The alpha and omega of 16-bit sequencers: KCS Omega + Tiger

I got the Atari ST sequencer KCS Omega from ST Format magazine's January 1994 issue 54 coverdisk. Little did I know it would be my only commercial-level sequencer until mid-2000s. Also, I didn't know I would be ignorant about some of its more interesting features until recently.

Many go vintage, modular or just any DAWless setup. But others are also digging up their old Atari STs and Amigas to relive a workflow from the mid-1990s, or to engage with a distraction-free environment. 

Although it can take some effort to have an Atari ST set up and working these days, I guarantee a session won't start with downloading updates.

KCS Omega was the brainchild of one Emile Tobenfeld, who under the moniker Dr. T had already conceived MIDI products for Commodore 64 in the 1980s. In a way KCS Omega repackaged some of the same ideas and functionalities for the 16-bit range of computers, and put a graphic editor, Tiger, on top of it.

According to his FAQ, Tobenfeld had left the company in 1993. In a couple of years all the platforms on which KCS products had proved popular (C64, Atari ST, Amiga), had fallen out of favor, and Windows/Mac platforms eventually emerged as the victors in the productivity arms race.

Diverting opinions will arise. "Wasn't Cubase the thing on Atari?" anyone even modestly informed will ask. KCS Omega is comprehensive, quite fast and supports a number of workflows, and there are often multiple ways to achieve the same outcome. I'll maybe compare them later but at this moment KCS feels better than Cubase 3.1. To me, knowing the idiosyncrasies of KCS is like belonging to some arcane secret society. I don't even know enough to tell everything.


Tiger

In the mid-1990s, I mostly used the Tiger graphic editor, thinking this was the only way to use KCS for song building. Coupled with a Yamaha DX11, with its multitimbral, velocity-controlled FM operators, I could create quirky digital soundscapes by adding and duplicating note clusters and fiddling with their velocity stems. Add a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks and rudimentary rhythmic electronic music could be made. And that was that for a long time.

I did note that Tiger was an add-on to the "real" KCS Omega, but I didn't pay much attention to the central sequencer. I felt it was only a multi-tracker for recording MIDI live, and wasn't entirely wrong.

(The screenshots are from Hatari ST emulator for clarity)

Tiger: Fast editing of the velocity stems

First things first: I've noticed that at some occasion MIDI doesn't clearly output on channel 1, unless I switch the track channel to something else and then back at 1. Top where it says C< 1A>. So, trying to test gear and connection, this is a thing that can happen.

Tiger is a quite versatile piano roll editor even now, and certainly the most friendly way in into the intricacies of KCS. I can set quantize/snap on with that icon at the bottom right corner, then add notes with the pencil tool (2nd bottom left) and just kick Play.

With Add/Drop Tracks dialog, multiple tracks can be viewed and edited in parallel, and zoomed horizontally. The multiview likely works better on a high resolution monitor. The relative size of the areas can be adjusted by dragging the symbol at the top right of the track window, but this isn't visualized, it just happens. Clicking it switches between full view and the multi-view. Right-clicking the corner removes the sub-view. The combined views can also be stored and recalled.

Tiger makes use of a 2-button mouse. The four icons at the bottom left are for Left Mousebutton, and generally affect, or select, a bunch of notes or larger areas. They are: Erase selected notes, Draw Note, Paste, Set Range. If none are highlighted, it's possible to select individual notes or drag a selection rectangle.

Repeat Time from Repeats menu

The seven icons at the right side are for Right Mousebutton, and apart from the Play icon, they affect an individual note. So, if Play is selected on the the right, the right button always plays from the cursor position. The others are Draw note (again), Erase Note, Alter Note Position, Alter Note Pitch, Alter Note Velocity, Alter Note Duration.

It's a pity these only affect a single note, but I also understand the need for simplicity. I suppose the purpose with these right button tools is to nudge individual notes that result from a recorded live play.

So there are two Draw Note tools assigned to the left/right buttons, and the properties can be changed from a menu item.

