Using the pattern editor

The pattern editor displays the bars of whichever section(s) are currently selected in either the section list or playlist.

Components of two patterns shown in the pattern editor

On the horizontal axis, patterns are divided into beats and beat subdivisions. Vertically, each pattern is split into three main areas as follows:

• At the top is the header area, where information such as tempo markings, time signature designations, and section names are displayed.
• The middle region contains five groupings in which the drum sounds are shown.
• The footer area displays bar numbers, as well as beat numbering when it is helpful (at tight zoom levels and for large time signatures, for example).

By default, patterns are presented in one horizontally scrolling row in the editor. However, you may elect to have the patterns wrap to new rows at a regular interval (e.g. every 16 bars), or at the visible window width. This behaviour may be specified in the preferences.

Patterns are broken into beats and beat subdivisions as delineated by vertical lines. Each subdivision represents a discrete moment in time at which one or more events may sound. You can add and remove drums in beat subdivisions as described in the following section.

Placing drums in the bar

Doggiebox uses a condensed approach with five rows in which to display instruments from the entire drum kit. Each percussive instrument is typically grouped into one of five general categories, like so (from top to bottom):

• accessory cymbals (crashes and other);
• rhythmic cymbals (hi hat and rides);
• secondary drums (tom-toms);
• principal drums (snare drum);
• foot-operated drums (kick drum).

As you track the mouse over bars shown in the pattern editor, the mouse cursor will change to the icon representing the current drum variant as selected in the drum kit list. Click within a beat subdivision to add the drum to the bar; click again to remove it. Drag to paint the drum across many beats in one operation.

If you hold the Command (⌘) key while tracking over a pattern, the mouse cursor will dynamically change to the most recently selected drum for the grouping (one of five) over which the mouse is hovering. For example, notice what happens as you move the mouse up and down over the region where kick drum and snare drum appear. This feature is designed to save time for experienced users, eliminating the need to make repeated trips with the mouse to the drum kit list when entering common drum patterns involving several drums.

You can also press letter- and number-keys on the keyboard to switch directly to specific drums. See the discussion in the drum kit editor on how to customize the bindings.

Holding the Option (⌥) key while tracking over a pattern will change the cursor into a pencil-eraser tool. By clicking or dragging, any drums beneath the cursor will be immediately erased.

Changing drum velocity

To give texture and realism to your percussion it is usually desirable to perform hits at different volume levels, as a human player would do in real life. Fortunately this is easy to control on a sound-by-sound basis.

To change the velocity of a particular drum, simply right-click or Control (⌃)-click upon it in the pattern editor. A pop-up slider will appear beside it; drag it accordingly with the mouse. A value of 10 is loudest, and 1 softest.

You may set the default velocity for new drums as they are added by setting the slider of similar appearance (labeled "Default vel.▸") in the floating inspector.

In the pattern editor, drums are shown with a transparency relative to their velocity — louder drums will appear darker those of lower velocity will appear in a lighter shade. On playback, Doggiebox simulates different velocities in sampled drum sounds by altering their amplitude.

Using the inspector

The song inspector palette

The Song Inspector is a floating window which provides easy access to make various adjustments while editing a song, such as adding and removing beats, altering the time signature and tempo, and zooming in and out.

One inspector is shared between all open files; its behaviour and shown values reflect the context (insertion point or current selection) in active song document. It can be shown or hidden at any time by choosing Song Inspector from the Window menu.

The various operations it provides are discussed next.

Adding and deleting bars

To quickly insert one or more new empty bars, click on the Insert Bar button (or choose the same command from the Edit menu) as many times as necessary. The new bars will be added at the current insertion point.

If you wish to insert a quantity of several bars in one move, first hold down the Shift key. The button's name will change to read Insert Bars...; choosing this (or the corresponding command from the Edit menu) will bring the inspector into view, revealing a text field that prompts for the number of bars you wish to insert.

To delete a bar, first select its entirety by either clicking once in its header area, or double-clicking between beats with the I-beam cursor () . Then, click the Delete Bar(s) button (or choose the same command from the Edit menu). You may also select several bars simultaneously to perform the operation en masse.

Adjusting tempo and time signature

To alter the time signature of the currently selected bar(s), click on the stepper arrows or enter new values directly in the inspector. Invalid quantities will not be accepted (e.g., 5 on the bottom).

Note that changing the time signature will not alter the geometry of the bar — that is to say, the bar will sound the same upon playback, although the logical division of beats will be changed. This provides a useful means by which to work in compound times; for example, by temporarily changing a 4|4 bar to 3|4 in order to create triplets across the bar.

The tempo for the selected pattern(s), in beats per minute, can also be easily changed. For quick access, pressing the key shortcut for Tempo/Time Signature... in the Edit menu will reveal the inspector if not currently visible, and highlight the tempo field for editing.

By default, a sensible basis note value will be automatically chosen to express the tempo with respect to the time signature (e.g. quarter-note for a 4|4, or dotted-eighth for 6|8). If you wish to override this, simply right-click on the note-value icon and choose a different one from the pop-up menu.

Adding and deleting beats

To insert a new beat into a bar at the location of the insertion point, click the Insert Beat button (or choose the same command from the Edit menu). Any existing drums in the bar will be shifted appropriately, and a new beat of a duration appropriate to the time signature will be created. The time signature will be automatically adjusted.

In order to remove one or more beats from existing bars, first select the beats in question either by drag-selecting them with I-beam cursor () or by option-clicking in the pattern header. Then click Delete Beats (or choose the command from the Edit menu). They will be removed, and the time signatures of the affected pattern(s) will be changed appropriately.

