Object Model

A file is a set of songs, which share its patterns, scales, generators, chains and grooves. This page covers the File/Global page, the Songs page and each song's settings.

File/Global Page

Press F on the main screen to open the File/Global page, which holds the set itself: what the file says about the set, the defaults every song starts from, and the keys that start a new set or save under a new name.

The loose settings come first, in alphabetical order, then two sections, closed until opened with Space or ENTER: Notes & Octaves, the defaults every pattern starts from, and Visualizers.

Setting	What it does
Author	Who wrote the set, also only for people reading the file.
Default follow action	What a clip's Advance does in real-time playback, unless the clip sets its own: "With Scene", "Next" or "Off". No export reads it. ENTER chooses.
Description, Notes	What the set is, in a line, and anything else to say about it; see Description and Notes below.
Protected	Whether the file is protected from being saved over. Space or ENTER turns it on or off. Every set in examples/ is protected, so trying things in a demo can't spoil the demo: Ctrl+S offers to save a copy under another name instead, and the copy is yours and isn't protected. A set you start yourself isn't protected unless you turn this on.
Title	The set's name, for anyone reading or sharing the file, such as in git. It doesn't change how anything plays, and Bksp clears it.

Notes & Octaves

Setting	What it does
Default drum octave	The octave a new drum note gets.
Default octave	The octave a new note gets, in the set's octave labels.
Octave labels	How octaves are numbered on screen: as Live labels them, where middle C is C3, or in llamatron's own numbering from 0, where middle C is C5. ENTER chooses. The setting changes only what you see, while the notes and the file stay the same. See Octave Numbering below.
Step size	How long each step of a pattern is, unless the pattern sets its own, from 1/64 to a whole note. ENTER chooses from the list. A pattern's own step size is set in the pattern editor with E.

Visualizers

Setting	What it does
Visualizer	The visualizer mode Arrange's visualizer key shows first, unless a song names its own. ENTER chooses.
Hide Visualizers	The modes the visualizer key leaves out, listed by name. ENTER opens a list where Space picks or unpicks each mode, ENTER keeps the choice and ESC changes nothing.

Below the settings, two buttons save and open without remembering a key: ↓ from the last setting reaches them, ← and → choose, and ENTER on Save saves the set, as Ctrl+S does, and ENTER on Open opens another set, as Ctrl+O does. Below the buttons, the page shows the path of the set's file and where the current song exports. Opening and Saving describes the keys N (New) and W (Save As).

Description and Notes

The Description is one line saying what the set is, such as the tune it plays: The Wellerman, or a C major scale. ENTER types it and Bksp clears it, as for the title. About Demos shows each example's description.

The Notes are as long as you like, for anyone reading or sharing the file: what each song or scene is for, or what to try. The notes don't change how anything plays. The File/Global page shows their first line, or not set, and the notes are saved at the top of the file, where they read as plain text.

Notes Page

ENTER on Notes opens the Notes page for editing. Typing adds text at the cursor, ENTER starts a new line, Bksp erases, and the arrows move the cursor; while editing, every letter is text, and only Tab, ESC and the arrows act as keys. Under the text are two buttons, Save and CANCEL. Tab moves onto them, Left and Right choose one, ENTER presses it, and Tab again returns to the text.

Save keeps the text in the set, to be saved with the set, as one change for undo. CANCEL, or ESC anywhere on the page, throws away what was typed since editing began. Either one leaves the page reading, where Up and Down scroll, E starts editing again, Bksp clears all of the notes after asking, and ESC goes back to the File/Global page. A protected set's notes open for reading only, and E and Bksp aren't offered until Protected is turned off.

Octave Numbering

Octaves are shown as Live labels them unless the Octave labels setting says otherwise. With Live's labels, octaves run from -2 to 8, and degree 1 of C major in octave 3 is middle C (C3, MIDI note 60). llamatron's own labels count from 0, where C0 is MIDI note 0, so middle C is C5 and the top octave is 10. The file always stores llamatron's numbering, whichever labels you see, and a file saved by an earlier version of llamatron, which stored Live's numbering, is converted when it loads.

