Editing Track Data

This screen displays an overview of the tracks in the currently loaded melody. You may change any of the data for any track, by clicking a cell, typing into it, then hitting the ENTER key.

The track number can be any number allocated by you, the tracks do not need to be ordered in sequence from 1 onwards.  You may delete a track by clicking on the grey section at left of the row for the track, to highlight this row, then hit the lilac button Delete selected track.  All notes from this track will be removed from the tune. Similarly, to add a new track, click the deep pink button Add a new track. You will then need to enter the track description, and the default channel and instrument data for the new track.

The track description field will be shown in the staff notation window, and in all the track-selection drop-down boxes of Musical Discovery. This may reflect the instrument assigned to the track, such as oboe, or it may be more specific, such as First Violins.

The channel refers to the default MIDI channel number assigned to this track. The General MIDI standard permits up to 16 different channels, each of which may be set to play a different instrument sound. Individual notes in a track can be given a different channel, using the Staff view, but more often, all the notes in a track will share the same channel. Clicking the light orange button Change channels to default for entire track will force all notes into the channel specified here.

To change the default instrument for a track, click on the instrument number cell, then press ENTER. A drop-down list of instruments should appear. Select one by clicking on it, then press ENTER again. The name of the chosen MIDI instrument will be shown in the next column. You may force all notes in the track to play this instrument by clicking the light yellow button Change instruments to default for entire track.

The muted column indicates if a track has been silenced with True,  otherwise False. You can change this the easiest way by opening the track filter dialogue box (MENU Edit -> Track Filter), and ticking the tracks you wish to mute, or un-checking them so they may be heard.  Alternatively, you may type the words True  or False  directly into this muted column.

When all editing changes are completed, click the green button at the bottom left, Save to disk (Database). If the tune file is very long, and the changes have only affected the track parameters, it will save time if you click the pink button Save Track data Only  The blue button View melody data provides a quick way to view the catalogued information for this tune, and the yellow button View Notes, shows a detailed grid with every single note (and MIDI control event) in the entire tune.


EditTracks.htm     11/10/06 16:44                            MENU  Edit -> Track Data