The latest stable version of hydrogen is available at http://hydrogen.sourceforge.net
It is possible to download the source files directly from CVS snapshots with:
bash$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.hydrogen.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/hydrogen co libhydrogen
bash$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.hydrogen.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/hydrogen co hydrogen
After having downloaded and decompressed the tar.gz files there's only to:
bash$ cd libhydrogen-* bash$ ./configure bash$ make bash$ su -c "make install"
bash$ cd hydrogen-* bash$ ./configure bash$ make bash$ su -c "make install"
It's very important to choose the proper audio driver for our system, since the choice may influence quite much general performances. The choice is between Oss Audio Driver and Jack Audio Driver
The Oss audio driver uses /dev/dsp and it's based on the OSS interface which is supported by the vast majority of sound cards available for linux; this said, the use of this audio driver blocks /dev/dsp until Hydrogen is closed i.e. unusable by any other software.
The Jack audio driver needs its server running (Jack Audio Connection Kit), a professional audio server which permits very low lag and exchanges with other audio software.
In the frame "Song Editor" there is the song we are creating with 5 buttons:
Create a new pattern (asks for a name)
Move selected pattern down
Move selected pattern up
Call a menu to modify datas concerning the song (name, author, comments), to
erase the pattern sequence or every pattern created.
Repeat the whole song
Under the buttons there are the patterns created and the when they will executed. Click on an empty squarebox to submit or cancel the pattern (indicated as an 'X'). Clicking on right mouse button over a pattern will bring up a menu to change name of the pattern copy or delete it.
Clicking on right mouse button over the name of a pattern in the frame "Song Editor" and choosing "pattern properties" will change its name. Patterns with very same name are not allowed.
The "pattern Editor" frame let us create or modify the pattern which is being
played, add or remove notes and tune intensity (hard or soft beat). The combobox
"Grid Resolution" will modify the resolution so to help adding notes: it's possible
to set grid for 4,8, 16, 32, 64 beats. Selecting an instrument will popup a few vertical
bars to allow tune 'hard' or 'soft' beating. The button
(hear new notes) will play the sound as it's been added to the pattern
The "Mixer" frame is useful for tuning volumes of each instrument of the current drumkit.
It shows various infos as the current peak and maximum peak, lets you modify attributes
like pan
, volume, solo
, mute
, load a sample for an instrument
or play only one instrument
.
Double clicking over the name of an instrument in the "Mixer" frame will bring up a dialog to modify properties
From the pull-down menus it is useful to underline: "save as" saves the current song in .h2song format, "Export" to export the current song in WAV, Preferences, Audio Engine Info, Drumkit manager,
From here (File -> Preferences) it is possible to modify the audio driver being used (OSS or jack) with its buffer and sampling rate plus the metronome (on/off) and its volume.
Clicking on Midi System will select a menu to enable a MIDI channel or all of them
Clicking on "Appearance" lets you to modify font size, type of frame (Child or Top Level) and speed of mixer's peaks falloff.
Accessing Window -> Audio Engine Info will bring up a window with general infos about Hydrogen and audio driver. Buffer and sampling rate of jack audio river are customizable when the server is launched from the shell.
The drumkit manager is accessible from Window -> Show Drumit manager. It shows all the options concerning drumkits, i.e. groups of sounds (wav) to be binded with every track available so to obtain a proper "groove" according to the situation (disco music, rock, hip hop, etc.). To let you have a rough idea of a good example of use of these drumkits, it is advisable to play the associated .h2song sample.
From the first screen we can load/delete the drumkit, with a short description
Here we can save some infos about the current drumkit
From here we can import a drumkit (.h2drumkit) ...
... and export it.
Hydrogen has 2 main modes: "Live" mode (selecting
) and "Song" mode (selecting
). When "live" mode is activated the current pattern is continously repeated, so
to help changing it until we dont like it while "song" mode repetas only once the
current pattern: this is useful when putting together the patterns, to create
the whole structure for the song.
We'll start from an empty song with an empty pattern, as created by default: "live" mode should be selected now. it is also possible to change name of the pattern.
Let's click on
and while the pattern is playing lets add notes in the grid simply left mouse clicking
on it: adjust grid relolution and BPM speed if needed.
Default is 8 for grid resolution and 120 for pattern speed (range of speed is 40-300).
Click on
to stop pattern playing. To create new pattern just click on
and proceed as explained to add notes, be sure to select tjhe correct pattern
before adding notes!
Once patterns are created, to copy/paste/delete or move them in the pattern grid we can
use the buttons in the frame "Song Editor"
,
and the copy/delete command that pops up right mouse clicking on the pattern
selected.
Of course we can always open and use the mixer window, either when creating or playing patterns
The Mixer frame is made of 16 independent tracks, each of these is binded to an
instrument, plus a "master Output" line to adjust general output volume. Every line
features 4 buttons (
), delay adjust (
), pan adjust (
), current maximum peak, volume fader e name of the track. Clicking of
we can listen to the selected instrument, cutting the others. The "Mute"
button
, simply mute THAT instrument. The maximun peakindicates the maximun volume reached
from the instrument; the peak must be in a range of 0.0 and 1.0, otherwise it will get
distorted producing a weird sound (especially with OSS audio driver), in these cases
it's better to lower volume down.
Finally there is the volume fader to adjust volume of that instrument and check the peak reached thanks to a vu-meter behind the knob.