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Have you ever wondered what modules are made of? Most modules consists of a number of small sound bites called samples. They are stringed together in certain way to create a piece of music. With the "instrument/sample information" window you get the possibility to view/play and save these samples. As you can see below, a list is displayed containing lots of information on the samples. Here is a short explanation of the columns.
Information in window can be sorted at any columns, just click on the header. It is also possible to move the columns around, so that the order of the columns can be selected.
| Name |
The name of the sample, often used by the composer to give information about the tune. |
| Length |
Size of the sample in samples for one channel. |
| LStart |
If the sample loops, this indicates the start position. |
| LLength |
The length of the loop. |
| Bits |
The quality of the sample (often 8 or 16 bits). |
| Vol |
Default volumes of the sample (0 - 256). |
| Pan |
Indicates the placement of the sample in the stereo-spectrum (0=left, 256=right). |
| Middle C |
The frequency the C-4 note is played at (the normal value is 8287Hz). |
| Info |
 |
Indicates that the sample contains multiple samples for different octaves. |
 |
Indicates that the sample is in stereo. |
 |
Indicates that the sample loops. |
 |
Is displayed if the loop ping-pongs. |
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| Type |
Sample (Normal), Synth (AM or FM), Hybrid (Sample with synth parameters) or Adlib (PC Adlib / OPL sound) |
Play a sample
If you suddenly feel like joining in on a module, improvizing a solo or the like, NostalgicPlayer is like a dream come through. You simply select the sample you want to use as an instrument and play along using the keyboard. A looping sampling will continue playing as long as you keep a key pressed down.
| A-Z ++ |
The keys are mapped as you might remember from ProTracker, using the lower bottom of the keyboard as one octave and the next octave at the upper end. |
| F1 - F8 |
Maps the keyboard to the different octaves. |
| DEL |
Turns polyphony on/off. This will let you play upto 3 notes at a time. |
| Space |
Emergency button. Stops all samples playing. |
Save a sample
To save a sample, select it from the list, choose the format to save it as (e.g. Audio IFF or Raw) and press the save button.
Samples vs. instruments
Maybe you have been wondering what the difference between samples and instruments are. It's actually very simple. The samples are the actual sound clips, while the instruments are different interpretations of them, meaning that one sample can become many different instruments with different parameters. The main use for this is to have one instrument where the sample is maybe fading away and another instrument where the frequency is changed a bit. All in all it gives the composer many new possibilities when creating modules without having the same sample present more than once in the module.
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