This view allows you to define some of the key properties that govern how your Voice work.

Name

Every voice in a Noatikl file has a unique name. You define this in the Name column. You can use any name you want, provided it is not empty, and provided it is not a single question mark (which has a reserved meaning for use with rules, which you will find out about later!).

The name field is available in every view, so we won't go into any more detail with it when we refer to this column later on.

Mute

If you want to mute your voice, click on the cell to set the checkbox to a "tick". To unmute the Voice, click on the checkbox again. Note that certain Voice types might take some time to respond, depending on how far in advance their notes are composed.

When the keyboard focus is on the Mute cell, you have various extra menu options available to you in the "Control" Menu. These are as follows:

• Solo Voice
• Unmute All Voices
• Mute All Voices

If you hold down the ctrl key when you click on the mute cell, you will toggle all other voice's mute states, without changing the mute state of the voice that you ctrl-click on. This can be very handy!

The mute field is available in every voice parameter view, so we won't go into any more detail with it when we refer to this column later on.

Patch

Every voice is assigned a given Patch. This specifies the sound that you will hear whenever a Noatikl file plays a note. The exact sound you hear depends on how the destination synthesizer works. You might specify piano, then a General MIDI wavetable synthesizer will play you a piano. However, if you are playing through some sort of VSTi or other software synthesizer, you will likely hear something completely different!

In general, Noatikl does not emit any MIDI bank select CC information for a voice before it emits the Patch Change MIDI event. However, you can force Noatikl to emit such information, by typing-in a special format patch value; where you type-in the patch in the format: patch.msb.lsb, for example:

98.53.4

In this example, Noatikl will emit bank select CCs for both MSB and LSB according to the settings you supply (53 and 4 respectively, in this case).. If you don't specify a value for the lsb, then Noatikl will only emit a Bank Select MSB CC (CC number 0). If you supply the lsb, then Noatikl will also emit a Bank Select MSB CC (CC number 32).

Use Patch?

Not all software synthesizers for your favourite sequencer like having Patch data supplied to them via a Patch Change MIDI event. If this is the case, simply change the Use Patch? parameter to No, and Noatikl won't generate any MIDI patch change events.

MIDI Channel

A Voice emits data on a MIDI Channel. MIDI channels are numbered from 1 to 16. The default MIDI channel for a voice is actually MIDI channel 0 – which tells Noatikl to assign a free channel from 1 to 16 automatically, as best it can. MIDI channel 10 is always reserved for percussion sounds, such as drum sounds or other untuned sound.

Voice Type

Every Voice composes according to its Voice Type.

Learning how to use the Voice Type is critical to your use of noatikl!

The various Voice Types are as follows:

• Rhythmic: Rhythmic Voices are the default voice type. Notes have their durations composed according to the rhythm rules you define for your voice, to fit as well as possible within the bar structure of your piece.
• Ambient: Ambient Voices have notes composed such that their durations are defined by the properties in the Ambient property set. Rhythm rules are not used for Ambient Voices. An ambient voice plays its notes without any respect for tempo or bar timings! Ambient Voices are wonderful for creating drifting, floating sounds for either background or foreground use as drones or for musical texture.
• Follows: Following Voices are fascinating. They are used to create Voices which work in a call-response manner, following the behaviour of other Voices in a variety of exciting ways according to properties in the Following property set.
• Repeat Bar: Repeat Bar Voices are like Rhythmic Voices, with the added feature that they can be defined to repeat work that they have composed in previous bars, according to rules defined in the Repeat property set. When not repeating previous bars, Repeat Bar Voices work in exactly the same way as Rhythmic Voices.
• Fixed Pattern: Fixed Pattern Voices are Voices that play in accordance with various fixed MIDI patterns that you import into noatikl. These patterns are able to follow generative sequencing rules, and can adapt automatically to changes in Scale rules. They are great for bringing some structure to your Noatikl composition. Fixed Pattern Voices can also be capable of mutating their patterns while playing, according to properties defined in the Patterns property set.
• Listening: Listening Voices are Voices that behave in response to incoming MIDI note events in special ways. Find out more about how to use them to create your own fascinating hyperinstruments here!

When Noatikl plays a voice, you will see the corresponding voice name cell flash, and will also see the a rule element flash if that rule cell was the one that caused the played note to be selected by noatikl. The colour of the flash represents the voice type that is responsible for the flash; you will see that the voice type is colour-coded! This helps you keep track of which rules and voices are working together to create the music you hear.

Pitch

Set the Pitch to be the minimum pitch for which you want your Voice to compose. Noatikl will ensure that it composes no notes less than this pitch value.

Phrase Length

Set this to define the shortest possible sequence of notes that Noatikl will compose in sequence. Noatikl composes a sequence of notes, followed by a sequence of rests. The length of each sequence of notes is governed by this and the Phrase Length Range parameter.

Phrase Length Range

This value defines the upper limit to the number of notes that Noatikl will compose in sequence. For example, if the Phrase Length is 3, and the Phrase Length Range is 25, then the minimum phrase will be 3 notes, and the maximum phrase length will be (3+25) = 28 notes.

Phrase Gaps

Set this to define the shortest possible sequence of rests that Noatikl will compose. Noatikl composes a sequence of notes, followed by a sequence of rests. The length of each sequence of rests is governed by this and the Phrase Gaps Range parameter.

Phrase Gaps Range

This value defines the upper limit to the number of rests that Noatikl will compose in sequence. For example, if the Phrase Gaps is 3, and the Phrase Gaps Range is 25, then the minimum phrase will be 3 rests, and the maximum phrase length will be (3+25) = 30 rests.

Note Rest %

This value defaults to zero. If not zero, then Noatikl will cause the defined percentage of notes that would otherwise be played by Noatikl, to instead be treated as a rest. This is very useful for making any voice sound more sparsely. Give it a go: this parameter is very powerful, and applies to all voice types!