Exporting

To take a song out of Ferrous Lineup, the File menu writes it as a sound file, a video, a MIDI file or a text chord sheet. A song with nothing in the playlist has nothing to export: the items are greyed out, with Put some clips in the playlist first.

Each asks where to save, and adds the file’s ending if you leave it out.

A sound file

Export WAV… saves what you hear when the song plays, from start to end, as a WAV file: CD quality (44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo), with every repeat, the band, the mixer’s volumes, pans, reverb and effects, and a couple of seconds at the end for the last notes and the room to die away. It is always at the song’s own tempo, even when you practise at a slower speed.

It is made in the background, faster than the song plays, while you go on working: the status bar says Exporting and the file’s name, with a Stop button. Any music player can play the WAV, and any audio program can turn it into an MP3.

A video

Export video… makes an MP4 video of the song, with views of the app following the music, ready to post or to show a class:

• The views. Tick the ones to show: Chord sheet (the bar playing framed), Lead sheet (the tune on a staff with its chords), Playlist, Piano roll and Harmony keys (the chord playing lit). Each has a zoom, from 50% to 250%; the lead sheet instead grows with its box.
• The picture. The preview shows one frame. Drag a view to move it, drag its corner to make it bigger or smaller, and scroll over it to zoom. Stack puts the views one above the other again. Preview at shows the picture at another place in the song.
• Size: 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080.

A line along the top names the song, and shows the bar and beat, the key, the time signature and the tempo as they change. The video is an MP4 file, with H.264 pictures, 30 a second, and MP3 sound, which plays almost anywhere; nothing else needs to be installed to make it. The window remembers your choices for next time.

A MIDI file

Export song as MIDI… writes the notes of the song, for another music program, a notation program, or a synthesizer:

• each channel gets a track of its own, with its General MIDI instrument, so the file opens with the right sounds;
• the drums go on channel 10, as General MIDI drums; a channel you send over MIDI keeps its channel, and the others take 1, 2, 3 and so on;
• every repeat is written out, with the song’s swing in the notes, and the tempo, time signature and key are written as they change;
• muted tracks and channels, and channels silenced by a solo, are left out, as they are when the song plays. The mixer’s volumes, pans and effects are not written: the program that opens the file makes its own mix.

Export pattern as MIDI… writes only the selected pattern, from its first step: a beat or a part to use somewhere else.

Ferrous Lineup can open the file again (see Opening MIDI files and recordings), and keeps the exact key it was in.

A chord sheet as text

Export chord sheet… writes the song’s chord sheet as a text file, bar by bar, as in | C | Am7 | Dm7 G7 |. Paste it in a message, print it, or open it again with File > Import chord sheet… (see The chord sheet). It always uses letter names, which every musician can read.

Lead sheets and printing

The lead sheet, the tune on a staff with its chords, is printed or saved as a PDF from its own window, in concert pitch or for a B♭, E♭ or F instrument: see Lead sheets.