Songs Page

Press S on the main screen to open the Songs page. The set's songs are listed with their tempo, scale, and number of tracks and scenes, and ● marks the current song: the song Registers and Arrange edit and Ctrl+X exports. Each song has its own tracks, scenes and registers, while all of them share the set's patterns, scales, generators, chains and grooves, so the same pattern can play in every song.

Key	What it does
Space	Make the selected song current
ENTER	Make it current and open its settings
A	Add a song, asking for its name
N	Rename it. The song's name and the set's are independent.
C	Copy it, with its tracks, scenes and registers, named with the next free number: a copy of verse is verse-2, and a copy of verse-2 is verse-3. Every copy on every page is named this way.
M	Pick it up: ↑↓ carry it, and ENTER drops it
S	Sort the list by name
Bksp	Delete it, after asking. The set always keeps at least one song.

Song Page

ENTER on a song opens the Song page.

Setting	What it does
Name	The song's name, shown in the header. ENTER renames it, the same as N on the Songs page.
Tempo	Beats per minute for the whole song, from 10 to 999. A scene can set its own.
Time signature	Beats over a note value, 4/4 to start. [ and ] step through the common ones, and ENTER types any other, such as 7/8. The time signature changes nothing about when notes play: the pattern editor marks its beats with bold numbers and double lines, real-time launches wait for its bars, and the exports carry it so that Live and other DAWs draw the right bars. A pattern can have its own, set in the pattern editor through R (Reconfigure).
Entry size	How long a note placed on a pattern's piano roll lasts, when the pattern doesn't set its own: one of the step sizes, or (one step) of the pattern, which a new song starts with. [ and ] step through the sizes, ENTER picks one from a list, and Bksp goes back to one step.
Scale	The song's scale, from the Scales page; a scene or a clip can use another. Bksp sets no scale, in which case patterns with degrees can't play or export.
Seed	With no seed, which a new song starts with, every play and export is a new take: the notes probability drops, random play directions and random arpeggiators all come out differently each time. A seed plays the same take every time, and a different seed gives a different take. Bksp clears it.
Groove	The swing or other timing feel every clip plays with, unless its scene or track chooses another, from the Grooves page. none, which a new song starts with, plays straight. [ and ] step through the grooves, and ENTER picks one from a list.
Genre	A word or two saying what kind of music the song is, such as Folk or Electronic, only for people to read. ENTER types it and Bksp clears it. About Demos groups the examples by genre.
Live response	When an edit made while the song plays is heard: "next bar", the default, "clip restart", at each playing clip's next pass, or "ASAP", at once.
Preview instrument	The instrument that Listen plays a pattern through. (General MIDI piano), which a new song starts with, plays a pattern on General MIDI's piano through FluidSynth. [ and ] step through the set's instruments, ENTER picks one, and Bksp clears.
Export	ENTER here exports this song, the same as Ctrl+X anywhere, asking which kind of output first.

File/Globals

Sets are saved as YAML, and each file records the version of llamatron that saved it, which the About dialog also shows. The format is mainly for llamatron to read, but it stays readable so that sets can be compared in version control, and the files in examples/ show every part of it.

The shared sections come first, scales, patterns, the generators, chains and grooves, and then songs holds each song by name, with its tempo, scale, seed, groove, registers, tracks and scenes. Patterns are stored the way the editor shows them, with one list per row, so a change in the tracker makes a small change to the file. Every setting has a default, so a file can leave out anything it doesn't need, and a file written by an older version still loads: a file saved before llamatron 1.0.39 held one song and becomes a set of one song named after the file, and a file saved before llamatron 1.0.30, which stored Live's octave numbering, is moved up when it loads and written the new way when saved.