<p align="center"><img src="assets/bluerose.png" width="120" alt="The Blue Rose"></p>

# The Field Manual of Evander's Music Box

*Set down for Evander of the Elves, Bard of Mother Melody, and for whoever carries the Box after him.*

> Mother Melody gave the First Song no words, only a rhythm and a key. Whoever holds this Box holds a sliver of
> that Song. In a quiet hour it is a workshop where songs are made. When steel is drawn it is a herald that
> knows the mood of the field before the bard does. These pages teach both.

Each chapter begins with a little lore, then gives the plain instructions in tables. Every button name below is
printed on the Box. If the lore and a table disagree, follow the table.

---

## I. Knowing the Box

**On the left**, from top to bottom:

| Control | Name |
| --- | --- |
| a knob | **MASTER**, the loudness of everything |
| an endless knob | **SELECT** |
| an endless knob | **PRESETS** |
| an endless knob | **ALGORITHM** |
| two buttons | **OCT-** and **OCT+** |

**The glass** is in the middle.

**On the right** are four endless knobs, **K1** to **K4**, and twelve buttons in two rows:

```
FX    SEL   ENV   LFO   EDIT   GLO
HOME  SAVE  ARP   SEQ   PLAY   REC
```

**Below** are 27 keys:

- **Sixteen white keys.** Count them **1 to 16** from the left.
- **Eleven black keys.** Their printed names are `OP1 OP2 OP3 OP4 OP5 OP6 PIT GLO MONO POLY`, and the last one
  has no name. In this manual it is the **TOP** key.

The black keys sit in groups of 3, 2, 3, 2 and 1. A gloved hand can find them by touch.

### The Awakening

At power-on the glass draws the crest of Mother Melody, two sharp-crowned **M**s with wings flared. The crest
gives way to the **Blue Rose** opening, and then the words appear:

> **EVANDER'S MUSIC BOX — MOTHER MELODY HEARS THY SONG**

A light runs across the keys while this happens. Press any button after the first half-second to skip the
rest. The Box always wakes in **Bardic Crafting**, with its last saved songs.

---

## II. The Two Ways of the Box

| Chord | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **HOME + PLAY** | switches between **Bardic Crafting** and **Encounter** |

Press the two buttons in either order. The music does not stop and does not skip a beat: what was playing
keeps playing.

**How to tell which mode you are in:**

| Mode | The glass | HOME's light |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bardic Crafting | **BARDIC CRAFTING** with a cyan seal | **solid** on the home page |
| Encounter | **ENCOUNTER** with an ember seal | **half-lit**: a steady, soft glow |

---

## III. Bardic Crafting: the Workshop

*In the workshop the Box keeps four companions. Each one has a seat:*

| Seat | Track | Default instrument |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | the **War Drums** | TAVERN KIT |
| 2 | the **Drone** | HURDY GURDY |
| 3 | the **Strings** | PHYS HARP |
| 4 | the **Lead** | RECORDER |

A new song starts in **D Dorian**, tuned **Pythagorean**, and every key is snapped to the mode. A wrong note is
impossible until you ask for one.

### Choosing a track

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| tap **SEL** | the next track (1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 1) |
| turn **SELECT** (on the home page) | the next or previous track |
| hold **SEL** + **OP1 / OP2 / OP3 / OP4** | go straight to track 1, 2, 3 or 4 |
| hold **SEL** + white key **1 to 4** | mute or unmute track 1 to 4 |

While SEL is held, the lights show the state. The lit OP key is the chosen track. White keys 1 to 4 are **lit**
when that track plays and **dark** when it is muted.

### Playing

The keys play the chosen track.

**Tracks 2 to 4 (melodic):**

- The lowest key is F3. **OCT-** and **OCT+** move the keys three octaves either way.
- Keys outside the mode play the scale note just below them.

**Track 1 (drums):** the white keys play the drums, eight pieces repeating across the keyboard:

| White key | Piece | White key | Piece |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | bodhrán | 5 | timpani (tuned to the root) |
| 2 | frame drum | 6 | war drum |
| 3 | tambourine | 7 | clack |
| 4 | anvil | 8 | gong |

Each black key plays a soft **ghost** of the drum on the white key to its left.

