Patterns

In Songbuilder, a pattern is a repeating sequence of musical events that can be used as the basis for a musical composition. Patterns are used to define rhythmic structures and chord shapes that can be applied repetitively within a composition.

There are two types of patterns in Songbuilder: drum patterns and instrument patterns. Drum patterns allow the user to define a "drum machine" by specifying which sounds from a predefined drum kit should be used at specific points in the pattern. Instrument patterns, on the other hand, define how chords are played using a particular instrument. The user can specify the pitches that should be played on particular chord levels, and can also apply arpeggios or strum chords to create a desired musical effect.

In the editor tool, the user can specify the following properties for a pattern:

• A name: a user-defined name for the pattern
• The length in number of measures: the number of measures that the pattern should repeat for
• The measure base: the number of beats per measure in the pattern
• A default instrument: the instrument that will be used to play the pattern (only applicable for instrument patterns)
• A default octave: the octave that the instrument should be played in (only applicable for instrument patterns). This allows the user to shift the tonality of the pattern up or down.

Users can save their patterns as presets, which can be reused in different songs and mixes. This allows them to easily reuse their favorite patterns and saves time when creating new compositions.