AMPLE guide

A guide that teaches, with pictures. The reference help says exactly what every part does; this guide explains how to think about it.

1. Welcome to AMPLEWhat AMPLE is, how a song is built from blocks, and a tour of the window.
2. Your first songLook at a small song, build it and listen to it.
3. Bars and timeHow a song is counted in bars and beats, and how to place a block in time.
4. Build, play and stopWhat the buttons in the header do, and what to do when a build fails.
5. Versions: studio and garageKeep your work safe, try things out, and decide what the real version of the song is.
6. Drums and patternsMake a drum beat with steps, name your patterns and string them into sections.
7. Files and the project panelFind, add, rename and use the files of your project: samples, MIDI, lyrics and more.
8. FadesFade a sound in or out, or blend one sound into another, counted in bars or in seconds.
9. The sequencerMake a whole song in one block, in the style of a loop-based studio: channels, patterns and a playlist.
10. Library bundlesSave a good beat or a whole chain of blocks, and place it in any song with the sound it had.
11. MIDI and notesWhat MIDI is, how notes travel between blocks, and three ways to write them.
12. The piano rollDraw, move and listen to notes on a grid, and see the text change as you work.
13. EffectsShape a sound with an EQ, a delay, a reverb and more, and hear what each one does.
14. The arrangementSee the whole song on one timeline, listen to a few bars, and record or bring in audio.
15. Keyboard shortcutsThe keys that save time in the node editor, the source, the piano roll and the header.
16. When something goes wrongWhat the messages mean and how to get unstuck: errors, read-only, failed builds and locked seeds.
17. Song text by exampleRead and write the text of a song, from the smallest song to a chain with effects.
18. Make a song: Rooftop LightBuild a full band song step by step: a sequencer with drums, bass and guitar, a General MIDI choir, and the effects that make it sound real.
19. Share a song as a packageSave a song with everything it needs in one file, and open it on another computer.
20. Ask the AI assistantLet Codex suggest a change, check it, and decide yourself whether it goes into the song.

Stuck on a word? Every dotted word is in the dictionary, and the dictionary says on which page each word is used.