The Pattern Editor |
After assembling our instruments we are now ready to start composing. The first place to go to is the pattern editor. To go to the pattern editor you can click on the 'Patterned' button or you can doubleclick on one of the patterns in the songgrid. A song consists of repeating patterns. Upto 16 patterns can be played at the same time but in the pattern editor you can only hear and edit one at a time.
On
the right hand side you can select which pattern you want to edit from a
list of available patterns. By clicking one time on the name of a pattern
you select it and it will appear in the display. If you double click on the
name of pattern you can rename it. If you want to make a new pattern you
can press the 'New' button, this will add a blank new pattern at the end
of the list.
If
you are not happy with a pattern you can remove it too, you do this with
the 'Delete' button. If the pattern is being used in the song you will get
a warning message. If you decide to delete the pattern anyway, any references
to it in the song are replaced by references to an empty pattern. If you
are really happy with a pattern and you want to store it for other projects
you can save it to harddisk by pressing the 'Save' button. By pressing the
'Load' button you can reload your pattern. Note that the loaded pattern is
added to the list of available patterns and doesn't replace the one which
is currently selected. The 'Play Pattern' button plays the pattern and the
'Stop' button stops it. The 'Play Song' button plays the entire song from
the specified location in the song editor. This can be usefull if you want
to hear your pattern in the 'grand totale'. If you click the 'Edit' button
you can alter (edit) the pattern. Just like the in the instrument editor
the computer keyboard acts like the keys of a piano keyboard and the function
keys switch the octave. Ofcourse, editing with a MIDI compaint device is
also possible. If the 'Edit' button is pressed the notes you play are directly
entered into the pattern at the place of the cursor. If the 'Edit' button
isn't pressed the notes aren't entered but you can hear the current instrument.
This way you can try a little bit first if you aren't to sure.
The
quantize option let's you specify how much off you can be with your sense
of rythm. The higher the quantize setting you specify, the more the computer
will correct any rythmic mistakes. To change the instrument with which you
are playing you can click on the instrument drop-down list.
The
name of the pattern you are currently editing is displayed at the top of
the screen. If you click on the name you can change it. The pattern consists
of 64 rows. Every row can basically have one note on it and some specification
with which instrument it is played. Additionally you can specify extra scripting
data which enables you to alter any parameter of the current playing instrument.
Let us now look at one row more specifically. The first entry is reserved
for the main note to be played at that time. If you move the cursor to that
position and the 'Edit' button is pressed you can enter another note there.
By pressing the Del-key you erase the note. The place right to the note is
a number which specifies with which instrument the note will be played. To
know which number corresponds to which instrument you can check the instrument
dropdown box, as you will see every instrumentname has a number before it.
If you enter a note however, the current instrument is filled in automatically.
By selecting instrument number 0 (an instrument which doesn't exist) the
previous used instrument is played, but with a slight difference: Various
internal counters aren't reset so that you can have slight variations in
the sound.
The
2 numbers right to the instrumentnumber are called 'Destination'. In the
left of the 2 you can type a note. When the 'Pitchbend'-script is active
(more about scripting further on) the playing note will be bend (The frequency
will gradually go higher or lower) untill it reaches the destination note.
With this feature it is easy to make guitar solos a professional guitarist
has difficulty to play live. The number next to the destination note is used
in conjunction with the other scripts. It is the value used to change parameters
of the current playing instrument for instance. The value to the right (so
this is the 5'th value from the left) is called 'Spd' and it defines the
speed with which the 'Pitchbend'-script is executed. Note that if the destination
note is lower in frequency than the start note that you must enter a negative
spd. Last but not least the number on the righthand-side is the number of
the script used. If you enter a zero here there is no script used. The scripts
enable you to have unparalled control over every conceivable parameter of
the playback. This includes changing the songspd dynamically or altering
any of the instrument parameters. Let's give an example to illuminate this:
Script number 4 is called: 'Chng Master Vol'. If you put this script somewhere
in the pattern, the 'Master Volume' of the current playing instrument is
changed into the value denoted by the 'Destination' value (the fourth value
from the left). Note that the parameter is changed for good. You can rechange
the parameter by adding another script which changes it back. Of course you
can also go to the instrument editor and change the parameters by hand. The
example in the picture will play instrument 1 starting from note C on octave
8 and heighten it until it reaches the note D flat on octave 8 with speed
3. One final thing to remember is that if you change the paramters of an
instrument with the scripting options, they are changed permanently and have
to be restored either by hand, or by resetting them elsewhere in your patterns
(or by reloading the tune of course)
To help with the more tedious and cumbersome tasks
while creating patterns we have come up with a little toolbox to help out.
First of all there is the 'Copy' button which copies the pattern to a temporarily
buffer, easy when you quickly want to be able to undo something while you
are trying something new.
The
'Paste' button does the opposite and copies the contents of the internal
buffer back to the pattern. The 'Clear' button clears the patterns for you
so you can start all over. The 'Clear Even' button clears every second note
from a pattern and the 'Clear Odd' does this as well but starts with the
first note. These functions are particularly usefull when you have a pattern
with notes but the sounds don't sustain too long and are continually cut-off
by the next instrument. By copying the pattern in question to another pattern
and then 'Clear 'Even' the first and 'Clear Odd' the other you have split
the pattern into 2 patterns. If you now play these patterns simultaneously
from the songedit menu, you will hear the same melody but with a richer sound
since 2 soundchannels are used. The 'Transpose +1' button will increase all
the notes by 1 (transposing) which will result in the melody of the patterns
being played 1 note higher. Note that a C-4 note will become a C#4 and not
a D-4 note. If you are not sure why this is please, reread the chapter about
musical theory. The 'Transpose -1' button decreases all the notes by 1 resulting
in the melody being played 1 note lower. Note that these are easy functions
to play a musical piece in a different key. The 'Octave up' function transposes
the pattern by 12 notes (or 1 octave). This means that the music is still
played in the same key but it is one octave higher. The 'Octave Down' is
the opposite and lowers the pattern by one octave. The 'Change instr' button
changes all the used instruments in the pattern to the currently selected
instrument. The notes which use instrument 0 aren't changed.
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