Make a track from chat
Describe the track you need in chat and listen to the loop Oppermind opens in the Music editor.
✦ Tutorial · Beginner
Make a backing track in the Music editor
Start a loop from chat, balance the tracks, give the last bar its own drum fill, slow the ending with a tempo change and export a WAV for your video.
Start tutorialYOUR OUTCOME
By the end you will have a backing track at the length you need, exported as a WAV.
Start and change a track from chat Program drums bar by bar and change the tempo Export a WAV with the right settings
6 min
Balance the tracks with mute, solo and pan
Use the controls on each track card to hear a part on its own and set the balance, then add or remove tracks.
Program the beat grid bar by bar
Build the main drum pattern on the Beat Grid, then give the last bar its own fill with Song arrangement.
Set the tempo and slow the last bar
Set how fast and how long the song runs, then add a tempo change so the final bar eases off.
Export a WAV for the video
Bounce the song to a WAV with the settings your video needs, and know what MP3, MIDI and JSON keep.
What each lesson covers
The tutorial, lesson by lesson.
Make a track from chat
Describe the track you need in chat and listen to the loop Oppermind opens in the Music editor.
This course uses the Music editor in the desktop workspace on a computer. In a new chat, type a request that starts Make music that, or pick Music from the chevron at the end of the tool chips, which types those words for you. Say what the track is for, with a style and a tempo. Oppermind composes a loop and opens it in the Music editor. Press Play or Space to listen. While the pane is open, the composer shows an editing chip with the track's name, so your next message edits this track. The assistant can add tracks, notes and drum steps, set the BPM and make the loop up to eight bars long. It can also clear or rebuild the loop without asking, and the Undo button reverses that. A change the editor can't make, such as a step on a lane the track doesn't have, gets a line starting This change could not be applied in the editor, with the reason, and that change isn't made.
Practice. Ask for a loop for something you are working on, with a style and a tempo. Play it, then send one change through the editing chip, such as a snare on beats 2 and 4, and listen for the difference. Press Undo if you liked it better before.
Make music that sits under a 15-second social video for our cafe's spring menu. Lo-fi and relaxed at 96 BPM, with drums, a bassline and soft keys.
Balance the tracks with mute, solo and pan
Use the controls on each track card to hear a part on its own and set the balance, then add or remove tracks.
Each card in the Tracks column shows the track's colour, its name, its kind (DRUM, BASS or SYNTH) and a row of controls. M mutes the track. S solos it, and while any track is soloed only the soloed tracks play, which is how you hear the bass on its own. The slider sets the volume. The small dial is pan. Drag it up or down to move the sound left or right, and double-click it to centre it again. Double-click a name to rename the track. The exports use this mix, so a muted track stays out of the WAV and MP3 files. To add a track, right-click in the pane and choose Add synth track, Add bass track or Add drum track. The + beside Tracks also adds one, but picks the kind by how many tracks exist, so right-click for a particular kind. Duplicate track copies the selected track. Delete track removes it without asking, and the Undo button in the toolbar brings it back.
Practice. Solo the bass and play the loop, then turn solo off. Pull the keys down a little, pan them slightly left and rename the track. Duplicate the drums, delete the copy, and bring it back with Undo.
Click M on the Keys card and play the loop. Then select the Bass card, right-click the middle of the pane, choose Duplicate track and double-click the copy's name to call it Bass 2.
Program the beat grid bar by bar
Build the main drum pattern on the Beat Grid, then give the last bar its own fill with Song arrangement.
Select a drum track and the Beat Grid shows one row per drum lane and 16 steps across, one bar in sixteenth notes. Click a step to switch it on and you hear that drum. This is the main pattern, and every bar plays it. To add a sound, such as openhat or rim, pick it from + add lane… under Add drum lane. When one bar needs to differ, click Song arrangement above the toolbar, choose the bar and click its numbered steps. Steps that play fill with the accent colour, and the list marks the bar own pattern. Only the lanes you change in that bar leave the main pattern. Beat Grid clicks and chat step edits still reach every other lane and bar, including bars you add later. Reset bar to main pattern hands the bar back, and Clear empties the Beat Grid and every own pattern. The song keeps playing while you edit, on a computer or in the phone's Music Editor.
Practice. Add an openhat lane and switch on its last step. Set Bars to the length you need, then use Song arrangement to add a short snare fill to the final bar. Close the card, switch on one more hat step on the Beat Grid and listen for it in the last bar as well.
With Bars at 6, click Song arrangement, choose Bar 6 · 4/4 and click steps 14, 15 and 16 on the Drums / snare row.
Set the tempo and slow the last bar
Set how fast and how long the song runs, then add a tempo change so the final bar eases off.
Drag the number beside BPM up or down to set the tempo, from 20 to 400. Bars sets the length, from 1 to 256. At 96 BPM a four-beat bar lasts 2.5 seconds, so six bars run for 15 seconds. To change speed partway through, click Tempo / meter changes above the toolbar. The Song tempo and meter card takes one change per line, as bar, BPM, beats per bar and beat unit, and line 1 starts at the toolbar tempo. Add a line, check Song length in bars and press Apply. Dragging BPM, or asking for a tempo in chat, rewrites line 1 only. Each bar starts on step 1 of the Beat Grid whatever its meter. A 3/4 bar plays the first 12 steps, a 5/4 bar plays all 16 and then steps 1 to 4 again, and the position readout counts each bar in its own meter. Steps set in Song arrangement stay with their bar when another bar's meter changes.
Practice. Set the bar count for the length you need and check the sum against the play time. Add a slower last bar in Tempo / meter changes. To see a meter change, write 6, 80, 3, 4 on line 2 and press Apply. The status line then ends in 4/4 with meter changes, and Song arrangement shows bar 6 with 12 steps, so the fill on steps 14 to 16 drops out. Put line 2 back to 6, 80, 4, 4 and the fill plays again. Then ask in chat to set the tempo to 90 and reopen the card to see line 1 change. The assistant is told to keep tempos between 40 and 240 BPM, so drag BPM for anything outside that.
Click Tempo / meter changes, leave line 1 as 1, 96, 4, 4, add 6, 80, 4, 4 on the next line and press Apply.
Export a WAV for the video
Bounce the song to a WAV with the settings your video needs, and know what MP3, MIDI and JSON keep.
Export / Download lists WAV · audio, MP3 · audio, MIDI · .mid and JSON · project. WAV · audio opens the WAV export card. Sample rate starts at 48 kHz, common for video, with 44.1 and 96 kHz as options. Precision starts at 24-bit PCM, or choose 16-bit PCM or 32-bit float. Channels is Stereo or Mono, and Normalize peak sets the loudest moment just under full scale. Export WAV renders every bar at its own tempo, plus a second of tail, through your mute, solo, volume and pan. MP3 · audio writes a 192 kbps stereo file at 44.1 kHz. MIDI · .mid keeps the notes, drum hits, per-bar patterns and the tempo and meter changes, puts the drums on channel 10 and gives each melodic track its own channel and a General MIDI instrument. It carries none of your sounds or mix, and it includes muted tracks. JSON · project is a full copy, and Import file loads it in place of the open project.
Practice. Export the track as WAV · audio at 48 kHz, 24-bit PCM and Stereo with Normalize peak ticked, and play the file. Then save JSON · project as a backup.
Choose Export / Download, then WAV · audio. Keep 48 kHz, 24-bit PCM and Stereo, tick Normalize peak and press Export WAV.
Keep going
Make the learning stick
Start with one real piece of work.
Open Oppermind beside the lesson, apply each step, and leave with something you can use.