SawTeeth Documentation (1.2)

I'm glad that you're interested in sawteeth (you are reading the readme you know).

Arvid Norberg developed big parts of the editor.
Most of the filtercode comes from Stefan Hållen

If you find any error in any program or the manual please let me know, I even care about faulty grammar/spelling (I don't speak native English).
I am also interested in cool ideas and really cool features that you miss in the player or in the editor.

Mail to: c97jng@cs.umu.se

Sawteeth homepage is:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bedev/software/sawteeth/

A Sawteeth song is made up by several pieces. Instruments are used in parts, who are used in channels, who are used in the song.
Hexadecimal and Decimal are used where seen fit, witch you easily could be tricked by.

I hope that most menu-items, buttons and textfields are self-explaining or explained in the GUI.

Sequencer

Not very intuitive controls I'm afraid. Not too much mouse support
Click a part to make it 'active'.

On the parts (the sqares) you see three numbers, the first is partnumber, the second is transpose and the last is damping.

0-9 Enter partnumber (decimal)

arrows Navigate

ctrl-arrows (up-down) Transpose

ctrl-arrows (left-right) Change damping

shift-arrows Mark

cmd-x cut

cmd-c copy

cmd-v paste

cmd-space Play song

l Set left loop point

r Set right loop point

enter Open Parteditor

Part editor

This is similar to old-skool trackers in many ways. NoiseTracker (all trackers) style keyboard.

F1 - F12 sets octave.

Delete zeroes the field you edit.

Shift-Delete zeres the whole line.

Backspace deletes the line above the current and moves everything below up one line.

Insert moves everything below down one step and clears the current line.

Fields are:

00|b-6 2  0
01|--- 0  0
02|c-7 2  0
03|b-6 0 97
   |   | +- effect and argument (see below)
   |   +--- instrumentnumber (hex)
   +------- note and octave

Effects

Maybe more effects will be added in the future, please only use documented effects.

Unlike older trackers sawteeth effects continues when you have started them. If you write a0 to lower the volume the volume decreases until the next note or other command that affects the volume (bx,cx)

0 no effect

1 x glide pitch up

2 x glide pitch down

3 x glide pitch to note (will glide to 0Hz if no note)

4 x set PWM offset

5 x set resonance (is not multiplicated width the reso setting in the instrument)

7 x glide filter closed

8 x glide filter open

9 x set filter

a x glide amp down

b x glide amp up

c x set amp

Instrument editor

A block scheme over the sound creation looks something like this: (boost is only used with clipping)

wave -> amplitude -> filter -> boost ->clipping

Envelope - editors

There are two editors for curves (envelopes, like ADSR), one controlling amplitude and one the filters' cutoff-frequency.

The filtermodes low-pass(no res) and low-pass are of different type than the others, they use slightly less CPU. To save CPU, use no filter when you don't need to.

Currently there are two clipmodes, hard clip and sinus clip. Try the sinus clip for some WHACKO distortion. Please give me suggestions of more clipmodes.

At the bottom of the window there are sliders that control the lfo's for PWM (only Square) and Vibrato.

Tracker fields are:

00|c-1 @ 2
01|--- @ 0
   |   | +-- waveform (see below)
   |   +---- relative (bit, change state width space)
   +-------- note and octave

Below the tracker are three textgadgets: lenght, speed and loop. The number in the Speed-textgadget is PAL's per step. The number in the Loop-textgadget is the tracker-position to go when playing reached end. To not loop enter the last position in the tracker.

Waveforms

0	Hold
1	Saw
2	Square
3	Triangle
4	Noise
5	Sine
6	Triangle without interpolation (no big cpu gain)
7	Sine without interpolation

Breakpoints

This is only used by me so far, for inserting sync-information in songs. In the part-editor press the following keys. The breakpoints will be visible in the top of the sequencer vindow.

cmd-0 to cmd-9	insert breakpoint
cmd-r	remove breakpoint

Tips n' tricks

Please tell me some tips that I can add.

To make a song really small (in bytes):
- Be sure to use File->ExportRelease to save your completed song.
- Try to reuse parts as often as you can, and try to make parts reusable. A bassline can be reused most of the time since you can transpose it.
- Try to reuse instruments as often as you can, and try to make them reusable. A great bass sound can be an even cooler leadsound, use part effects to make the the same instrument sound different.
To reduce audible clicks:
- When making arpeggio-tricks in an instrument, be careful when using different waveforms in the same instrument, some combinations can produce clicks.
To mute a channel, check the box to the left in the control window.
To hear only the part you're editing press cmd-space when a part-edit window is focused.
Noise has got a frequency also. Use noise to create cool percussive effects.
You can change the volume on a part in the sequencer. (ctrl-leftarrow and ctrl-rightarrow)
When you are editing the amp and filter-cutoff-envelope, remember that you can only lower the volume / cutoff with part-effects.

Jonas Norberg.

0-9	Enter partnumber (decimal)
arrows	Navigate
ctrl-arrows (up-down)	Transpose
ctrl-arrows (left-right)	Change damping
shift-arrows	Mark
cmd-x	cut
cmd-c	copy
cmd-v	paste
cmd-space	Play song
l	Set left loop point
r	Set right loop point
enter	Open Parteditor

F1 - F12	sets octave.
Delete	zeroes the field you edit.
Shift-Delete	zeres the whole line.
Backspace	deletes the line above the current and moves everything below up one line.
Insert	moves everything below down one step and clears the current line.

0	no effect
1 x	glide pitch up
2 x	glide pitch down
3 x	glide pitch to note (will glide to 0Hz if no note)
4 x	set PWM offset
5 x	set resonance (is not multiplicated width the reso setting in the instrument)
7 x	glide filter closed
8 x	glide filter open
9 x	set filter
a x	glide amp down
b x	glide amp up
c x	set amp