The document window is divided into two sections. The top of the
window contains a heading with Part Tabs, a Tempo Slider, and the current part's Velocity and Sustain
settings. Below this is your chord progression, displayed as a
series of boxes, each with its own Sequencer for making picking patterns.
When you select a line or part in the document the selected chord
becomes the Current Chord and the various
palettes update to show the properties of the chord. All actions you
perform in the palettes then affect the selected chord.
Document HeadingTOP
- Part Tabs
-
The part tabs allow you to select which part you wish to view
and edit. Each part has its own instrument, velocity,
sustain settings, and chords.
Whenever you perform an operation on the Current Chord only
the chord in the active part is directly affected. However the
other three parts will be synchronized when they are (1)
identical to the visible chord and (2) have no picking pattern.
Only the bracket position is unaffected by this
auto-synchronization.
- Click on an inactive Part Tab to activate it.
- You can also use the ← and → keys.
- Instrument Menu
-
Use this popup menu to select a General MIDI instrument for
the current part.
- You can also use the submenu.
- You can also use the Instrument Popups in the Channels
Palette.
- ⌘ click to toggle Instrument Name and Instrument
Number.
- This control also responds to a mouse scroll-wheel.
- Tempo Slider
-
This slider indicates the tempo for the entire document and
all parts. The tempo is represented in beats-per-minute
(BPM). Each vertical line in the sequencer represents 1/4
beat. The tempo can be set to any value from 30 to 300 BPM,
so FretPet can theoretically play as many as 28,800 tones
per minute (300 BPM x 4 sub-beats x 6 strings x 4 parts).
During play changes to the tempo may not take effect right
away. To maximize synchronization the player always waits
until the beginning of the next chord before using the
updated tempo.
- Click and drag to set any value from 30 to 150 BPM.
- Quick-click to set the value to a multiple of 5.
- This control also responds to a mouse scroll-wheel.
- Tempo Doubler
-
The document can be played at normal or double speed. At 1X
speed you can adjust the tempo to values between 30 and 150
BPM in intervals of 1/2 BPM. At 2X speed the tempo can be
adjusted to any value between 60 and 300 BPM in intervals of
1 BPM. During play changes to the tempo doubler may not
take effect right away. To maximize synchronization the
player always waits until the beginning of the next
chord before using the updated tempo.
- Click to toggle between 1X and 2X speed.
- Velocity Slider
-
Velocity determines how hard notes in this part will be
struck, so it's basically equivalent to volume.
- Click and drag to set the velocity from 0 to 127.
- Quick-click to set the value to a multiple of 10.
- This control also responds to a mouse scroll-wheel.
- Sustain Slider
-
Sustain determines how long a note continues to ring after it
has been struck.
- Click and drag to set any value from 1 to 50.
- Quick-click constrains the value to a multiple of 5.
- This control also responds to a mouse scroll-wheel.
 |
When using more complex synthesizers like GarageBand,
Absynth, and others, the velocity setting may have a
characteristic effect on the timbre of the sound. When the
sustain is longer than the interval between successive tones
they may merge, slide, or continue in the same envelope.
Experiment! |
Chord FeaturesTOP
Every line in the document contains four chords, one for each part.
The four chords that live on a single line are referred to as a
Chord Group.
- Current Chord
- The green highlighted chord is the Current Chord. All chord
operations affect this chord.
- Chord Number
- Each chord is numbered according to its position in the document.
- Chord Circle
-
Every chord is represented by a small version of the Circle.
The Chord Circle - unlike the Circle Palette - always has C
at 12-o-clock.
- Click inside the Chord Circle to add or remove notes
from the Current Chord.
- Chord Name
-
This is the name of the chord. To change a chord's name
select one from the Chord Palette or use the Scale Palette
to select a new root tone.
- Chord Lock Indicator
-
When the chord root is locked a padlock appears at the right
end of the chord name box. Chords with a locked root can be
modified as freely as other chords. However the root cannot
be changed in the Scale Palette.
- Click the padlock to toggle Root Lock.
- Tablature Numbers
- This is the fingering of the chord represented as fret numbers
in the current tuning. For example, 0 1 0 2 3 3 represents a C
chord in standard tuning.
- The Repeat Slider
- indicates how many times a chord will repeat when the document
is played.
