Instruments


    Introduction to Instruments
    Instrument Info
    Recording Instruments


Introduction to Instruments

Instruments are the sounds used to create music. You must load an instrument into a song before it can be used in that song. Instruments can be loaded by choosing ‘Load Instruments’ from the Instruments menu. MacMod Pro supports the following formats for loading instruments:

  • 'snd ' sound files (system 7 sound files)
  • MacMod Pro instruments (consists of the actual instrument plus all looping information)

    Instruments can be copied, cut, pasted, and cleared using the Cut, Copy, Paste, and Clear items of the Edit menu. If you have an instrument in one of the clipboards, you can play it through the Clipboard window.

    Instrument Editor

    The Instrument Editor provides an intuitive interface for setting the current instrument's looping. It also provides an interface for applying certain included filters to change an instrument. Some examples of instrument filters include backwards (which plays the instrument backwards) and silence (which silences the selected part of the instrument.)

    You can select part of the instrument by dragging the mouse over the box containing the instrument's waveform. The green arrow above this box is the loop start value. You can drag this arrow to the desired position. The red arrow below the waveform box is the loop end value which works exactly like the loop start arrow.

    The speaker picture plays the instrument with the current loop settings. You can also cut, copy, paste, and clear parts of the instrument.

    Instrument Info

    The Instrument Info window lets you change the current instrument's name, volume, finetune offset, and loop parameters.

    The name is what is displayed in the Instruments window. The volume is a specific playing volume for the current instrument.

    The volume range is 0-64, 64 being the loudest.

    The finetune value adjusts the pitch of the current instrument by small increments. To lower the current instrument's pitch enter a negative value, with -7 as the lowest. To raise the pitch enter a positive value up to 7. A finetune value of 0 plays the instrument at its normal pitch.

    The instrument looping describes what happens when the instrument is played. After an instrument is played, you can set it to repeatedly loop over a part of the instrument. The loop start is the byte in the instrument to loop back to. The loop size is how many bytes to loop. It is important that the loop start + the loop size does not exceed the instrument's size (displayed at the top right of the Instrument Info window.)

    Recording Instruments

    When you record an instrument from within MacMod Pro, you will have to play it at octave 4 for the pitch to sound right. This is because MacMod Pro records instruments at 22kHz for better sound quality while a MOD is played back at 11kHz.

  • You will have to do the same for 22kHz instruments loaded into MacMod Pro.