**Instrument, drone and tempo:**

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| turn **PRESETS** | change the chosen track's instrument (the name appears briefly) |
| tap **ARP** | latch a drone: held notes ring on after your fingers leave; tap again to release |
| turn **ALGORITHM** | the workbench tempo, 40 to 240 BPM |

### The pages

Each page sets what the four knobs **K1 to K4** do. Press a page's button to open it. Press it again, or tap
**HOME**, to return to the home page, where the knobs set the four track levels.

| Button | Page | K1 | K2 | K3 | K4 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *(HOME)* | **Home** | level of track 1 | level of track 2 | level of track 3 | level of track 4 |
| **FX** | **Sanctuary** | size | decay | damping | mix |
| **ENV** | **Envelope** | attack | decay | sustain | release |
| **LFO** | **Motion** | vibrato rate | vibrato depth | swing | pan |
| **EDIT** | **Voice** | tone | character | level | reverb send |
| **GLO** | **Modes** | root | mode | tuning | snap on / off |
| **GLO** again | **Box** | A4 calibration (±50 cents) | MIDI channel | lights: GLOW / LIT ONLY / STEALTH | crossfade (beats) |
| **SEQ** | **Steps** | length (1 to 64) | swing | level | reverb send |

**What CHARACTER does** depends on the instrument:

| Instrument | CHARACTER changes |
| --- | --- |
| a plucked string | where the string is plucked, from the bridge to the middle |
| the hurdy-gurdy | how hard the **trompette** buzzes on each turn of the crank |
| a wind | how much breath is heard |

The **SANCTUARY** stone-temple reverb holds about five seconds by default. At full decay it holds about twelve.

### The modern organ

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| **EDIT + GLO** | turn the chosen track into the **TONEWHEEL** organ; again, return it to its pipe organ |
| **LFO** (on the Motion page) | the Leslie's half-moon switch: chorale ⇄ tremolo |

Nothing is lost when you switch the organ. The tonewheel plays through a spinning **Leslie** rotor, and on its
Voice page the four knobs become drawbars:

| Knob | Drawbars |
| --- | --- |
| K1 | 16′ and 5⅓′ |
| K2 | 8′ and 4′ |
| K3 | 2⅔′ and 2′ |
| K4 | the top: 1⅗′ to 1′ |

The rotor takes about a second to spin up and two to slow down, as a real one does. While the rotor runs fast,
**LFO** breathes on the Motion page.

### The Steps (SEQ)

*Every song is a loom of sixty-four threads.*

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| **OP1 to OP4** | choose which sixteen steps you see (also: turn **SELECT**) |
| tap a white key | set or clear that step (a new step takes the last note played) |
| **hold** a white key + **K1** | the step's **note**, in the mode |
| **hold** a white key + **K2** | its **timing**: earlier or later, up to half a step |
| **hold** a white key + **K3** | its **velocity** |
| **hold** a white key + **K4** | a **TONE lock**: this step alone gets its own brightness; turn below zero to remove it |
| **hold** a white key + **SELECT** | its **length**, in quarter steps |

**How the step keys light:**

| Light | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| lit | a note |
| half-lit | a note with a nudge or a lock |
| soft glow | empty |
| dark | past the end of the loop |
| blinking against the others | the playhead |

### Live looping

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| **PLAY** | start or stop the workbench |
| **REC** | arm live looping (it starts playing if stopped); again, keep the loop |

What you play while armed is woven into the chosen track's loop. Each note lands **exactly where you played
it**, with its timing kept as a nudge, and lasts as long as you held it.

REC's light: **solid** while weaving, **blinking** while armed but stopped.

### The Purge: when the loop goes wrong mid-battle

| Chord | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| hold **HOME + REC** for **0.4 seconds** | **purge** the chosen track's loop |
| **HOME + SAVE** | **undo** the last purge |

Hold the two buttons together. Both blink and a red ring fills on the glass. When the ring closes, the track's
notes are gone. Ringing notes fade in a hundredth of a second, so there is no click. The loop keeps its length
and its seat, and nothing is moved or reallocated.

A single brush of a button does nothing. Letting go before the ring closes does nothing. One undo is kept.

### Keeping songs

| Gesture | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| hold **SAVE** for one second | keep the workbench and all settings; the glass says *MOTHER MELODY KEEPS IT* |
| hold **SAVE** + a **white key** for a moment | **bind** the workbench to that key as an Encounter scene |

A bound song can be played in battle (Chapter IV). The sixteen factory scenes can always be restored from the
Preset Console.

