0.3 Cheat Sheet

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   Since there isn't a help file yet, here is a general overview of the various tools: 

Pan Tool (shortcut P): 
o       Moves the editor view up, down, left, right.  
o       These moves can also be done in the editor with the arrow keys.
Note: The arrow keys may be used in conjunction with dragging the mouse to place events which need to span across multiple pages (it is not necessary to zoom out to place one of those rare 3 minute long events [like the tune to yard sign]).

Zoom Tool (shortcut Z): 
o       Left mouse button in editor zooms in 
o       Right mouse button in editor zooms out 
o       Can also be done with Page Up / Page Down keys

More/Less Channels Tools (shortcut + and -):
o       Increases/Decreases the number of channels visible in the editor display.

Selection Tool (shortcut Y):
o       Highlights a portion of the sequence on the grid 
o       Left click in editor and drag over selection then release to highlight 
o       Right click to bring up context menu (Delete, Copy, Cut, Paste, Split)
o       Middle click to cancel selection

Event Line Tool (shortcut V):
o       Places/Removes/Moves timeline snap points in the editor 
o       Left click in editor to place an event line 
o       Left click over an existing event line in the editor and drag to move it 
o       Right click over an existing event line in the editor to delete it

Info Tool (shortcut N):
o       Left click over an event to bring up settings for the event for adjusting

Remove Event Tool (shortcut X):
o       Left click and drag over events to delete then release mouse button

Grabber Tool (shortcut G):
·        Left click on an event to “grab” its properties and switch to an identical tool

Draw Tool (shortcut D):
·        Use this to switch to the drawing editor to place lights over a picture of your house (for use when playing back with the monitor tool set to the visualizer mode).

All of the following tools will use their most recent settings when selected with a left click on the tool botton (or by using the keyboard shortcut). Right clicking the tool button (or Shift + keyboard shortcut) will bring up a settings dialog for the tool before it's use.  

For example, if the last ramp you placed was 50% to 0%, left clicking the ramp tool will put the editor into ramp placement mode for placing ramps of the values 50% to 0%.  If you don't want 50% to 0% ramps (let's say you want 0% to 100% ramps instead), then you would right click the ramp tool button (or press Shift + R)  to set up the tool for 0% to 100% ramps and then used the ramp tool.  Likewise for other tools as well.

Intensity Tool (shortcut I):
o       Left in editor click and drag to place intensity events

Ramp Tool (shortcut R):
o       Left click in editor click and drag to place ramp events

Shimmer Tool (shortcut H):
o       Left click in editor and drag to place shimmer events

Twinkle Tool (shortcut T):
o       Left click in editor and drag to place twinkle events

Recent Tools (shortcuts 1-9 and 0):
Each time you place an event with a new set of properties, a copy of the tool and its settings is added to the "Recent" section to make it convenient to reuse the same tool settings again.

Playback
Left clicking without dragging in the audio view will set a start position for playback.  Left clicking and dragging in the audio view will highlight a selection (set start and stop points).  Right clicking will clear the selected start position.  In the spectrogram view a middle click will toggle on/off the note helper line.

Play Tool (shortcut Space):
o       Left click once (or press Space) to begin playback 
o       Left click again during playback to toggle on/off looping mode
o       Alternate: from a stopped state, Shift + Space will start playback in loop mode

Stop Tool (shortcut Space):
o       Stops playback and cancels looping mode

Lightbulb Tool:
o       Toggles on/off serial output to the lighting controlers 
Note: make sure the RS-485 adapter is plugged in and configured in Settings/Serial Network Configuration before activating the lightbulb tool or you will get an error message and/or lose work!
o       Before using the lightbulb tool to output to the controllers you must configure your serial networks under Settings/Serial Network Configuration.  The program supports output to multiple RS-485 adapters (network segmentation).  The mappings in Serial Network Configuration map the NET selected in channel properties to a COM port output.  In this way a sequence can be made on one computer that uses one set of COM mappings and then taken to another computer that uses a different set of COM mappings.  Likewise this allows for global changes of a COM port without editing every channel's properties

Monitor Tool:
o       Toggles the monitor preview between playback preview on the grid [Grid mode] (default; picture of sequence lines in monitor pass by) and playback preview as a picture of the lights on the house [Visualizer mode] (icon is a picture of a play arrow in the monitor). 

