3 digits (Go to a frame). A number past the last frame goes to the last frame, unless Set is on.
• Insert opens an empty frame at the current frame (frame 1 when none is current) and the frames after it move up one. It does nothing when frame 999 holds a registration. Delete takes the current frame out and the frames after it move down one.
• A frame recalled by the sequencer behaves exactly as the same registration pressed by hand.
• The sequencer buttons in the top bar, < and >, step the same sequencer; < is disabled at frame 1 and > is disabled at the last frame unless Set is on.

Combination sets

A combination set is a whole registration book: a recital’s, a service’s. An organ has the default set and any number of named sets.

A set holds the organ’s own pistons that were captured, the player’s generals, divisionals and frames, and the counts of generals and divisionals. A set that defines fewer pistons than the last one leaves none of the last one behind.

The sets are files in the data folder, combinations/<organ>.mpcomb for the default set and combinations/<organ>.<name>.mpcomb for a named set. The name becomes part of the file name; the characters / \ : * ? " < > | and control characters become _, and trailing dots and spaces are dropped. The file holds the organ’s own pistons first, then the player’s lines, each starting with player. Elements are stored as s<stop> and w<switch>, so a file survives an organ update that adds or reorders stops; an element the organ no longer has is dropped when the file is read. To copy a set to another computer, copy the file.

A capture is written within a quarter of a second, and at once when the program closes. Switching a set writes the set being left.

Mapping the pistons to a console

A right-click on Set, GC, a general, a divisional, a 0, or any sequencer button opens a menu: the current mappings, Learn (for Set, Learn: held while pressed and Learn: toggles), MIDI window… and Clear mapping. Press the control on the console after Learn; a second right-click cancels. Settings > General settings > MIDI has the buttons Learn sequencer + and Learn sequencer -. The mappings of the sequencer, generals, setter and the page and tuning buttons are kept for every organ in midi/console.mpmidi. See MIDI and consoles.

Crescendo and swell boxes

Swell boxes

A swell box is an enclosure. Its shoe is a continuous control with values from 0 to 127. The shoe is worked in these ways:

• the organ’s drawn shoe, dragged on the console;
• a fader of View > Swell faders, one for each shoe;
• a fader in the Expression section of a panel;
• a pedal or fader mapped to it (right-click the shoe, see MIDI and consoles).

Every shoe starts open, at 127, when an organ loads, and is forgotten at the next load. The effect of the box on the sound is the Enclosures (swell shades) box in Settings > Organ settings…, tab Loading; it is on by default, and the No DSP box bypasses it.

When a pedal does not send the whole of 0 to 127, put the pedal in the closed position, right-click the shoe and choose Closed position: where the pedal is now; do the same for Open position: where the pedal is now. Use the pedal’s whole travel restores 0 to 127.

Crescendo

A crescendo is one continuous control with a row for each step. Each row names the switch that fires that step’s registration. The same mechanism starts the blower and fires enclosure noises, so a shoe that drives switches may do more than one thing.

• Moving the control fires every threshold it sweeps past, in the order it passes them. A drag from nothing to full fires each step in turn and the top one lands last; a drag back fires them in reverse, so the registration that stays is the one that belongs to where the control stopped.
• The steps are alternatives. A new step disengages the previous one, so the shoe can fire it again.
• A step is a threshold crossing, which lets an organ give a switch hysteresis: a blower can start at 120 on the way up and stop at 126 on the way down.
• The crescendo is the organ’s drawn control, or the Crescendo fader in a panel’s Expression section, which is present when the organ has a staged control with at least 3 steps; the control with the most steps is taken. It is mapped to a pedal like a shoe.
• The control that a player moves can differ from the control that carries the steps; Masterpiece follows the organ’s linkages up to the control that nothing feeds and moves that one.

The player’s generals and the sequencer do not hold the crescendo.

Transposer, temperament and pitch

The tuning button in the top bar shows what is in force, for example Equal A 440.0 +2: the temperament, the pitch of A in Hz, and the transposition when it is not zero. A click opens the tuning panel next to the button.

Each setting applies to notes played after it changes. A held note keeps the pitch it started with. The three settings are saved with the organ.

Temperament

The Temperament selector lists The organ’s own (followed by the name of that temperament, or Equal when the organ declares none), the eight temperaments below, and a loaded Scala file as Scala: <name>. The offsets are cents against equal temperament, for the pitch classes C to B; the offset applies to the sounding pitch class, which is the key played plus the transposition.

