This is a tutorial which will help you step-by-step, to create a tune with
Digital Symphony.
We have decided to transcribe a simplified version of the song 'Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This...' by the Eurythmics. If you aren't familiar with this tune, this doesn't matter.
TOP:Starting off
Load Symphony or, if you already have it loaded, select 'Edit.Clear Workspace' from the main menu.
Then, pop up the 'Sample List', and drag the files 'Synth', 'Flute', 'Cymbal' and 'Bass Drum' from the 'Samples' directory, to sample nrs 1 to 4 respectively. (It's important for the tutorial that you get the order correct!)
TOP:Creating a blank score
Firstly, we need a score structure in which to put some bars of music. This is where the 'Sequence Editor' comes in. Close the 'Samples List' window and open the 'Sequence Editor'. You will see that it is blank. This is because there is no score structure (sequence) in memory.
Create a blank one by entering 10 into the menu-option 'Create.At End'. 10 columns (numbered 000 to 009) will appear with dashes as entries.
TOP:Creating some patterns
Close the 'Sequence Editor' and bring up the 'Pattern List' instead. You willnotice that it is empty. This means that we have to create some blank patterns. Do this by entering 10 into the Patterns-menu option 'Create Patterns.At End'
You will see the numbers 000 to 009 appear in a list.
Double click on 000 and the Pattern Editor will appear.
TOP:Creating the first pattern
In the chosen tune 'Sweet Dreams..', there is a bass-line which repeats quite a lot, and so it would be sensible to play this in first.
The notes are crotchets, and so need to be on every 4th beat, so set 'Step' to 04, so that the notes are automatically spaced every 4 beats (events).
Set 'Sample' to 01 (Synth), 'Effect' to 00 and 'Value' to 000 as we don't need these yet. Now to play in the bass line
TOP:Entering the bass-line
The keys (using default key-configuration) are:
Z < Z < D : Z < H H < < B B J J
and you should play these in as you see them. We found these keys out by playing about in the Sample Editor, before you ask for the complete manuscript!
Press CTRL+P to hear what you have just played.
TOP:It's too slow...
It's a bit slow, isn't it? To speed it up, adjust the 'Speed' on the Control Panel to 003 which is better. Once the pattern has played through once, the speed resets to 006, because this is the default. We need our pattern to be at speed 003 all of the time, so we need to insert an effect.
TOP:Inserting a 'speed' effect
Select 'Effect' &0F and 'Value' 003 and move the red cursor-event to the first event, and press 'Z' again. Now try playing the pattern. It has the speed set to 003 straight away, so you don't need to alter it on the 'Control Panel' any more.
Next, we will add the rhythm section.
TOP:Adding some drums
For now, we shall have a very simple drum section, with just a regular bass-drum beat.
To enter this, move to the next pattern (001) by clicking on the 'Editing Pattern' value. Next, set the 'Step' to 08 and 'Sample' to 'Bass Drum'. Ensure that 'Effect' and 'Value' are both zero now, as we don't need any effects.
TOP:Entering the drums
Press 'V' eight times to add a regular minim beat to the track. Press CTRL+P to hear this, although it won't sound particularly inspiring, yet.
We now need to add the bass-line and drums to the score/sequence.
TOP:Entering sequence positions
Open the 'Sequence Editor' again, and select pattern 000 in the 'Patterns List'. Then, move to the Sequence Editor and press CTRL+W. The pointer will change shape to a couple of 'notes'. This means that you are in WRITE mode, and any clicking that you do will affect the sequence positions.
Fill the top row of sequence positions with 000's by selecting pattern 000 in the pattern list, and then clicking each position in the row.
TOP:Entering the drums into the sequence
Now, choose 001 from the 'Patterns List' and fill the second row of sequence positions by clicking in them.
If you now click PLAY on the 'Control Panel', you will hear the drums and bass-line together.
Now we need the melody...
TOP:Creating the melody patterns
Return to the Pattern Editor, and move to pattern 002. The main melody for each verse takes several patterns and so we will need to enter them in succession. Now, we could at this point, use the real-time recording facility to enter the melody, but for now, we shall make do with step-time in the Pattern Editor.