Editing Channel Properties:
o       Left clicking on a channel name (or right clicking and selecting channel properties) will bring up the properties for that channel 
o       Dragging a channel will move the position of the channel in the editor (drag and drop).  For ease of placing events it is recommended that you group your channels according to what object (house, mega tree, bushes) they control.  It is not necessary (and may even complicate the usage experience) to keep the channels grouped by physical controller ID.
o       Right clicking on a channel name will bring up a context menu for the channel where, among other things, you can select to draw the lights for the channel (for the preview output) 
o       Pressing the 'D' shortcut key while the mouse is in the editor will put the editor into "drawing mode" for drawing the lights for the various channels.  Left clicking a channel while in drawing mode selects it for drawing.

 Audio Views (shortcut A):

·        There are three audio view modes: Amplitude, Spectrogram, and Musical Note
·        Amplitude view [the classic view with the aqua color] (shortcut AA) shows the overall audio volume level (amplitude) as height at the specific points in the timeline.  This is the classic view most familiar to users of other sequencer packages.  The theory is that significant beats will also correspond to significant increases in volume at that point in time.  In practice however some songs use heavy dynamics compression which can make the beats difficult to spot, plus finding more subtle things (like a note from an instrument or a vocalist changing pitch) may not be discernable at all.
·        Spectrogram view (default, shortcut AS) expands on the amplitude view by also including the frequency information.  Like with amplitude view, left to right is the specific point in the timeline which matches the edit grid.  Unlike amplitude view, the height represents the frequency (music note) of the audio energy (lower for low frequencies, higher for high frequencies), and the color represents the amplitude (volume) at that frequency band.  Beats will tend to show up as distinct bursts of energy within the spectrogram.  Musical note chord changes and vocal pitch is also clearly visible.  The colors follow a gradient from low to high as follows (black – blue – cyan – green – yellow – red).
·        In spectrogram mode the crosshairs will identify the music note you have the mouse over.  A helper line may also be toggled on/off with the middle mouse button.  Advanced users can use this note in conjunction with the musical note view for seeing an amplitude view of just a specific frequency band.
·        Musical Note view [the red view] (shortcut AM) will display the amplitude at a specific music note
·        All views have a “beat detection” graph at the top of the audio view.  These bursts of white/gray are potential beats that Aurora has detected by performing an analysis of the audio data.  These are not perfect and are not intended to replace manually laying out the event lines (thus no automatic layout is included) but are instead simply to serve as a helper tool.  
·        At the right of the audio view is a rectangle containing information on the current selected view.  This rectangle may be left clicked (or keyboard shortcut A) to change views.

Some of the advanced audio features (like Music Note view)  do not have much helpful use within the current version of Aurora but will be combined with features of future versions for some very interesting sequencing possibilities.

