Songs and seeds

ComposerFlex never plays the same song twice unless you ask it to. When you hear a song you like, this page shows how to keep it and play it again.

The seed

Every song is made from a seed, a number that ComposerFlex builds the song from. The same seed, with the same ingredients and settings, always makes the same song in the same version of ComposerFlex.

A seed has three parts, written like this: 123456789-000004521-987654321. Each part is a nine-digit number, or the word auto.

• Composition makes the song itself: its key, tempo, form, chords and tunes.
• Ingredients decides which of the rows with a Song % number are in this song.
• Variants chooses how each phrase of the song is varied.

A part set to auto gets a new number every time you click Start. While any part is on auto, a new song follows each one that finishes.

Playing a song again

The easiest way to keep a song is to save it in the Song Library (see below). It keeps the song's seed together with all its ingredients and settings. You can also keep a song as a preset of your own, which you can share with others: see Keeping a song as a preset.

You can also keep just the seed:

1. While the song plays, click Copy beside Song seed. You can paste the seed into a note to keep it.
2. Later, paste the seed into the seed box and click Start.

Use last seed puts the seed of the last song into the box, if you want to hear it again right away.

The seed only makes the same song with the same ingredients and settings. Setting your own BPM changes the song: the same Minutes holds a different number of bars at the new tempo. A small change keeps much of it; a large one keeps little. Setting your own Key plays the same song in the new key. Setting your own Scale keeps the song's rhythm and shape, with its notes moved into the new scale.

Recent seeds

The Recent seeds tab lists the last hundred songs' seeds, newest first.

• Click the heart beside a seed to mark it as a favorite.
• Double-click a seed to put it in the seed box for your next Start.

Song Library

The Song Library tab keeps the songs you've saved. Each one keeps its seed, its ingredients and all the settings of the song, so it always plays the same in the same version of ComposerFlex.

• To save the song you just heard, type a name and click Save song. If a part of the seed was on auto, the library keeps the song that actually played. If the name is already in the library, ComposerFlex asks whether to replace that song.
• To play a saved song, select it and click Open selected, then click Start.
• To delete a saved song, select it and click Delete selected. ComposerFlex asks you first.

Phrases

A song is made of phrases: an intro, verses, choruses, and so on. The Phrases tab lists the phrases of the song, with their bars. Here you can choose a different version of a single phrase while the rest of the song stays the same.

• Double-click a phrase to pin a new variation of it for the next Start. Double-click again to take the pin off.
• Save keeps the pinned variation in one of the phrase's four places, and Use pins a saved one again for the next Start. A * marks the one in use.
• Preview this phrase makes Start play from that phrase, so you can hear it without waiting for it.

The Archive

When MIDI archive is ticked at the top of the window, every song is also saved as a MIDI file, in the ComposerFlex folder in your Documents:

• songs that played to the end go in the Songs archive;
• songs you stopped, and previews, go in the Clips archive.

On the Archive tab:

• Choose All, Songs or Clips, and click Refresh to see the newest files.
• Select a file and click Play selected to hear it again. Click Stop to end it.
• To rate a song, select it, type a rating from 1 to 100 (and a note, if you like), and click Save rating.

You can open these MIDI files in any music program. PianoFlex can also play them and turn them into audio files.