Control panel

The main window control panel

Frame editor

The first part is the frame editor (also known as order editor), located to the left. A frame is a set of patterns for all channels, where each channel is represented by a pattern number individual from all other channels. There are 128 available pattern slots for each channel, and the patterns aren't shared across the channels. Up to 128 frames can be used.

To change pattern, press "+" or "-" buttons or "+" & "-" keys in the pattern editor. If "change all" is checked, all channels will change instead of just the selected one. Use Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Left to step through frames from the pattern editor. Double click or press F3 to enable edit mode for the frame editor, where you can enter pattern values manually.

The frame editor also supports mouse selection and drag & drop operations. Use Shift+drag to copy pattern numbers to new frames and Ctrl+drag to copy patterns to new frames.

## Song settings & edit settings

Song settings is default play speed & tempo, number of rows and frames in the song. Double-click any box to enter a value manually.

Speed and tempo can also be changed by using pattern command Fxx. The real BPM tempo is calculated by using the formula

BPM = (6 * Tempo) / Speed

which means that the tempo box is correct at speed of 6.

Note: The speed & tempo split-point is currently set to 32, but files created in older versions of the tracker will have this point set to 20. This was changed to give a access to a larger speed range since the speed command sometimes is more useful than the tempo command. It is possible to toggle this split-point with the command Ctrl+Shift+S if you wish to change it in the current module.

The time base for the song is 60 or 50 ticks per second (when using default NTSC/PAL settings), and this is used to calculate the average tempo of the song. This means that some rows may play slightly longer or shorter than others, something that might be audible. To avoid this, leave the tempo setting at 150 (125 for PAL!) and use only the speed setting to change BPM to ensure that all rows get the same duration.

Also be aware that the maximum supported BPM is 900 for NTSC and 750 for PAL (equal to speed 1 at tempo 150 / 125), going above that will not function properly!

The step setting changes the step behaviour when moving the cursor in the pattern editor. Key repetition enables key repeat behaviour.

Song information & instrument list

Song information text fields are for name, artist and copyright. These strings are stored in NSFs (and also available in the NSF export dialog). The song list selects a song in multi-song files. The big list to the right is the instrument box, and the small toolbar is used to create, delete, open, save and edit settings for instrument and the text box is to name instruments.

The instrument list supports drag and drop operation for reordering instruments.

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