How Mod Works

Monomodular is the hub of all communcations between Mods and the Monomodular capable controllers. Each client control script works in its own way, but the Monomodular standard is shared between all of them.

Monomodular controllers all have the capability of controlling a Monome256 workspace. Each one does it in its specific way. The only necessity required to integrate a controller with the Monomodular design is that it has an 8x8 grid of buttons. Other functionality is present on some controllers, but mainly, it works like this:

The Grid

There is an 8x8 grid, which represents one quadrant of the Monome256 workspace.

The Shift Button

There is a Shift button, which, when pressed, does the following:

It allows navigation to one of those 4 quadrants by pressing one of the center 16 buttons, which will be lit to indicate which area is currently selected (either by colors or by different flashing states).

It causes the top row of buttons to indicate which of the 16 possible Mods is currently selected. The button on column 1, row 3 allows the user to select Mod 9-16 according to its toggle status.

It causes the second row of buttons to indicate which of the 16 possible channels the currently selected Mod is transmitting on (if it is a mono-channel instrument). The button on column 8, row 3 allows the user to select Mod 9-16 according to its toggle status.

It causes the bottom row of buttons to change over to 'Key Mode', and their status to be updated accordingly. The Key buttons are patch specific in functionality, but there are general conventions about how they are used in most of the plugins. Most of the time the left four will indicate and change the Mods 'mode', and the second four control timing of the Mod if it is slaved to its internal clock.

The Lock Button

There is a Lock button, which toggles whether the bottom row is 'shift-locked' to permanently be used in 'Key Mode'.

The Alt Button

There is an Alt button, which allows other modified functionality (mostly Mod-specific, but holding Alt while pressing Key(8) will always cause the controller's Device Controls to select the currently controlled Mod's parameters).

Mod Order

A Mod can be used simply by placing it on an appropriate track in your Live set. It will automatically be configured consecutively as the next Mod, and its position on the nav-grid will be indicated by a numbered block on the top left of the Mod's user interface (white block means 1-8, black block means 9-16). You can, however, change this enumeration manually in the plugin's UI, and other Mods positions will be adjusted accordingly. These changes are persistent so that the next time you load your set, everything will be in the same place.

Mod Timing

Most of the Mods have their own internal timing engine that is sync'ed to Live's clock. This, however, may be disengaged in order to trigger the timing process of the plugin from an external source (see below).

For most of the Mods, timing can be controlled by the last four Keys. The first of these changes the timing to Quarter note divisions, the second to Eighth note divisions, and the third to Sixteenth note divisions. The last button toggles Triplet timing.

In addition to the key controls, most Mods also have a 'Timing Multiplier', which speeds the timing engine up by the chosen amount.