The window

This page goes through ComposerFlex's window from top to bottom. Everything in the window together (the ingredients and all the settings) is what makes the next song.

The top row

• Preset shows the name of the preset you're using. Click the name to choose another (see Presets). A * after the name means you've changed something since you chose it.
• Save preset… saves the list and its settings as a preset of your own (see Presets for what it keeps). Delete preset deletes one of the presets you've saved. It asks you first.
• MIDI archive: when this is ticked, every song is also saved as a MIDI file, so you can open it later in other programs. See Songs and seeds.
• Output chooses where the notes go: PianoFlex (OSC), which means PianoFlex Player or PianoFlex, or MIDI port, for another instrument. Once a piano has answered, it names that piano: PianoFlex (OSC) or PianoFlex Player (OSC). A change takes effect the next time you click Start. See Where the sound goes.
• MIDI port shows the port the notes go to when Output is set to MIDI port, or "None". Click it to choose where the notes go: an instrument, a MIDI interface or a virtual MIDI port on your PC.

The Song panel

• Minutes sets how long each song lasts. Choosing a preset doesn't change it, unless the preset keeps one song (see Presets).
• Start phrase chooses where Start begins. A song is made of phrases, such as the intro, a verse or a chorus. At 1, the song plays from the beginning. A higher number starts the song at that phrase, skipping the phrases before it.
• BPM is the tempo, in beats per minute. When Auto BPM is ticked, the tempo comes from the tempo ingredient in the list. Untick it to type a tempo of your own.
• Scale and Key are on Auto unless you choose one. The most popular scales come first in the list.

Setting your own BPM changes the song: the same Minutes holds a different number of bars at the new tempo. A small change keeps much of it; a large one keeps little. Setting your own Key plays the same song in the new key. Setting your own Scale keeps the song's rhythm and shape, with its notes moved into the new scale.

The Seed panel

Every song comes from a seed: a number that ComposerFlex makes the song from. The same seed, with the same settings, always makes the same song in the same version of ComposerFlex. That's how you can play a song again. See Songs and seeds.

A seed has three parts, for example 123456789-000004521-987654321. A part set to auto gets a new number every time you click Start, so you get a new song.

• Use last seed puts the seed of the last song into the box.
• All auto sets all three parts to auto, for a new song every time.
• Auto Composition, Ingredients, Variants has one tick for each part of the seed, to turn auto on or off for that part.

Dynamics

This slider sets the whole song's character, from Dry to Dynamic.

• At 50, the song plays its ingredients as the preset has them.
• Toward Dynamic, ornaments and runs come more often, the song builds and falls more, it gets louder at its peaks, and the left hand comes forward.
• Toward Dry, the shaping ingredients fade, and ornaments, energy and loudness drop out, until little is left but the tunes, the left hand, the chords, the harmony, the pedal and the touch.

Song variation

This slider sets how much each new song changes the balance of the preset's ingredients, from As written to Varied.

• At 0, every song plays the ingredients exactly as the preset has them.
• Toward Varied, each song turns some ingredients up and others down a little, so the songs of one preset differ more from each other. The change is chosen once, when the song starts, and stays the same for the whole song.
• The tune, the bass, the chords and the pedal always play as written.
• The same seed still gives the same song, changes and all.
• The built-in presets have it at 25.

Song variation and Dynamics work differently. Dynamics moves each ingredient by its own fixed rule, the same in every song. Song variation moves each one a different way in each song.

Start, Stop and Song status

• Start plays a song. While any part of the seed is on auto, a new song follows each one that finishes. When the seed is fixed, that one song plays and then stops.
• Stop stops the song. Your settings stay as they are.
• Changing a setting never changes a song that's already playing. Click Start to hear your change.
• Song status shows the key and scale, the phrase, the bar, the tempo and the beats in a bar of the song that's playing.
• Song seed, below it, is the seed of the song that's playing. Click Copy beside it to copy the seed, so you can paste it somewhere and keep it.

The tabs

• Ingredients: the list the song is made from. See Ingredients.
• Phrases, Recent seeds, Song Library and Archive: see Songs and seeds.
• Help: the list of keys, the About box, and a button that opens this guide.

Using the controls

• Everything can be done with the mouse.
• To use the keyboard instead, press Tab to move from one control to the next, and Shift+Tab to move back. Enter or Space clicks a button, ticks a box, or opens a list.
• In a number box, press ↑ or ↓ to change the number, or type a number and press Enter.
• On a slider, drag it, click along it, or turn the mouse wheel over it. Each notch of the wheel moves it by 5. Hold Ctrl, Alt or Shift to move it by 1.
• When you move a slider away from where the preset has it, a magenta mark shows where the preset had it.
• At the bottom of the window, the yellow line tells you what just happened, and the gray line explains the control you're on.