Lesson 1 - Chiptune Music with SunVox - Your first sound
Lesson 1:
Transcript
00:02 - Video 01. Overview, your first sound.
00:07 - When you first open SunVox this is what you see. The SunVox interface is divided into four primary windows. The upper part, set off from the lower part by a keyboard, is the “Tracker.” Notes, which you would like to be played by the instrument(s) loaded in the “Module View", can be inserted into the middle part of the screen on the right with the keyboard. I will show you later how you can enter notes into the Tracker. Below the keyboard there’s a vertical bar that contains the playback commands, and a volume control on the right.
00:44 - It is also possible to resize the “Tracker” and the “Module View.”
00:51 - The “Module View” is where the sound is generated. Here you can choose which instrument or “Module” is going to be triggered by the “Tracker.” Each module is represented by a box. The wires connecting the boxes show in which direction the sound will travel.
01:08 - This is the default template but it’s a little bit complicated. We are going to start a new session and do something easier in a moment.
01:18 - To the left of the Module View is a panel for the module’s parameters. In this panel, parameters for whichever module you have selected are shown on the left. Parameters can be manipulated with the arrows or by dragging the sliders.
01:34 - This will allow you to tweak each individual module. At the bottom of the screen is the “Timeline.” This is where we can create and edit time regions, and arrange the development of our song. Let’s resize the “Timeline” by moving this vertical bar.
01:53 - Now we can start a new project much more easily. Click on the icon in the top left corner. Select “New project” and choose “Empty.” You will notice now that in the “Module View” there is only the
“Output” module. You can create a new module either by doubleclicking on the module view or by clicking on this menu. Under “Synths” let’s choose the first entry, “Analog Generator.”
02:20 - This will bring up the selected module in the module view. The module we choose, technically speaking, is an oscillator. The task of an oscillator is to produce a periodic, oscillating signal, and this can be a sine wave, a square wave or other kinds of waveforms.
02:42 - We’ve loaded a module but there is, as yet, no connection to the “Output.” In order to connect them you must select the module that produces the signal, keep it selected and, with the other hand, select the output module. This operation will connect the modules through a wire.
03:01 - The little animation traveling along the wire shows us the signal path. Repeating the same operation on two already-connected modules will delete the wire. Another solution for connecting modules is to first select the module that you want to route its output from, then click on its icon to enter into patching mode. You will notice that the background becomes green, and then you will be able to select the module that needs to receive the signal. Using the keyboard you can now listen to the sound produced by the “Analog Generator” that we have chosen.
03:35 - By selecting the “Analog Generator” you can move the first slider, in the parameter panel, to change the oscillator’s volume, or the second slider to select a different
waveform produced by the oscillator. Now we are ready to save our first patch made in SunVox.
03:56 - Click on the icon in the top left corner and choose “Save Project,” then press “OK.” The project which we saved is going to be the starting point for our next tutorial.