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LightsOnLogan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3187	Quote Reply Topic: 0.3 Cheat Sheet Posted: 02 Apr 2008 at 10:46am
	Since there isn't a help file yet, here is a general overview of the various tools: Pan Tool (shortcut P): o Moves the editor view up, down, left, right. o These moves can also be done in the editor with the arrow keys. Note: The arrow keys may be used in conjunction with dragging the mouse to place events which need to span across multiple pages (it is not necessary to zoom out to place one of those rare 3 minute long events [like the tune to yard sign]). Zoom Tool (shortcut Z): o Left mouse button in editor zooms in o Right mouse button in editor zooms out o Can also be done with Page Up / Page Down keys More/Less Channels Tools (shortcut + and -): o Increases/Decreases the number of channels visible in the editor display. Selection Tool (shortcut Y): o Highlights a portion of the sequence on the grid o Left click in editor and drag over selection then release to highlight o Right click to bring up context menu (Delete, Copy, Cut, Paste, Split) o Middle click to cancel selection Event Line Tool (shortcut V): o Places/Removes/Moves timeline snap points in the editor o Left click in editor to place an event line o Left click over an existing event line in the editor and drag to move it o Right click over an existing event line in the editor to delete it Info Tool (shortcut N): o Left click over an event to bring up settings for the event for adjusting Remove Event Tool (shortcut X): o Left click and drag over events to delete then release mouse button Grabber Tool (shortcut G): · Left click on an event to “grab” its properties and switch to an identical tool Draw Tool (shortcut D): · Use this to switch to the drawing editor to place lights over a picture of your house (for use when playing back with the monitor tool set to the visualizer mode). All of the following tools will use their most recent settings when selected with a left click on the tool botton (or by using the keyboard shortcut). Right clicking the tool button (or Shift + keyboard shortcut) will bring up a settings dialog for the tool before it's use. For example, if the last ramp you placed was 50% to 0%, left clicking the ramp tool will put the editor into ramp placement mode for placing ramps of the values 50% to 0%. If you don't want 50% to 0% ramps (let's say you want 0% to 100% ramps instead), then you would right click the ramp tool button (or press Shift + R) to set up the tool for 0% to 100% ramps and then used the ramp tool. Likewise for other tools as well. Intensity Tool (shortcut I): o Left in editor click and drag to place intensity events Ramp Tool (shortcut R): o Left click in editor click and drag to place ramp events Shimmer Tool (shortcut H): o Left click in editor and drag to place shimmer events Twinkle Tool (shortcut T): o Left click in editor and drag to place twinkle events Recent Tools (shortcuts 1-9 and 0): Each time you place an event with a new set of properties, a copy of the tool and its settings is added to the "Recent" section to make it convenient to reuse the same tool settings again. Playback Left clicking without dragging in the audio view will set a start position for playback. Left clicking and dragging in the audio view will highlight a selection (set start and stop points). Right clicking will clear the selected start position. In the spectrogram view a middle click will toggle on/off the note helper line. Play Tool (shortcut Space): o Left click once (or press Space) to begin playback o Left click again during playback to toggle on/off looping mode o Alternate: from a stopped state, Shift + Space will start playback in loop mode Stop Tool (shortcut Space): o Stops playback and cancels looping mode Lightbulb Tool: o Toggles on/off serial output to the lighting controlers Note: make sure the RS-485 adapter is plugged in and configured in Settings/Serial Network Configuration before activating the lightbulb tool or you will get an error message and/or lose work! o Before using the lightbulb tool to output to the controllers you must configure your serial networks under Settings/Serial Network Configuration. The program supports output to multiple RS-485 adapters (network segmentation). The mappings in Serial Network Configuration map the NET selected in channel properties to a COM port output. In this way a sequence can be made on one computer that uses one set of COM mappings and then taken to another computer that uses a different set of COM mappings. Likewise this allows for global changes of a COM port without editing every channel's properties Monitor Tool: o Toggles the monitor preview between playback preview on the grid [Grid mode] (default; picture of sequence lines in monitor pass by) and playback preview as a picture of the lights on the house [Visualizer mode] (icon is a picture of a play arrow in the monitor). Editing Channel Properties: o Left clicking on a channel name (or right clicking and selecting channel properties) will bring up the properties for that channel o Dragging a channel will move the position of the channel in the editor (drag and drop). For ease of placing events it is recommended that you group your channels according to what object (house, mega tree, bushes) they control. It is not necessary (and may even complicate the usage experience) to keep the channels grouped by physical controller ID. o Right clicking on a channel name will bring up a context menu for the channel where, among other things, you can select to draw the lights for the channel (for the preview output) o Pressing the 'D' shortcut key while the mouse is in the editor will put the editor into "drawing mode" for drawing the lights for the various channels. Left clicking a channel while in drawing mode selects it for drawing. Audio Views (shortcut A): · There are three audio view modes: Amplitude, Spectrogram, and Musical Note · Amplitude view [the classic view with the aqua color] (shortcut AA) shows the overall audio volume level (amplitude) as height at the specific points in the timeline. This is the classic view most familiar to users of other sequencer packages. The theory is that significant beats will also correspond to significant increases in volume at that point in time. In practice however some songs use heavy dynamics compression which can make the beats difficult to spot, plus finding more subtle things (like a note from an instrument or a vocalist changing pitch) may not be discernable at all. · Spectrogram view (default, shortcut AS) expands on the amplitude view by also including the frequency information. Like with amplitude view, left to right is the specific point in the timeline which matches the edit grid. Unlike amplitude view, the height represents the frequency (music note) of the audio energy (lower for low frequencies, higher for high frequencies), and the color represents the amplitude (volume) at that frequency band. Beats will tend to show up as distinct bursts of energy within the spectrogram. Musical note chord changes and vocal pitch is also clearly visible. The colors follow a gradient from low to high as follows (black – blue – cyan – green – yellow – red). · In spectrogram mode the crosshairs will identify the music note you have the mouse over. A helper line may also be toggled on/off with the middle mouse button. Advanced users can use this note in conjunction with the musical note view for seeing an amplitude view of just a specific frequency band. · Musical Note view [the red view] (shortcut AM) will display the amplitude at a specific music note · All views have a “beat detection” graph at the top of the audio view. These bursts of white/gray are potential beats that Aurora has detected by performing an analysis of the audio data. These are not perfect and are not intended to replace manually laying out the event lines (thus no automatic layout is included) but are instead simply to serve as a helper tool. · At the right of the audio view is a rectangle containing information on the current selected view. This rectangle may be left clicked (or keyboard shortcut A) to change views. Some of the advanced audio features (like Music Note view) do not have much helpful use within the current version of Aurora but will be combined with features of future versions for some very interesting sequencing possibilities.