Audio Damage Axon - Manual (Page 8)

1. Neuron Sequencer
Axon employs a unique new design for its internal sequencer. It is made up of a group of interconnected
objects we call neurons, so we call it the neuron sequencer. The neurons are displayed in a pane on the left of
Axon’s window.
The neurons are numbered from zero to seven. The neuron at the center is
Neuron 0. Neuron 1 is directly above Neuron 0, and the remaining neurons
are numbered in a clockwise fashion. The neuron with the blue hexagon in
the center (Neuron 5 in the illustration) is the selected neuron. To select a
neuron just click it with the mouse.
Any neuron can be connected to other neurons. Connected neurons send
signals, called pulses, to each other at metrical intervals. A neuron that
sends pulses to other neurons is called a transmitter. A neuron that
receives pulses from other neurons is called a listener. A neuron can be
both a transmitter and a listener.
Neuron 0 is special: it receives pulses at a fixed rate determined by your host program’s tempo, or Axon’s
internal timing source. We’ll describe Axon’s timing features in greater detail in a following section titled
Transport Controls; for now just remember that Neuron 0 always receives a steady stream of pulses
regardless of any connections in the neuron sequencer. Neuron 0 is the origin of pulses within the neuron
sequencer. If Neuron 0 isn’t connected to any other neurons, then no other neurons will receive (or send)
pulses.
Each neuron has a threshold value. The neurons each have a counter to keep track of how many pulses they
receive. When the number of received pulses exceeds the threshold value, the neuron fires and five things
happen simultaneously:
1. The neuron sends a pulse to any other neurons that are connected to it.
2. The neuron triggers its corresponding synthesizer voice, generating a sound.
3. A MIDI note message is transmitted by the plug-in to anything that might be connected to it, such as
a software or hardware synthesizer.
4. The outline of the neuron flashes blue in Axon’s window.
5. The neuron resets its pulse counter to zero.