Tunesmith tutorial; part one. Gregory Rayee ----------------------------- This tutorial is aimed at using tunesmith in a deterministical way, not as an interactive performance tool. it is possible to use tunesmith in many other different ways, however. ----------------------------- the following drawing is an attempt to reproduce the tunesmith screen in ascii: _________________________________________ | | | 1 theme and variations parameters | |_________________________________________| | | | | 2 info | theme | |____________________________| and | |t & v presets | accomp. | variations | | | presets | | | 3 | 4 | 5 | |______________|_____________|____________| | | | 6 accompaniment | |_________________________________________| | | | 7 master control | |_________________________________________| tunesmith basics: first of all: pressing the help key on the atari keyboard at !any! time brings up screens explaining the less obvious stuff. this makes the program very useable with the somewhat limited docs. ________________________ a session with tunesmith ------------------------ look at the ascii drawing above. note that the screen is divided in different uhmm "windows". they are numbered from 1 to 7 in the drawing. step 1: ------- different parameters are set by you in window 1. they are the 'theme and variations parameters". these parameters will be used by the program to generate a melodic line. the parameters are explained on the help screens. some are obvious. just change some stuff. how? you will see a lot of: <5> or <9> or <2> like symbols on the screen. click on < to decrease the 5. click on > to increase the 5. rightclicking will increase or decrease in bigger amounts. bothclicking will go instantly to the highest or lowest amount. step 2: ------- now look at window 5. this window is called the "theme and variations" window. it looks like: TA VA1 VA2 VA3 TB VB1 VB2 VB3 TC VC1 VC2 VC3 TD VD1 VD2 VD3 TE VE1 VE2 VE3 brrrr.... clicking on "TB" will create a melodic line based on the parameters you have set in window 1 (aka the "theme and variations parameters" window) AND at the same time store this melody under the name "TB". press the spacebar to play this melodic line. press backspace to stop the music. TB means: T for THEME and B for B. where B is the name of the theme!!! VB1 means: V for VARIATION and B1 for B1. where B1 is the name of the variation! note that variation b1 (VB1) is a variation on theme B (TB)!!!! HENCE the name "theme and variations window" !!! shift + clicking on "TB" will erase "TB" ! step 3: ------- now look at window 3. it is called "Theme and variation presets". it contains the letters A to Z. it looks like: A B C D E F G H I etcetera. the parameters you have set in "window 1" (the theme and variation parameters!) can be stored in this window. (think of this as a screenshot stored for later recall). storing the current theme and variation parameters in a preset is simply done by clicking on "A", or "B" or whatever. erasing "A" is done by shift clicking on it !! step 4: ------- first: create a "TB" theme (as explained in step 1 and 2 ). select it. (click on it!) now look at window 6. it is called -The Accompaniment Window-. you will see 6 tracks. every track is currently 'loaded' with the melodic line "TB". => if you unmute all lines, the same melodic line will play six times at the same time. the purpose of this Accompaniment Window is to allow you to change the melody in each track separately. there are also different colums, called channel, program, octave, etc. ***some tips on how to:*** (or how you might want to) use this accompaniment window. * unmute track 2 and 3 and mute all other tracks (including track 1!). * set "rhythm" for those tracks to 12 or 11, using the > and < symbols. * set "harmony" for line 3 to 6. this is a deterministic variation on the original melody you created. note that other settings for harmony may not be deterministic. (an explanation on what these harmony settings do, can be found on the help screens!) * "dlay" line 3. (= delay). a delay of value 1 is a delay of 1 clockstep. the default resolution that tunesmith uses is 24 steps per beat. this means: 24 clocksteps equal one quarter note. simple math will reveal that: 12 clocksteps equal an eight note. 6 clocksteps equal a sixteenth note. 48 clocksteps equal one half note. 96 clocksteps equal a whole note. tip: use the right mouse button to change the values in bigger steps. * use tran to transpose line 3. (check the docs for tunesmith for explanation on the amount of transposition.) * set divide for line 3 to 2. this will skip -every second note-. setting it to 3 will skip -every third note-. etcetera. setting it to a negative value=> randomly! for example: if set to '-3', the program will play almost every third note. what am i doing???? -------------------- you are now building a more complex melody consisting out of track 2 and 3! it sounds much more interesting than just playing track 1. when you find a combination of track 2 and 3 that you like: store it in window 4: the accompaniment presets window. (by clicking on "A" or "B3 etcetera) the purpose of the "accompaniment presets window" is to store different versions and combinations of the six tracks as presets. these presets can later on be used to build a complete song in the "arranger window" (this window can be accessed by clicking on the word 'arranger' in window 7. => it' s a toggle!) but that's for part 2 of this tutorial. (picture presets as "patterns" versus aranger window as "pattern editor"). you can build a more complex melody using 3 or more tracks, of course. try to create an interesting melody out of only 2 or 3 tracks. then use the other lines to create a variating, evolving 'solo' on top of that. * now unmute track 4. use 'octv' to change the octave that track 4 plays in. set this to '1' or '-1' if line 2 and 3 are set to '0'. now some notes will overlap and some won't. use 'dlay' on track 4. this will create a totally different melodie. when you find something you like, store it in the 'accompaniment presets window'. as you can probably see now; you can create more or less changes between different presets. and totally morph the melody! tips n tricks: in general: *it is a good idea to not fill in the 'program' fields, just in case you change your mind later on. set it from your synth instead. *you need to remember what preset evolved out of what other preset, this is to build the piece afterwards. use paper and pencil for this. this might just look like: A > Z > W >... this is important!! and not much trouble! *it seemed best for me to change only two or three things in a preset and then store it as a different preset. this is because the new preset has to fit after the original one. it is always possible to erase presets later on! (shift clicking on it) better save more, erase later. *line 1 is not so interesting, because you can not change it a lot. NOTE: => window 2 shows info in realtime about what is happening. current scale, mode, key, preset etc. are shown. changing scales and modes is well explained in the tunesmith docs and tim's tutorial on his tunesmith page. (it is basically done by hitting keys on the atari keyboard.) __________________________________ this is the end of part 1!!!! save what you have done by clicking on 'menu' in window 7. then select: 'save tune'. the extension must be '*.tun'.