Music
Music is a Behavior that causes actors to play music during the gameplay of a Card. Music in Castle consists of samples, tones, microphone recordings, and other effects that are triggered in a sequence and pitched up and down to form melodies and rhythms.
Core concepts
- All music in Castle is synchronized with the Clock. The clock measures beats, bars, and steps, which provide the template for the musical structure and rhythm.
- Every Blueprint can have at most one Song.
- A song consists of one or more Tracks and a bank of Patterns.
- Each track has an Instrument (such as a drum synthesizer, a piano sample, or a recording from the device microphone, or something else) and a sequence of Patterns. You can name each Track whatever you want.
- A Pattern is a representation of some musical notes over time, such as a melody, or a drum beat, or a bassline.
Adding and Editing Music
To add Music to a blueprint, open the Inspector for that blueprint, navigate to the General tab, and scroll down to Music. Tap the [+] to add music (if there isn't any yet), then tap the music to open the music editor.
By default, actors will automatically play their music at the next bar after the actor is created. Therefore, if you want to play music in your card, just make sure at least one actor with music is present in the card.
Adding tracks
From the music editor, press the [+] ADD button on the left edge of the song view. You'll have options to add drums, samplers, generated sound effects, recordings, or sound files from your device. There are also some preset beats and melodies you can choose to help get started.
Adding patterns and opening the pattern editor
In the song view, patterns are shown as colored squares. Tap a Pattern to select it, or tap in the empty space next to a Track to create a new Pattern in that space. To edit the selected pattern, either press "Edit" at the bottom of the screen, or tap the same Pattern again. This will move from the song view to the pattern view.
Editing patterns to make melodies and beats
From the pattern view, you'll see a grid with beats, bars, and steps. It sort of resembles the Art tool but for musical notes. Touch the grid to add notes, or use the eraser tool to remove notes.
Previewing your music
From the music editor, press the button that looks like a music note with a play symbol to preview the music you're working on. If you're viewing a pattern, the editor will loop just that one pattern; if you're viewing the whole song, the editor will play the whole song.