genoQs Machines Octopus User manual

Introduction
Welcome, and sincere congratulations to the purchase of your
new sequencer – a genuine genoQs Machines Octopus!
You now own one of the definitely finest MIDI instruments ever
built. We proudly put in your hands a device built to drive your
creativity and provide you joy for years to come.
Octopus is conceived as a living instrument with long-lasting
value, to help you search and un-cover new sonic territory,
rewarding you with an unequalled haptics experience.
We invite you to explore the capabilities of Octopus as you like
and provide this manual as a start-up guide. Herein, you will
recognize many known terms and concepts. However, others
may be used slightly differently from what you would expect
and some may be entirely puzzling.
This is why we recommend that once you are over the first
wave of pushing buttons, flashing lights and turning knobs
you read this guide end-to-end carefully – and we are aware
that no-one likes to read the manual..
Taking a step back, we do appreciate the complexity that
Octopus is able to provide. Don’t get intimidated! You will soon
discover fast ways of operation that best suit your style and
preference, the comfort zone where you are most productive.
But remember that only few clicks away await things that you
had never thought of doing or achieving. This is what Octopus
is about – at every stage and no matter what - you are
encouraged to experiment, explore and push the boundaries!
Please check our web site for the latest software and
documentation at www.genoqs.net
genoQs Machines - April 2007, Stuttgart, Germany

TABLE OF CONTENTS
IOVERVIEW........................................................................................................................................I-0
GENERAL CONCEPTS .......................................................................................................................... I-1
II START-UP ........................................................................................................................................ II-0
CONNECT AND POWER-ON ..............................................................................................................II-1
GENERAL CONTROLS.........................................................................................................................II-3
INTERFACE CONVENTIONS..............................................................................................................II-4
BASIC STEP OPERATION ...................................................................................................................II-5
BASIC TRACK OPERATIONS.............................................................................................................II-7
TRACK CHAINING ............................................................................................................................ II-10
STEP REAL-TIME ENTRY ................................................................................................................ II-12
THE MODE BLOCK............................................................................................................................ II-13
III STEP MODE....................................................................................................................................III-0
BASIC OPERATION ............................................................................................................................ III-1
STEP ATTRIBUTES ............................................................................................................................. III-2
STEP MUTATORS ............................................................................................................................... III-4
STEP SELECTIONS ............................................................................................................................. III-2
IV TRACK MODE ...............................................................................................................................IV-0
BASIC OPERATION ............................................................................................................................ IV-1
TRACK ATTRIBUTES......................................................................................................................... IV-2
TRACK MUTATORS ........................................................................................................................... IV-5
TRACK SELECTIONS ......................................................................................................................... IV-8
TRACK CHAINING ............................................................................................................................. IV-8
TRACK PROGRAM CHANGES.......................................................................................................IV-10
TRACK TEMPO MULTIPLIERS......................................................................................................IV-11
TRACK AUXILIARIES......................................................................................................................IV-13
VPAGE MODE.................................................................................................................................... V-0
BASIC OPERATION ............................................................................................................................. V-1
THE MIXER BLOCK ............................................................................................................................ V-2
PREVIEW STATE.................................................................................................................................. V-5
EDITOR ATR STATE............................................................................................................................ V-6
EDITOR MCC STATE........................................................................................................................... V-7
PAGE FUNCTIONS ............................................................................................................................... V-8
BANK VIEW .......................................................................................................................................... V-9
PLAY MODE ........................................................................................................................................ V-10
VI GRID MODE ...................................................................................................................................VI-0
BASIC OPERATION ............................................................................................................................ VI-1
PAGE OPERATIONS ........................................................................................................................... VI-2
PAGE CLUSTERS ................................................................................................................................ VI-3
VII PERFORMANCE TOOLS ..................................................................................................... VII-0
WORKING WITH PAGES ..................................................................................................................VII-1
GRID CC MAPS ...................................................................................................................................VII-3
GRID MODE PAGE MUTES..............................................................................................................VII-4
PAGE SETS...........................................................................................................................................VII-5
GRID-TRACK MODE .........................................................................................................................VII-6
VIII MUSICAL TOOLS .................................................................................................................VIII-1

