Tutorial 2 - Adding an Instrument.

Tutorial 1 got you to the Griff main Screen.

Let's start on an original composition.

First Tap on the New button (Or select New from the File Menu) and answer No when Griff asks if you would like to Save the current song.

From here tap on the Mixer Button to view the Mixer screen.

Tip:

• All screens can also be accessed through the Views menu.

This is the Mixer screen. Pretty minimal huh ? All there is so far is the master volume fader and master pan knob.

Tap and Hold on an empty area of the mixer and you will get the mixer menu.

...Tap on the Add Instrument menu option...

...To bring up the Instrument list. I'm lucky - I've got a lot of plugins installed but you will probably just see mSyn and Sampler Listed.

Tap on the Sampler and then the OK button to select the Sampler instrument...

And you will be returned to the Mixer screen.

The observant will have noticed a new channel has been created on the left hand side of the screen labelled 'Sampler'. This contains the mixer controls for the instrument you have just added. The Mixer screen automatically inserts a new channel each time you add an instrument. Each channel has a Volume fader, a label strip, a pan knob and an Active/Inactive light.

Double tap on the label strip to bring up the Instrument screen...

Tips:

• Tapping on the Active/Inactive light turns the channel on or off. When the Channel is off the instrument is disabled which saves processor power.
• Griff can have a theoretical maximum of 32000 channels! When the mixer screen is full up of channels, the Left/Right arrows in the top left corner of the screen allow you to scroll through the channels that are displayed.
• You can also access the Instrument screen through the Views menu. Tap on the Views menu and select the name of the instrument (In this case 'Sampler') to view the Instrument screen.

This is the Sampler screen. Each Instrument has its own screen for you to interact with.

For now we'll just load up a preset. Most instruments will make a noise straight out of the box but the sampler needs to have some samples loaded before it will do anything.

Tap and hold on an empty area of the screen (say the beautifully etched 'SamPler' text below the keyboard)...

Select a preset (Say Drums) and click on the OK button .

Griff will ask you if you wish to rename the instrument from Sampler to Drums. Tap on the Yes button.

Tip:

• Presets are a great way of storing and recalling instrument settings. At any time that you have a great sound coming from an instrument save the preset. It will be available in all your songs from then on.
• You can group your presets in banks to make finding them easier.

You will be taken back to the Sampler screen.

The sampler is now loaded with the preset - tap on thekeyboard at the top of the screen. You should finally hear some sound.

Tip:

• The sampler can have a different sample assigned to each note if required, or a sample can be assigned to a range of notes. The preset 'Bass (Electric) has one sample mapped across the entire keyboard. The preset 'Drums' has a number of samples each mapped to a single key.
• To use your own samples, tap and drag a new sample zone from the sample zone factory onto the keyboard. The load sample dialog will be displayed allowing you to select the sample that you wish to use.

You now know how to add an instrument. In Tutorial 3 we will use this instrument to create a drumbeat.

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