Note that these beat-editing operations pertain to whole beats only, and not beat subdivisions; e.g. in a 6|8 bar, an eighth-note is the smallest duration you may insert, delete, cut, copy or paste. If the selected region does not encompass a whole beat, it will be automatically rounded to the nearest beat boundaries.

Zooming in and out

You can adjust the visible horizontal resolution (number of accessible subdivisions per beat) by clicking the zoom buttons, or by using the Zoom In (Expand) and Zoom Out (Collapse) commands in the Song menu. By zooming in, you can expose smaller subdivisions of the beat.

Beats will be shown with a light brown back-fill to indicate that they contain events in subdivisions which are not currently visible. To expose them, simply zoom in.

Zooming applies to the pattern under the insertion point (or all that are selected, if there are several). This allows you to view different parts of the song in the way that is most convenient. The current zoom level for each pattern will be saved.

Working with selections

Individual beat subdivisions, or ranges thereof, as well as whole bars (or groups thereof) can be selected for editing operations (such as copying or changing tempo) in much the same way as text in a word processor. When there is no selection, an insertion point appears as a blinking red vertical marker. You can reposition the insertion point either with the mouse (by clicking on a vertical line between beats or bars), or by using the cursor keys on the keyboard.

Selecting specific beats

A pattern with one and a half beats selected

You may perform edit operations (e.g. copying, deleting, etc.) on the drums contained within an individual beat, portion thereof, or several, by first selecting the beat subdivisions to affect.

To do so, position the mouse between beats such that it becomes an I-beam cursor () , then click and drag toward another beat to highlight those in between. Alternatively you may hold the Option (⌥) key while hovering the mouse in the header area above a pattern, causing it to become a triangle-shaped cursor () with which you may select beat subdivisions.

Rather than dragging, you may also Shift-click beside the target beat to enclose. The Shift key also works in conjunction with the cursor keys. Additionally, pressing Command-Option (⌘+⌥) while clicking in the header with the triangle cursor will toggle the selection state of a beat while preserving the rest.

Selecting whole patterns

A pattern which is wholly selected

To perform an operation on one or more patterns at a bar-level granularity (e.g. change their tempo, copy them into a new section, etc.), you may select entire patterns at a time.

Click once in the header area of a pattern to select it. You may Shift-click to extend the current selection to another bar, or Command (⌘)-click to toggle the selection of individual one. Patterns that are selected on a whole-bar basis will display a highlighted backfill in the header region, as opposed to the contained beats themselves.

Copying and pasting

The methods described above for selecting patterns and beats for deletion also apply for using the standard Edit menu commands, Copy and Cut.

If you have one or several whole bars on the clipboard, choosing Paste will insert them into the current section either in place of the currently selected bars (if any) or nearest to the insertion point location.

With one or more individual beats on the clipboard, behaviour is slightly different. Performing a Paste will apply the drums in the copied beats into the currently selected area (or beginning at the insertion point location) without affecting the song structure. The new drums will overwrite whatever drums are present in the target location. Alternatively, if you wish to combine the clipboard with the existing drums, hold the Shift key and choose Paste Over to perform an additive paste.

Managing song structure

As discussed earlier, Doggiebox permits you to construct songs out of building blocks called sections. Each section can contain any number of bars, with distinct tempo markings, time signatures and so on. By arranging sections in the playlist, you put these blocks in order to describe the structure of the song. A song will always contain at least one section.

The section list controls

The section list

The section list is a repository of the various building blocks (groups of bars) which you can re-use to create the song.

To create a new section, click the button above the list, or choose Add Section... from the Song menu. You may also option-drag, or copy and paste, to duplicate an existing section (or several), even between different song files.

To permanently delete one or more selected sections, click the button or choose Clear from the Edit menu. If any of them currently appears in the playlist, you will be given a chance to cancel the operation.

The section list sports the following columns:

• Name: a short descriptive name. Double-click (or press Return) to modify it.
• Duration: indicates the length of this section. First is the number of bars, followed by its actual play time (minutes and seconds) in parentheses.

The order of sections in the list does not matter, though you are free to re-arrange them (by dragging) in order to suit your taste.

The playlist controls

The playlist

The playlist is where you manipulate the structure (or running order) of the song. Sections shown in the playlist are really just aliases to the actual sections found in the section list.

To add a section to the playlist, click the button above the list, or choose Add to Playlist from the Song menu. A new entry will be created. You may then click on the section pop-up to choose which section it represents. Alternatively, you can simply drag a section from the section list to the playlist, and it will be inserted automatically where you would like it.

To remove the selected section(s), click the button, or choose Clear from the Edit menu. Doing so will delete them from the playlist, but not actually dispose of the sections entirely (they will still remain in the section list).

The following columns are shown in the playlist:

• Section: which section this playlist entry represents. Click to change it, which will reveal a pop-up menu containing all of the sections from the section list.
• ✕: indicates for how many iterations the section is actually played. If you want to repeat a section several times, you may specify a number here rather than create many consecutive entries in the playlist.
• Description: an arbitrary name. Double-click (or press Return) to modify it.
• Cue Point: indicates when in the song the section plays. First is the beginning bar number in the song, followed by the actual time point (minutes and seconds) in parentheses.

To change the sequence in which sections play, simply drag them within the playlist to change their order.

There is also a button labeled All, which is a shortcut for selecting the entire contents of the playlist. This is an effective way to view and play back the song as a whole, which you will ultimately want to do.