Getting Started

From MusE Wiki

Contents 1 Create A New Song 2 Diffrent Types of Tracks 3 Recording Events 4 Step Recording 5 Use MusE's Internal Software Synthesizers 6 Use Software Synthesizers In General 7 The audio mixer settings 8 LADSPA effects section for AUDIO 9 MIDI filter 10 Working with audio tracks 11 Using Jamin for Audio Record 12 Project concept

Create A New Song

Here's a very short tutorial on how to create a new song from scratch.

Start MusE with the name of a new song (ie. a filename that doesn't already exist):

    muse blues1.med

Alternatively, start MusE and select File->New. The default song name is default and the first time you select File->Save, MusE asks you for a real name.

1. Select a song type from the Type pulldown menu in the Toolbar. This selects the capabilities of your MIDI hardware (either NO, GM, GS, or XG).
2. Doubleclick on the first empty track to create a new track.
3. Select the MIDI channel for the new track; click with the right mouse button on Ch column in the track list to increment channel nummber, click with middle mouse button to decrement.
4. If the TrackInfo window is not visible, press TrackInfo.
5. Select a MIDI instrument for the MIDI channel of your new track.
6. Click with the middle mouse button on ruler to set left locator mark.
7. Click with the right mouse button on the ruler to set right locator mark. Note: The right mark must be set to the right of the left mark.
8. Double click between the left and right locators on first track to create a new part, or select the Pencil tool and draw with the left mouse button pressed to create a new part.

Diffrent Types of Tracks

There are two distinctive differences between tracks. The first kind are event tracks that mainly deal with MIDI events. The other kind are streaming tracks that mainly contain audio data.

MIDI tracks:

• Midi Track - generic midi track
• Drum Track - a specialized midi track that deal better with drums

Audio Tracks:

• Audio - a generic audio track
• Group - a kind of mixer through which several audio types can be routed through
• Input - external connection into MusE
• Output - external connection out of MusE
• Aux - Useful if you want to add the same kind of effects to several tracks, but different amount

Recording Events

Entering Notes Manually

1. Select Pointer tool from toolbar
2. Double click on part in part canvas to start the pianoroll editor
3. Select Pencil tool from toolbar in the pianoroll editor
4. Now you can draw events into the event canvas

Play The Notes

1. Click with middle mouse button on ruler to set left locator mark
2. Click with right mouse button on ruler to set right locator mark

Note: right mark must be set right to left mark

1. Click with left mouse button on ruler to set current position between left and right locator
2. Select "loop" in the transport toolbar
3. Press play to start sequencer
4. You can enter new notes while the sequencer is playing

Some Hints

You can "play" in realtime on the piano keyboard on the left side of the pianoroll editor. You can change Channel Info and Track Info values during play

Step Recording

1. Start the pianoroll editor
2. Click with left mouse button on ruler to set current position to the start position of your recording
3. Set the Snap value to the step distance
4. Set the Quantize value to the length of the notes to record
5. Enter step record mode by pressing the "S" toolbar button
6. Every click on the piano keyboard records a note with "Quantize" len and advances the current record position to
7. The next "Snap" position
8. Shift+click records a note without advancing the current record position
9. Change the current position with the cursor keys
10. Shift+space inserts a gap; all notes to the right of the current position move to the next snap position

Use MusE's Internal Software Synthesizers

Use Software Synthesizers In General

The audio mixer settings

Hint: if your mouse has a scroll wheel you can use that on all controls in the mixer for easy adjusting of levels (infact, it works in most parts of MusE).

LADSPA effects section for AUDIO

MIDI filter

here is the MusE recipe to randomize velocity:

     - start the "Midi Transformator" Edit->Midi->MidiTransform
     - in the "Filter" section select Event Type "Equal" and "Note"
     - select Function "Transform"
     - select Range "selected tracks"
     - in the Processing section select Value 2 (this is the midi
       velocity) "Random" and a number range 90-110 (as example)
     - press Apply
     - Undo should restore old settings
     - use Undo/Redo to switch between before/after

The "Midi Transformator" can also be used to perform a lot of other algorithmic transformations of midi events. Its one of the more obscure MusE features (and mostly undocumented)

Working with audio tracks

There are some do:s and don't:s concerning working with audio projects in MusE.

First of, MusE has a concept of project directory. This is where all project related items are stored, including wave files. When MusE is first started project dir is set to the current working directory. This means that if you start recording audio before having selected a location for the song-file the wave files will end up in the current dir. Later when you select a location and store the song-file the project-path will change to this new location. This situation can lead to a lot of headscratching. Hence, always:

• Select a song file and store it prior to recording audio files

In general audio files are unique to the project you are working on, hence it is a very good idea to separate different songs in different directories. Thus it won't be a problem to move/backup/otherwise mess around, with single projects. Hence, a good rule:

• Store each song in a separate directory

Even if a song is placed in a specific directory, separated from other songs it's still possible to share audio files, should the need arise.

Just use the import audio feature and point out which file you want to import (or use drag&drop). Please note that the file is not copied to the current project but merely accessed with an absolute path. Hence, if the project is moved or the file is moved the project will be missing this wave file.

Using Jamin for Audio Record

Project concept

In MusE a song is also considered a project. The project has some properties that are good to keep in mind. MusE keeps track of something called the project path. This is where it will store everything related to a certain project. When MusE is started the current directory(CWD) is the project path, this can have an unwanted side effect that for instance wave files are stored there until the song file is stored in it's designated location. In other words, storing the song file should be done early on in the project, moreoever, storing the song to a new location halfway through the project is probably a very bad idea. Moving the whole project directory is however no problem since all files created inside the project have relative paths. (Except for imported wave files!) Lastly it is a good idea to store each song in it's own directory to make it easy to know which files belong to a certain project.

• Before starting of on a new song, store the song file to it's designated location.
• Don't store the song file to a new location once you've settled on a place.
• Keep each song in it's own sub directory to keep files separated.