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[GMG Kurt]

HI I'm new to this forum, and milky tracker. I had some questions I'd like to ask that google could help me with

1.) How do you synthesize a instrument/sample
2.) how do you make it so that when the song is playing the focus follows where the song is (like the way most youtube videos show it)
3.)whats the difference between an Instrument and a sample

[raina]

1) Using a synthesizer. Hardware, software, standalone or plugin doesn't matter. Anything that produces sound and can be rendered or recorded to a sample is usable in Milky. If you want to use the basic wave generators in MilkyTracker's sample editor, beware, they're basic. But you can't use them in an empty sample slot, first you need to load a sample or create silent data via the sample editor context menu > New.

2) Press Ctrl-F or click the tiny F button on the top of the main display.

3) Sample is one audio wave form file. An instrument can contain 1-16 samples which have their associated note, finetune, volume and panning values as well as shared vibrato and envelope settings which can be used to automate the basic characteristics of the instrument instead of having to input everything with effect commands.

[GMG Kurt]

 Thanks  

3.)where can I find good examples of ways to setup instruments. ie. meatle & rock style instrument, and blip-boop style instuments.

[8ch]

Hi.
Some examples are attached to this post. Even though i cannot help you to find the right type of samples you are looking for, there are a number of software synthesizers to produce nice samples with. For example ZynAddSubFX or Sfxr.

My examples are using a drumloop to demonstrate how instruments can be set up in milkytracker. The example loop (funky_br.wav) is included in the zip file. It's the same that i used in  this post (http://forums.modarchive.org/index.php?topic=3110.0) to try to explain how the 9xx effect command is used. Could be of interest for you. ;D

Please take a look at example 1 first. The loop is cut up into "one-shot-samples", "single-hit", chunks of audio... Each "hit" of the original sample-loop is placed in a seperate instrument-slot ("the traditional way"). The important part is the note-column. You see, all notes are the same, C-4 or F-4. All these instruments are tuned to the same relative-note (in the instrument editor) and create this wonderful natural sloppy sound when placed on step 0, 2 ,4, 6 etc...

Now please open the second example. This example sounds much like the first one, but is using only one single instrument, which includes six individual samples. The same samples as in example 1, but this time the samples are loaded into different sample-slots _of the same instrument_ instead of each sample loaded into a seperate instrument.

The difference is that each "hit", each sample, is now mapped to a different key on the keyboard. If you got a midi keyboard this would be C, D, E, F, G, A. On a regular computer keyboard it would be QWERTY or QWERTZ (on my germanski keyboard). Please note, they're only mapped to octave 4 in this example. All other keys and octaves still play sample number 0 (the default 'first' sample) ...in its respective relative note...

Try to observe what is going on in the instrument editor (CTRL-I) and the sample editor (CTRL-S) when playig a song or a pattern. Try to get a feeling for how samples need to be cut in order to work with what you try to arrange. Observe the virtual keyboard at the bottom of the instrument editor. On the left side there are two switches. One is "Play" and the other one is "Edit". Hit these buttons to toggle between edit-and playmode. When "edit" is activated (pressed), you get an overview of the "sample-mapping", of which sample is mapped to which key. When "play" is pressed you are to hit the keys with your cursor and "jam-in" notes or just play without entering notes to a pattern.

In example number 3 i mapped the samples to all octaves, though some keys remain "default". Transposing the channels by octave up or down would trigger "the right sample".

Now try to transpose the channels (the notes) note-by-note. You can use the SHIFT-F1/F2 shortcut to transpose the currently selected channel (the one the cursor is in). Resulting in funny variations.

How are samples mapped to different slots in a single instrument:
The example uses six different samples mapped to sample slot 0 to 5. First of all load in your samples into the sample list (right next to the instrument list). It's a little tricky here since previewing (prehearing) your samples by hitting a key on the keyboard needs remapping first. By default all keys play sample number 0 (the first one). You need to map sample 1 (the second one) to a different key (for example D-4) in order to hear that sample.

Go to the instrument editor (CTRL-I), press the "Edit" button (by default it is already pressed). Each key on the virtual keyboard has a tiny number printed on it. That's the sample-number. By default all keys have a "0" printed on them. Now select sample 1 (or any other from your sample-list) and mouse-click the virtual-key that you wish the sample to be mapped to. You see the "0" turns into a "1" or "2" or any other number (up to "F" = "16"). You can even press and hold the mousebutton and "slide" across all keys on the keyboard to quickly remap to another sample.

Setting up instruments can take some time and nerves. You need to adjust the relative note of each sample (in the instrument editor). It's a lot of clicking and switching between the differnt editors. But once you got it done it feels good ;P Personally i don't use this type of multi-instruments very often, so if i did something wrong here don't shout at me...

This type of instruments can be very powerful. Especially for large-scale guitar-and synthy arrangements where you want to conserve correct pitch-and ADSR parameters (aka envelopes), as well as for drum-sets. A C-3 piano can sound like mikey mousse on crack when played at C-7.

Anyway, if you got any questions simply ask.