Conductor

Groovyband Live! styles consist of 3 Intros, 3 Endings, 8 Mains, 8 Fills, 2 Breaks. These sections are selected through the Conductor panel, which is always shown.

Conductor panel

Intros
Endings
Mains
Fills
Breaks
Break/Fill controls
Intro/Ending looping
Main sections reordering

The current section (the one that is playing if the sequencer is running) is highlighted. The next section (that will play at the end of the current one) is identified by the flashing led. If a section loops forever (i.e.: a Main) then the led will flash on the current section (the playing section is the successor of itself).

If no further button pushing happens, an Intro will play till the end and then automatically leads to a Main (the target Main has the led flashing). An Ending will play till the end and then the sequencer is automatically stopped (no led flashing anywhere).

A Break will return to the playing Main (or will end a playing Intro or Ending and will lead to a Main). A Fill will lead to the Main section at its right. Sometimes a Fill is automatically inserted before a Break or Ending, where musically appropriate.

A new section will usually takeover at next measure start (you can therefore select it in advance); Breaks and Fills instead play immediately till the current measure end. If you play a Break or Fill very close to the measure end, the Break/Fill will start at the next measure start, playing for a full measure.

With the SYNC F/B (sync fill/break) button you can force the next Break or Fill to always be delayed until next measure start (and play for a full measure). The SYNC F/B button will automatically disengage itself when you play a Break/Fill. It must therefore be selected each time you need it.

You can move from Main to Main without a Fill (just press the new MAIN button), or with a Fill (press the FILL button corresponding to the Main section you want to go to). A BREAK/FILL button will always lead to a Main section with its note pattern played from its beginning. Keep reading to see how you can override this.

Clicking a MAIN button while it is already playing, will trigger an automatic Fill till the measure end, but will not reset the playing loop to its beginning. This is sometimes useful to spice up your execution without interruption of a musical phrase.

This is called an "inline fill" and it is often triggered also through the velocity of the played chord. See here for a detailed explanation of how to set up this mechanic of interaction.

Advanced functionality

Dynamic fills

Fills are not static, but will dynamically adapt to the context of playing. For example, if you are playing a “busy” section and request a fill to a “simple” section, the fill will try to bridge the two different sections with a music complexity that falls in between.

This is the right behaviour most of the time, but you can also override it, manually asking the arranger to use a fill “closer” to the source or destination section, with the AUTO FILL button. Clicking it will cycle through “auto”, “src”, “dest”. The next fill will obey the button status, which will afterwards automatically reset to auto.

You can also ask the arranger to play an half bar fill (if the tempo has an even number of beats). Engage the HALF BAR button and then play a fill as usual. The HALF BAR button will disengage automatically after use, so you must click it every time it is needed.

Beat reset

This function will allow you to ask the arranger to complete the current beat and then immediately restart the measure from start. This function is useful in two scenarios:

Odd signature measure (i.e. 2/4 or 3/4 measure in a 4/4 score).
Quickly restart the measure if you (or some other player/singer) missed the magic moment to start the melody at the right beat.

Please notice that the fact that the current beat (beat, not measure!) is completed regularly at the current tempo, makes the transition naturally smooth and makes it possible to play correctly and effortlessly with surgical precision the first scenario.

This function can be activated with the TAP TEMPO / BEAT RESET button (see Tempo and Fade), or can be bound to some physical control (typically a foot switch) in the Bindings setup page.

To override the usual behaviour and continuously loop also the Intro and Ending Sections: press the LOOP I/E (loop intro/ending) button before or while playing an intro/ending section. While looping within an Intro or Ending, if you press another section’s button, the LOOP I/E function will disengage automatically.

Looping intros and endings is sometimes useful while performing, and is a godsend while editing a part (i.e.: changing a voice, effect, various parameters, …), because you always want it to play indefinitely while experimenting with the edited settings!

Smart intros

Intros are not useful only to start a piece of music, they can also be used during a performance as riffs or long breaks or transitions. For these uses you do NOT want the count-in bars that are sometimes embedded in the first measure of the intro: they are useful at the beginning of the music piece, but totally inappropriate elsewhere.

For this reason Groovyband Live! is smart enough to automatically skip the count-in bars (if present) on Intro2 and Intro3, if these are used mid-performance.

You can therefore jump from section to section being confident that the transition will be always musically smooth without embarrassing artifacts.

Copying and reordering Main sections

As it is shown here, Groovyband Live! allows you deep customisation on a section by section basis. To complement those capabilities it is also possible to copy Main sections (so that you can build upon an already existing section) and move them around (so that the final ordering M1÷8 is logically organised for a given music piece, or according the classic manner from “simplest” to “busiest”, if so desired).

To reorder sections on the fly, even while performing (without music interruption), simply click on the MOVE UP/DOWN buttons. These buttons will move the currently active Main section (the highlighted one), and are therefore disabled if there is no Main section active (you are playing some other section).

Reordering sections will preserve their links with the OTSes. So the whole operation is quick and painless!

To copy the active Main section into another Main section slot, simply right click (long press) the destination slot. If the copy succeeded, you get a feedback with a brief highlight of both the source and destination slots. Beware: the destination slot's data is mercilessly deleted!

Remember: first select the source, then right click the destination. Source → destination. The destination is overwritten.

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Sequencer control