Tweak It

Still More Options

Transcript

So far you have used basic options to change the sound of your play command. Some synthesizers have even more options which you can learn about in the help files. You can use control+i when your cursor is over the synth name or you can use the Synths tab down at the help panel. One of my favorite synths is the :dsaw so I'll check what kind of options it has. Ok, so here are the attack: and release: options that are already familiar to you. You might have used amp: which changes the volume of the note and you might have used some of the other ones. A really interesting option is one called cutoff: I can click the name of the option and go straight to its explanation. So cutoff: changes the amount of high-end in a sound. If I give cutoff a low value such as 40 you hear that the sound is changed completely. It's now a lot softer. A value like 130 makes it really bright. Pay attention to the possible range of values. For example here it says that the value of cutoff: must be less than 131 so if I go over that, I will get an error. Many synths have the cutoff: option so go ahead and try it with your own sounds. It's a great way to add variation to a repeating melody. Don't forget to check out the help files to see what other options your favorite synths have!
Do this
Look up the help file of your favourite synthesizer. Use at least one option you haven’t used before!
If the cutoff: option has a low parameter such as 30, what will happen?

Educator notes

All synths have options, like amp: and pan: that are common to all the synthesizers. Incidentally, these are also the options for play! Unfortunately, Sonic Pi will only show these options in the drop-down menu. Check the help file of each synthesizer to get to know the options unique to them!

Don’t Stop the Options

Transcript

Sometimes you may run into situations where you want all the notes of your melody to have a certain release: time or a cutoff: value. Writing the options after each play command would be a lot of work and what if you change your mind later? Well you would have to go through all the commands again. Sonic Pi makes your life a lot easier with a command called use_synth_defaults. use_synth defaults tell Sonic Pi what options to use for all the play commands that follow it. I'll write that into the beginning of my melody. After the command I press space and I write release: and I'll give a value for release. Just like I would write after a play command. Now all the play commands that follow will have a release of 0.1 beats. I'm not stuck with only that value though. If I would want to make one of my notes have a longer release, I can give it it's own options as usual. There's no drop-down menu for use_synth_defaults like there is when you give options for play, so it's a good idea to have the help file of your synth open when you are using use_synth_defaults so that way you don't have to remember the names of all the options by heart. And by the way if you specify an option that doesn't exist, Sonic Pi will simply skip it without an error message. So for example if I make up an argument something like cucumba: and I will give it a value of 100 - very high. So, the code will run normally but the sound is not affected in any way since cucumba: doesn't actually exist as an option. Keep this in mind if your default options don't seem to work. Make sure you have spelled the name of the option correctly and make sure that the synth actually has this option.
Do this

Put a use_synth_defaults in your code to change the sound of all the play commands that follow.

You can change more than one option by separating them with a comma like this:

use_synth_defaults amp: 0.5, attack: 1, release: 0.25
How many options can you give to synths with the command use_synth_defaults?

Educator notes

It can be confusing and even a bit scary for the learners when suddenly they don’t have a drop down menu while using use_synth_defaults. But there is no need to panic! Instruct the learners to keep the help file open and find the names of the options there. Typing the option names also helps in remembering them!

Options for Sections

Transcript

You can create variation in your song by setting the default option several times inside a loop. Here's a simple looping melody with a pattern of shorter notes and then a longer note after the pattern. I'm already using some default settings here for my melody let's hear it. Alright, I would like to create another section with the same melody but with a different sound. The first thing to do is to repeat my current melody a few times because now it's just looping inside the live_loop. And I am gonna loop it four times. And next thing, I'm gonna copy this and paste it down here. So now both of these have their own use_synth_defaults and everything I write inside the second use_synth_defaults overrides the previous one. So I can change the sound completely by using this. I'm gonna change the cutoff value here to a smaller one.L et's say something like 50 Let's hear the result. Okay Now there are two quite clear melody sections and I can easily change them too. if I take away the release: from the defaults, the release value goes back to one and that's because one is the default option for release. You can see all the default values in the help file of each synth. So you can see here the release is one
Do this

Put two different use_synth_defaults in your melody to create two sections.

Hint: you might want to use repeat blocks to repeat a pattern more than once. For example:

live_loop :section do
  use_synth :saw
  #set options for this section
  use_synth_defaults attack: 1
  8.times do
    #play some notes
    sleep 1
  end
  #set different options for the next part
  use_synth_defaults  attack: 0, release: 0.5
  16.times do
    #play some other notes
    sleep 0.5
  end
end
What will happen if you use use_synth_defaults without any parameters?

Educator notes

Misspelling an option can be a source of frustration for learners. The program will execute without errors, but there seems to be no change in sound. If nothing seems to happen, ask the learners to check that all the options are written correctly and that they have sensible values. If the values are the same as defaults, then there will also be no change either.

Every option that you don’t explicitly define in use_synth_defaults will be set to the ones shown in the helpfile. So if you want to carry over options when using multiple use_synth_defaults then you will have to type them as well.