To <b>erase, rewind, </b> and <b>re-record</b> a track, press the
<img align=center src="rec1but.gif">
button above.
<br><br>
If you would prefer to control Anvil Studio's Record/Play/Stop functions
remotely from your external MIDI keyboard,
select <a href="-ZZOpt"><b>Options</b></a> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<br><br>
To <b>create a new track</b>, choose <b>Create</b> from the <b>Track</b> menu.
Your song will then contain multiple tracks, that are all played together when you play the song.
When you create a new track, you need to decide what kind of track to create.
<dir>
<li>If you create an <b>Instrument</b> track, the track contains MIDI events that can be recorded
from a synthesizer keyboard connected to your computer.
<li>If you create a <b>Rhythm</b> track, the track contains MIDI events for Drums and other rhythm instruments, as well as Audio Samples.
<li>If you create an <b>Audio</b> track, the track contains audio that can be recorded from a microphone, an electric guitar, a tape deck or a music-CD.
</dir>
Many actions on this and other pages only affect the <i>active track</i>.
<br>
The active track is the one that has a green dot to the left of it in the track list above.
<br>
To <b>make another track active</b>, select it by clicking on its name or number on this page.
<br>
To <b>change a track's name</b>, either click in the Track Name field, or click the Comments page.
<br>
To <b>erase or delete</b> a track, select the track and then choose <b>Erase Notes</b> or <b>Delete</b> from the <b>Track</b> menu.
<br>
To edit the contents of a track, select the track that you want to edit by clicking on its name or number above, then
click the <b>Compose</b> button, or select <b>Composer</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<br><br>
To see a symbolic list of the active track's MIDI events,
select <b>Event List</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<br><br>
To edit comments that you want to associate with the active track,
select <b>Comments</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<br><br>
Initially, the songs current position is displayed in the time field
<img align=center src="time.gif">
in SMPTE format (Minutes:Seconds:Frames).
If you would prefer to see time displayed in Measures:Beats:MidiTicks format, click the time
field with the mouse.
<br><br>
To move to a different position in the song, drag the position scroll bar
<img align=center src="curpos.gif">
in the upper-left corner.
<br>
To remember the song's current position with a new <b>Cue Point</b>, push the <b>New</b> button above the Cue Point list:
<br>
<img align=center src="bookmark.gif">
You can quickly return to the same position later by selecting the desired Cue Point from the Cue Point list.
<br><br>
You can change the MIDI and Audio hardware that Anvil Studio uses to record and play songs by clicking the
<img align=center src="jack.gif">
button, or by selecting <b>Synthesizers</b> from the <b>View</b> menu.
Then, to return to this page, click the <b>Back</b> menu item
at the top of the screen.
<br><br>
You can edit the active track's synthesizer's properties by clicking the
<img align=center src="synth.gif">
button.
<br><br>
There is a set of indicators below the metronome that looks like
<img align=center src="midiLeds.jpg">
. They describe the current state of your MIDI Input port, which is used to record MIDI data from synthesizers connected to your computer.
Each light turns red when the port receives certain information as described in this table:
<TD>port is currently listening for incoming MIDI data.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>2nd</TD>
<TD>port has received any MIDI data in the past second.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>3rd</TD>
<TD>port is receiving MIDI Sync messages (F8), which may be sent by a MIDI Master device and can be used to control the tempo of Anvil Studio. Press the SYNC button for details.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>4th</TD>
<TD>port is receiving MIDI SMPTE Time Code messages (F1), which may be sent by a MIDI Master device and can be used to control the tempo of Anvil Studio. Again, press the SYNC button for details.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>5th</TD>
<TD>port is receiving Active Sensing messages (FE), which are sent by some MIDI devices and ignored by Anvil Studio.</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<br><br>
You can experiment with a song by changing any of the following track properties while a song is stopped, or playing.
<dir>
<li>
To change which synthesizer you want to play an Instrument track, click the track's <b>Device</b> column.
To add more synthesizer's to this list,
select <a href="-ZZSyn"><b>Synthesizers</b></a> from the <b>View</b> menu.
<li>
To change which <b>instrument</b> the synthesizer should use to play a track, click the track's <b>Instrument</b> column.
<li>
To temporarily disable a single track during playback, click the Track's <b>On</b> column with the <i>left</i> mouse button.
<br>
To temporarily make a track the <b>SOLO</b> track, or the only track played, click the Track's <b>On</b> column with the <i>right</i> mouse button.
<li>To control a track's <b>Pan</b> (similar to Stereo balance), or <b>volume</b>,
click on those columns for the track you want to change.
</dir>
To adjust the width of any of a track-property column, drag the edge of the column right or left while holding the left mouse button.
<br><br>
To change the song's tempo, or to adjust the tempo or sound of the metronome, select <b>Metronome</b> from the View menu.
<br>
If the metronome is turned on when you record a track, a three-count lead-in will be displayed before recording begins.