STEP CHORDS .................................................................................................................................. VIII-2
PAGE SCALES ................................................................................................................................... VIII-7
THE GRID SCALE............................................................................................................................. VIII-9
IX ADVANCED TOPICS ....................................................................................................................IX-0
CUSTOM TRACK DIRECTIONS ....................................................................................................... IX-1
VIRTUAL MIDI CHANNELS ............................................................................................................. IX-6
TRACK ATTRIBUTE MAPS .............................................................................................................. IX-7
STEP EVENTS ....................................................................................................................................IX-11
THE EFFECTOR .................................................................................................................................IX-13
NOTE ATTRIBUTE COMPUTATION ............................................................................................IX-17
XMIDI IN ............................................................................................................................................. X-0
NOTE STREAM RECORDING ............................................................................................................ X-1
CONTROLLER STREAM RECORDING ........................................................................................... X-2
STEP-NOTE RECORDING................................................................................................................... X-3
ADVANCED RECORDING ................................................................................................................. X-4
CONTROLLER MAP LEARNING ...................................................................................................... X-6
EXTERNAL FORCE TO SCALE ......................................................................................................... X-7
EXTERNAL SCALE BUILDING......................................................................................................... X-8
EXTERNAL PROGRAM CHANGE .................................................................................................... X-9
XI GENERAL TOOLS ........................................................................................................................XI-0
UTILITY FUNCTIONS ........................................................................................................................ XI-1
MIDI CLOCK......................................................................................................................................... XI-2
SYSTEM LOAD HANDLING ............................................................................................................. XI-4
INSTRUMENT STATE INTERNAL SAVE....................................................................................... XI-6
EXPORT MEMORY CONTENT TO MIDI........................................................................................ XI-7
OPERATING SYSTEM UPDATE....................................................................................................... XI-9
XII RELEASE NOTES................................................................................................................... XII-0
RELEASE 1.00......................................................................................................................................XII-1
RELEASE 0.98......................................................................................................................................XII-5
KNOWN ISSUES .................................................................................................................................XII-7
LEGEND ...............................................................................................................................................XII-8
XIII TUTORIALS............................................................................................................................XIII-0
MIDI CC CONTROL ......................................................................................................................... XIII-1
LFO-TYPE MODULATIONS / SUPERSTEP ................................................................................. XIII-3
DIRECTION EDITING...................................................................................................................... XIII-6

I-0
I OVERVIEW

I-1
Octopus hierarchy of objects and related attributes
GRID
PAGE 1
Track 0 Step 1
Step 16
PAGE GRID
144 PAGES
1440 TRACKS
23040 STEPS
Track 9 Step 1
Step 16
CC Map 0
CC Map 5
PAGE 144
Track 0 Step 1
Step 16
Track 9 Step 1
Step 16
CC Map 0
CC Map 5
CC Map 0
CC Map 5
VEL
PIT
Velocity
Pitch
VEL
PIT
LEN
STA
POS
DIR
AMT
GRV
MCC
MCH
Velocity
Pitch
Length
Start
Position
Direction
Amount
Groove
MIDI CC
MIDI Channel
VEL
PIT
LEN
STA
AMT
MCC
Velocity
Pitch
Length
Start
Amount
MIDI CC
GENERAL CONCEPTS
This section provides an
introduction to the concepts at
the base of Octopus.
We advise the impatient reader
skipping this to come back to
this section once confusion sets
in and nothing makes sense
anymore.
THE OCTOPUS WORLD
In brief, the Octopus world
consists of entities or objects,
attributes that are associated
with them, and functions that
modify those objects or their
attributes.
The ultimate idea is to allow
modifications of the objects in
the most flexible manner and in
real time, which is done using a
subjectively intuitive control
model and the comprehensive
Octopus user interface.
OCTOPUS OBJECT MODEL
The master Octopus object is the
GRID, which contains PAGES,
each of them containing
TRACKS, which are made up of
STEPS.
Each object is associated with
attributes and functions that
can be operated upon. The
diagram depicts at a high level
the Octopus hierarchy of objects
and their related attributes.

