Window 177

=  First Highlighted Part - Properties =

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Things that affect the notes played in (first) highlighted part in Parts window

Part
This is the part that gets changed using the Voice menu....

It also plays the tune if the number of parts to play is 1.

With the standard settings, it plays the Seed, Scale and Arpeggio too - you can change that from Bs | Arpeggio and Scale play buttons.

Also it's the part for the PC keyboard and mouse - you change that from Bs | PC Keyboard Notes to play.

You can select more than one part in the Parts window, if so this is the first highlighted part.

If you want to change all the parts in one go, higlight them all in the Parts window or use Voices | Change All

Parts...
Set which instruments play in the various parts, and volume etc

Volume for part
Volume for highlighted part

Bank
Use this to select a bank for the instrument, e.g. for a GS or XG synth.

With some synths, the 128 preset midi voices list is extended using banks. So - each for each of the instrument numbers, you can select up to 128 banks, each of which can have a different set of instruments in principle - in practice usually only a few of them are used.

Sometimes you can load the extra banks yourself manually. Or sometimes they are preset as for the GS and XG systems.

You can customise the Voice menu so that when you select an instrument, the approppriate bank number is also selected for it automatically. See Voices | Voice Menu Opts and other Voice Menus (CTrl + 157) which also includes presets for GS and XG synths in the drop list - you can also make your own customised voice menus following the same pattern, to match your synth.

Bank
Bank to use for highlighted part

Banks...
Show this window to see what Bank controller messages FTS will send for each part

INSTR
Enter the name of the instrument for highlighted part(s)...

You can type any of the names here. Recognises fragmentary names. You will see the selection for the part change to show the matching instrument if any is found with your text as part of its name.

Tip: if you want to try out lots of instruments in the menu to hear what they sound like - hold the shift key down while you change the selection here - or when you select an instrument in the voices menu. Then the first highlighted part is set to the instrument you chose, and following parts are set to the instruments that follow it in the menu in order.

INSTR - SPIN
Change to next or previous instrument in the menus for highlighted part(s)

RANGE OF NOTES
Enter midi note number for lower note for highlighted part

to
Enter midi note number for upper note for highlighted part

Outside range
Choose what happens when notes are played outside desired range...

Rebound - notes outside the range are "bounced" back into range. The higher (or lower) the note, the further back it is bounced. So a note two octaves above the desired top note would be bounced back two octaves and so on.

Hover - the notes bounce back only to the top (or bottom) octave of the range.

Hover and rebound - as you go out of range then it hovers for the first octave, then rebounds after that (so as a rising scale goes up and up beyond the desired range, you will hear the top octave of the desired range repeat twice before the notes played start to come back down in a rebound.

Silent - notes outside the desired range don't sound at all

Wrap around - notes above the desired range wrap around to the bottom of the range and notes below the desired range wrap around to the top of the range.

The more exotic options here are of most interest for fractal tunes probably.

These effects are applied after retuning. The idea is to keep all the notes played in that part within the desired range.

SHIFT by
Octave shift etc for highlighted part(s)...

Shift the pitch for the part by octaves, or intervals etc depending on the selection in the drop list above the list

SHIFT by
Choose the type of pitch shift for the parts...

Octave shift always shifts by the desired number of octaves 2/1

Arpeggio shift shifts by the interval from the 1/1 to the last note in the arpeggio (so often is 2/1 but depends on choice of scale and arpeggio).

Arpeggio degree shift moves each note for the part up or down a number of notes in the current main window arpeggio.

Scale degree shift moves it by the number of notes in the current main window scale.

So - both arpeggio and scale degree shifts continue to play in the same tuning, just shift the notes up / down.

The modulate by arpeggio degree or scale degree shifts the entire tune by the pitch interval associated with that scale or arpeggio degree. So e.g. modulate by one scale degree shifts the entire tune by the  first interval in the scale, modulate by two shifts it by the second scale interval and so  on.

