Slide - an attempted explanation

G H Richardson

On page 125 of the Music 5000 User Guide a short item on the subject of the Slide command appears. It has never struck me as adequate and even the example given is, I understand, not correct. The correct example is:

12=L ON Slide % turn on Slide

% (sets offset to 0)

48, 12 8 -L % down by 3 semitones

% over 8 beats

0:c/// ////

OFF Slide % turn off Slide

In order to explain the Slide function I will use an example which I have used in a piece of music.

"s1" [1: 1,

ON Slide

-24 =L 24 24 +L

F 23 FOR(/)FOR

24, ////^

OFF Slide

]

Using 's1' as our guinea pig I will take each character or group and attempt an explanation of its purpose.

[1: 1,

The first '1' is the octave setting. The second '1' still mystifies me, but the number placed there affects the rate of climb/fall of the slide. '1' is the fastest, '2' is slower, '3' slower still, and so on.

ON Slide

This turns on Slide and sets the offset to 0.

-24 =L

The 24 has to do with tick count (I think). The minus (or plus) before it is connected with the slide function (up or down). In this case the slide is going up and the 24 must be preceded by minus. The 'L' in the last character of the following group must have the opposite sign (plus) to achieve the upward slide. In other words '-24 =L' followed by '24 24 +L' is up; '+24 =L' and '24 24 -L' is down.

24 24 +L

The first '24' determines over how many semitones the slide travels. In this case it is 6 semitones (from C to F) which with a tick count of 24 seems to make it 4 ticks per semitone. In any case the tick count of 24 mentioned in the previous paragraph ('-24=L') must be the same as the tick count in the first '24' here.

The second '24' determines the duration of the slide - in this case 24 ticks. If the number were, say, 12 the rate of climb would be quicker and the duration shorter.

The '+L' (together with '-24=L') makes the slide go up.

F 23 FOR(/)FOR

'F' is the pitch of the finishing note - hence the necessity to use another slide if you want to finish on a different note.

'23 FOR(/)FOR' is the number of 'holds' over which the sliding note is sustained. It is also connected with the middle '24' in the previous group in the sense that the '23' holds plus the 'F' make 24.

24, ////^

These characters appear to control the note length (and accordingly the speed) of the notes which follow the slide note within the same bar.

Notwithstanding all this, I confess that the calculation of the number of holds required to get the bar value right defeats me and I usually have to put in what I think is a suitable number of holds and then fudge it up or down until it fits. The rest also appears to be necessary even when you do get the right number of holds.

OFF Slide

This merely turns slide off.

It will be obvious that I am not a technical man, but this is a practical attempt to explain slide by detailing methods which, through blood, sweat and tears, I have found will work - given a bit of fudging here and there. How they work I don't always know, but that they do work I do know. The best of luck with your experiments.