I-2
NAVIGATION BASICS
The Grid contains all Page
objects and any Page is made up
of Tracks and Steps.
As we will also see later, moving
around this hierarchy tree is
trivial: to jump between leaves
you can always go up a level and
down again. However, in most
cases direct paths are also
provided, allowing you to jump
directly from one leaf to another.
MOVING AROUND
Just as an example, assuming
you are in the GRID mode, you
would hold the PAGE button and
select the page you would like to
jump into, by pressing its button.
Or you would double-click on
the corresponding page button.
You would do the same to get
further down into a specific
track and from there into a
specific step. You may also
choose to go from a page into a
step directly, as we will see later.
Navigating back up the tree is
only one click away, and will
take you directly to the selected
level. Or simply use the ESC key
to always get to the PAGE level
of your current page, arriving at
a known starting point.
Similarly, in Track mode, press
TRACK and the selector
corresponding to the track you
would like to jump to. This
works in MAP mode as well. In
Step mode, press and hold STEP
and press a grid button to jump
to the step corresponding to the
pressed button.

I-3
THE GRID
Octopus provides a total of 144
pages grouped in 9 banks of 16
pages each, making up the GRID.
Visually a bank corresponds to
one row of the matrix; hence a
page corresponds to one button
of the matrix. This accounts for
9 rows (row 1-9), with row 0
serving as a grid set selector.
Each bank can be activated for
current play by selecting one of
its (non-empty) pages. This
means that up to 9 pages may
be played concurrently.
Depending on the number of
tracks and the density of the
data, it is possible to overload
the MIDI stream. A more
complete discussion of various
system and MIDI loading is
found in the section on System
Load Handling. See the picture
above for a better understanding
of the Matrix in the Grid mode.
MIDI CONTINUOUS CONTROLLER
(CC) MAPS
The CC Maps are simply
assignments of CC functionality
to the Mixer knobs of Octopus.
You can use CC Maps to freely
assign MIDI Controllers and
their appropriate channels to the
Mixer knobs, independently of
what is going on in the PAGE.
PAGES
One can think of Octopus' pages
as track containers. The number
of tracks in a page is 10, with a
default length of 16 steps each.
See picture.

I-4
Musical structures longer than
16 steps are built by chaining
tracks in a page, such that
chained tracks are played
consecutively.
At a glance, the preset chain
modes available are: 10 tracks of
1 row each (default), 5 tracks of
2 rows each, 2 tracks of 4 rows
each + a track of 2 rows, and 1
track made up of 8 rows + a
track of 2 rows.
However, the user is also free to
build any other track chain
configuration, as desired.
This combined with the ability to
play up to 9 pages concurrently
and each of the 9 pages being
part of a cluster of at most 16
consecutive pages gives you a lot
of room for both composition
and live play.
TRACKS
If pages are Octopus' track
containers, then tracks are the
step containers.
Apart from other attributes, each
track has a locator associated
with it which can be controlled
independently from locators of
other tracks.
STEPS
In Octopus steps are the
smallest meaningful entities, for
example notes in a musical
context.
In track mode the individual
steps of a selected track can be
modified across their available
range of attributes.
MUTATORS
Entities or attributes of entities
can be operated upon using
mutators or functions, for
example clear, randomize,
modify, copy, paste, and others.
While the modify function is
mapped directly to the knobs as
described in the operation mode
section, the others are invoked
by pressing the appropriate
mutator buttons.
ATTRIBUTES
All of the above entities of
Octopus have attributes
associated with them. The range
includes but is not limited to
Velocity, Pitch, Length, Start,
Position, and others.
Generally, attributes can be
modified in real time, during
play or stop. Their semantics
may differ across entities and
Page
Track
Step
VEL
x
x
x
PIT
x
x
x
LEN
x
X
STA
x
x
POS
x
x
DIR
x
AMT
x
x
GRV
x
x
MCC
x
x
MCH
x

I-5
not all attributes are applicable
to all entities.
The attached table gives an
overview of the entities and their
applicable attributes.
ATTRIBUTE MAPS
The attribute maps are basically
views associated with TRACK
objects which will allow you to
view and edit directly the values
of all steps in a track, for a
specific attribute.
For example, the velocity map of
a track will show you at a glance
all step velocities, allowing you
to change them directly by the
press of a button.