Modulate by interval or by cents shift the entire tune by the specified interval. The only difference between them is that the cents shift always gets displayed in cents (but will accept any scale value for data entry).

SCALES FOR PARTS
Switch on scales and arpeggios set individually for each part

Scale for this part
If blank, plays same scale as first or previous one in scales for parts window

Scale for this part
If blank, plays same scale as first or previous one in scales for parts window

Scale for this part
If blank, plays same arp as first or previous one in scales for parts window

Scale for this part
If blank, plays same arp. as first or previous one in scales for parts window

Pan position left right
Enable pan for the highlighted parts

Pan position left right
Pan value for the highlighted parts

Pan...
Pans notes for parts. Use to set position to left or right for each part

MSB type
Select this if your synth uses Most Significant Byte method...

Don't worry if that doesn't mean much to you.

Maybe the manual for the synth will explain which type of midi message it expects.

If not, just try both possiblities, until you find the one that works.

Technically - it decides which of two possible numbers in the midi spec is used to send the instrument bank. In principle, both could be used together, giving a total of 128*128 sepearate banks of instruments each with 128 midi instruments. In practice, nothing like that number of instrument banks is needed - even 128 is far more than you usually need - so only one of the numbers is used, and some synths use one, whle others use the other.

So - rather than have two lists of numbers here for the two types of bank numbers, only one list has been shown. This check box configures how the number you enter is to be used.

Lambdoma keyboard picture
Show Lambdoma notes as you play, & play them using mouse or PC Keyboard...

Tips:

You can use the arrow keys to move a sustained chord around after you have played it.

Show the Bs | Notes Played window to see your notes in a score like form as dots on staffs.

Click on the music keyboard icons - to show the notes on a music keyboard as you play. You can also play the notes by clicking on the music keyboard picture.

The menu under the Tune Smithy icon at top left of the Lambdoma Keyboard picture has a quick link to the options for this keyboard.

Opts
Change layout, what to show, set moveable keyboard regions, shortcuts etc...

Play from PC keyboard
Play in this tuning from PC keyboard...

Midi In REGIONS ...
Set up regions of the keyboard for each part, use music keys as shortcuts etc.

More >>
Shows this window with either more space, more options, or alternative layout

Help = F1
Click for help for this window. Or F1. Other opts: Shift, Alt, Ctrl + click...

F1 or click shows the help for the current window in your web browser.

Some windows may have no help yet in which case the help icon is shown crossed out with a red line.

Shift + F1 or Shift + Click brings up the tool tips extra help window (this window) to show any extra help for a tool tip.

You can tell if a tool tip has extra help if it ends ... like this one.

Ctrl + F1 or Ctrl + click takes you to the list of keyboard shortcuts for Tune Smithy.

Alt + F1 or Alt + click (alternatively Caps lock physically held down + F1 or Click) takes you to the on-line page at the robertinventor.com web site about the current main window task - which gives a short introduction to it for newbies to the program. If there is no on-line page specific to a task, takes you to the main tune smithy page on the web site.

Since the help for Tune Smithy is currently a bit out of date and needs to be redone completely for the new 3.0 release, then you may find the on-line page for some of the newer tasks particularly useful.

Organise Windows = F2
Or F2 - Reset / save / open for individual windows, right click for cat. list...

Shows the Organise windows window - which you can use to reset all the parameters for the current window - or save them all, or open previously saved parameters for just this window. Also has a drop list of all the windows and their shortcuts.

You can also right click on this icon as a quick way to get the floating drop menu of all the Tune Smithy windows organised by category

Other Dialog Star
Tip of the day - For All category - right click for neighbouring windows...

Left click for a tip of the day in this category.

Right click to see a menu of neighbouring windows.

The neighbours are the ones you most often move to after this one or within a minute of this one, arranged by popularity.

So as you continue to use FTS, it will learn your habits, and the neighbouring windows listed here, should be the ones you most often visit after this one.