Window Reference
Make Song dialog box
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Power-user shortcut for creating a new Song and Instruments from selected Samples.


The Make Song Using command always produces one Song that triggers all the selected Samples, and always produces one or more Instruments to link the new Song to the Samples. However, with more than one Sample selected, you have a few choices as to how the Instruments get created.
Instruments can be complicated, and creating them from scratch can be tedious. For simple Instruments, the Make Song dialog box automates the worst of this work: creating new Instruments and setting up their Keymaps.

Note: Complicated or advanced Instruments will require further work in the Instrument Editor window.

Topics:

About the Make Song Using command
About the Created Song
Creating a Single Instrument from Multiple Samples
Creating Multiple Instruments, Each with a Single Sample

About the Make Song Using command

The Make Song Using command creates a new, simple Song and one or more new, simple Instruments that use the selected Samples. This is the same as the effect that would be produced by doing a Make Instrument Using followed by a Make Song Using with the new Instruments selected. However, the command behaves differently depending on how many Samples you've selected:
  • With just a single Sample selected, the Beatnik Editor will go ahead and build you a new Instrument using that Sample for all 128 MIDI notes, and a Song that triggers that Instrument, without displaying any dialog box.
  • With more than one Sample selected, the Beatnik Editor will still automatically create a Song to trigger the Samples, but it displays the Make Song dialog box with additional options for how to lay out the Samples into one or more new Instruments. You might want to create just one Instrument using all the selected Samples, or you might want each Sample to go into a separate Instrument of its own.

About the Created Song

The new Song will trigger every selected Sample. This may or may not meet your needs as a way to trigger the Samples in your final production, however it may at least make it easy to audition the Instruments and Samples as you're working in the Beatnik Editor.
The Song will contain one MIDI file Track for each created Instrument, and each Instrument's Track will contain one MIDI note for each Keymap Zone used in the Instrument. These notes will be same as the Keymap Zones' Root Keys, so the Samples will usually play at their natural pitches. All of the notes will begin at the same time, and will be the same length.
For example, if you select one Instrument using a single Keymap Zone, and a second Instrument that uses three Keymap Zones, the Make Song Using command will produce a Song with two tracks: Track 1 will contain one note (the Root Key of the one Keymap Zone), and Track 2 will contain three notes (the Root Keys for the three Keymap Zones).

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