A clone repeat time can be set from the Repeats menu. (960 units = 1 bar by default). I can then select a number of notes and use Control+Arrow keys to duplicate them around the track. Another option is to fill the track with the selection, so making a metronome track is very quick. 

Pressing keys on the numeric keypad, I can instantly loop a number of bars starting from the one under the mouse cursor. This is very useful.

Selected notes and a range. Double cursor? It's an emulator screenshot.

There are menu functions for selecting all notes, notes of a certain pitch, notes above or below a certain pitch, and all these selections can be filtered with the selected range. Handily, the selected notes can be moved around with cursor keys, and most of the keyboard is dedicated for altering position (QWERTY row, esp. Q/W-O/P are useful), duration (- and +) and velocity (ASDFGH row).

Various reversals can be made to the selected notes. Reverse the entire order, or only pitches, durations or velocities. One more way to tease out small creative discoveries.

Quantization is a normal sequencer function, it's fairly straightforward here. Recording and quantizing naively, I often end up notes in crassly wrong positions. I found it better to first fix things as much as possible by hand, then quantize if still necessary. 

On occasions I de-quantize parts of materials by moving them ever so slightly, just to avoid snapping everything to rigid 16/16 precision. Adding notes without the quantize is a fun exercise too. Doing this to multiple tracks can easily make a techno/dance/electro song very, very wonky, so use with care.

"Paste at Selection" menu item was confusing at first, as I naturally expected it to paste my previously copied material at a particular point. But this function pastes the copied notes on every selected note, using them as starting point for any pitch difference the original notes might have had. Use the paste icon at bottom left to do a normal paste.

If I drag a number of notes around, they will auto-play (optionally). I used to think this as a distraction, but it becomes a friend eventually, and ideas may come out of it. When playing with a sampler, drum kit or phrase set that triggers different sounds from different note pitches, moving the selection up and down can lead to serendipitous discoveries.

A CC track, and the menu item for adding one

Admittedly, dragging a number of notes around in the graphic editor will reveal the slow speed of an Atari ST GEM and this software. There are also ways to avoid dragging notes around, it's such a post-2000s way of thinking anyway.

Tracks have controller tracks for Program Change, Velocity, Aftertouch, Breath Control, Foot Pedal and Volume, which can be easily invoked. Note velocities are very smooth to change on the VE track, by just holding the mouse key and dragging over the stems in that window.

A CC controller track can also be added, for making Control Change messages. For example, Cutoff and Frequency are some typical CCs to send via MIDI. 

I had to use 2nd mouse button to draw on the CC track. Holding control and clicking, an interpolated slide can be created between two points in time. A segment can be erased by first dragging it over then using the "eraser" icon. (The first at bottom left). This style of editing doesn't work on the velocity stems, they are tied to the notes.

Finding out which CC values are present in a track seems to be impossible from Tiger, once the CC track view is closed. But the KCS Track Editor will list CCs among events, and from there it's also possible to delete all CCs or particular CCs with a filter. Or, indeed, adjust the CC values.

Track Edit, Sequences and the Open Mode

The main screen of KCS Omega is a 48-track MIDI event and note recorder, which functions much like a physical tape recorder might work. If the record button is on, you can auto-record just by pressing a key on the MIDI keyboard. After the recording has reached the end of the track length, a new track is created the recording continues on that, until the process is stopped or the tracks run out.

It can be handy to turn on "Mute new tracks" if the intent is to record the same melodies again and again. It's also possible to undo and re-record the currend (failed) recording.

After a bunch of material has been created this way, it can be edited in the KCS event editor or in the Tiger.

Only recently I've understood what the Open mode and the associated Play Screen could do for me. I didn't likely even see the Play Screen many times in the 1990s, so well it is hidden.

The Main screen

Firstly, I have to click EDIT or press F1 in the main screen to get to the Track Edit screen. From there, I can click on Open Mode. There, again clicking on Play Screen the modest-looking black screen opens, and the pull-down menus disappear.

