45. Quick-start procedure to create a simple sound.

  1. Start off by opening a Tracks node other than the track labelled 0 (track nodes are in the Tree view in the top left of the main window of Kangas Sound Editor) and then open an Edit node (immediately under the open track node). You should see a pane with a black grid on the right-hand side appear to the right of the Tree view.
  2. Click with the mouse in the Edit pane you have just opened; you should see a black vertical line appear, and also some form fields in the bottom left of the Kangas Sound Editor main window with some buttons above them.
  3. Enter a Duration value of, say, 10 (seconds) and press return; you should see the grid in the Edit pane retract. This step can be omitted from version 3 of the software, where there is a configurable default duration of 10 seconds.
  4. Use drag and drop to place a Sequence box by dragging from the 123..n button (has blue bar) into the clear part (i.e., no grid) of the Edit pane.
  5. Use drag and drop to place a Sound box by dragging from the curved-lines button (has yellow bar) into the blue Sequence box you placed on the previous step.
  6. Use drag and drop to place a Harmonic box by dragging from the piano-keys button (has purple bar) into the yellow Sound box you placed on the previous step.
  7. The Harmonic box's properties (Code and Amplitude fields) should be visible in the bottom left; if not, select them by clicking inside the purple Harmonic box.
  8. Click the search button to the right of the Code field, and you should see a Find Harmonic dialog appear.
  9. Click the Go button; after a short wait, some predefined Harmonic records should appear. Select one, such as acoustic guitar, by clicking on it. You can look for Harmonics beginning with “a” by typing a into the Start of name field and clicking the Go button.
  10. Position the mouse-cursor inside the yellow-bordered Sound box but outside the purple-bordered Harmonic box, and click to select the Sound box, which should become highlighted (solid yellow).
  11. Click the search button next to the Volume graph field to search for a graph. In the Find Graph dialog that appears, click the Go button.
  12. Select a graph — we recommend decaytonothing2. You can look for graphs beginning with “d” by typing d into the Start of name field and clicking the Go button.
  13. Enter a value in the Vol. ext. field — 3 is a good starting value.
  14. Enter a value in the Duration edit field of, say, 2 (seconds).
  15. In the Duration drop-down list just below the Duration edit field (i.e., the field you just edited) select Fixed. (This step should be unnecessary from version 4.2.0 of the software, which defaults to Fixed.)
  16. Select the blue Sequence box by clicking inside it, but outside the yellow Sound box and purple Harmonic box.
  17. If the Start pitch values (bottom left) are in the range 0 to 16, enter a value about halfway (e.g., 8); otherwise (Start pitch values in range 0 to 127; i.e., a MIDI note number), enter a Start pitch value of, say, 60. From 3.2.0 of the software, for MIDI note numbers you can also click the button to the right of the Start pitch field to invoke a dialog that allows you to select an octave and note; for example, selecting Middle C gives you MIDI note number 60.
  18. Enter a Duration value the same as the value you entered for the Sound box (2 if you followed our suggestion above) and press enter. The Sequence box should enlarge in size, and the grid inside it should disappear.
  19. Click the Compute button above the form fields. (If doing this results in an error with a message of the form Error java.io.IOException...: first, run the menu function Configure >> Other parameters — or Other tab of Kangas Sound Editor >> Preferences on the Mac; next, check that the fields Sound files directory and Intermediate files directory are existing directories on your computer, modifying these fields if necessary; finally, click the Save button, which will attempt to create these directories if they do not yet exist).
  20. Click the OK button when the dialog with message Sound computation complete appears.
  21. Click the Play button; a simple sound should now play in your configured audio player. (In case there is a problem such as no sound playing, check the audio player setting by first selecting from the menu Configure >> Other parameters — or the Other tab of Kangas Sound Editor >> Preferences on the Mac — and, in the dialog that results, change the value of field Audio player command: try Internal player first, or maybe experiment with some other options for your operating system, which are listed in the drop-down list to the right of the Audio player command field).
  22. If you have succeeeded in getting a simple sound to play, congratulations! You have taken your first step towards becoming a master of Kangas Sound Editor! If you haven't, you could try watching the video linked-to below (maybe things will become a little clearer then) and, if you're still getting nowhere, then we recommend you use the KSE Help Forum to get help.

For a YouTube tutorial video which roughly corresponds to this procedure, click here. This video is is for an older version of Kangas Sound Editor, so there are some differences in what you will see there.