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Tools are components designed to intercept performance messages and perform a task with them based on the information contained in those messages. For example, the DirectMusic Producer environment contains a tool that intercepts lyrics messages and displays text in the Message Window as a segment containing a lyric track is played. Other tools might apply an algorithm to music values, introduce an echo or delay, or discard messages of a certain kind so that they do not reach the synthesizer. A tool can be specific to a group of performance channels or apply to all channels.
Tools are organized in toolgraphs, which can be embedded in segments. In order for the tools to be used when the segment is played in an application, they need to have been installed on the user's system.
Note Tools operate on data before it reaches the synthesizer. Although tools can be used to apply simple effects, these are not the same as effects implemented in buffers on the audiopath, which are applied to sounds after they leave the synthesizer.
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