The main task bar across the top of every screen contains standard cassette recorder controls for play, stop, pause, record, fast forward and rewind. You can also see what bar you're on, as well as which beat and click. In this instance if there are four beats in the bar and each beat has 96 clicks (this is average but can be altered) then this song was stopped or paused on the 138th click of bar 16.Remember the first 96 clicks are on beat 1, the 2nd 96 clicks (from 97-192) are on beat 2, the 3rd 96 clicks (from 193-288) are on beat 3 and the 4th 96 clicks (from 289- 384) are on beat 4.This applies to every bar and while such minute divisions of a bar are generally irrelevant they are important when it comes down to synchronizing the sequencer with another piece of hardware such as a drum machine, sampler etc.
The current time window can be quite important when you need to restrict yourself to a length of time. Many song competitions have a time limit on the length of song entries so this little guage keeps you informed. Sometimes if the song arrangement is slightly over the allocated time, rather than edit the song, simply speed it up a little so it finishes sooner.
The 'From'....'Thru' windows allow you to allocate a number of bars which you may wish to repeat or loop for reasons such as  practice, listening, searching for mistakes etc. It also permits re-recording of smaller sections where perhaps mistakes were made. In the above (Fig 2), bars 15 thru to bar 30 will be looped or repeated endlessly.

The numbers down the left side indicate the track numbers (NB: remember that there can be an endless number of tracks but there are only 16 channels)

The box below the "R" is where you click if you wish to record on that track. A little red "R" (Fig 4)will appear if all the settings are correct.

The "Name" box is where you type the name that you wish to call the patch or sound that is on that track. Usually it is the same as the patch name or a shortened version. Sometimes if it is a synthesized sound outside of the 128 GM sounds you might choose to give it your own descriptive name. (Compare my names above with the full names on the "GM List" as indicated by the patch numbers in the patch ("Pch") column.)

The "Type" box is used to indicate if the track contains or will contain (in the event of recording) a MIDI sound or a digitally recorded sound. The icon above( a din plug) is for midi. The icon shown below ( a sound wave) is for digital sound.

The "Pch" stands for patch. A patch is a sound, instrument, voice --call it what you will. Below the "Pch"  title bar are the numbers indicating what GM sounds are playing on the particular tracks. In this sequencer if the title bar is clicked on, it broadens to display the actual name of the patch. So the numbers 36, 1, 50, 74 and 26 would read as Fretless Bass, Acoustic Grand Piano, Slow Strings, Flute and Acoustic Guitar.  The '0' in the "Pch" section of Channel 10 refers to the standard drum kit used in most MIDI files. If the sound source permits it, this number being changed can bring up another of  numerous drum kits (room set, power set, orchestral etc.)

The "Port" refers to the communications port on your computer that your sound source is connected to (in most cases the joystick port).

"Vol" refers to volume level which varies from '0' ( no sound) to '127' (full volume)

"Ch" refers to one of the 16 MIDI channels (rem. Ch 10 is the drum channel). The numbers below the title bar refer to which channel  the various patches are being played on. The fact that the channel numbers and track numbers are the same, is not a coincidence. Although you can  record any channel on whichever  track you want it's a good rule of thumb to keep track and channel numbers the same. It just makes it easier when editing.

"Trans", "S" and "M" means you can transpose up or down, solo (hear only that track) or mute (kill the sound of the track) the particular patch.

In the "Pan" section, you can pan the sound anywhere within the stereo spectrum. In the above example while three of the instruments are centered on"0", the piano and guitar are panned far to the left (<60) and to the right (60>) respectively. Generally bass and drums are centered. All else is at the creative disposal of the arranger.

If the sound source provides "Reverb" and "Chorus" facilities then they can be inserted into the sequencer. Again the levels swing from '0' to '127'.

In this sequencer, Voyetra's "Digital Orchestrator Plus", the little black boxes indicate bars. The darker the box, the more MIDI activity is taking place within the bar. Different sequencers indicate activity in different ways. I find the little boxes easy to follow as bars and also easy to use as indicators when looking for problems which was one big selling point for me when I demo-ed different sequencers.

In the status bar (Fig 6) which appears at the bottom of every screen the "green" led windows let you know if you are in 'Stopped', 'Play' or 'Record' mode (left window), how much hard drive space you have available (centre window-important to know if you are doing some digital recording) and the tempo (right windows-adjustable).

You can also gain quick access to any of the main screens - track view, notation, piano roll, mixer, notepad, conductor, event editor and system exclusive by clicking on the various icons to the right of the first LED window

Also MIDI activity coming in or going out is flashed in the two little LED lights to the left of the metronome icon