- The Picking Sequencer
- Described Below...
Document How-ToTOP
- Navigating
-
Navigate the Document Window using the mouse or keyboard in much
the same manner as you would any typical Mac document.
- Click on a chord to select it.
- Drag to select several chords at once.
- ↑ and ↓ move the document cursor.
- ← and → change the active part.
- ⇧↑ and ⇧↓ move the cursor while extending the
selection.
- Page Up / Page Down change the view by a page.
- Home / End move to the top / bottom of the document.
- Adding Chords
-
When you add a chord to the document you are effectively making a
copy of the Current Chord. The new chord is placed after
the Current Chord and it becomes the new Current Chord.
- Click the Add Chord button in the toolbar to copy the
Current Chord.
- You can also press the A key
- Selecting Chords
-
Fretpet allows you to select a range of chords using the
traditional methods. You can click and drag in the document, ⇧
click, or use ⇧↑ and ⇧↓. Selected chords appear in a light green
color while the Current Chord remains a darker green. This is to
remind you that the various palettes reflect the state of the
Current Chord and not the whole selection.
FretPet has a menu that you can
use to operate on several chords at once. These operations are
described in detail in the Filters
chapter.
- Deleting Chords
-
When you press the ⌫ key all selected chords are removed from
the document. (You can get them back with the Undo command.)
- Press ⌫ or ⌦ to delete the current selection.
- Clear Commands
-
The Clear Button and
corresponding menu items only affect the Current Chord
regardless of the current selection.
- Click the Clear Button or use the command to remove all tones from the
chord.
- ⌥ click the Clear Button or use the command to clear the picking
pattern.
- ⇧ click the Clear Button or use the command to remove all tones and clear
the picking pattern.
- Edit Commands
-
The standard clipboard commands are available to copy and paste
chords. There are also a couple of additional commands that make
editing your compositions much easier.
- Use the menu commands to
perform standard Cut, Copy, and Paste for single or multiple
chords.
- The menu
command fills the selected chords in the active part with
patterns from the clipboard, repeating them if necessary.
The patterns pasted will be those of the part that was
visible at the time of the or
.
- fills the
selected range with chords from the clipboard, repeating
them if necessary. The chords pasted will be those of the
part that was visible at the time of the or .
- sets the
selected range to the whole document.
 |
When you do a regular Copy, Cut, or Paste, all the parts are
included in the operation. But Paste Pattern and Paste Tones
only affect the Active Part which is plainly visible. |
- Play Commands
-
At any time you can press the Play Button to hear some
or all of your composition. Playback will proceed differently
depending on whether you have a selection and the current state
of the Loop, Follow View, and Edit Mode buttons in the Toolbar.
See the section on the Toolbar to learn more about the Loop, Follow View, and Edit Mode buttons.
- The Play Button plays the currently selected range.
- The Hear Button plays only the Current Chord.
- You can also use the
menu commands and .
The Picking SequencerTOP
The Picking Sequencer is a simple tool you can use to build picking
patterns for each chord. It is roughly modeled after a guitar
tablature diagram. Only the sequencer of the Current Chord is
active. If you click in an inactive chord's sequencer area you will
instead select the chord.
- String Lines
- The horizontal lines represent the strings of the guitar. Each
string represents a single tone as indicated on the fretboard.
If the Fret Bracket is turned off or if no tone is selected on a
string then a red x will appear in the tablature area and dots
placed on these strings will also appear red.
- Beat Markers
- The vertical lines represent beats in your picking pattern.
Each line actually represents a quarter-beat, and the darker
lines lines mark whole beats. There are up to 16 quarter-beats
available for each pattern.
- Sequence Length
- The thick bar at the right end of the sequencer is used to
change the number of beats in the picking pattern for all
parts.
Editing ToolsTOP
Clicking and dragging in the sequencer simply adds and removes tones
from the picking-pattern. But you can also use the following
modifier keys to edit the pattern in other interesting ways:
MODIFIERS
|
| CLICK ACTION
|
NONE |
 |
Toggle single dots |
⌥ |
 |
Toggle columns of dots |
⇧ |
 |
Move the sequence around |
⇧⌥ |
 |
Clone the sequence |
⌘ |
 |
Draw a line |
|