Dr. T’s KCS Keyboard Controlled Sequencer

Posted December 11th, 2007 by Oliver Chesler
Filed Under: Ableton Live

Dr. T’s KCS Keyboard Controlled Sequencer

The first software I ever used to create music was Dr. T’s KCS. I used it on an Atari 1040ST. The software was strictly to control external hardware midi devices. Hard discEmile Tobenfeld recording and virtual instruments were years away from hitting the mainstream. A guy named Emile Tobenfeld (see photo) was the man behind Dr. T’s and KCS and he created this software in 1984.

Take a look at the screen shot above of the “Track Mode”. You see those 48 “clip slots”? Each one would play back a midi part. You could mute and un-mute parts to try different musical ideas. You could also record midi into any part. Sound familiar? It’s an early version of Ableton Live’s session view! Amazing no?

Atari 1040ST

KCS also had an “Edit Mode” where you could transform parts. You could do quiet a lot with your midi data including change the pitch, velocity, controllers, pitch bends, compress and expand length, reverse, and much more. I have strong memories of using the “Step Time Track” feature to make drum patterns.Dr. T’s KCS Packaging

The “Step-Time Track” is used to enter notes one at a time. You specify the value of the note, (half-note, quarter note, etc.) and its length, and then play the note on your MIDI keyboard. Velocity can be recorded from the keyboard, or it can be preset. Step-time tracks can be appended to existing tracks. - myatari.net

We have come an amazingly long way from those days. Yet we were still able to create some good music. It’s really not what you use but how you use it!

photo credit: tweakheadz.com, myatari.net and DrewVigal

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4 Responses to “Dr. T’s KCS Keyboard Controlled Sequencer”
  1. Oliver Chesler Says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 2:34 am

    After KCS on Atari I moved on to:

    Cubase Atari
    Cubase VST/32 on a Mac clone (PowerComputer Powercenter Pro210)
    Cubase SX on a Powermac G4 Dual 500 Tower

    and today:

    Ableton Live 7 on a Intel Mac

  2. pat the dog Says:
    December 22nd, 2007 at 4:57 am

    KCS was a fantastic sequencer. I used it on the Amiga for several years. It’s author Emile Tobenfeld is nothing short of a genius. He was also extremely helpful and always happy to answer emails. He even posted me a cassette of his own music which was lovely of him.

    After KCS, I used Cubase for a while before moving onto Logic. In the last couple of years I’ve been mostly using Ableton Live whose session view seems to have been inspired by KCS. Though there are still some things that KCS was better at even than Live, such as clips that could launch other clips.

  3. mister_allmine Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 9:36 am

    I purchased 2 Atari STs almost 10 yrs ago, came with a box of software including KCS and Tiger, but I have never got around to using it, beacuse I never had the space to leave my kit set up long-term. We finally bought or own home, and tho it is almost 2010, I still plan to use KCS. I picked up 2 1040s, 1 color and 1 mono monitor, 1 ext harddrive and 1 floppydrive, printer and 2 mice with boxes of floppys for $50! I think it was fate. Aside from a few Korg syths, most of my stuff is 80s era anyway, so I’ll be keeping w tradition.

  4. Oliver Chesler Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 10:02 am

    Hi mister_allmine… Take some photos or a video of KCS in action. There’s nothing on YouTube… I would love to see it running again!