Milkytracker - How to create a simple song

Now we create finnaly our first simple song!

Please restart Milky or delete the current Song in Milky's Memory with 'Zap', like i told you before.
Now load at Position '01' in the Instrumentslist the Instrument 'Synth01.xi', wich can be found here:
-> download demo files.
Now choose the settings, that you know from our first Instrument, like told before ( 'Vibspeed' to '10', 'Vibdepth' to '4' and 'Vibsweep' to '8' ).
After that, please create a new Sample at Position '02' in the Instrumentslist (Sampleeditor, right Mousebutton and New). Now please draw a waveform, that looks like this one:

Chipsample zeichnen
Image: draw a Chipsample


Name your new Instrument 'Pulse01' (right Mouseclick in the Namefield at '02') - Return ends the Name Changing Mode. But our new 'Pulse01' Instrument need some finetuning. Please choose 'Vibspeed' to '08', 'Vibdepth' to '4' and 'Vibsweep' to '06'. If you can't draw the Pulse01 as good as shown in the Image, you can alternatively load the 'Pulse01.xi' at Position '02'.
Now please load 'Bassdrum.xi' to Position '03' and 'Snaredrum.xi' to Position '04'. Don't forget to save your song after every big step. You can do that with a click at 'As...' in the Menu. Choose a good name for your song, so that you can remember quickly what it sounds like. E. g. our first song can be named 'first_Milkysong01.xm'. After saving a song for the first time, you can resave it under the same filename with a click at 'Save' near 'As...'. You can save after each big step under a new file with counting on, like 'first_Milkysong02.xm', 'first_Milkysong03.xm' and so on.

So that we have now all Samples and Instruments, that we need for our first simple song, let's start with typing in some notes. To enable the Record Mode, click at 'Rec' or just hit the spacebar. The line that belongs to the Cursor gets red coloured. Choose now the 'Bassdrum' (Instrumentslist) and hit 'y' on your Computer-Keyboard. Ah, Milky gives us a C-4 Note and the current position in the trackview. Delete this note with pressing the key 'Del' on your PC-Keyboard (i have a german keyboard, so i do not know exactly, if it is called 'Del' or 'Delete' or something like that). 'q' is the note C-5, that means it's one octave higher. Now please give some Bassdrum-Hits with the key 'q' (Note C-5) at the Positions: 00, 08, 16, and so on. until you reach the end of the Pattern (Position '56' is the last Bassdrum-Hit) of Channel1. Now choose the 'Snaredrum' and hit 'y' (Note C-4) at Positions: 04, 12, 20 and so on. until you reach Position '60' at Channel2.
Now you can listen to what you have entered into Milky with a click at 'Play Sng'. If you did all this in the right way, it should look like 'tutorial01.xm', and sound very monotonous. Please load 'tutorial02.xm' now, to see, how to change the monotonous Pattern to something with a little variation to the rhythm. Sounds a bit better, right? I changed the Tempo to 160 BPM, so that it plays back a bit faster. If you want to load two songs at the same time into Milky, you can use the so called 'Tabs'. To create a Tab, please hit 'Control', 'Shift' and 't' at the same time. On the bottom of milky, you should see now your two Tabs. You can activate a Tab if you click at it with left mousebutton. To create more/less Tabs, you can click '+' or '-', if you need.

Tabs in Milky
Image: Tabs in Milky


Please load 'tutorial02.xm' into the first Tab and 'handdrawn.xm' into the second Tab, like you can see in the Image. Now you can compare your input to what it should look like, with the help of the two Tabs.

Our Drums are ready, and so we can start to enter our Melody. But first lets have a look at our keyboard and wich Notes are on wich Keys:

Klaviatur
Image: Keys


Please enter on the top position of Channel 3 and 6 a '<>|' (the key near 'y') - that is our 'Note-Off-Key'. Now change to the green Points, or to be more exact, to the first green Points on Channel3. There please enter a '0' (Null) - you should see a '00' there now. The same goes for Channel6. After that, please choose 'Synth01' and give the Notes into Channel4, like shown in 'handdrawn.xm' Now it's gonna be tricky: Choose the whole Channel4 with Left Mousebutton (click, hold down the Mousebutton and select the whole Channel4) - now our Channel4 should be blue. Now click at Channel4 with right Mousebutton and Choose 'Copy'. After that you can go to Channel5 with the Cursor (Milky's Cursor, not the one of your OS). Go with it to Position '04' in the Notespace (where you normally enter your notes, like C-4 and so on) . Right Mousebutton on the Cursor and choose 'Paste'. Now it should look like Pattern01 (Position0) in 'handdrawn.xm'. Change the Volume of every Note in Channel5 to '10' - to do so, please go to the first green dot near the first note and press '1' on your PC Keyboard.

Now mark all what's visible in the first 6 Channels and Choose 'Copy', like you did before (don't forget to save first). After that click at 'Ins.' in the Milky-Menu - it's near the BPM-Field. Now we have two Patterns with the Number '00' - now choose the '1' in the list on the left in Milky Menu (where the two '00' are) und click at '+' under 'Ins.'. Now we have two Patterns (one Pattern is this musical page); the first ( 0 ) with Pattern '00' and the second ( 1 ) with Pattern '01'. Go on like this: Choose '00' in the Channelview (Channel1) with the Cursor. After that choose 'Paste' in the Mini Menu (right Mousebutton) at Cursor's Position. It should now look like 'tutorial03.xm'. You can compare this with 'tutorial03.xm' if you load it into an other Tab, if you like. Click once at 'Sub', so that you have now 6 Channels. Now please enter the rest of the notes and stuff like shown in 'handdrawn.xm'.

Here are some small tips:
1.) To change to a higher of lower Octive, choose one of the Function Keys (F1 to F7, F5 should be the Standart Octive) - (One Octive goes from One C to the next C);
2.) To enter the ChipChord ( 047 ), please go to the first yellow dot on Channel6 and enter there a '4' from top to bottom/end (after entering the Notes and Volume). After that, go to the second yellow dot and enter a '7' (from top to end);
3.) To enter the Volume-Change on Channel6 faster, you can change the '01' at 'Add' to '02' - but don't forget to change it later to '01' again.

If you have Questions to this Tutorial, you can ask me and if there are enough Questions, i'll possibly create an FAQ (FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions).

Have Fun while creating Music and may the creative Earworm be with you :-D .

- Ingo F. - 05.05.2008 - Text: ©© GFDL , Images: ©© Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 -