Playing live

▶ Open in Aratu to hear the examples, change them and do the exercises

In Aratu, playing live means changing the text while the music plays. A few ideas make it easy.

• Everything loops. Each line plays over and over, each over its own length: a one-bar hi-hat, a two-bar bass and a four-bar progression line up as a band's parts do.
• A change comes in at the next bar. Nothing restarts: the other parts keep their place.
• An error stops nothing. While the text has an error, the last version that was right keeps playing.

Patterns

A pattern is a named group of lines, prepared ahead. play chooses which pattern sounds:

tempo: 110
pattern groove {
  hh = cc cc cc cc
  bd = b - b -
  sd = - s - s
}
pattern fill {
  sd = ss ss SS SS
  bd = b - - -
}

play groove x3, fill

play groove x3, fill plays the groove three times, then the fill, and loops the four-bar phrase.

Varying from time to time

tempo: 110
pattern groove { hh = cc cc cc cc; bd = b - b -; sd = - s - s }
pattern fill   { sd = ss ss SS SS }
pattern crash  { cr = x - - - }

play groove
every 4 bars: play fill
every 8 bars, first: add crash

every 4 bars: play fill swaps the groove for the fill in the last bar of every four. add plays a pattern on top of the one sounding: here, a crash on the first beat of every eight bars.

Right now, at the next beat

A line written while the music plays comes in at the next bar. With now: in front, it comes in at the very next beat: now: play fill once brings the fill in at once, and the groove comes back by itself, where it would have been. The next lesson shows how to mark a change at an exact bar and beat.

Taking a part out and back in

drums: out silences a part from the next bar line, and drums: in brings it back, as on a mixer. all: out silences everything.

tempo: 110
drums { hh = cc cc cc cc; bd = b - b -; sd = - s - s }
bass = | c2 _ g1 _ | a1 _ e1 _ |
at bar 3: drums: out
at bar 5: drums: in

Stage gestures

In electronic music, a performance moves by gestures: the drums drop out (the breakdown), the tension rises (the build) and everything comes back at once (the drop). In Aratu, each gesture is a word:

With now: in front, the gesture comes in at the next beat; with at bar, at the bar named:

tempo: 124
drums { bd = b b b b; oh = -o -o -o -o; clap = - p - p }
bass = | [- c2]x4 | [- ab1]x4 |
pad = | c4+eb4+g4 _ _ _ | c4+eb4+ab4 _ _ _ |
at bar 5: breakdown
at bar 7: build over 2 bars
at bar 9: drop

Listen: four bars with everything, the pad alone, the build and the way back on the crash. Playing live, write now: drop when the floor asks.

Ready-made grooves

To start fast, one word writes a whole beat: groove house. The grooves are: house, techno, trap, dnb, breakbeat, hiphop, funk, rock, reggaeton, funk carioca, bossa, samba, baião and maracatu.

tempo: 124
groove house
bass = | [- a1]x4 | [- f1]x4 |

While it plays, the word groove lights up. And any line you write with the same name takes the place of the groove's line: hh = c c c c changes only the hi-hat, and the rest of the groove goes on.

Shortcuts for playing live

The shortcuts write what they do in the text, so the change comes in at the next bar line like any other, and stays if you share the piece.

Faster, slower, and an echo

Three short verbs change a line while it plays, without writing it again. Write the line's name, a dot and the verb:

tempo: 120
drums {
  hh = | cc cc cc co | cc cc c- c- |
  bd = b - b -
  sd = - s - s
}
hh.fast 2

hh.fast 2 plays two bars of the hi-hat in each bar: twice as fast. slow 2 stretches each bar over two. The numbers are whole numbers, so the line always lands on a bar line; fast 2 and slow 2 together cancel out. They work on a line or on a whole part (drums.fast 2). Delete the line and the hi-hat goes back to its own speed.

echo plays every sound again a little later, and softer, like a voice coming back from a wall:

tempo: 100
lead: synth.pluck
lead = | e5 - g - | a - g - |
lead.echo 3 sixteenths x2

echo 3 sixteenths repeats each note three sixteenths later, and x2 makes two echoes, each softer than the one before. The length is written as after over: 1 beat, 1 eighth, 3 sixteenths. In Portuguese the verbs are rapido, lento and eco; in Spanish rapido, lento and eco too.

Scenes

Built a good moment of the piece? Keep it: in Play and on stage there are eight scenes, numbered 1 to 8. Click an empty scene and the editor's piece is kept in it; click a kept scene, or press Ctrl+Shift and the number, and it comes back into the editor. While the music plays, the change comes in at the next bar line, like any change, and Ctrl+Z undoes it. Shift+click keeps the current piece over a scene.

So you prepare the intro, the groove, the breakdown and the drop as scenes, and on stage go from one to the next with one key. The scenes are kept in this browser.

