Sonique Help System - First Steps

SONIQUE™ CONTEXTUAL HELP SYSTEM - FIRST STEPS

ADDITIONAL HELP TOPICS

The Sonique Graphical User Interface

Sonique's Graphical User Interface (GUI) is encompasses three modes, Small-State Mode (SSM), Mid-State Mode (MSM), and the Navigation Console (NC). When you run Sonique for the first time it starts in the Navigation Console.

The Navigation Buttons

The four light blue icons in the upper right corner of the NC are navigation buttons that are present in all of the Modes of Sonique. These buttons allow one to flow from state to state, access help, minimize and close Sonique. The button functions are as follows:

navigation buttons in the NC

    Jump down one mode (Mid-State Mode).
    Jump down two modes (Small-State Mode).
    Open the Help File specific to the Mode/Screen you are in.
    Minimize Sonique.
    Exit Sonique.

    Jump back one screen.

In other modes (Mid-State Mode, Small-State Mode) the navigation buttons change slightly. In Small-State Mode the is replaced by to jump directly to the Navigation Console. In MSM, double arrows do not appear since from that mode, it is only possible to jump either up or down once.

The NC has one special Navigation button: takes you back to the main menu from any screen (same function as a right click).

Jumping Between Modes Without Using the Navigation Buttons

You can also jump between modes of Sonique by using mouse and keyboard shortcuts. The mouse shortcut is to double click on Sonique's gray chassis. Double-clicking with the right mouse button will move the state from SSM to MSM, MSM to NC, and NC to SSM. Double-clicking with the left mouse button will do the same thing but in reverse order. The keyboard shortcuts are described in Appendix 3.

Playback Control Buttons

There are four buttons that are used in all modes for playback control. These buttons are as follows:

MSM/NC	SSM	BUTTON DESCRIPTION
		Play/Stop Toggle. When this button is hit it changes from play to stop and vice versa.
		Pause. This button will pause the music, hitting either stop or pause again will resume the music. You can still go to the next or previous song while paused, but you cannot seek while paused.
		Previous Song, Next Song. Hitting the back arrow will move to the beginning of the previous song in the playlist. Hitting the forward arrow will move to the beginning of the next song in the playlist.

Using Knobs in Sonique

All knobs in Sonique work in the same way: position the mouse cursor over the knob and hold down the left mouse button. The knob responds to x-axis (vertical) mouse motion. If you want to move the knob clockwise, push the mouse up. Move the mouse down to move the knob counter-clockwise. Any horizontal mouse motion is ignored. With a little practice, knob use in Sonique is very easy.

File Input and Playback Mode Buttons

MSM/NC	SSM	BUTTON DESCRIPTION
		Open an audio file or playlist. This button will open an explorer window that will allow you to load files into Sonique.
	N/A	Loop All/Loop One. Hitting this button will first make it glow blue, indicating that it is looping all of the songs in the playlist. When you hit it a second time it will glow green, indicating that it is looping the song currently playing.
	N/A	Shuffle play. The Shuffle button will play the current playlist in a random order. Changing the playlist, hitting stop, or turning shuffle off then on will reset and reorder the shuffle.

Opening and Playing a File

There are three ways to open and play a song. The first and simplest way is to drag and drop the file onto sonique. By default, dragging any file that is of a supported type onto sonique will add that song to the playlist and play it. This behavior can be changed by using the GENERAL area of the Setup Options. In addition you may drag and drop multiple files onto sonique at once or even directories.

The second way to play a file is use the "open file(s)" button in any of the modes (images of the open file(s) buttons are displayed above). When you hit the button, a standard windows dialog will appear. Use this dialog just as you would any other open file dialog -- browse to the folder that contains the file you want to play, select it, and then click OPEN. You may also use this dialog to open an internet mp3 stream. Type the URL of the stream into the lower input form and click OPEN URL.

The third way to play a file is to double-click on it. However this only works if Sonique's file associations are setup properly. You can set file associations in Setup Options.

Supported Audio Formats:

.cda
.wav
.it
.xm
.s3m
.mod
.mp3
.mp2
.mp1
.m2a
.mpa

Supported Playlist Formats:

.pls
.pl
.m3u

ADDITIONAL HELP TOPICS

Need more help? Read the sonique FAQ at: www.sonique.com/faq.html. Most of your questions will be answered there.
Get the latest version of sonique - visit www.sonique.com.

Help System Version .92