Manual: Tree View



The Tree View, or Folder Tree, is a place for all of your resources of your song in a single and easy view, here you have access to your patterns, sequences, samples, instruments, plugins and comments. In addition you also have access to your default instrument library, this is also available when you do not have any songs loaded. The Tree view can be found on the left side of the main window. If it is not visible, you can enable it from the View menu, or with the default keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F2.

The tree view consists of two halfs, which can be adjusted in size by dragging the horizontal splitter bar that separates them. Also, the width of the tree view can be adjusted by dragging the vertical splitter bar on the right side of the view. That way, more or less space can be given to song windows.

Song Folders
Whenever you load a song or create a new song, a folder with the track’s name is added to the Tree view. If you have multiple songs loaded, you can switch between them by clicking on the song’s root folder. When you click the + icon left of the root folder, you get access to its child folders:

Various other options for using external samples are described below.
 * Sequence: This folder contains one or more order lists (sequences). You can remove and rearrange sequence items by drag’n’dropping them. Double-clicking an item brings up the pattern editor, where you can edit the selected pattern. If you are working with the MPTM format, it is possible to switch to, add and remove sequences by right-clicking the appropriate folder items. This feature can be handy when you want to write several songs that share the same set of instruments, for example for composing game music.
 * Patterns: Gives you a list of all the patterns in your file. Double-clicking an item brings up the pattern editor, where you can edit the selected pattern. You can also right-click any item to delete the corresponding pattern.
 * Samples: Gives you the list of all the samples loaded in your file. Double-clicking an item brings up the sample editor, where you can edit the selected sample. Right-clicking an item also gives you the option to preview, delete, insert or duplicate samples. If you are not working in instrument mode, you can also (un)mute and solo a sample from the context menu. A little green icon can indicate playback (either because the sample is triggered in your song, or when previewing it from the Tree view or sample editor) if the treeview update option is enabled in the General settings. Samples can be rearranged by drag’n’dropping them.
 * Instruments: Similar to the sample folder, this folder gives you an overview of all instruments. The same options including muting and soloing instruments are available, and playback status of instruments can be indicated by a little green icon. Instruments can be rearranged just like samples by drag’n’dropping them. Single-clicking an instrument selects it as the active instrument in the pattern editor.
 * Comments: Double-clicking this item brings you to the comments editor.
 * Plugins: Loaded plugins are listed in this folder. A speaker icon indicates an effect plugin, a keyboard icon indicates an instrument plugin. Plugins can be muted and edited by using the “Bypass” and “Edit” options respectively from the context menu.

Various labels (such as the order list or sequence / pattern / sample / instrument names) can be edited directly from the treeview by slowly double-clicking a label.

Working with external samples
When working with external samples, the context menu of a module’s sample slots offers useful entries for loading, saving and moving samples:
 * You may specify an external sample’s path by using the Set Path menu entry. This will also reload the sample waveform immediately.
 * If the sample has been modified inside OpenMPT since it was loaded from disk, you can Save a modified sample to its original location.
 * Conversely, if a sample has been modified in an external application, Reload will refresh the external sample data from disk.
 * If some external samples have gone missing, use Find Missing Samples to point OpenMPT to the new directory and search for files with the same filename as in the old location.

The Save and Reload features may also be used when working with regular samples in formats other than MPTM if the sample’s path is known. This way, it is possible to save a sample to disk, edit it with an external application and reload it into OpenMPT without modifying attributes like sample frequency, loop points and pan and volume settings.

External samples are annotated with an [external] tag in the tree view. If an external sample is missing (e.g. because the file has been moved), [missing] will be shown instead. In this case, use Set Path or Find Missing Samples to reload the sample from its new location.

MIDI Library
The MIDI Library is used when loading MIDI files. As MIDI files only contain MIDI protocol data and no samples or other sound generators, it is necessary for a host application to connect MIDI program changes with some kind of sound generator. The MIDI Library contains a set of General MIDI instruments that are used when importing MIDI files.

By default, those sounds are extracted from DirectX’s default soundfont (GM.DLS), however you can exchange any of the MIDI programs in the MIDI library to make them suit your own taste. This way, you can influence how imported MIDI files sound, but you can also use the MIDI Library as some kind of custom sample library for your own sounds.

By double-clicking a library item, you can import a new sample or instrument for this slot. You can import .xi (FastTracker 2 instruments), .sfz (SFZ instruments), .pat (GF1 Patches), .wav (Wave files), .iti (Impulse Tracker Instruments), .dls (Downloadable Sounds) and .sf2 (SoundFont 2.0 banks) files. In the latter two cases, the appropriate patch is loaded automatically. You can use drag’n’drop to import MIDI Library items into the sample or instrument editor.

You can replace the whole library at once by right-clicking one of the folders and choosing Import MIDI Library. You then can load for example a DLS or SF2 file, which can replace the whole existing library or just fill in missing slots.

Note: ModPlug does not support multilayered SF2 instruments at this moment, so if you choose to load a complex soundfont, ModPlug will only load one layer.

If you want to work with multiple MIDI Libraries, you can right-click any of the MIDI Library folders to import or export the MIDI library to / from a text file.

Sound Banks
Sound Banks are collections of samples, often sorted in categories defined by the General MIDI standard. Additionally to the default (but poor-sounding) sound bank GM.DLS that is shipped with DirectX and is automatically detected by OpenMPT on Windows systems, you can add new sound banks by right-clicking an empty spot of the Tree view and choosing Add Sound Bank.... The following formats are supported:
 * SoundFont 2.0 (.sf2)
 * SoundFont 1.0 (.sbk)
 * Downloadable Sounds (.dls)
 * Miles Sound System (.mss)

Instrument Library
The Instrument Library is made up of two parts — the “Instrument Library” folder in the upper half of the tree view, and the entire lower half. The upper half is used for navigating around your file system and the lower half is used to display folder or module contents. Use the Tab key to quickly switch between the upper and lower half of the tree view.

When expanding the “Instrument Library” folder, you get to see a list of all drives and all child folders of the current library folder. Double-click the “..” folder to navigate one folder up in the file system hierarchy, and double-click any other folder or drive to change to that folder or drive. Module files that OpenMPT can open are marked in green - you can imagine them as virtual folders in your instrument library, and double-clicking a module will show all its samples and instruments in the lower half of the tree view — just like if it was a real folder. You may also right-click a module and choose Edit Song to open the entire module instead of just importing instruments from it.

The lower half of the tree view is dedicated to displaying folder contents. The first item of this list tells you which folder or module you are currently browsing and can be double-clicked to bring up a default folder browser dialog for selecting a new folder. By default, only sample and instrument files are shown in this view; if you want to list all folder contents, right-click the first item and choose Show All Files. From the same context menu, you can also choose Open in Explorer to show the folder contents in a regular file browser instead.

You can preview any instrument by double-clicking it or pressing Enter. You may also press note keys just like in the sample editor to play it at a different pitch. If you want to load a sample or instrument from the instrument library into a module, simply drag′n′drop it onto the sample or instrument view or press Ctrl + Enter if a sample or instrument tab is focussed. Use Ctrl + Shift + Enter if the sample or instrument should be inserted into an unused slot instead.

de:Handbuch: Treeview