Tutorial 1 : Building up a Song Composition

This tutorial will build up the Tutorial_1.Ims Project that is also included in your Muzys/Projects folder.

If you're stuck at some point in this tutorial, it might be a good idea to load that Project into Muzys and watch how things were done.

OK, here we go :

Let's start this tutorial with a new empty project.

Therefore open the System menu in the Control Panel, and choose "New Project".

Now Muzys will ask you whether you are sure.

This safety confirmation is necessary to prevent that "New Project" would clear your current Project by accident.

Now click OK.

Muzys will ask you for a name and type for a new Composition.

You can choose between a Loop and Song Composition. Lets take a Song Composition.

Now here we have an empty Muzys Project.

This is a good time to point to the 3 main windows of Muzys :

  1. A window for Compositions & Sequences
  2. A window for everything related to Sounds
  3. And the Control Panel, which contains buttons for Play and Record, and also contains 3 main menus : System, Tools and Help.

At the top-left of the sound window [1], you'll find the "Add-A-Sound" button. This is the way to import sounds in your Project. So click on it and choose "Add-A-Sound".

The Add-A-Sound function pops up a File Chooser. Here you can preview and select the sound files you want to add.

Muzys currently supports the AIFF, WAVE, MP3 and SF2 wave file formats, all from 8 to 32 bits ! And of course it also supports Muzys' own file formats for Patches and MultiPlayers (IPA, IPL, IPG).

At the right of the File Chooser, you have 6 buttons :

  1. Goto your Desktop
  2. Goto / Manage your favorite folders
  3. The File Filter allows to view only certain files
  4. Create a new folder
  5. Rename a file or a folder
  6. Delete a file

Now double-click the "Library" folder, then double-click on "DrumSets" and then choose the "Virtualdrumkit.Ipg".

This will load a drum kit with which we'll start making some groove

Muzys will ask whether you also want to create a new Part for the loaded sound.

Click Yes as this spares us some work.

Once you're back in the Song Composer, you'll see the new Part that we've created for our Virtual Drum Kit.

As the Part is already selected (i.e. it's dark), we can simply rename it by going to the Sequence menu at the top-right of the Composer, and choose "Name". Let's name it, for example, "Drums A".

Now take the Pencil tool [1], and click on the end of the Part, and while holding the mouse, pull the end of the Part to the right so that it ends at measure 5 [2].

OK, let's set a Cycle around this Part so that it will loop. Therefore we click on measure 1 in the Time Bar [3] and drag a rectangle up to measure 5. This way we set the Cycle zone. And by clicking the Cycle button in the Control Panel [4], we activate Cycling.

OK, good job; Now let's go to the Key Editor and make a drum groove.

Therefore make sure our Part is selected. This can be done by simply clicking on it with the Arrow tool. Then click the Key Editor button at the top of the Song Composer [5], and there we go.

At the left of the Key Editor [1] you can see the various drum names of our Virtual Drum Kit. Tip : A right-click (MacOS : command-click) on the names pops up some extra functions; Check it out some day.

Also in the Key Editor we have a Mouse Tool Box [2] from which we can chose various tools so to edit our Sequences. You can drag (i.e. click+hold+move) the Tool Box to the position of your choice. Muzys will memorize that position. And by right-clicking (MacOS : command-clicking) in the edit area [3], you change tools more quickly as the Tool Box jumps under the mouse.

Allright, now let's take the Pencil tool and draw some basic drum groove [3]. Oh, and of course let's press Play in the Control Panel, so that we hear what we're doing.

At the bottom of the Key Editor, there is an info box that will show the details of the first selected note. You can click on these values to change them.

When done, click the Composer button at the top of the Key Editor so to return to the Song Composer.

Now let's make a copy of our first drum groove. Therefore select the Arrow tool, and drag our first Part just after itself while holding the [Alternate] (MacOS : [Option]) button. This will make a real copy of the Part and its Sequence.

Then goto the Sequence menu at the top-right of the Composer, and choose "Name"; So we can rename this copy to, for example, "Drum B".

Oh, before i forget : Let's update the Cycle by going to the Compose menu : Cycle Selected(s), as this will automatically set the Cycle around all selected Parts.

OK, let's make a variation on this drum groove.

So let's go back to the Key Editor; As we know, we can go to the Key Editor by clicking on the Key Editor button at the top of the Composer;

Alternatively, we can double-click on the Part; This might be faster

When finished editing this variation, we can return to the Composer by clicking the Composer button;

Alternatively, you can also press the [Return] key or double-click on the key editor's white space.

Or : you can also press the [Esc] key if you want to undo the entire edit !

