Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Troubleshooting

The app does not start

See Installing it: the AppImage must be allowed to run and may need the FUSE 2 library; Windows asks once before it runs an unsigned program; macOS asks you to allow the app once in System Settings > Privacy & Security.

No sound

Look at the left of the status bar, at the bottom of the window:

  • Audio: Default Audio Device · 48000 Hz · 2 channels, or the name of your sound card: the app has a sound card, so the silence is somewhere in the song. Check the toolbar’s VOL slider and the mixer’s Main level (F9), a Mute or a Solo in the mixer, a channel’s light in the channel rack and a track’s light in the playlist: a light that is not green is muted.
  • Audio unavailable, and a reason: the app could not open a sound card. Plug in your headphones or speakers, close any program that may hold the sound card for itself, and press Try again in Edit > Settings… > Audio.

The app plays through your system’s default output. If you plug in headphones while it runs, or change the default output, press Restart audio in Edit > Settings… > Audio to move the sound there.

The instruments sound like simple synthesizers

That is the Lineup Osc, the app’s own synthesizer, which plays until a SoundFont is chosen. If you chose Not now when the app offered GeneralUser GS, or the download failed, open Edit > Settings… > Audio and tick SoundFont instruments: the offer comes back. Choose SoundFont… there picks a .sf2 file you already have (see Sounds). If the download fails, the window says why; you can download GeneralUser-GS.sf2 with a browser from its page and choose it.

The sound stutters

A slow or busy computer can fall behind while it plays a big arrangement, such as an orchestral demo with every instrument of the score. Close other programs, and close the windows you don’t need while it plays. File > Export WAV… is never affected: it makes the file apart from what you hear, note by note, so the file never stutters (see Exporting).

MIDI

  • The MIDI menu says MIDI unavailable. The system gave the app no MIDI at all. On Linux, MIDI needs the ALSA sequencer: the kernel module snd-seq. Load it with sudo modprobe snd-seq, then start the app again.
  • My keyboard is not in the list. The MIDI menu looks for keyboards each time it opens: plug the keyboard in, switch it on, then open the menu again. A keyboard that another program has taken for itself may not show.
  • I play, but nothing sounds. What you play sounds on the selected channel: click a channel’s name in the channel rack. Check that channel is not muted.
  • See MIDI keyboards and synths.

The keys don’t work

  • Space doesn’t play, and the other keys do nothing: a text box has the keyboard, such as the Library’s search or a bar of the chord sheet you are typing in. Click an empty place first.
  • The letter keys play notes instead of doing what you expect: MIDI > Typing keyboard to piano is on.
  • On a Mac, the shortcuts use ⌘ where this manual writes Ctrl. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Saving and files

  • Save asks for a new file every time. You opened a demo, which is read-only: save it once under a name of your own, and Save writes to that file from then on (see Saving, opening and recovering).
  • The app closed without saving. Start it again: it offers to recover the unsaved work (see Recovering unsaved work).
  • On a Mac, double-clicking a .lineup file doesn’t open it. Use File > Open… in the app.

The band and the chords

  • The band plays something different from what I wrote. When you change the chords or the style, the band writes its parts again. To keep a part as it is, lock its track (see Locking a track, and playing your part).
  • The chords of an imported MIDI file are wrong. The app guesses them from the notes, and the guess can be wrong where the music is thin or moves fast. Correct them on the chord sheet (see Opening MIDI files and recordings).
  • The chord names are not what I expected, such as Do instead of C, or the other way round: Edit > Settings… > Harmony > Note naming chooses letters or solfège.

The window

  • Everything is too small, or too big. Hold the pointer over the menus or the toolbar and press Ctrl++ or Ctrl+−, or change Interface size in Edit > Settings… > Appearance. Ctrl+0 over anything takes it back to 100% (see Undo, zoom, windows and settings).
  • A window is gone. Its key brings it back: F5 to F9, or View. A window folded up to its title opens again with the ▼ at its top left.
  • Starting afresh. The app keeps its settings, and where its windows were, in the file app.ron in its data folder (see Saving, opening and recovering for where that is). With the app closed, rename or delete that file, and the next start is like the first one: in English, with the default settings, the windows where they first open, and no recent songs. Your songs, your styles and a downloaded SoundFont are not touched; if you had chosen another folder for your styles, choose it again with Styles folder… in Edit > Settings… > Library.

Reporting a problem

Help > About Ferrous Lineup has Report an issue, which opens the project’s list of known problems, where you can look for yours or describe a new one. Say which version you run (the About window shows it) and on which system, and what you did, step by step, so someone else can see the same thing. For a problem with what the app plays, turn on Edit > Settings… > Playback > Write a trace while playing, play the passage, and attach the trace file: it lists every note the app played, and the setting says where it writes it.