Window 200

=  Make a Lissajous Chord Sound Clip =

Make Lissajous chord recording now
Make a recording of the notes for the current Lissajous chord...

This makes a recording for the pitches of whichever chord was last played when the Lissajous window was shown - that's so that it will match the current lissajous pattern. To make a new chord, just show the Lissajous window then play any notes in FTS to make a new Lissajous pattern. Then you will be able to make a recording of your chord here using the options in this window to configure how it is played.

Spread chord notes across parts
Plays the chord notes on successive parts...

You can set the parts up as you like, with any instruments, controllers (vibrato, tremolo etc) or whatever you like - also with volumes set individually for each part and stereo panned to wherever you like. Then each note of the chord gets played on one of your parts.

So in this way you can customise each note of the chord individually to your hearts content :-).

Auto Stereo pan the chord notes
Spreads out chord notes in space from left to right...

With two notes chords, the first note is on the left (say) and second note is on the right.

With larger chords, notes in between are spread over the in between positions.

If you want to swap the notes left and right, set the first note to 127 for rightmost and the last note to 0 for leftmost. To spread by a smaller amount set e.g. first note to 32 and last to e.g. 96

This option doesn't work with the CSound chords. However you can achieve the same effect with the CSound recording by using Spread the chord notes across the parts together with Auto pan the spread parts - and if you want all the notes on the same instrument just set all the parts to play the same CSound instrument..

Short list of formats
Midi, .Wav and Mp3 supported right away. For other formats, see FAQ | General...

To save mp3s etc, you need to install suitable utilities for FTS to call to do the conversion.

See FAQ | General | How do I record and play back recordings | Adding support for mp3s etc

Audio Rec. Level
Select whether to record from microphone, or midi, or "what you hear" etc...

What you see hear depends on your system and soundcard. Usually there is a fader for the microphone and one for your midi synth, or maybe "What you hear" or "Stereo mix" etc. It controls the standard levels of recording for the whole of your system and windows.

C-sound Instr. for parts...
Set the instruments to use for CSound save and play in CSound AV

Play recording
Play the recording directly in Tune Smithy - or stop playback...

Useful for a quick review of the recording to check it was made correctly. Changes to a stop button when playback is in progress.

For more detailed control, to pause, restart, change volume etc, you will want to play in Windows Media Player, WinAmp, etc.

To show the recording in the program which is set up to play audio clips on your computer, use the Play by Association button.

Play by assoc.
Play using the program set up to handle audio clips on your computer...

Use this after you have finished making the recording to play it to hear the results.

This has the same effect as double clicking on the file in your folders listing - it uses your computer's file association for whatever type of file it is you play - so will start up whatever program has been set up to handle this type of fiile.

Usually it will get played by Windows Media player. It could also be played by WinAmp or the like if they have been installed on your computer or other music programs you installed that have registered themselves as able to handle audio playback (the last one installed has precedence, also usually when a program is installed you are asked what file types you want it to handle).

You can configure the file associations yourself, using Tools | Folder Options | File Types in Explorer - or just right click on one of the files, go to Open With... then Choose Program... and say that you always want to use that program to open the files of this type.

E-mail recording
Send the recording shown in this window as an e-mail attachment...

Uses whatever is your current preset e-mail client on your computer. If you haven't configured this at all, it will probably attempt to send it using Outlook Express.

If you need to send the file using web mail you will need to attach the file to the e-mail yourself manually

Play as web page
Show the recording in a newly made web page...

This is particularly designed for those who use Quicktime with FTS but may also be useful for users of Windows Media player and other players that work well embedded in web pages.

Note that you can set the size of the player for the web page. See the More version of this window.

FTS can also play via Quicktime directly by adding QuickTime devices to the out menu, but with anomalies - the rhythm may not be well reproduced that way. In some tunes with much "pitch polyphony" such as the tone scapes or non octave tunings it may also pause at times to give time for the next note to get retuned (or it may play pitch bend artefacts if you choose not to do gaps).

So the idea here is to experiment with the tune in FTS where you can play it on QuickTime directly to get a first idea of what it will be like. Then when it is finished, record to midi and show it as a web page.

BTW if you show this in XP with SP2 then FTS just shows the player - in other operating systems FTS also shows a link to the midi clip below the player.

You cant get both link and player to work in the same web page in XP with SP2 when the page is on your local machine with the standard security settings.

If you want to try - hold down the shift key while you make the page and it will add the link to the midi file to the web page, but remove the "mark of the web" so that you can follow the link. You get a message about blocked content at the standard security settings.

If you want to try what happens if you keep the mark of the web in, hold down Ctrl as you make the page. You will probably find that nothing happens when you click on the link. Nor will it let you open it - but you can right click and save it to elsewhere on your hard disk and so get to it that way.

This is why I can't get active content combined with direct links to non web page type files such as tune smithy files or midi clips to work together in the help with Internet Explorer with SP2.

Lissajous Pattern
Shows Lissajous figures as you play...

These patterns were originally made by a Frenchman Lissajous by shining light onto mirrors attached to tuning forks. They can also be shown using oscilloscopes.

The interesting thing about this pattern is that the same chord always has the same pattern whatever its pitch.

So for instance, all major chords with the same exact relative tuning have the same pattern, then there is another pattern for all minor chords, another for all diminished sevenths, and so on. Then there are separate patterns for each of the flavours of all those chords, for instance one for septimal minor chords, one for the ordinary just minor, and so on.

When you have a chord that uses small numbered pure ratios, for instance a chord in the harmonic series or other just intonation (pure ratio based) chords - the lines will join up after a few cycles around.

If the chord isn't quite pure, but close to just, then the lines continue for ever but they start off pretty much the same as the pure chords.

The pattern then would fill the entire area normally (if you set the time out high enough) so wouldn't be very interesting. So normally the lines are set to fade out if it continues too far to follow in the time available. This is configured in the Lissajous Colour and Line Options (Ctrl + 198)

Any that don't fade out can be finished if you give them enough time. The title will show that they need more time - use the Redraw with more time button to see the complete picture.

Some complex just intonation chords may fade out too, because Tune Smithy didn't follow the curve far enough to find the place where it joins up. The calculation continues ahead of the place it reaches with the drawing, so Tune Smithy can show many fairly complex just intonation chords without fading them out. But sometimes it just doesn't go far enough in the calculation to recognise them.

If the pattern fades out, and you know that it is in fact just intonation, and want to see the complete curve, increase the time out if necessary, and again, use the Redraw with more time button.

Though this window doesn't have an obvious menu, it does have one hidden away. Click on the icon at top left to bring up the menu with Close, Resize etc - and look down there and you will find some other options specific to this window - this is a simple way to keep some of the more often needed options ready to hand. You will find the redraw with more time option there, also one to print the window, and the options for the window

Auto Stereo pan the parts for the notes
Auto pans the parts from left to right...

If you have the parts all set to play on the same instrument, this has the same effect as the Auto pan notes of chord option that you see when you switch off Spread the chord notes across the parts.

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

Record To File Options
Choose the file name to record to and file format. Many options.

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

Scales Dialog Star
Tip of the day - Scales 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.