The Rack

In the Getting Started chapter of this manual, you learned the basics of how add modules to a Numerology project by dragging them from the Module Library to something called a Stack. This part of Numerology's UI is called the Rack, and consists of two sections:

• The Browser : This area has two tabbed panels, one for browsing modules to add to a stack, and one for browsing presets.
  
  
• The Stacks : A set of tabbed 'virtual racks' where modules live.

The Rack is one of three major panels in a Numerology project, it is where all your modules are located. The other two panels are the Timeline, which is for making arrangements, and the Mixer, which is for tweaking your audio mix.

Within the Rack, there is a series of Stacks, each of which contains one or more modules.

All about Stacks

A stack is a grouping system in Numerology that makes it easy for you to build and maintain a set of modules that work together for some goal, which is usually generating a musical part. So as you build projects, you will likely make one stack for each part : one for the drums, one for a bass, and so on. A stack may contain just one sequencing module to generate MIDI notes, or it may contain multiple sequencing modules, Audio Unit synthesizers and effects.

Each stack has two permanently-fixed modules, one at the top, and one at the bottom. The module at the top, called "Stack Input" handles all the inputs to a stack: Audio, MIDI, Clock and CV signals. For instance, whenever you add a sequencing module to a stack, Numerology automatically connects it's clock input port to the clock output port on the Stack Mix module, since sequencers can't really do much without a clock signal.

The module at the bottom, called "Stack Mix" handles all the output chores for a stack, as well as audio mixing duties such as mute and solo buttons, volume control and panning.

All stacks also have a track in the Timeline, and a channel in the mixer. The Timeline allows you to build arrangements of the preset patterns you have built in your stacks. The Mixer makes it easy for you to see all the mixing controls and preset lists for all your stacks at once.

Each stack has two UI panels: The 'front side' is for the controls that you use when working with modules. The other side, the 'back side', is for viewing the data stream routings between modules. You can switch between the two views by using the "Modules/Routing" tabs at the top of the stack, just below the tab-view where you pick which stack to work with. There are specific chapters covering Data Streams and Routing later in this manual.

Presets

In addition to providing an 'environment' for modules to live within, Stacks also perform an important compositional function: they manage preset information for all the modules they contain.

Consider the following scenario: You've spent an hour or two in your studio working on a new bassline for your next killer dance track. You are perhaps using a nice little hardware sequencer, connected to your favorite analog synthesizer (or other groovy music-making device), and have run the audio through some audio effects (eq, delay, etc) running on your computer. It sounds totally awesome, so you record a bit of it as audio, and you keep working. A few hours later, you have several new variations on your killer bassline, and you record copies of them also. Each take you recorded has a different note pattern, a slightly different patch on your synthesizer, and probably even different effects added as well.

Then you come back the next day to review your work. It still sounds awesome, but you realize some changes are needed: You want to change the key of your note pattern, and you think the filter settings on the synthesizer could be more consistent, and you're not happy with the effects at all. If you were very careful the previous day, and saved all your work of each of your variations in the 3 or 4 different locations necessary (the sequencer, the synthesizer, and each of the plugins you used), you could probably re-create each of the basslines you had created, but it would be a bit of a hassle: You have to recall the correct preset on each of several different pieces of equipment, which possibly someone else had been playing around with while you were out, and you have to change all those presets each time you want to move from one bassline to another.

Or perhaps you never saved those variations at all, because recalling them is such a hassle: You just saved the audio, edited in down into a few loops, and endlessly replay them in the audio-sample-looping program of your choice. And it's great for a while-- but gosh, wouldn't it be great to be able to go back and tweak those sounds at the source, or even, *gasp*, come up with some cool new variations during a live performance?

Well, that's what Numerology's stack presets are all about: keeping track of all the details of the patterns you create, and letting you can recall them at will, with all patterns and module tweaks intact.

Any time you are working on a stack (i.e. a 'part'), and come up with a cool pattern you can hit the "snap" button, and the stack will make a new preset, saving all the settings for all the modules in your stack. You can even use ProgChange modules to recall presets on external synthesizers in sync with your stack preset changes, making it much easier to keep your whole studio organized.

General workflow:

• Create a new stack for a part you want to make
• Add a sequencer, and possibly an AU synth and some effects.
• Tweak until happy.
• Save that preset (save & duplicate, or snapshot)
• Repeat until satisfied.

Numerology's stack presets go a long way towards allowing you to improvise effortlessly through dozens of variations of a pattern. Internally, each stack keeps track of all the settings for all its modules, for each of your stack presets. All you have to worry about is one list of presets.

Here are the details of working with stack presets:

You can see the presets for each stack in two places: Either on the mixer channel for that stack, or in the presets tab of the browser in the Rack. The preset list in the browser always shows the presets for the currently visible stack.

The first preset for a stack comes for free: it's created for you when create a new stack. You can create new presets either by duplicating an existing one, or making a snapshot of an existing one.

Above both preset lists are handy buttons for three of the most common preset actions:

• Dup : Duplicating a preset makes a new preset with the same settings as the current one, and makes the new preset the current preset.
  
  
• Snap : If you snapshot a preset, a copy of the current preset is made, but the current preset stays as the current one.
  
  
• Delete : This will delete the current preset, you will be asked to confirm your decision before it is carried out.

Each preset in the main preset list (in the Rack), has a little move handle, which you can use to drag the preset to a new location.

If you double-click on a preset, you will get a dialog where you can edit several properties for the preset, including it's name, a short comment, a rating, and a color. The rating and color are very handy for organizing large sets of presets.

Also in the Preset Detail dialog, there are settings you can make to trigger a preset using your Mac's keyboard (all letters are supported: a-z, and A-Z), or via MIDI messages (via Note or Program Change messages).

Preset changes for a stack that you make while the project's transport are running are quantized in time, so that the change will coincide with a natural musical boundary. The default is to quantize changes to a bar, but you can set it to a beat, or to none at all. This setting is made on the mixer channel for each stack, near the bottom, via a menu labeled "Quantize".