Lucent's Guide to Online Sequencer

Welcome to Lucent Guide v1.2! This site was last updated on September 21, 2022. Site is currently on hiatus indefinitely.

Console Basics

Preface

Some of the site's functions can be fully customized through using the console. This article will provide a rundown on basic console items such as changing the grid size, controlling an instrument's volume, and toggling instrument effects.

At the time of writing this article, some of this content has been rendered obsolete—as it is more convenient to access hidden instruments from the instrument menu now. You can read about displaying unlisted instruments and their effects here.

For further reference, please refer to Guest's full list of console commands—in which this guide was inspired by—here.

How do I access the console?

You can hit F12 and hit Console from the main tabs (for those of you who have fn keys, make sure that’s toggled!)

The quickest shortcut however, is Ctrl+Shift+J, which should directly open the console (Cmd+Option+J for Mac users).

Changing Grid Size

The grid size can be assigned using the command grid=x. The larger the value of x is, the shorter the notes will be and vice versa.

When you change the grid size, please note that grid size is not time signature! Instead, we will use a formula to easily calculate note lengths.

For this tutorial, we will use grid=x/y.

x is the number of notes over a specified range, while y refers to the number of 1/4 squares that the range occupies.

If y is equal to 4, then x/4 states that x notes will fit in 4 squares (see right).

To make triplets, you would use grid=3/4. In the second image, you can see that three notes occupy four 1/4 blocks.

If you wanted to place five notes within one block, you would use grid=5/1 or simply grid=5.

If you’re doing some funky measurements that don’t use x/4 but rather something like x/7, then x notes will fit over the span of seven 1/4 blocks.

For example, if i wrote grid=3/7, you can see how seven 1/4 spaces are occupied by three notes.

Additional Notes for Changing Grid Size

If you want to halve the size of a measurement, multiply the entire equation by 2.

If you wanted to double the size of a measurement, divide the entire equation by 2.

There are other techniques that apply advanced grid math. Feel free to visit this page for more information.

If developer tools are restricted, you can copy from the sequence on the right. Feel free to request for any additional sizes as I check this sequence periodically.

Editing Instrument Properties

You can edit the properties of individual instruments in the console. In order to do this, you need to plug in their instrument values (IV).

A list of instrument values can be found here.

Changing Instrument Volume

setInitialInstrumentVolume(IV, Volume)

You can change the volume of an instrument by replacing IV and Volume with their respective values in the console.

You can even set volume beyond 2 if you need extra power, but I advise not making earrape sequences out of this, please.

Volume = 0

Volume = 1

Volume = 2

Toggling Special Properties (Obsolete)

Selecting an Instrument

instrument=IV

Toggle Reverb

selectReverb(IV)

Toggle Delay

selectDelay(IV)

Toggle Lock

lockInstrument(IV)

Note Stretch/Compression Function

Use while notes are selected. Substituting values greater than 1 will expand notes while less than 1 will compress them.

Plugging a negative number for x will reverse the selected notes.

stretchNotes(x)

If I want a set of notes to go from the original BPM to the final BPM, I would use grid=Final BPM/Original BPM.

For example, stretching a group to 120 BPM on a 90 BPM sequence would be grid=120/90.

stretchNotes(3/4) will convert 1/3 notes to 1/4 notes while stretchNotes(4/3) will convert 1/4 notes back into 1/3 notes.

stretchNotes(0.5);

stretchNotes(1);

stretchNotes(2);

Truncate Notes Function

This will shorten long-ended notes to the designated time (click measure bar for the time value). This will not lengthen short notes to the specified time.

truncateNotesAt(t)

Fade In/Out Individual Note Volume Function

Use while notes are selected. This function overlays a linear fade according to the number of notes selected. It is multiplied with the current note volume and will not override them.

Fade Out will fade to zero note volume—while Fade In will start from zero, increasing to the original note volume.

Fade Out

fadeNotes()

Fade In

fadeNotes(true)

Resetting Instrument Settings

This will reset Volume, Delay/Reverb, EQ, and Panning across all instruments. This cannot be undone.

resetAllInstrumentSettings()

Removing All Markers

This also cannot be undone.

removeAllMarkers()

Disable Song Looping

song.updateLoopTime = function(){}; song.loopTime = Infinity; maxCells=Infinity;

Continues the playhead past the natural loop marker. This function is not retained even after saving a sequence.

Increasing BPM Past Max Value

For whatever reason 999 BPM is not enough to satisfy you, you can change the number of max digits via Elements from developer tools.

Hit Ctrl+F to quickly search for "BPM" in the code and you will find the group highlighted in the screenshot.

From there, you can change maxlength="3" to however many digits you want to type in the BPM setting.

If I set maxlength="4", the new max BPM is raised to 9999.

Converting Grid Proportions

noteWidth=noteHeight/2; SequencerView.fastGraphics=true; gridSelect.selectedIndex = 0; gridSelect.onchange();

This command is useful for those who want to make thumbnail pixel art on the sequencer.

Additional Scales and Note Sizes Add-On

You can also use the console to integrate more key signatures and various note sizes into the website!

New Scales:
Major, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Major, Harmonic Minor, Double Harmonic, Bebop, Blues, Symmetric Scale Families

New Note Sizes:
Common, Dotted, Rational Tuplets

(This script also adds unlisted instruments to the dropdown menu.)

Code for Music Theorists (courtesy of dfhwze)

Additional Notes

In case all those error messages are looking unpretty for you, you can use Ctrl+L to clear the console.

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