<br><br>
To <b>copy or paste measures from one track to another</b>, select the track's measures
in the right-most column, and then choose an item from the Edit menu.
<br>
Select <b>Paste Over</b> if you want the clipboard to replace sound on the current track.
<br>
Select <b>Paste Mix</b> if you want the clipboard to be mixed with the current track.
For audio tracks, Paste Mix reduces the volume, preventing the possibility of distortion.
If you want to preserve the volume, and accept the possibility of distortion, hold the Shift key while selecting the Paste Mix menu item.
<br>
To edit individual notes or samples, press the Compose button or select Composer from the View menu.
<h3><a name="AudioTracks">Audio Tracks</h3>
To record Audio from your computer's microphone instead of MIDI from your synthesizer,
click on <b>Instrument</b> in the active track's <b>Type</b> column to change the track-type
from Instrument to <b>Audio</b>.
<br><br>
Click the <b>Quality</b> field to change quality and memory requirements of your recording.
One Mono track consumes memory at the following rates:
control which hardware devices contribute to the audio signal that will get recorded.
Different SoundCards support different audio sources. Most SoundCards can only record from a single audio source at one time.
They, have a <b>Selected</b> box beside each audio source like this:
<br><br><img src="audioSrc.gif"><br>
<li>If you want to record from a Microphone, make sure the Mic's Selected box is set, and its Volume control is set to full (all the way to the right).
<li>If you want to record from a guitar or an audio tape deck, make sure the Line-In's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
<li>If you want to record from a Music CD, make sure the Music CD's Selected box is set, and its left and right volume controls are set to full.
<li>Some SoundCards can record from a mixture of audio sources. They have a <b>Mute</b> box
beside each audio source to control which sources are not to be recorded.
Find the audio source you want and make sure its <b>Select</b> box is set (or its Mute box is unchecked).
Adjust that source's Volume.
</dir>
To test microphone levels before recording an Audio track, press the <b>VU</b> button.
A VU meter will appear in the track's Instrument column, showing the microphone's peak volume.
If the VU meter goes into the red zone, you should adjust the Mic's volume slider down (to the right), or turn the microphone's pre-amp down unless
you want to record a distorted sound.
Pressing the VU button before the REC button can also be used to <i>warm up</i>
the sound card, which eliminates the popping sound that some sound cards introduce when they start to record.
<br><br>
Normally, audio tracks are mixed as needed when the Record or Play button
is pressed. Pressing the <b>Mix</b> button pre-mixes all enabled Audio tracks,
filling all available buffers, so that the Record or Play button will respond immediately.
When all Audio tracks have already been mixed, the Pre-Mix button is disabled (grey).
You can change the number of available Audio Output Buffers by selecting Options from the View menu and clicking the Audio tab.
<br><br>
If you make a mistake while recording Audio, you can <b><i>Punch In</i></b>, or re-record
over just the mistake. Select Composer from the View menu while an audio track
is active, and then read the <b><i>Punch In</i></b> help information.
<br>
To add a <i>non-destructive</i> <b>Reverb</b>, <b>Delay</b> or <b>Echo</b> effect to an Audio track,
click the <b><i>fx</i></b> column for the track you want to change.
<br><br>
If your song has Audio tracks, you can use DirectX audio Effects Processor pluggins
provided by any software vendor. Press the <b><i>fx</i></b> button
to select which effects you want to use in this song, or to adjust
their properties. To install DirectX Effects Processors, go to your favorite
shareware site and search for DirectX.
<br><br>
To cause one audio track to play later than the other tracks, change its <b>Time Shift</b> column.
<br><br>
If you notice that audio tracks are not played back in sync with Instrument or Rhythm tracks, please
select <b>MIDI / Audio device latency</b> from the <b>View</b> menu, press that window's
Help button, and follow its directions.
<br><br><hr><br>
The free version of Anvil Studio limits you to a single audio track, that
can last no longer than 1 minute.
<br><br>
The optional <b>Multi-Audio 1/8 accessory</b> allows you to
create songs with up to 8 audio tracks.
If your computer has at least 32 meg of RAM, each track can be up to 60 minutes long, limited only by the amount of free disk space
on your computer.
<br>
This accessory also allows you to create up to
10 sampled audio sounds on a rhythm track
where the free version of Anvil Studio only supports
rhythm tracks up to two sampled sounds per song.
<br><br>
The optional <b>Multi-Audio 4/8 accessory</b> allows you to simultaneously record up to 4
audio tracks. When that accessory is installed,
you can enable recording on multiple tracks by pressing the Shift key while clicking on each track to be recorded.
All tracks with Green dots at their left will be recorded when the record button is pressed.
<br><br>
Please select <a href="-ZZCat"><b>Catalog</b></a> from the <b>Help</b> menu
for information about ordering accessories.
<br><hr><br>
If you have trouble with recording or playing back songs, please select
<b>How do I...</b> or <b>Common Problems</b> from the <b>Help</b> menu for more specific information.
