##Table of Contents
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Start your first song 1.1 Create your first Tune 1.2 Set the first Channel FX 1.3 Create your first drum part 1.4 Create your first Pattern FX
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SAVE LOAD EXPORT SHOW CODE of a song 2.1 SAVE a song 2.2 LOAD a song 2.3 EXPORT a song 2.4 SHOW CODE of a song
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Each FX in the editor explained 4.1 SET TEMPO 4.2 ADD TEMPO 4.3 SET VOLUME 4.4 SLIDE VOLUME ON 4.5 SLIDE VOLUME ADVANCED 4.6 SLIDE VOLUME OFF 4.7 SLIDE FREQUENCY ON 4.8 SLIDE FREQUENCY ADVANCED 4.9 SLIDE FREQUENCY OFF 4.10 SET ARPEGGIO 4.11 ARPEGGIO OFF 4.12 SET TRANSPOSITION 4.13 ADD TRANSPOSITION 4.14 TRANSPOSITION OFF 4.15 SET TREMOLO 4.16 TREMOLO OFF 4.17 SET VIBRATO 4.18 VIBRATO OFF 4.19 SET GLISSANDO 4.20 GLISSANDO OFF 4.21 SET NOTE CUT 4.22 NOTE CUT OFF
Our ATM editor offers a way to creat music for the ATM library. The library is capable of a lot more than what the editor can give you. For example, the editor can only add FX on channel level or pattern level. The ATM library can also handle FX on each seperate note being played. An other example is repetition. The editor will automaticly use the "repeat pattern FX" when you put the same pattern multitple times, one after the other. It will not do this if you for exmaple alternate patterns, altough being a repition too.
The ATM library is capable of stacking 7 levels deep. So if you create a song manually, you can compress the already dense code even more. You can manually create repititions of repititions or even stack FX paterns.
If you want to read more on the library itself, you should take a look at the github page for ATMlib. This page holds the real limitations of the ATM library itself.
###1.1 Create your first Tune When you open the editor for the first time you'll get an empty view of the SONG EDITOR and an empty PATTERN LIST. The song editor has 4 channels, each with its fixed instrument, which can not be changed. Channel 0 = pulse, Channel 1 = square, Channel 2 = triangle, Channel 3 = noise. In the song editor, you can only put tune patterns on ch0, ch1 and ch2. Drum patterns can only be put on ch3.
So start with pressing new tune pattern and you'll get an extra window, the TUNE PATTERN EDITOR which includes a vertical piano roll, a name field, a channel field (this is only used for testing the pattern) and the size of the pattern in ticks with a maximum of 64 ticks. You can just click a place on the piano roll and drag for activating notes.
As good practice you should use 4 ticks for each note. Adjacent ticks of the same tone are automatically connected, So if you want seperate notes of the same tone, make the note 3 ticks long. the shortested note is 1 tick, the longest is 64 ticks (pattern lenght). Ch 3 is a low power instrument, meaning you will need to use the higher notes to hear anything at all. Low notes don't work well on triangle waves
Once you created a pattern, you can drag&drop it into the SONG EDITOR. You can use the same pattern more than once, also on different channels.
###1.2 Set the first Channel FX When starting a new song, all channels are muted by default and the tempo is set to 24, by an FX on channel 0. If you have put a pattern on a channel, and press play, you won't hear anything (ch0, ch1, ch2). Click on the word FX at the end of each pattern, to see the applied FX for each of the channels. By clicking on a FX name in the AVAILABLE FX window you can add an FX. Clicking the pencil next to an FX in the USED FX window, will open it in the SETTINGS FX windows for you to edit it.
You should start with adding SET VOLUME FX for each channel (ch0, ch1, ch2) you will be putting patterns on. Set the volume at 48 (max 64) if you're using all 4 channels. If you go louder, ou might get distortion. If you prefer, you can change the SET TEMPO FX on channel 0.
If you want an instrument to play fading notes, you should add the FX SLIDE VOLUME and put a negative value, like -12. This means every tick, the volume will go down by 12. So the volume starts at 48 and 4 ticks later it will be 0. BUT on every new note the volume will be reset to the orginal amount, set by the FX SET VOLUME.
###1.3 Create your first drum part The ATM player and editor have only 1 drum pattern available, channel 3, a noise channel. The DRUM PATTERN EDITOR includes a horizontal pattern, a name field and the size of the pattern in ticks with a maximum of 64 ticks. The drum instruments are limited to the ones listed. The arrow indicates the select drum part. Just click on the pattern at the place you want to insert the selected drum part. Click again to remove it.
Now that you created a drum pattern, you can drag&drop the pattern to channel 3. You can use the same pattern more than once. Adding FX to the drum channel or pattern don't really have much infuence on the sound.
###1.4 Create your first Pattern FX If you created a tune pattern and have dropped it on the SONG EDITOR, you'll see the letters FX in the pattern bar. You can add an FX to every individual pattern you added to the SONG EDITOR. Adding FX works the same way as Channel FX. But effects set on pattern level only influence the pattern itself. An FX on channel level will still influence the pattern too. For example you can repeat a certain number of times and use SET VOLUME with an increasing value for each indiviual pattern. This will create the effect of a fading in of a complete pattern.
##2. SAVE LOAD EXPORT SHOW CODE of a song
###2.1 SAVE a song If you want to preserve a song, to be able to work on it on a different moment or to exchange with other musicians, it's best to save it. Just press the "save button", give your song a name, keep the .atm extension and you're done.
###2.2 LOAD a song If you want to continu on an "saved" song that has the .atm extension, you can "load" it by pressing the "load button"
###2.3 EXPORT a song If you want to import a song into your game code, it's best to export the song. press the "export song button" and the editor will create a song_export.h file. This file can be used to be put along your other files of your game. You can also use this file to play it with the ATM webplayer.
If you want to have multiple songs in the same files, you'll have to copy paste them manually into your song.h file. Don't forget to rename "Song music[]" into a different name for each song, if you put more than 1 song in a song data file.
###2.4 SHOW CODE of a song While creating a song, you can immediately see how the data will look, by pressing the "show code button". If the code is showing and you change stuff in the song, tune patterns, drum patterns or FX, you'll have to close and reopen the "show code" window.
You could also use this window to copy paste the song data into the file with (other) song data you already have.
This is a readonly window, so you can paste song data into the window to edit an existing song. If you want to work on an existing song, you'll need an .atm file (not an .h file) We are not planning on creating an .h to .atm converter, because a song can hold complexer song data, the ATM editor is not capable of creating.
##3. REPEAT a song, or a part of a song If you want the song to autorepeat, after it's finished, first check the "repeat song" checkmark. If would like the song to repeat from a cartain point in your song, you should move the devider line in the SONG EDITOR to the beginning of the patterns you want the song to start repeating from.
It is very important to know, that the patterns in ALL 4 channels have to start a the exact same point ! If your devider line is set in the middle of a pattern, repeating the song will fail !
The ATM editor has a simple way of adding in "repeat song". The ATM library itself is capable of repeating your song in a more complex way, but needs to be coded manually.