We shall start by entering the first bar of melody into pattern 002
TOP:Entering the melody
The first bar is as follows: Step=4, Sample=Flute, Effect=06, Value=003
002: "⇨ ⇨ Q ⇨ Q ⇨ . ⇨ Q Q ⇨ / ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ."
003: "Q Q . Q ⇨ ⇨ Q . Q W ⇨ ⇨ Q / ⇨ ⇨" ( ⇨ is the TAB key )
004: "Q Q . Q ⇨ ⇨ Q . Q Q ⇨ / ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨"
005: "Q ⇨ . Q ⇨ . ⇨ ⇨ Q Q W Q ⇨ / ⇨ ⇨"
To hear what you have just played in, you need to put it in the sequence.
TOP:Entering the melody into the sequence
Return to the Sequence Editor, and enter patterns 002, 003, 004, and 005 into the third row, in the usual manner. You can now play the whole thing by pressing play on the 'Control Panel'.
No, it doesn't sound too good right now. The problem is that the flute instrument is LOOPED and so it continues to play when it should die away...
TOP:Adding some volume effects
To remedy this, we will add some fading effects to the melody. Return to the 'Pattern Editor' and select : Effect=06, Value=003 and DESELECT the Note and Ins masks above the pattern. Now, press Insert, and the effect and value will be inserted at the current line. We need to set all of the events to this effect, so you could just hold down Insert, but there is a better method.
TOP:Selecting an area
Move back to pattern 002. Choose the option 'Select All' from the pattern editor menu, and the whole pattern becomes inverted. Now, press CTRL+I and effect 06 and value 003 will be inserted into all of the events. Move to pattern 003 and press CTRL+I, and for 004, 005, 006, 007 and 000 too.
Now, when you play the track, you will find that it is too slow again.
TOP:Resetting the speed
This is because inserting the Effect 06, Value 003 into pattern 000 over-wrote your speed effect, and so it needs inserting elsewhere.
Move to pattern 001. Select Effect:0F, Value 003 and move the cursor to event 000. Press the 'Insert' key.
Now, when you play the track, it sounds a whole lot better.
TOP:Holding notes for longer
Some of the notes should be held for longer than the others, since this is the style of the song. This can be achieved by inserting an effect value of 001 instead of 003 where the notes are to 'hold'. To be faithful to the tune, we ought to do this.
Move to pattern 002 and use the mouse to drag a selection of events from event 2C to 3B. Now set 'Value' to 001 and press CTRL+I.
TOP:Completing the job
The other places in which this needs to be carried out are:
Pat : Events between which 001 should be inserted.
003 : 24-2F, 34-3F
004 : 2C-3F
005 : 34-3F ..and clear the selection by pressing CTRL+Z
TOP:Before you do anything else...
You won't be able to play in any more notes at the moment, because the masks for 'Note' and 'Ins' are switched off. Switch them back on (to black) by clicking on them, and then you can continue.
TOP:Almost there...
Now, we have almost finished entering the first verse! What comes next is a small duet part, and this is extremely simple to implement with Symphony.
Enter the following notes into patterns 006 and 007, setting the following values: Step=04, Sample=Flute, Effect=06, Value=003
006: "Q Q . ⇨ Q Q . Q ⇨ / ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨"
007: "Q Q . ⇨ Q Q . Q ⇨ W ⇨ Q / ⇨ ⇨ ⇨" ( ⇨ is the TAB key )
TOP:Adding more to the sequence
Now add the patterns 006 007 006 007 to the third row of the sequence, starting at position 004, and play the tune again.
Now to add the duet. This is achieved by a descant part which is really similar to the normal melody, but has is a few notes higher and the notes are further apart.
TOP:Adding the duet part.
Enter patterns 008 and 009 as below without changing any settings
008: "E E Q ⇨ E E Q E ⇨ W ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨ ⇨"
009: "E E Q ⇨ E E Q E ⇨ 4 ⇨ E W ⇨ ⇨ ⇨" ( ⇨ is the TAB key )
Now,deselect 'Note' and 'Ins', press CTRL+A, CTRL+I, move back to pattern 008, CTRL+I, and reselect (to black) 'Note' and 'Ins', followed by CTRL+Z.
And now to enter them into the sequence editor..
