© Darwin Arts L.L.C., 2018


User Guide

Version 1.4

About

MendelTone is a portable sound evolution app. Its internal synthesizer is a two-voice virtual modular synth optimized for mobile platforms, which features a flexible genotype topology and basic modules such as oscillators and delays.

Using a variant of the genetic algorithm based loosely on the work of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, this app allows you to search the space of possible synth tones using preferential selection and genotype breeding, all while hearing the results in real time.

Free vs. Paid Versions

The free version of MendelTone is a fully functioning facsimile of the paid version, except that saved patches will be removed on startup once they are more than three days old.

Inter-App Audio

This version provides an Inter-App Audio feature on iOS, which allows the app to act as a synthesizer node application for streaming to an IAA host app, such as Apple Garage Band. For more information, visit the Future Music tutorial.

Patch Breeding Screen




This is the default interface to MendelTone, and is the interface for breeding and saving new modular synth patches. The image above shows an evolve patch set from two active parents.

Click the “Breed” Navigation Tab to display this screen.

Patch Selection Grid

Each colored square in this grid represents a modular synthesizer patch. Touch any one or two of these patch squares at once to hear the corresponding patches, which will remain active when the touch is released.

Touch an already active patch square to send a “hit” stimulus to the patch, possibly resulting in a tonal change.

Active Grid Patches

When patches within the Patch Selection Grid are activated by touch, they will be drawn tagged with voice number and a thick boundary of contrasting color. When grid patches are active, the Breeding Button and Stop Button will be enabled. If the boundary around an Active Grid Patch is flashing, this indicates that the patch is morphing to a new target configuration.

Selected Grid Patch

Double-click on any Grid Patch to select it. The selected grid patch will be drawn with a blue boundary. When a grid patch is selected, the Save Button will become visible (and the Share Button, if visible, will be hidden).

Crossfade Duration Knob

Click and drag on this knob to control the time duration for synthesizers to morph to new configurations. In this instance, “morph” refers to the time it takes for MendelTone synths to slide to new patch configurations. Morph time ranges between 0.01 second, and 30 seconds.

Volume Knobs

Click and drag on either of these two knobs to adjust the volume of the corresponding synth voice.

Tone Knob

Click and drag on this knob to adjust a low-pass tone filter for synth output. Turning this knob counter clockwise will reduce the high frequencies produced by the synthesizers.

Stop Button

This button will be visible when either synth voice is activated. If no Grid Patch is selected, then clicking this button will stop all active sounds. If a Grid Patch is selected and active, then only that active voice will be stopped.

Save Button

This button will be visible when a grid patch is selected. Click this button to save the currently selected grid patch. A dialog will appear which allows the patch to be named or the save to be cancelled.

Signal Display

When patches are active, this panel will show a a real-time animation of the synthesized waveform.

Double-tap in this panel to turn off all active patches.

Menu Button

Touch this button to show the following Pop-up menu:


Menu options are described in this table:

Help...

Click to open a web bowser and display this document.

About...

Click to display the MendelTone “About” dialog. Click anywhere in that dialog to dismiss it.

Visit Darwin Arts...

Click to open a web browser and display the Darwin Arts web site.

Import patches...

(Android only)

Click to open a file browser which let's you select patch files to import to the Saved Patch Table. On Android, you can usually import these after pushing them to the /sdcard folder of your mobile device.

For step-by-step instructions on importing patches, see the Importing Patches section below.

Export selected patches...

(Android only)

Click to open a folder browser which let's you select a target folder into which the current Saved Patch Table selected patches will be written. On Android, this will usually be a readable/writable folder under /sdcard.

If no patches are selected in the Saved Patch Table, then this menu item is disabled.

Delete selected patches...

Click to permanently remove all selected patches in the Saved Patch Table. CAUTION: this action cannot be undone.

If no patches are selected in the Saved Patch Table, then this menu item is disabled.



Breed Button

This button will be visible when one or more Grid Patches are activated. Touch this button to replace all Grid Patches with offspring of the currently active patches in grid. The active parent patches are not affected. Offspring patch squares are colored based on the genetic contribution from each parent.

Reset Button

Occasionally, the mobile synth will overload and be deactivated, or distortion may linger in one of the delay lines. Click this button to reset the synth and clear delay lines. In some extreme cases, the app may even need to be restarted to restore audio output.

Mutate Button

Touch this button to fill the Patch Selection Grid with randomized patches. Active patches are not affected. Any grid patch selection will be cancelled.

Saved Patch Table

You may save favorite patches to this table for later performance, selective breeding, and export.

To load a patch from this table, click and drag the patch from the table into one of the colored patch squares. When you next touch that patch square, you will hear the restored patch.