But how do I add a new track in the first place, if I'm not using the live recording? This was always a little mysterious. Well, in a Track Edit screen, it's possible to click on one of those empty boxes in the grid at the bottom right of the screen. This provisionally creates a track, but I need to manually give some TIME to the only event on the list, otherwise the track won't really exist.

After this, I can again go to Tiger via the main screen and start adding notes there.

Looking at Sequence #2 events, and calculating its end point.

But anyway. If I have a number of tracks, I need to convert the tracks into sequences, and only afterwards I can trigger these sequences live in the Play Screen, aligned into the next measure.

Tracks can be sent from Tiger to become sequences. There it's wise to use the range selector and send that range.

In the case I've accidentally sent a track that only has 2 bars of material, but the track has the length of 8 bars. I can either delete that and use the range-select method, or fix the end point. In the Sequence screen I can go to the last event, which is DE. If I intend the sequence to have 4 bars, I make sure the DE lands at 5:1:1. There's actually a calculator that can help do this computation. 

This rather unimpressive screen is at the heart of KCS.

But wait, there's more.

When the tracks are converted into sequences, they can be turned on by pressing their corresponding key, starting from 1-9 and continuing on to A-Z. After these have been exhausted, 00-99 can be invoked from the numeric keypad, but these may be considered more like secondary material.

And this is actually the reason it's called a Keyboard Controlled Sequencer. D'oh.

And it doesn't end there. Sequences can contain events that trigger other sequences according to various logics, all of which I have not yet even discovered. The simplest way is to add a sequence launch value into the sequence event list (1-9, A-Z etc). The column where it usually says "ON" for a note (TYP), the number or letter of the sequence can be inserted. It can be transposed (NOTE) and played in a different relative velocity (VEL) and repeated a number of times (DUR).

If a W is added to the duration, this means the play waits until the sequence has finished, before playing the next one. If non-waiting sequence is triggered at the same time, it also plays alongside. The W option makes song construction clearer, but honestly a paper plan might help.

If a sequence containing these events is launched from the Play Screen in Open Mode, the sequence itself will trigger the other sequences, relative to its start. In theory, the sequences can produce a cascade of further sequences, but it may be wiser to keep these commands inside one sequence.

Also, the direct launching of sequences is still possible, even if the song is centrally automated.

All content from this range, from all tracks, can be dumped onto a new sequence

I now consider the tracks as more like sketches and snippets, and the Sequences are the real thing, a material from which a song can be constructed either by meticulously chaining them together using command sequences, or by playing them live on the Play Screen. In turn the outcome can be recorded elsewhere, or the MIDI output can be fed back into the Atari and recorded on a new track.

If each sequence only contains a particular instrument, then it's not much different to mixing, muting and soloing the tracks on the main screen. It can make sense to combine multiple tracks into one sequence, which is best done from the Tiger. For example, these could be intro, verse, chorus, bridge and outro. Then the sequences are more comparable to patterns in Soundtracker-type software.

Even though it clearly says "All Tracks", it still confused me that the function sends also the non-visible tracks to the sequence. A defined range from all tracks can be sent to a single sequence, and they get a proper end point for looping automatically. I clarified this to myself using the diagram below:

So, the resulting sequence has elements from all three tracks. I can chop the Tiger-created multitracks into components that have different instrumentation, or traditional song structures. This way, entire song components can be triggered by a single key, and not just mix channels in and out. Other single-track sequences could be launched in order to add nuance or variety. 

Importantly, currently muted tracks are not incorporated into the "All Tracks to Sequence", which can be helpful when building combinations.

Thought needs to go into what would work as a playable sequence. It's easy to paint oneself in the corner by creating tracks, combining them into sequences, and then find out later that for example a bassline needs adjusting. If this is done in the Tiger, the tracks need to be translated into sequences where ever the bassline was used. It may be better to wipe out the sequences and start again.

