Sequencer Manual

This application is a simple online tool for music creation. You can create different musical compositions arranging sounds on a timeline. You can search and choose sounds from the very large Freesound database, which has thousands of sounds uploaded by users from all the world.
There is also a set of amazing ready made loops, supplied by MI7 (http://www.mi7.com): use them, if you want, for the basic skeleton of your song.
Of course you can use your own sounds, if you firstly upload them in Freesound.

The sequencer interface has a central area organized in different tabbed pages/views. The user can switch between different view simply clicking in its title.
On the left of this area a list called Sound Pool is displayed: this list shows the set of sounds used in the composition.
In the left bottom corner there is the transport bar which control the playback. Pressing the play button the playback starts and its icons change to the stop one. Pressing it again it stops the playback. Pressing the rewind the position of the playback goes back to the beginning.

In this area there is the tempo control in which the user can selected the desired song's tempo. Note that the sounds are not resampled at the desired tempo but they are simply triggered “in time” to match it.
On the top of the interface you can see the name of the user and the name of the song.
On the right of this information there are two buttons: Save song, for saving the song, and Publish. Pressing the Publish button the Publish page will be opened in the browser.
The content of the central area depends on what you have clicked in the tabbed menu: Sequence, Freesound, MI7, Comments, Visualizer.

The sequence view is the main view of the sequencer, in which the user can arrange the loaded samples on a timeline for building up his composition. The timeline is divided in little steps, symbolizing each beat of the composition. A vertical moving bar shows the current position, and it moves from left to right during the playback. Pressing the rewind button it will moves to the beginning of the composition.
The timeline is divided vertically in 6 independent tracks: this means that up to six samples can play together. At the beginning of the tracks there are two knobs: one for setting the volume and the other for setting the panoramic position of the sample in the stereo image. User can select the samples in the timeline, and easily move them in the position he wants using the standard drag and drop technique,
For inserting a sample the user has to select it from the Sound pool then he presses the Insert sample button. The sample will be inserted in the track in the last position of the selected sample ‘s track. The user may choose another sample/loop not contained in the Sound pool searching or selecting it in the Freesound or in the Mi7 page. For removing a sample from the timeline select it then press DEL key. Fo removing a sample from the sound pool select it from the list, then press the Remove button,

In the Freesound page the user may search sounds in the whole Freesound database. This database contains thousands of royalty free sounds, that can be used freely in the composition. The search operation is performed inserting a keyboard in a text field and pressing the Search button. The results of this search will be displayed in a scrollable list. Clicking on a list item its details are displayed on the right. The user may pre-listen it and deciding to import into the sample pool.

In this page you can choose audio loops from a library offered by Mi7. Browsing this library is simple: clicking on a category button the proper set of samples will be displayed in the list. The name of the samples is self explanatory: it contains also an indication of the loop's tempo.
As happens in the Freesound page the user can pre-listen the sample and deciding to import it in the sample pool

Here the user may insert some textual comments regarding the song.

Of corse these comments are saved together with the song.

In this contains a simple music visualization tool. When the composition is playing the user may choose to display, in real-time, the signal or the spectrum of the sound. This tool maybe useful for educational purposes, too.

There is no embedded function for recording your whole mix as an audio file (mp3 etc.), so we suggest you a simple way to do it: firstly, install a tool that grab your playing stereo mix (a good choice is mp3 my m p3, available for free at http://www.mp3mymp3.com/), rewind your sequencer song, press record on your recording tool, then press play on the sequencer.
Once the whole song is played you can press stop on your recording tool.
Then you can save your mixed track on your computer.