---

## IV. Encounter: the Herald

*When the Box is strapped to the forearm, Evander does not compose. He calls. Each white key is a mood of the
field. The Box waits for the end of the bar, then turns the music toward it the way a minstrel band would.*

### The sixteen scenes

The keys run from rest to climax in four groups of four. The first key of each group is half-lit, so you can
count in the dark.

| Key | Scene | What it is | Mode | Tuning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **1** | TAVERN | harp, hurdy-gurdy, bodhrán, hearth crackle | D Dorian | Pythagorean |
| **2** | CAMPFIRE | lute, slow bodhrán pulse, low drone, fire | A Aeolian | Pythagorean |
| **3** | SANCTUARY | choir, portative organ, harp | D Dorian | just |
| **4** | LAMENT | koto, cello, a lone pan flute, wind | E Aeolian | meantone |
| **5** | WILDERNESS | distant flute calls, bagpipe drone, wind | E Dorian | Pythagorean |
| **6** | FEY FOREST | psaltery cascades, choir, recorder | G Lydian | just |
| **7** | DUNGEON | war drum and anvil, cello, organetto | C Phrygian | meantone |
| **8** | SEA ROAD | a rolling 6/8 feel, shawm and gurdy | D Mixolydian | Pythagorean |
| **9** | SKIRMISH | driving war drums, a tense low cello ostinato | D Aeolian | equal |
| **10** | BATTLE | galloping drums, buzzing gurdy, brass | E Phrygian | equal |
| **11** | AMBUSH | clacks and silence, plucked koto | C harmonic minor | equal |
| **12** | SIEGE | timpani, choir, cathedral organ, brass | A Aeolian | equal |
| **13** | BOSS | full cathedral organ, galloping percussion, brass stabs | D harmonic minor | equal |
| **14** | LAST STAND | war drums, gurdy, shawm, the organ behind | E Aeolian | Pythagorean |
| **15** | VICTORY | fanfare, positive organ, harp | D Ionian | just |
| **16** | REQUIEM | gong, choir, cathedral organ | D Aeolian | just |

The groups are: keys **1-4 REST**, **5-8 EXPLORE**, **9-12 COMBAT**, **13-16 CLIMAX**.

**How cueing works:**

- **Press a white key.** It blinks fast and the glass counts down to the change.
- **On the next bar** the new scene fades in over two beats and the old one fades away beneath it.
- **Press the blinking key again** to cancel.
- **Program change 1-16** over MIDI does the same thing. A game master can also press *Cue* in the Preset
  Console.

### The battle modifiers (black keys)

Modifiers take hold on the next beat. A modifier's key stays **lit** while it is in effect.

| Key | Modifier | Effect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **OP1** | **PHRYGIAN** | the music darkens into Phrygian tension |
| **OP2** | **HOME KEY** | undo every bend: home key, home mode, normal time |
| **OP3** | **HARMONIC** | harmonic minor: menace, the villain's theme |
| **OP4** | **TRIUMPH** | major (Ionian): the tide turns |
| **OP5** | **KEY UP** | up a whole tone (up to three times) |
| **OP6** | **KEY DOWN** | down a whole tone |
| **PIT** | **DOUBLE TIME** | the drums run twice as fast (again: back) |
| **GLO** | **HALF TIME** | the drums run half as fast (again: back) |
| **MONO** | **BREAKDOWN** | only drums and drone remain (again: back) |
| **POLY** | **FULL HOST** | everything back in, at full intensity |
| **TOP** | **STINGER** | a gong, a war drum and a brass chord, on the beat |

Modal shifts keep each note's place in the scale. The tune stays the tune and only its colour turns: the same
melody in Phrygian sounds like the same melody turned dangerous.