Scala file… opens a file dialog for a .scl file. The scale must have twelve notes after the description and note count, and its last note must be 1200 cents (the octave) to within 0.5 cent. Notes are given in cents (with a decimal point) or as ratios (3/2, or a whole number). On a note line, text after the first word is a comment. The scale’s first note is applied to C# and the scale is measured from C. The description line becomes the name. A file that cannot be used leaves the previous temperament in force, and the panel reports <file> was not loaded with one of: the file is empty; no note count; a keyboard temperament has 12 notes; the scale lists fewer than 12 notes; cannot read the note; the scale does not repeat at the octave; the Scala file is missing. The dialog opens in the folder last used for Scala files.

A temperament piston on a console steps through The organ’s own and the eight temperaments in this order and wraps round. A loaded Scala file is not a step of the cycle. Learn the pistons with Learn temperament - and Learn temperament + in Settings > General settings > MIDI.

Pitch (A)

A pitch within 0.05 Hz of the organ’s own is stored as “the organ’s own”, so a later organ with another pitch does not inherit a number. The line under the buttons reads The organ’s own pitch, or the distance in cents (-31.8 cents from the organ's own).

Transpose

Transpose has - and + buttons, a readout and 0. The range is -12 to +12 semitones; the buttons are disabled at the ends. Transposing moves the keys: +2 plays the pipes two keys up, and the samples keep their pitch. Learn console pistons with Learn transpose - and Learn transpose +.

The temperament, pitch and transposition are saved per organ and apply again when the organ is next opened.

Metronome

The metronome is a click generated inside the audio callback, so it keeps time with what is heard. It is in Settings > General settings, tab Metronome.

The click is a short decaying sine, 1000 Hz on an ordinary beat and 1500 Hz and louder on the accented beat. The tab shows the beat as Beat 2. The click comes after the master fader, so the fader leaves it at its level, and it is absent from an audio recording. The settings apply at once. No settings file holds them, so they start at the defaults in the table each time the program starts.

Recorder

File > Recorder… shows the Recorder window, a small window of its own that opens at the top right of the main window and leaves the console playable while it records. Its close button hides it.

MIDI recording

The status reads Nothing recorded, Recording - 12.3 s, 450 events, Playing - 4.1 / 12.3 s or 450 events, 12.3 s.

The recorder takes everything that reaches the engine: notes from the on-screen keyboard, from the drawn manuals and from consoles, and the stop changes, couplers and shoe movements that arrive as MIDI. A recording plays back as the same performance with its registration changes. A drawstop or piston clicked with the mouse sets a switch directly and sends no MIDI message, so it is absent from the take.

Playback drives the same path as live input. When playback ends, or is stopped or restarted with keys still down, they are released in the next block, and keys that the player holds stay held. Playback stops at the end of the take and does not loop.

A saved file is a single track with a time base of 960 ticks per quarter note. Each event is stamped at 960 ticks per second of the take, and the file holds no tempo event. A reader that assumes the default of 120 bpm counts 960 ticks as half a second, so the saved take reads, in Masterpiece’s own Load MIDI… as well, at half its recorded length.

The take is kept in memory until it is saved or replaced. The folder of the last file dialog is remembered for MIDI files.

Audio recording

The recording is a 24-bit WAV at the audio device’s sample rate with one or two channels, as many as the output has. It is taken after the master fader and before the metronome, so the click stays out of the file. It is written on a background thread. The status reads Recording <file> - 12.3 s or Not recording, and Could not open that file for writing when the file cannot be opened. A recording in progress when the program quits is completed. The folder of the last file is remembered.

For scripted recordings with --play-midi and --record-audio, see Command line.

Remembered between sessions

Masterpiece keeps the player’s data in its data folder, never inside a sample set. The folder and the files in it are described on Files and folders. The files are named from the organ’s own identity, so a set moved to another drive or renamed keeps its settings.

Save state

Save state in the top bar (the disk icon, between the layout selector and the Panic button) saves the organ’s starting state. It records every latching switch that is not at its default, and the stops drawn, and writes them to the organ’s settings file. The next time the organ loads, it comes up with those stops and switches drawn. Each press replaces the state saved before. The press also writes the organ’s other per-organ settings as they stand, so the loading choices in force are saved with it.

A locked stop of a demo set is pushed in again after the state is applied.