Seeing the sound: wave and roll

Under a part, write its name, a dot and wave, and the editor draws the wave of its sound there as it plays, like an oscilloscope. With roll instead of wave, the notes of the bar pass under a moving line, a row for each note or drum, like a studio's piano roll. It works for a part (bass.wave) or for a drum line (drums.hh.roll).

tempo: 120
drums { bd = b b b b; hh = cc cc cc cc }
drums.hh.roll
bass = | c2 c2 eb2 g2 |
bass.wave

The drawings do not change the sound: they show what each part does. The wave is the part's real sound, after its effects, as Manguebyte puts it into the mix: put a drive or a lowpass in its chain and watch the wave change. It is held still on about three cycles of the lowest note. A drum line (drums.hh.wave) is drawn from its hits instead, since the kit sounds as one part. The whole piece's wave is on the display beside the bar; a click on it shows the frequencies, low on the left to high on the right, as an equalizer does.

Following the music

With the Follow button, in Play and on stage, the screen goes by itself to the code that is playing: when the music moves to a section further down, its code comes into view. The screen waits while you type, click or scroll, and only moves when what plays is out of sight.

The rhythm map, under the editor, shows the piece in time, like a DAW's arrangement: a column for each bar, in the order it plays, with the section's name on top, and a row for each part, with only what it plays in each bar. An orange line runs across it while the music plays, and the map scrolls along.

On stage

The Stage button, in Play, leaves only the code on the screen, full screen and in large letters, to play in front of an audience. The 2 columns button splits the code in two columns, like a newspaper: the second goes on where the first ends, so twice as much fits without scrolling, and each scrolls on its own. You can edit in either. With Fit the screen, the letters get smaller as the piece grows, so the whole piece shows without scrolling. Melody lists get buttons in the corner, and Esc leaves the stage.

Playing in a DAW

A DAW (REAPER, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic) is the program that records, mixes and puts effects on music. Aratu plays inside one with Manguebyte's Aratu Bridge plugin: put the plugin on an instrument track of the DAW, press DAW in Play and then Connect. From then on the sound comes out of the track, not the browser, with the same instruments: you can record the track, mix it with the others and put the DAW's effects on it.

The DAW leads the time. Its play starts the music on its next bar line, its stop stops it, and its tempo is written in the piece's tempo: line. With the DAW stopped, Play still works, and the sound comes out of the DAW just the same.

The plugin listens on port 47870; with more than one plugin in the DAW, each has a port of its own, written in the panel. The first time, the browser may ask whether the page can talk to programs on this computer: say yes. The parts' waves do not come through the DAW, so bass.wave is drawn from the notes again.

Put the plugin on a track, connect, and write tempo: 90 in your piece. Press play in the DAW at 120: the line becomes tempo: 120 and the music comes in on the DAW's next bar line.

Keeping it in your account

Without an account, the piece is kept in this browser. With a MusiMind account (the Sign in button, at the top), it is kept in the account and opens on any computer: press Keep it in my account, and from then on every change is saved by itself, a few seconds later. Save a version keeps a snapshot of the piece to come back to, in Versions; My pieces has them all, to open, rename or delete. Opening an example or a shared link does not touch the account's piece: it stays as it was.

Sharing and recording

Like what you made? Share copies a link with your piece inside: send it to someone, and whoever opens it hears it and can change the same piece. Record records what is playing until you press it again; then the audio file downloads, to keep or to show anyone.

Exercises

Write the bass playing c2 on the four beats and show the bass's wave under it.

drums { bd = b b b b }

drums { bd = b b b b }
bass = | c2 c2 c2 c2 |
bass.wave

Use the ready-made patterns to play the phrase: the groove three times, then the fill. (x3 can also be written 3x.)

pattern groove { hh = cc cc cc cc; bd = b - b -; sd = - s - s }
pattern fill   { sd = ss ss SS SS; bd = b - - - }
play groove

pattern groove { hh = cc cc cc cc; bd = b - b -; sd = - s - s }
pattern fill   { sd = ss ss SS SS; bd = b - - - }
play groove x3, fill

Take the drums out at bar 2 and back in at bar 3, while the bass keeps playing.

drums { hh = c c c c }
bass = | c2 _ _ _ |

drums { hh = c c c c }
bass = | c2 _ _ _ |
at bar 2: drums: out
at bar 3: drums: in

Make a breakdown at bar 3 and the drop at bar 5.

drums { bd = b b b b }
bass = | c2 _ _ _ |
pad = | c4+eb4+g4 _ _ _ |

drums { bd = b b b b }
bass = | c2 _ _ _ |
pad = | c4+eb4+g4 _ _ _ |
at bar 3: breakdown
at bar 5: drop

Start with the house groove and change the hi-hat to closed eighths.

drums { bd = b b b b }

groove house
hh = cc cc cc cc

A build of two bars from bar 3.

drums { bd = b b b b }

drums { bd = b b b b }
at bar 3: build over 2 bars

With one more line, play the hi-hat twice as fast.

hh = cc cc cc co

hh = cc cc cc co
hh.fast 2

Give the melody an echo one beat after each note.

melody = | c5 - - - | g4 - - - |

melody = | c5 - - - | g4 - - - |
melody.echo 1 beat