Getting Started Working with Instruments |

The Beatnik Editor includes an Instrument Editor - a workspace where you can build your own custom musical Instruments for use with your RMF songs. You build Instruments by combining Samples - usually recordings of musical instruments or tones - with musical sound shaping processes like envelopes, filters, and modulators.
See also: The Instrument Editor window section in the Window Reference, and the Editing Instruments section in For Musicians. How Instruments and Samples are Related
The Beatnik playback software uses the MIDI wavetable synthesizer technology, which defines the relationship between Instruments and Samples.
All Instruments are based on Samples - Every Instrument uses at least one Sample. An Instrument can use Multiple Samples - An Instrument can use up to 128 Samples. In the illustration above, Instrument 1 uses one Sample, Instrument 2 uses two Samples, and Instrument 3 uses three Samples. You'll assign each Sample to a MIDI note range with the Keymap page of the Instrument Editor. Instruments and Samples are Independent - Separate Instrument and Sample pools are present in Beatnik Editor Session files and RMF files, and any Instrument you create can use any Sample(s) - including built-in General MIDI and Beatnik Special Samples. Multiple Instruments can share the same Samples - For example, Sample X is used by both Instrument 2 and Instrument 3. Samples can only be played by means of Instruments - To use your own Sample in an RMF file, you'll need to import the sample into your Session document and use it in an Instrument. This is necessary because RMF doesn't provide any way to play Samples directly. The only way to play a specific Sample is to play a MIDI note on an Instrument that uses that Sample. That note can come from playing the RMF file's Song, or by way of the Music Object `noteOn()` or `playNote()` methods. (The only place where this dependency on Instruments doesn't exist is in the Sample Editor window, when you're working on the Sample directly.) Instruments can modify the pitch and sound of Samples - Most Instruments will play a Sample at different pitches, depending on the MIDI note being played. Instruments can also dynamically shape the sound by applying volume envelopes, filtering, moving the sound between the left and right speakers, and altering the pitch independent of the note being played. The Instrument Editor pages contain all the controls for the processing and modification blocks available in each synthesizer voice:
Technically, an Instrument definition is a collection of settings for these same synthesizer voice blocks - the set of Samples needed for an Instrument, the Keymap that specifies what Sample to use for each received MIDI note, and the values to use for all the block parameters.
Instrument Bank Organization
Like many musical instruments, the Beatnik playback software includes built-in Instrument definitions - in this case, over 300 of them. Instruments are divided into three Banks: the built-in General MIDI and Beatnik Special Banks, and the Custom Bank space for Instruments that you make and included in your RMF files.
Each Bank consists of two sets of 128 Instruments each. Melodic Instruments are numbered 0- 127, and are `normal' Instruments that can be played at pitches ranging across the keyboard.
The Percussion Instruments are treated differently. The 128 Percussion Instruments in each bank make up a `drum kit' that puts a different Instrument on each of the 127 MIDI note numbers. So with Percussion Instruments, playing different notes produces different Instruments, instead of playing a single Instrument at different pitches. This Percussion behavior is a part of the General MIDI standard, and is ordinarily used only on MIDI channel 10; however, in Beatnik playback software any set of MIDI channels can use it (see MIDI Channel Modes).
Bank Number and Name | Built-In? | Description
Bank 0: General MIDI | Melodic | Yes | The first bank is organized according to the General MIDI specification, for compatibility with all Standard MIDI Files.
Percussion
Bank 1: Beatnik Special | Melodic | Yes | The second bank is organized similarly to the GM bank, but includes unique sounds beyond the GM set, and Web-appropriate sound effects, all created by Beatnik artists.
Percussion
Bank 2: Custom | Melodic | No | The third bank provides room for your own Custom Instruments, including variations on the built-in instruments.
Percussion

Getting Started / Working with Instruments top |