Now let's do some trick with the Scissors tool.

Normally, you can use the Scissors tool to split Parts in two Parts;

But when clicking with the Scissors onto a single loop of a Sequence, Muzys will cut out that single loop, and make a real copy of that section, so you can immediately make a variation there in the Key Editor; I'm sure you know how to do this now

Next step : Select the Arrow tool and select both Parts from measure 5 to measure 9, i.e. the original Drums B Part and the newly cutted section of the previous step.

Then click on the Parts, and drag them to measure 9 while holding [Control]. This will copy the Parts only, but not the Sequences, i.e. the 2 new Parts (from measure 9 to 13) will play the same Sequence as the original Parts (from measure 5 to 9). Muzys will indicate this by drawing the Parts in another way.

The fact that these Parts play the same Sequences means that whenever you edit such Sequence, all Parts that play that same Sequence are affected ! This is in contrast with what we did 3 steps ago, where we copied a Part while holding [Alternate], which does a copy of the selected Parts and their Sequences !

Note that, while dragging Parts, Muzys shows some relevant info on this in the title bar of the Composer.

Now let's add another Player to this Composition.

By clicking on the second Track's header, the Player pool pops up.

Here we can choose out of all the available Players in our Project, or we can "Choose-A-Sound from disk ...".

That's what we gonna do now.

"Choose-A-Sound" is almost the same as Add-A-Sound : The File Chooser pops up again, and we can easily preview sounds.

The only difference is that we cannot select multiple sounds now as we're choosing a sound for one particular place, in this case a Player for Track 2.

Now let's navigate thru our Library, and go to the MuZynth/Patches/Bass subfolder. There we select, for example, the Bass1985 Patch.

Now let's create a base line.

Therefore select the Pencil [1] and create a new Part by dragging a rectangle from measure 9 to 13 on Track 2. This will popup the Sequence pool, and you'll see your existing Sequences there. Click the New button at the top-right of the Pool and enter "Bass A" as the name, and set the length to 1.0.000.

Alternatively, you could also immediately create a new Part and Sequence by holding [Shift] before dragging the new Part.

Then goto the Key Editor [2] and create some bass line; All this is done pretty much the same way as we did with the drum groove, but now you'll see a piano keyboard at the left of the Key Editor.

Then select the Scissors tool [3], and cut out the last loop of our bass line, and make a variation on it in the Key Editor [4].

After having copied the drum groove and base line to measures 17 to 25, and having updated the cycle - remember the "Compose menu : Cycle selected(s)" function -, we do "Choose-A-Sound from disk" again so to choose a Player for Track 3. Let's choose the Argon Patch in the Library/MuZynth/Patches folder [1].

OK, now let's do some live recording.

At this point we suppose you have a MIDI keyboard connected, and that it is properly configured in your system; If so, be sure that the relevant MIDI input port (the one to which your keyboard is connected) is enabled via Muzys' System menu : MIDI Hardware. This will allow you to use your keyboard in Muzys

Next, make sure the sequencer is stopped, and give a single click in the Time Bar at measure 17 so to position the time line there [2]. Also make sure there is no Part selected by clicking with the Arrow tool in the Composers' white space.

Now right-click (MacOS : command-click) the Metronome button in the Control Panel [3], and select for example "Rim" as the Metronome and click OK. Then enable the Metronome.

Now click the Record button [4] - you'll hear a countdown - and play some funky chords on your MIDI keyboard. When done stope the sequencer or click Record again.

As there was no Part selected, Muzys will automatically put your recording in a new Sequence; Give the new Sequence a name, for example "Argon" and click OK.

Now that your recording has been added to the Composition, and after you might have done some tweaking on the recording (you can edit a recorded Sequence in the Key Editor like any other Sequence), let's add some mixdesk effect automation.

There is a separate tutorial on how to use Muzys' Audio Mixing Desk, so i'll not explain that here again. For now, just assume that we've installed a Stereo Delay as a send effect, and that we send some audio from channel 5 to the Delay.

Now prepare recording much like we did when recording Argon.

The little Send knob at the right of the "Send to Delay" plug slot controls how much of the signal will be send to the Delay.

Now activate recording and play with that send knob; Muzys will record your actions and put it in a new Part and Sequence just as we did before when recording the keyboard.

This is how we can automate the Audio Mixing Desk; And the same way we can automate almost any knob or slider in Muzys !

Of course i did not explain all of Muzys' functionality here, that is impossible. But i'm confident that this tutorial, together with the real Tutorial_1.Ims Project, will be a good starter being creative with Muzys

Have fun !