### The knobs and buttons in battle

| Control | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| **K1** (or **OCT- / OCT+**) | **intensity**: drone only → + drums → + strings → full host |
| **K2** | **tempo**, 70 % to 140 % (also **ALGORITHM**, in coarser steps) |
| **K3** | the **hall**: how much Sanctuary |
| **K4** | the **music volume**, under MASTER |
| **SELECT** | **crossfade** length, 0 to 8 beats (0 = a hard cut) |
| **PRESETS** | when changes land: on the beat, the bar, every 2 bars or every 4 bars |
| **ARP** | **duck**: the music drops low so a speech can be heard; again, it rises |
| **FX** | **cathedral swell**: the hall grows huge (for the reveal of a god); again, back |
| **PLAY** | fade out over a bar; again, play the last scene |
| **OCT- + OCT+** | intensity back to full host |
| **HOME + REC**, held 0.4 s | **silence**: everything stops at once, with no click |

The other buttons belong to the workshop. In Encounter they only say so on the glass.

---

## V. The Lights in the Dark

*A bard in a dark forest cannot read glass. The keys tell the story.*

| Where | Light | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **PLAY** | flashes | each **beat** while music plays |
| **HOME** | solid | Bardic home page |
| **HOME** | half-lit | **Encounter** mode |
| **HOME + REC** | both blinking fast | a purge or silence is arming |
| Bardic keys | soft glow | in the mode |
| Bardic keys | half-lit | the **root** (your home note) |
| Bardic keys | dark | out of the mode |
| Bardic keys | lit | pressed |
| Bardic page buttons | lit | the open page; the others glow softly |
| **ARP** | lit | Bardic: the drone is held · Encounter: ducked |
| **REC** | solid | weaving a loop |
| **REC** | blinking | armed, stopped |
| **OCT** | half-lit / blinking / solid | ±1 / ±2 / ±3 octaves (as on the stock firmware) |
| Encounter white keys | lit | the scene **playing** |
| Encounter white keys | fast blink | **queued** |
| Encounter white keys | half-lit | the first key of each group of four |
| Encounter black keys | lit | that modifier is **in effect** |
| **FX** (Encounter) | lit | the cathedral swell |

**For a night ambush:** set *lights* on the Box page (GLO, GLO, K3).

| Setting | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| GLOW (default) | everything above |
| LIT ONLY | no soft glow; only what matters shines |
| STEALTH | only the playing scene, the queue, the beat and active modifiers |

---

## VI. Every Shortcut on One Page

| Chord or gesture | Bardic Crafting | Encounter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **HOME + PLAY** | → Encounter | → Bardic |
| **HOME + REC** (hold 0.4 s) | purge the track's loop | silence |
| **HOME + SAVE** | undo the purge | — |
| **EDIT + GLO** | pipe organ ⇄ tonewheel + Leslie | — |
| **OCT- + OCT+** | octave 0 | full host |
| **OCT- + OCT+** held **5 s** | the chip's update mode (UBOOT): for repairs | same |
| **SAVE** (hold 1 s) | keep everything | keep everything |
| **SAVE + white key** (hold) | bind the workbench to that scene key | copy that scene to the workbench |
| **SEL + OP1-OP4** | choose a track | — |
| **SEL + white 1-4** | mute or unmute | — |
| **ARP** | drone latch | duck |
| **FX** | Sanctuary page | cathedral swell |
| **LFO** twice | Leslie fast ⇄ slow | — |
| **PLAY** | start or stop the workbench | fade out / play again |
| **REC** | live-loop on/off | — |
| white key | note / step | cue a scene |
| black key | note / step page | battle modifier |

**MIDI** (on the channel set on the Box page):

| Message | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| program change 1-16 | cue a scene |
| Encounter: notes 36-51 | cue scenes 1-16 |
| Encounter: notes 52-62 | the eleven modifiers |
| Bardic: notes | play the chosen track |
| CC 7 | music volume |
| Start / Stop | start or stop the transport |

---

## VII. When the Box Falters

| Trouble | Remedy |
| --- | --- |
| Silence after a fall | Turn **MASTER** up. Press **PLAY**. **OCT- + OCT+** brings Encounter to full host. |
| A loop gone wrong in battle | **HOME + REC**, hold. **HOME + SAVE** if you regret it. |
| A red band on the glass | The Box stumbled and is restarting itself. It wakes with your last kept songs. |
| It will not wake twice in a row | It enters its own update mode by itself. Use the Installer to write it again. |
| To return it to the stock firmware | The Installer's *Return to official V15*, or M-VAVE's updater. |
| Deeper trouble | **OCT- + OCT+** held five seconds enters the chip's update mode. The README's recovery section names the tools. |

> *A bard's last trick: when every string is cut, hum. Mother Melody hears that too.*