The Blocks tool lets you manipulate a linear sequence of phrases (blocks). Each phrase in the sequence comes from a "phrase collection". The original intended use of this tool was for manipulating drum patterns, but it can be used for sequencing any type of phrase, including complete songs.

The default number of blocks is 4, but the button that is labelled "4" is actually a menu that lets you set the number of blocks.

The "Read Collection" item in the More menu lets you read in a "collection" file - these files have a .kc suffix by convention. In your lib directory you should find a file named drums1.kc which you can use - it contains a variety of simple drum patterns. After reading a collection, you will then find that the button menus above each "block" (whose labels will initially read "One beat") will contain a list of names. By pressing the button menu above a particular block and selecting one of these names, the corresponding drum pattern will be placed in that block.

To play the patterns you've placed in the blocks, press the left mouse button within one of the blocks (the phrase window part). Playback will begin in the block you've selected and continue to the right, ending at the rightmost block. If you press the Loop button (which is a toggle), it will cause the playback to loop continuously. Pressing the left mouse button in any of the phrase windows will terminate the playback of the blocks.

Creating a new collection is also done with the Blocks tool. To clear the current collection, use the "Clear Collection" item in the More menu. To add a phrase to the collection, you first assign the desired phrase to the current Snarf (using the "Snarf" item you'll find in most tools). Then, invoke the "Add Snarf to Collection" item in the More menu. You will be requested to enter the name you want to assign to the phrase. This name will be added to the list in the menu button above each block, and you can use it like any other phrase in the collection. When you've added a number of new phrases to the collection, you can write the new collection to a file by using the "Write Collection" item in the More menu.

When creating a collection of drum patterns, you'll want to make sure the length of each phrase is quantized. If you Snarf the current Pick in the Group tool, the length will not be quantized. The better way to grab a phrase (in the Group tool) for use in a Blocks collection is to use the "Snarf->Aud" item you'll find in the track menus of the Group tool. By Snarfing the Audition area, the length of the Snarf will be the exact length of the Audition area, and you can then make sure it has the desired length.

The "Start Quant->" item in the More menu lets you control the quantization of the start time, whenever the blocks are played.

If you create a set of blocks that you like, you can use the "Snarf All" item in the More menu to Snarf the entire sequence, which you can then read into (for example) a Group tool for editing and other use.