TOP:Sequencing the duet part
Enter 008 into the sequence on the fourth row underneath the 006's. Then enter 009 underneath the 007's.
Now play your track. Is it geting a bit better?
TOP:Adding the 'chorus'
The chorus in this song is reasonably simple because it is just a series of Oooooooooooh's. Hence, we will spruce it up a little by changing the rhythm section for this part.
Create about 6 more patterns (at end of others), and begin editing the first free one (00A).
TOP:A second drum pattern
Now we need to enter a bass-drum + cymbal pattern.
Select: Sample=Bass-Drum, Effect=00, Value=000
and press Q at events 00, 10 and 14.
Now select Sample=Cymbal, and press Q at events 08 and 18
This is one half of the new pattern
TOP:Copying a block of events.
Use the mouse to select the events 00-1F and then choose the menu option 'Selection.Copy' (or press CTRL+C) and move the event-cursor (the event in red) to event 20. Now choose the menu option 'Paste' (or press CTRL+V) and the selection will be copied to the events starting at the cursor. Now, you have a whole new drum pattern. Press CTRL+P to hear it.
TOP:Entering the new bass-line
Move to pattern 00B and we shall enter the chorus's bass-line.
- which is half a pattern. Now we are going to do some clever cutting and pasting to make up the next 4 bars
TOP:Copy the new bass-line
Use the mouse to select events 00-1F as before and press CTRL+C. Now position the cursor at event 20 and press CTRL+V. Move to the next pattern (00C) and press CTRL+V at events 00 and 20.
Now move back to pattern 00B. We noew need to do some Transposing on the bars...
TOP:Transposing the pattern
Select events 20-3F of pattern 00B. The choose menu option 'Selection.Transpose.Down' and enter the value 1. Now press CTRL+P to hear the pattern.
Move to pattern 00C and transpose events 00-1F DOWN by 5.
Transpose events 20-3F DOWN by 3.
Now move to pattern 00D to enter the melody lines...
TOP:And the chorus melody lines...
Select: Sample=Flute, Effect=00, Value=000
and enter the following notes at the designated events.
00D: Event 00:W Event 20:2
00E: Event 00:2 Event 10:E Event 20:W
TOP:Entering sequence positions
Pop up the sequence editor and enter the following patterns (you will probably need to create some more room first! Menu option 'Create.At end')
Channel 1: 00B 00C 00B
Channel 2: 00D 00E 00D
Channel 3: 00A 00A 00A Don't play it yet!
TOP:Don't play it yet!!!
We need to add some more effects to some of the patterns, so that the chorus sounds correct...
On the 'Pattern List', select patterns 00B & 00C.
Now choose the menu option 'Selection.Replace.Full Effects' and enter the values 00000 and 06003. Press return/click select and Effect 06 Value 003 will be inserted into the patterns selected! Clever eh?
TOP:Extending the tune..
The tune now plays a verse, and then a chorus. We need it to repeat these several times, so we shall enter the sequence positions so that id does this. This might take rather a long time, so we shall use a neat facility of the Sequence Editor. Pop up the sequence editor, turn menu option 'Write Mode' off, and drag the mouse to select Positions 000 to 00A of ALL CHANNELS.
TOP:Saving the sequence..
Now choose the menu option 'Selection.Save' and save this information somewhere (it's only a few bytes!). Next, select 'Create.At End' and enter about 25. Now, move the column-cursor to position 00B and then drag your saved sequence positions to the window. They will load after the existing positions. Move to 016 and repeat the drag.
TOP:Naming the track.
We need to give the track a name, so enter a name into the Control-Panel-menu option 'Edit.Track Name'
Next, we will save the track.
TOP:SAVING the track.
Choose the menu option 'Save.Track' and select: '€ Symphony' and '€ Packed'
Then, give the file a name and drag to save, in the normal RISC OS way.
TOP:That's it!
You have finished making your track!
You now have 3 verses and 3 choruses. Press PLAY to hear them.
We have left it up to you to think of a suitable ending.
If you have had any problems, contact us and we will be pleased to help...
TOP:The finished article
If you wish to compare your creation with what you SHOULD have created (if you followed this tutorial to the letter), you can find it inside the !SymTutor directory, called 'SweetDrms'.
