The main window
From top to bottom, the window has:
- The menus: File, Edit, View, MIDI and Help. Next to them, a line of hints says what the thing under the mouse does.
- The toolbar: playing, the tempo, the position, the pattern, the windows and the volume.
- The Patterns and Library panel on the left, and the playlist in the middle, where the song is laid out in time. Windows such as the channel rack, the chord sheet and the piano roll open over it.
- The harmony keys along the bottom: the key, the time signature and a big key for each chord of the key.
- The status bar: messages, the sound output, and the playlist’s zoom.
The menus
| Menu | What is in it |
|---|---|
| File | New (an empty chord sheet with a band), New beat (an empty pattern and a drum kit), Open…, Open recent, Demos, Import recording…, Import MIDI file…, Import chord sheet…, Save, Save as…, the exports (Export WAV…, Export video…, the song or the pattern as MIDI, the chord sheet as text) and Quit |
| Edit | Undo and Redo, which name what they undo, and Settings… |
| View | each window and the panel, shown or hidden; Chord sheet in the main window, the Lead sheet, the Style editor… and Ear training |
| MIDI | Typing keyboard to piano, Accompaniment follows chords, a keyboard to play with (Input) and a synth to play on (Output) |
| Help | Keyboard shortcuts, User manual and About Ferrous Lineup |
The toolbar
From left to right:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| PAT / SONG | Pattern mode loops the selected pattern; song mode plays the playlist. L switches between them. |
| ⏮ | goes to the start (Home) |
| ⏪ ⏩ | go back or forward a bar (Page Up, Page Down) |
| ▶ | plays from the playhead (Space). While playing, the same button is ❚❚ Pause: it stops there, and ▶ carries on from there. |
| ⏹ | stops, and goes back to where you last put the playhead (Space while playing) |
| ● | records what you play on a MIDI keyboard or the computer keyboard into the pattern (see MIDI keyboards and synths) |
| Follow playhead | keeps the bar playing in sight in the playlist, the chord sheet and the piano roll. Off, you can scroll freely while the song plays. |
| Count-in | one bar of clicks before the music starts |
| Metronome | a click on every beat |
| TEMPO | the tempo in beats per minute: drag up or down to change it, double-click to type it |
| BAR : BEAT : STEP | where the playhead is: in the pattern (PAT) or in the song (SONG) |
| PATTERN | the selected pattern, which the channel rack and the piano roll show; + adds a new one, ⋯ renames, clones or deletes it, and the last menu sets its length |
| window buttons | the chord sheet (F5), the channel rack (F6), the piano roll (F7), the harmony keys (F8) and the mixer (F9). A button is lit while its window is open. |
| VOL | the master volume |
Point at any button to see its name and its key.
The Patterns and Library panel
The panel on the left has two tabs:
- Library, in front when the app starts: the styles, rhythms and fills the band can play, and your own styles. Click one to try it in your song. See Styles and the Library.
- Patterns: the song’s patterns, the blocks the playlist is made of. Click one to select it. See Patterns and the playlist.
Alt+F8, or View > Patterns and library, hides the panel to give the playlist more room.
The playlist
The playlist is the whole song laid out in time: bars from left to right, and tracks one under another, each holding clips of patterns. Above the tracks are three strips:
- Sections: drag along it to mark a section, such as Intro, Verse or Chorus.
- Tempo: the song’s tempo as a line; click it to change the tempo from a bar on.
- Bars: the bar numbers, with the time signature and the key where they change. Click a number to move the playhead there; drag along them to loop part of the song; right-click one for its menu.
Patterns and the playlist tells how to work with it.
The windows
Each window opens over the playlist, at the size of what it shows, and remembers where you left it. Close one with its ×, its window button, or its key.
| Window | Key | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Chord sheet | F5 | the song’s chords, bar by bar, for the band |
| Channel rack | F6 | the steps of a pattern: drums and samples |
| Piano roll | F7 | melodies and chords, note by note |
| Harmony keys | F8 | the chords of the key (shown along the bottom) |
| Mixer | F9 | levels, pan, reverb, effects and instruments |
View also opens the Lead sheet, the Style editor… and Ear training.
The first time, the app starts with the chord sheet, the Library and the harmony keys open. After that, it starts with the windows that were open when you closed it. What comes to the front then depends on what you open: a song opens with the chord sheet in front, a beat (File > New beat) with the channel rack.
The status bar
The bottom line says what just happened (“Saved”, “Instruments play from GeneralUser GS”, what went wrong and why) and which sound output is in use. At its right are the playlist’s two zooms: how wide the bars are (↔) and how tall the tracks are (↕).
Keys that work everywhere
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | play and stop |
| L | pattern mode or song mode |
| Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z | undo, redo |
| Ctrl+S | save |
| F1 | the list of every keyboard shortcut |
| F5 to F9 | the windows |
F1, or Help > Keyboard shortcuts, lists every key the app answers to, window by window; the same list is in Keyboard shortcuts.
Help > User manual opens this manual in your web browser, in the language the app speaks.
Help > About Ferrous Lineup shows the version you are running, the license, and links to this manual (on the web and as one PDF file), the book, the source code and the list of known problems.