Getting Started Orientation |

In the Beatnik Editor, you'll mainly be working with two windows:
The Player Window and Session Document Windows
Once you understand these windows, you'll be in a better position to see The Big Picture.
The Player Window
You'll use the Player window to listen to the music and sound elements going into your RMF files - and to watch them too. Besides the controls, the Player window has real-time displays of the activity in MIDI channels and voices, the audio output, and the CPU load. There's only one Player window in the Beatnik Editor.
You can play musical notes by clicking on the keyboard, using any available Instrument. As notes play, the keys light up. You can play imported MIDI and RMF Songs, and Solo and Mute their channels. Note: The Mute and Solo buttons control the triggering of MIDI notes on the indicated MIDI channel - not the channel's audio output. As a result, when you turn a Mute button off the channel's sound will not return immediately - only when the next MDI note occurs on that channel. In some cases this lag can be fairly long, for example in pieces using slow tempos or long notes. The lag may be especially noticeable if you're using music pre-mix samples (such as beat loops) which won't retrigger until the MIDI file loops. You can control the overall playback settings: volume, sample rate, mono/stereo, bit depth, and reverb type. If you have a MIDI keyboard (or other controller) connected to your computer, or are running a MIDI sequencer program, the Player window will respond to them, acting as a wavetable synthesizer. As MIDI notes play, the keys light up. See also: Player window in the Window Reference. Session Document Windows
The second important window type in the Beatnik Editor is the Session document window. You can have multiple Session windows open at once if you want, up to the limits of available memory.
Beatnik Editor Session documents are different from RMF files. You'll use Session documents to manage and develop all the music and sound resources destined for the RMF files you create - your Songs, Instruments, and Samples. Think of a Session as the workspace where you build Custom Instruments, audition imported Songs, and manipulate imported Samples.
On disk, Session documents are .bsn files:
In the Beatnik Editor, you can manipulate Session documents in many ways:
You can resize the window to show more or fewer items at once. To select an item in the Session window, just click on it. To select multiple items, shift-click. To add single items to the selection, or remove them, control-click (for Windows) or cmd- click (for Mac OS). You also can rename, copy, paste, and delete items in any Session window - except that built- in Songs and Samples can't be copied, and none of the built-in items can be modified. Note: When you copy a Custom Instrument, a dialog box appears, offering the option of also copying the Samples used in that Instrument. Note: When pasting an Instrument into a Session document would result in more than one Instrument with the same MIDI program number, the Beatnik Editor will renumber the colliding Instruments and alert you.
Topics:
Tabs for Songs, Instruments, and Samples Access to Built-In Songs, Instruments, and Samples Within Each Tab, `Show:' Displays a Category What are Songs? What are Samples? What are Instruments? The Big Picture See also: Session windows in the Window Reference. Tabs for Songs, Instruments, and Samples
Each Session document window organizes your music and sound resources under three tabs, like the tabs on file folders: a Songs tab, an Instruments tab, and a Samples tab. Each tab holds a list of resources - to see what's inside a tab, just click on it:
Songs | Instruments | Samples
To work on any item in the list, you'll click on it once to select it, and then select a menu command - either from the application menus, or from the context menu.
To access the context menu: for Windows, right-click; for Mac OS, control-click. Access to Built-In Songs, Instruments, and Samples
Besides the music and sound elements that you'll import and create in the Beatnik Editor, every Session document also gives you access to the music and sound resources in the built-in Beatnik Bank - the same resources available in every Beatnik Player for Web browsers - and that's a lot of material:
Although you can't edit the built-in Songs, Instruments, and Samples, you can copy the built-in Instruments to use as starting points for your own variations.
Within Each Tab, `Show:' Displays a Category
To help you focus on the right things at the right times, all three tabs include a Show: pop-up menu that controls what categories of items appear in the list - for example, in the Samples tab you can view just Custom Samples, just Built-In Samples, or All Samples:
Custom Samples | Built-In Samples | All Samples (Custom + Built-In)
See also: Instrument Bank Organization. What are Songs?
Songs are stored music performance data. That is, they're computer recordings of all the individual MIDI notes that add up to the performance of a piece of music. Like sheet music, but in the form of lists of events stored in computer memory rather than of notes on a page.
Most Songs are based on Standard MIDI Files that you'll create in another program (a MIDI sequencer) and then import into the Beatnik Editor. (The Beatnik Editor doesn't include tools for editing the individual notes and other events within a MIDI file.) When you import a MIDI file, the Beatnik Editor creates a new Song to hold it.
Note: Built-in Songs are called Groovoids. What are Samples?
Samples are stored digital audio data. That is, they're computer recordings of actual sounds - any sounds at all. Like tape recordings, but made in digital memory instead of on recording tape:
Because they're recordings, Samples can reproduce any kind of sound - music recordings, sound effects, or speech. That's why every sound Beatnik makes is stored internally as a Sample. All Beatnik playback software comes with a large library of built-in Samples that you can access.
Your own Custom Samples are based on digital audio files (WAV, AIFF, AU or MP3 files) that you'll create in another program (a sound file editor) and then import into the Beatnik Editor. When you import a digital audio file, the Beatnik Editor creates a new Sample to hold it - as well as a new Instrument and a new Song that you can use if you want to play the sample at its natural pitch. You can also use the Beatnik Editor's built-in Sample Editor to further massage the imported Sample.
Two things to keep in mind regarding Samples:
Compression - Unfortunately, high-fidelity Samples tend to be really big - and that can be a problem on the Internet, where bigger files take longer to download. That's why Beatnik gives several options for reducing the size of the sample data in your RMF files - a wide range of compression technologies is available (including MP3). Sample compression gives you a way to keep RMF file sizes manageable, and still achieve high fidelity. Samples are Accessed through Instruments - In RMF files, you'll never find a Sample without an Instrument - because Samples are never played directly, only by means of Instruments. Even a very simple RMF file made from a Session containing just a single Sample will always include an Instrument to trigger the Sample. What are Instruments?
Beatnik Instruments are where Songs and Samples meet. They're the virtual musical instruments on which the Song's MIDI notes are played - and their sounds come from playing modified Samples. Like real-world musical instruments, each individual Beatnik Instrument can have a completely unique sound - the only difference is that Beatnik Instruments exist only inside the computer.
See also: Instrument Bank Organization. The Big Picture
The Songs, Samples, and Instruments in your Beatnik Editor Session documents correspond to Songs, Samples, and Instruments in RMF files. Now that you understand about all those pieces, the following illustration should help you see how all these elements relate to one another and to the Beatnik playback software that will play your RMF files.
That about covers the fundamentals. Now that you're oriented, we can explain the basic operation of the Beatnik Editor.

Getting Started / Orientation top |