set, then the setting and its value: set tempo 90. It applies from its line to the end of the cell, and carries into later cells. set goes only at the top of a cell, outside every block. Inside a block, settings go on a with, which gives them to its own block and nothing else.
These three apply to every line. The drums and the pitched instruments each have settings of their own, set the same way:
kit for the drums, and key and mode, octave, transpose and an instrument’s sound for the pitched instruments.
time
The unit is the note value counted: 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. The count can be a sum, as inset time 3+4 over 8, which groups the grid without changing the bar. over is required because / is division: 7/8 is the number 0.875.
swing
set swing on swings the eighths, as a part marked Swing is played: the off-beat eighth falls two thirds of the way through the beat, where a triplet’s third note would, and sixteenths move with the eighth they belong to. It is off unless it’s set, and set swing off turns it off again. Only the sound moves: the grid stays as written, and the sheet says Swing above the first staff.
with
with, then settings with commas between them, then a block: with key E, mode minor { ... }. The settings apply to the block only, and what was set before comes back at its }. A with takes any setting set takes, each once, and at least one. Names declared inside a with stay inside it, as names in any block do, and nothing in it carries into later cells.
A with’s block holds what could stand where the with is:
An instrument’s block of layers and a named value hold values, not lines, so a
with goes around the line instead: with octave 5 { piano: { ... } }.
The chart walks through every chord of E minor, and the bass plays an octave below it, its figure repeating under each chord. A pattern is evaluated where it is played, so prog plays in E and then in G.
time, tempo and swing go on a with around a whole play, or on a part that plays in order. Lines that sound together share one moment, and so one tempo: a with tempo beside other lines in a play or a pattern is an error, and so is a pattern that changes the tempo played with other lines. A with that holds everything a pattern plays can set its tempo, and the pattern then plays at it wherever it plays in order: pattern tag = with time 6 over 4 { ... }.