The main window control panel
Frame editor
The first part is the frame editor (also known as order editor).
A frame is a set of patterns for all channels, where each
channel is represented by a number that represents the selected pattern slot. There
are 128 available pattern slots for each channel, and the patterns aren't shared across
the channels. 128 frames can be used.
To change pattern, press "+" - or "-" buttons or "+" &
"-" keys in
the pattern editor. If "change all" is checked, all channels will change
instead of just the selected one. To move
between frames in the pattern editor, use Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Left. It's
possible to double-click the window to enter edit mode, you can then enter
values manually.
Song settings is default play speed & tempo, number of rows and frames in the song. Double-click any box to enter a value manually.
Speed and tempo can also be changed by using pattern command Fxx. The real BPM tempo is calculated by using the formula
BPM = (6 * Tempo) / Speed
which means that the tempo box is correct at speed of 6.
Note: The speed & tempo split-point is currently set to 32, but files created in older versions of the tracker will have this point set to 20. This was changed to give a access to a larger speed range since the speed command sometimes is more useful than the tempo command. It is possible to toggle this split-point with the command Ctrl+Shift+S if you wish to change it in the current module.
The time base for the song is 60 or 50 updates per second (when using default NTSC/PAL settings), and this is used to calculate the average tempo of the song. This means that some rows may play slightly longer or shorter than others, and this might be noticable. To avoid this, leave the tempo setting at 150 (125 for PAL!) and use only the speed setting to change BPM to ensure that all rows get the same duration.
The step setting changes the step behaviour when moving the cursor in the pattern editor. Key repetition enables key repeat behaviour.
Song information & instrument list
Song information text fields are for name, artist and copyright. These strings are stored in NSFs (and also available in the NSF export dialog). The song list selects a song in multi-song files. The big list to the right is the instrument box, and the small toolbar is used to create, delete, open, save and edit settings for instrument and the text box is to name instruments.