But if the bassline was kept as a separate sequence, then only the source track for it needs to be changed and translated. Or, using the event editor directly the sequence contents can be changed, closest thing to that instancing of notes I discussed prior.

Using randomized sequence play is an interesting feature, and it can be combined with non-random elements. However, in my experience the randomizer can generate tiny delays between sequences. It's still possible I made some mistake, but if it's a lag in the program I perhaps wouldn't record the audio output, but record the MIDI somehow and then adjust any problems in it.


Is it perfect?

I've now made it sound KCS Omega is some kind of hidden ultimate sequencer, with no flaws in sight. No mistake, it is a clever piece of software, but some aspects do show its age.

As I'm working with a limited package, there's no way to arrange tracks and elements visually in a song scale. The KCS can be expanded with the MPE, Multi Program Environment. The Tiger editor in fact is one MPE, Mixer and Programmable Variation Generator are also not included.

As a remedy, learning to trigger sequences as KCS events can be helpful, or the song can be created ad hoc in the Open Mode play screen.

Partly because of the MPE model, the overall UI is made from separate screens, and while producing focus, it can also create confusion as one key makes something in one screen and something else in a different context. Some commands invoke dialogues, messages and alert windows, some remain silent.

Although the Tiger is quite good graphic editor, it is a little rough at the edges. I can't drag the select box to up and left, I always need to create it from top left to bottom right direction.

Much of this can be avoided by adopting the keyboard shortcuts, which are numerous. 

Copying notes as an instance cannot be done, what I mean that note changes would affect all similar instances. Technically, it is possible to get around this by planning ahead and reusing short note tracks in a KCS event list, triggering them as sequences.

However I'd still need to translate a sequence back into a track before it can be edited in Tiger. Of course a sequence event list can be directly altered manually, technically enabling instances.

The overall structure of tracks and sequences as separate entities does bring some leverage, but it can also produce these situations where I can see "I ought to have" done things differently at a previous stage.

What seems missing is any notion of an "instrument", as events brutally address a MIDI channel and that's it. This can be exactly the kind of simplicity one goes looking after in an old sequencer, but it also means there's no meta-level for making sweeping changes to the instruments.

Don't expect the MIDI to play seamlessly while operating the drop down menus, only the Open Mode play screen is free from menus. There's a setting to make the menus dependent on mouse press, but that can be also annoying. Tiger does decently while adjusting notes, which is enough.

Apart from all this, KCS Omega can be slow at times, especially if Tiger has many notes to draw. A faster ST helps, it won't hurt the tempo/MIDI timings.

Working in 2026

I tried KCS Omega on Atari Falcon, where the legacy video modes would give me med/mono resolution via VGA, and some speed boost. However the Tiger seemed to trash the screen memory in uncomfortable ways, making icons and UI invisible, otherwise it looked very nice. 

Turning the blitter off did not help. The glitching could be due to the Multi-Program Environment memory allocation scheme, as the main KCS works.

Also, the fan inside Falcon is so loud it would annoy me. An Atari ST is silent.

Just to show how the mono resolution looks like

I have an Atari STE with ACSI2STM, a tiny board that helps plug a Micro-SD card into the hard drive socket of the Atari. (This is not compatible with the Falcon.)

KCS Omega does not have an installer. The folder and containing sub-folders and files can be copied directly to the SD card filesystem, and run from there. 

If the files are inside a .msa or .st disk image type image, then Hatari ST emulator can be helpful, as it can open these images as disks. 

In Hatari, a folder in the Linux filesystem can be designated as a simulated hard drive, and when the files are copied in the Atari GEM in the emulator to that virtual hard drive, the files will appear on the Linux filesystem instantly. It's a clumsy way to move the KCS files out of the disk images, but it only needs to be done once. Then they can be copied over to the ACSI2STM SD card.

One more Hatari screenshot

This version of KCS Omega and Tiger fit into one floppy, so a HxC floppy emulator can also work.

A little bird tells that holding SHIFT when starting the KCS, will load the Tiger automatically. One of those little masonic rituals.