The composer lets you compose your music by arranging parts on different tracks (vertical) in a sequential order (horizontal). The output of a track goes to its target module. For a more detailed introduction, click here.
Tracks
- To create a new track, click the
 button at the left side in the composer below the existing tracks.
- You can also create new tracks by drag-dropping a relevant object on that button, for example a module, a parameter, a MUX preset, a VST plugin etc...
- A track can directly target [i]any[/i] module at [i]any[/i] modular level!
- To change the target module for a track, simply drag-drop that module onto the track.
- For example: To set a track's target to a rack, drag the rack's title bar onto the track.
- To create a sub-track, right-click the parent track and choose the relevant menu option.
- By default new sub-tracks use the same target as their parent track, but sub-tracks can also have their own target module.
- To create an automation (sub-)track, drag-drop the relevant parameter onto it. Or right-click the parent track and choose the relevant menu option. When drawing a new part on an automation track, it will always be an automation part.
- To create a VST automation (sub-)track, wiggle the VST parameter in the VST editor, then choose "Drag Last Tweaked Parameter" from the options menu (in the header of the VST editor window), then drag the parameter on the relevant track and click to stop dragging. If you do this often, you can create a shortcut to this drag function.
- You can widen the tracks column by dragging the splitter to the right.
- You can lasso multiple track mutes/solos so to (un)mute/solo multiple tracks at once.
- You can drag a track to move it up or down. If you drop it on the top/bottom of a track, it moves before/after that track. If you drop it on the middle of a track, it becomes a child track of that track.
All Parts
- You can create a new part by double-clicking and dragging the desired part length. Then you have the choice for an Audio Part, a Sequence Part or an Automation Part (cfr Overview) although in most cases MuLab will make this decission for you based on the track target module and whether it's an automation track.
- A double-click in the empty space between the cycle locators creates a new part there.
- Double-click a part to open its editor.
- Pasting parts happens at the 'focused position', that is the position where you last clicked the mouse or pressed a key. (eg a 'Paste' shortcut key)
Audio Parts
- You can trim the start point within the audio file via its editor. Each audio part can have its own start point.
- Whenever an audio part is selected, the audio part property panel appears in the left bottom of the composer, where you can edit volume, panning, fade-in/out etc of that audio part. The fade-in and -out is expressed in MIDI clocks which is 24 ppqn. E.g. setting it to 24 means a fade in of 1 beat.
Sequence Parts
- Multiple sequence parts can play the same sequence. This also means that if you edit that sequence, all parts playing that sequence will be affected. These parts are called 'shared' sequence parts for they share the same sequence. The composer indicates these kind of parts with a 'link' icon before the name:
- When you copy a part by [Ctrl]+drag, then the copied sequence part is a unique copy of the original part. If you want to copy a sequence part so that it shares the same sequence as the original part, then use [Shift]+[Ctrl]+drag. Tip: If you're used to other software with reversed behaviour, see this preferences doc page.
- If you have 2 parts playing the same sequence, you can also use "Make Unique Sequence" via the part's context menu to make a new independent copy of that sequence.
- If a sequence is looped, then you can simply extend the sequence part to the right and the sequence loop will play longer. For how to loop a sequence, see the Sequence Editor.
- Whenever a sequence part is selected, the sequence part property panel appears in the left bottom of the composer, where you can edit transpose, velocity, etc of that sequence part.
Automation Parts
- Double-click a part to open the envelpe editor and edit the automation envelope in all detail. For all details, click here.
More Info
- To pan/zoom the editor, use the standard editor navigation methods.
- Via the timebar's context menu, you can add as many locators as you want.
- You can also [Ctrl]+click the timebar to create a new locator.
- You can drag & drop audio files and MIDI files onto the composer.
- You can set a composition's time signature via its context menu i.e. right-click the composer background -> Edit Properties. You can set it to 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 etc. So how to do e.g. 7/8? It means that there are 7 1/8th notes in a bar. As MuLab can only do n/4 time signatures, you could set Beats Per Bar to 7 and work on double tempo.
MIDI channels come into play when you want to address the different sub-sections in a module, for example a multi-timbral synth.
A multi-timbral synth can generate different sounds at the same time, each controlled by its own MIDI channel. But there are more situations where the use of MIDI channels can be handy.
By default, tracks play on MIDI channel 1. You can change this via the track's context menu -> Choose MIDI Channel.
By default, sub-tracks use the same MIDI channel as their parent track, but you can change this too.
You can also set a track's MIDI channel to "Per Part" so you can define the MIDI channel per part via the part's context menu -> Choose MIDI Channel.
And if you set a part's MIDI channel to "Per Event", well then you can define the MIDI channel on event level.
In this case new drawn notes get the focused MIDI channel which can be changed via Sequence Editor's context menu -> Editor -> Choose Focussed Channel.
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