First sounds

There are two ways to make a voice sound: name a sound with s(...), or play pitches with note(...).

Drums with s()

s (or its long name sound) picks sounds by name. Short names stand for the parts of a drum kit:

Name	Sound	Name	Sound
bd	bass drum	oh	open hi-hat
sd	snare	cr	crash
rim	rimshot	rd	ride
cp	clap	ht mt lt	high, mid, low tom
hh	closed hi-hat	sh cb	shaker, cowbell

s("bd hh sd hh")

A comma inside the quotes plays two rows at the same time:

s("bd ~ sd ~, hh hh hh hh hh hh hh hh")

~ is a rest: the step is there, but nothing plays.

Choosing a drum machine

.bank(...) picks the drum machine the names play on. TuttiDAW maps the classic machines to its factory kits: tr808, tr909, tr707, tr606, tr505, linn, dmx and cr78 (Strudel's long names such as RolandTR909 work too).

s("bd*2 [~ bd] sd ~, hh*8").bank("tr909")

Pitches with note()

note plays pitches. Write note names (c, d, eb, f#) with an octave number, or MIDI numbers.

note("c3 eb3 g3 bb3")

note("48 51 55 58")

Both lines play the same four notes. In code, c4 is MIDI 60 (middle C). TuttiDAW's piano roll, like Ableton Live, labels MIDI 60 as C3, so a note written c4 in code shows as C3 in the clip.

Giving notes a sound

A note voice without a sound plays a simple synth. Add .s(...) to pick another one: the basic waveforms sine, triangle, square, sawtooth, or an instrument name such as piano.

note("c3 e3 g3 b3").s("sawtooth")

note("c4 e4 g4 c5").s("piano")

The Sounds chapter lists the instruments you can name, and TuttiDAW extensions shows how to load any TuttiDAW instrument with its presets.

Volume and velocity

.gain(...) sets the loudness of a voice. .velocity(...) (0 to 1) sets how hard each note is played, as a MIDI velocity: it is kept when you freeze code to MIDI.

s("hh*8").gain(0.5).velocity("1 0.6 0.8 0.6")