The sequencer

The Sequencer tab (F3) is a tracker. You use it to arrange voices into a song on the four NES channels. You can play the song back, export it, or render it to audio.

The sequencer works on a project. Choose File ▸ New project to start one, or open an existing .stp file.

A song plays voices. There are two kinds:

• A sample is a reconstruction that the song plays.
• An instrument is a sound you shape yourself. Use instruments for melodies and bass lines.

Both kinds are in the Voices list, numbered together.

The Voice menu adds a voice in four ways:

Right-click below the rows of the Voices list to open the same menu. Add to Sequencer is also on the Reconstruction tab and in the right-click menu of any reconstruction in the Browser.

If a reconstruction's NES frequency differs from the project's, the app asks you to confirm with Add anyway.

Right-click a voice to rename, duplicate, move or remove it. Three commands need a word:

• Edit opens the voice on the Reconstruction tab, where you change how it sounds. See editing instruments.
• New instrument from, on a sample, copies what the sample plays on one channel into a new instrument you can edit.
• Export instrument... saves the voice as an .fti file. A sample has one instrument per channel, so the app asks which channel to export.

The same commands are on the Edit menu.

Removing a voice clears every row that uses it.

Importing an .fti file keeps its volume, arpeggio and duty cycle sequences. A message lists any other settings the file carried. See reading an instrument file.

The Tracker grid is the pattern editor. Each row is one step in time. The grid has a Sample column and a column for each channel: Pulse 1, Pulse 2, Triangle and Noise.

Click a cell and type its value. Right-click a cell for the same commands as a menu, including Note off.

Click a voice in the Voices list, then type pitches: each pitch you type places that voice in the cell too. Click below the list to stop placing the voice.

Dimmed rows belong to the neighboring frames. To change them, click that frame in the Order grid.

The Sample column places a sample on every channel the sample uses, and clears the other channels of the row. It takes samples only. To place an instrument, use the column of the channel you want it on.

A pitch or a volume typed in the Sample column applies to the channels playing a sample.

A ? in the Sample column means the channels of that row play different voices.

A pitch cell holds a note, such as C-4, or a step, such as +03. A step counts semitones above (+) or below (-) the voice's own pitch: +00 plays a sample as recorded and +12 plays it an octave higher. Either kind of cell works with either kind of voice.

Type a note on your keyboard like a piano. The bottom two rows of keys play one octave: Z S X D C and so on. The row above plays the white keys of the next octave: Q W E R T Y U. Octave, above the grid, sets the octave of the bottom row.

Type a step with the digit keys: 0 3 writes +03, and - 1 2 writes -12.

The noise channel has sixteen sounds instead of notes. A note key picks one, and a step moves to another.

A song plays patterns in a sequence. The Order grid sets that sequence. Each column is one position in the song, called a frame. The grid has a row for the Master and a row for each channel.

Type a pattern number in the Order grid to place a pattern. Right-click a frame to insert, clear or remove frames, and to repeat one:

• Duplicate repeats the frame with the same patterns, so a change to one shows in both.
• Clone repeats the frame with new copies of its patterns, so you can change them separately.

The play controls beside the menus play the song. These keys work anywhere on the tab:

Esc also stops a sample preview. A grid's right-click menu plays from the row or frame you clicked.

Playback ▸ Follow playback chooses whether the view moves with the song. The app remembers your choice.

Use Follow patterns or Don't follow to type while the song plays.

Keys 1 to 4 mute and unmute a channel when the cursor is outside the grids. Inside the grids the digit keys type values, so use Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+4, which work everywhere.

Muting changes only what you hear. Exports and renders include every channel.

You can select a block of cells in both grids, then copy, cut, paste or delete it.

To select cells:

• Hold Shift and press the arrow keys.
• Drag across the cells with the mouse.
• Shift+click a cell to extend the selection to it.

Any plain arrow key, or Esc, clears the selection.

With nothing selected, these commands act on the cell under the cursor. Each grid's right-click menu has them too.

Each grid pastes only what was copied in that grid.

A paste starts at the cursor and fills down and to the right:

• In the Tracker, each cell keeps its kind. A volume pastes into a volume column, wherever you paste. Cells past the last row or column are dropped.
• In the Order, a paste past the last frame adds frames to the song. A paste stops at the Noise row.

A copy also goes to your clipboard as text, so you can paste a block into another open window of SampleToNES. Voices are copied by number, so check that the other project has the same voices.

In the Tracker, transpose and volume keys change every cell in the selection.

The right-click menu has the same commands.

You can undo every change. The History panel lists your changes, and a click on one goes back to that point. Undo also covers voice edits on the Reconstruction tab.

Module options sets the song's timing: Rows per pattern, Speed (the number of ticks each row lasts), Tempo, and the NES frequency the song plays at. Speed and tempo together set how fast the rows go by. Changing NES frequency changes how existing voices play, so the app asks first.

File ▸ Project properties... sets the title, the author and the comment. The exported module includes them. It also sets the meter:

• First highlight is the number of rows in a beat.
• Second highlight is the number of rows in a bar.

The defaults, 4 and 16, give four beats of four rows in a bar. For waltz time, set Second highlight to 12, which gives three beats.

The tempo counts beats, so the meter also changes how fast the song feels. A row lasts a whole number of ticks, so the app makes some rows a tick longer than others, on the strong beats. A tempo that asks for rows shorter than one tick plays slower than set, as in FamiTracker and Bitphase. Song timing has the details.

File ▸ Export writes the song in three formats:

• FamiTracker module... saves an .ftm file. See FamiTracker export for its contents and limits.
• Bitphase project... saves a .btp file.
• NSF program... saves an .nsf file, which the NES or an NSF player plays directly.

A voice plays only on the channels it covers. If a row places it on another channel, the FamiTracker and Bitphase files cut the note there, and the export dialog lists those rows.

A transpose on a playing note is exported too. FamiTracker moves a note by at most 15 semitones in one row, and the dialog lists the rows that stay at the old pitch.

Sequences longer than FamiTracker and Bitphase allow are cut short, and the dialog says how many instruments were shortened.

An NSF program holds 32 KB, and the app warns you when a song is too long. See NSF export and song compression.

NSF program... opens the Export NSF program window. Click Export without changing anything to save the whole song, repeating from the start.

File ▸ Render song... (Ctrl+Shift+E) saves the whole song as an audio file that any player opens.

Click Render to start. When the render finishes, click the path to open its folder.

A render plays the song once with every channel, ignoring mutes and loops.