Color scheme

Quick Start Guide

By MadTracker Staff on 2005-09-01

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2. The MadTracker interface

The main window that you see after starting MadTracker contains all elements that you need to make music. We'll briefly go over all elements of the interface, so that you can get familiar with it in just a few minutes.

The Toolbar

	Start a new module (project)
	Load an existing module from your hard disk
	Save the current module to your hard disk
	Play from the current position
	Play and repeat the current pattern
	Play and repeat the current loop
	Stop the playback
	Toggle the edit mode
	Converts the MadTracker module into a FastTracker module (and vice-versa)
	Go into fullscreen mode. It will maximize the window and remove its title bar
	Open the configuration window
	Open the help
Octave	The current octave used when you enter notes
Add	The number of lines that the cursor will advance when you enter a note
MCE	(Multi-Channel Edit) Check this option when you want to record notes into a specific set of tracks
KJ	(Key-Jazz) This will let you play chords amongst several tracks rather than being limited to the current one

The Pattern Manager

On the top-left, you will find the pattern manager. This is in other words your song time-line.
A song is composed of several fragments called patterns.

This is the sequence numbering. Click on a number to jump to a specific position in the song.

This it the patterns ordering. The current playing position is highlighted (inverted colors). Here you can select one or several patterns (they will be highlighted in blue) and drag them to another position.

These are buttons to change the selected pattern(s)

These are the pattern ordering manipulation buttons. We will study them in the "Structuring your song" page.

These are buttons to toggle between the pattern manager and the transposition panel

The Song Information

In the middle of the screen you will find all kinds of information about the song currently playing.

Here you see the oscilloscopes. These help you to visualize which track contains what sound.

This it song title.

Here you find various information about the song.
BPM is the current tempo of the song expressed in Beats Per Minute.
LPB is the number of pattern lines per beat. By default, a beat will occur every 4 lines.
You can adjust it to whatever you like. For instance, higher values (like 8) enable you to make more complex and quickly changing drum rolls.
Ticks is the number of times pattern commands and envelopes will be updated per line. The higher the amount of ticks, the more resolution you get.
Patt shows the index of the pattern you are currently editing. Most of the time, it is also the pattern that is currently playing.
Lng is the length of the current pattern expressed in lines.
Tracks is the number of tracks available in the song.

The Instruments Panel

Finally, on the top-right you will find the list of instruments that are used within a song.

This is the index of the current instrument and its name.

This is the list of available instruments in the song.

The first 3 buttons are to switch the active panel:

Switch to the instruments panel (default).

Switch to the sample properties panel.

Switch to the VST plugins panel.

At the right you will find the buttons related to the active panel (the instrument panel in this case):

Create a new empty instrument.

Load an instrument. You can either replace the selected instrument or load a new one into an empty slot.

Save the selected instrument to your hard disk.

Open the instrument properties window for the selected instrument.

Delete the selected instrument.

The Pattern Editor

The thick gray bar is the line cursor. This cursor shows where you are going to enter a note. In playback mode the cursor indicates the line that is being played.
In the illustration, above the cursor, you see how each cell of a pattern is composed. The first part is the note, followed by the number of the instrument that is used to playback the note. The remaining parts are to define what the characteristics of the note are concerning the volume, the panning and the applied effect.
The highlighted part of the bar (in blue) shows what you are currently editing. In our example, it is on the note part. Use the left and right arrow keys to move your cursor to the other parts of the cell.

This is the line numbering. Every line that occurs on a beat is highlighted. These highlighted lines correspond to the value of LPB (see above).

In order to organize your tracks conveniently, you can give a name to each track. Simply double-click on the track label to change its name.
A single click on the track label will mute/unmute the track. A right-click will make the track available for recording when the multi-channel edit option is enabled (see above).

This is the fullscreen pattern editor button. Clicking this button results in a fullscreen pattern.

These buttons offer various visual options for the pattern editor:

Click here to show/hide some parts of the pattern cells.

Uncheck this to stop scrolling the pattern while in playback mode.

Shows a little vu-meter above each track.

Shows the visual equalizer above each track.

Next: Creating an instrument

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