Alternatively, to save a patch touch and hold the patch square in the Patch Selection Grid while then simultaneously touching the table. A dialog will appear which allows the patch to be named or the save to be cancelled. After being saved, the patch will appear in this table and be available for future loading.

Double-click anywhere I the table to toggle “multi-select mode”, which allows selection of more than one listed item by tapping on individual patch names. When one or more table item is selected, the Share Patch button will be displayed, and the “Export selected patches...” and “Delete selected patches...” menu items will be enabled.

Save/Share Patch Button

The button displayed here changes depending on whether an item is selected in the Patch Selection Grid or in the Saved Patch Table.


The Save Button, pictured above, is visible when there is a Selected Grid Patch. Clicking this button will open a dialog box which is used to set a name for the patch, and then the named patch is saved to the Saved Patch Table.


The Share Button, pictured above, is visible when one or more named patches are selected in the Saved Patch Table. Clicking on this button will display a list of apps to which the selected patch files may be sent as an attachment. This is a useful feature for sending favorite patches to friends by email.

Receiving Shared Patches

If a fellow MendelTone-user has shared a patch with you by email using the Share Button above, you can extract the patch as an email attachment and add it to MendelTone's Saved Patch Table. The exact steps for doing this vary by platform, and are described in the next two subsections.

IOS

  1. In your mail app, open the message and tap to open the attachment.


2. Once patch has been downloaded tap the attachment to see save options. Scroll the second row of options until you see “Save to Files”, then tap to select this option.



3. Select “MendelTone” from available app options and click the “Add” button.



4. The imported patch will appear in MendelTone's Saved Patch Table.



Android

This procedure describes receiving a patch with Gmail. Other mail clients should be similar.

1. In the Gmail app, open the message and tap the MendelTone patch attachment.



2. Tap on the menu button in the upper right hand corner and select “Download”. This will download the patch file to the /sdcard/Downloads folder on your Android phone.



3. Open MendelTone, and select the “Import patches...” menu option.



4. In the open file dialog, type “/sdcard/Download” in the folder field, tap checkbox in lower corner to confirm.



5. Tap on the MendelTone Patch file name that you wish to import, and then click the “Open” button. The imported patch will be added to the Saved Patches Table.





Navigation Tabs

Touch any of these tabs to switch between the Patch Breeding Screen and the parameter control screens.

XY Parameter Control Screen




Use this interface for interactive control of loaded patches. The user interface is divided into vertical 'strips', so this section describes only the controls for Patch Voice #1. Controls for Patch Voice #2 are exactly the same.

Click the “XY” Navigation Tab to access this screen.

Patch Selector

Touch this combo box control to select and load a saved patch. If the combo box is empty, then either no patch is active for this voice or a patch from the selection grid is active.

Trigger Button

Touch this button to send a percussive stimulus to the active patch. If the patch evolved to respond to stimulus, you may hear a tonal change such as a bell being chimed (for instance).

Voice Volume Knob

Touch and drag the thumb point on this knob to change the active patch volume. Volume changes are sticky, so the same volume setting will apply to subsequently activated patches.

XY Parameter Control

Touch and drag within this box to manipulate all patch parameters simultaneously. Default setting is at center position. Note that this two dimensional control maps into a parameter space of literally more than a hundred dimensions, so results may be unpredictable.

Slider Param Control Screen




Use this interface for interactive control of loaded patches by controlling a single parameter at a time. The user interface is divided into vertical 'strips', so this section describes only the controls for Patch Voice #1. Controls for Patch Voice #2 are exactly the same.

Click the “Sliders” Navigation Tab to access this screen.

Patch Selector

Touch this combo box control to select and load a saved patch. If the combo box is empty, then either no patch is active for this voice or a patch from the selection grid is active.

Trigger Button

Touch this button to send a percussive stimulus to the active patch. If the patch evolved to respond to stimulus, you may hear a tonal change such as a bell being chimed (for instance).

Voice Volume Knob

Touch and drag the thumb point on this knob to change the active patch volume. Volume changes are sticky, so the same volume setting will apply to subsequently activated patches.

Parameter Slider Array

This array of sliders maps to 16 or fewer individual parameters within the patch which MendelTone thinks may alter the sound somehow. Many of these sliders may have no perceptible effect, so you will need to experiment with them. Click on any individual slider and drag to change a parameter value.

To “draw” slider values, using your finger, double-click anywhere within the slider array to change to this mode.

The last slider touched will be painted green.

Selected Parameter Value

This text label box displays the actual number value of the last touched slider. You can fine-tune that slider value by editing the value within this label box.

Support

Other than the online User Guide, Darwin Arts provides no official support for MendelTone. If you have questions not covered here, please feel free to visit our website at http://www.darwinarts.com and post on the appropriate user forum. The user community (or our harried engineer) will provide assistance if and as soon as possible.