Proudly introducing to you RockBy.Net Online Group. The opportunity to compose songs with the world. The first project of a kind.

Main principles

Taking into consideration that nothing like that ever existed (correct me if I am wrong :)) - we'll figure out how to make everybody happy. The one who created the song and the one who joined.

The main idea is - every track can be matched to demanded musician. This will open to everybody the access to this particular track. And at the same time this will inform others that the song needs... lets say a drummer. After somebody has proven that he fits the song well - you can approve him and close access to this track if you don't want to attract more musicians by setting "participant wanted" to "nobody". Approved participants have permissions to edit all the tracks. And, of course, there is a Ban button which can restrict access to a song. Every approved participant can invite others and approve candidates. Approved participants can't ban other approved participants - this is a priviledge of song creator or website admins.

Every participant will have its color, so you can see who does what.

There is a special participant - cover designer (like single cover). Every song besides "automatic cover" can have several real covers, painted by somebody. Once the cover is uploaded - the need in designers will be gone. The link to upload covers is under the cover thumbnail (under logo).

Few advices^new

Develop songs that you've created

Participate in other songs

Use facebook like for songs that you like

All that will help to attract attention of other ROCKERS to your creativity

Main notation editor functionality

At the moment the editor works in tablature mode. If you don't know what tab is - read here. Why tabs? Its the most popular and at the same time very simple format to learn guitar playing and millions of Guitar Pro fans. The regular note notation will appear later.

The main advice is clicking everywhere :) If you want to edit something and you see the link or a button - click it. If no - try right button click.

Tracks

Buttons to add tracks are located under all tracks. They are available only in multitrack mode. When you start editing track params you can click on diskette and it will be saved (unlike notes editing - when everything is saved right away). If the "more params" popup is opened - the track is saved by pressing a save button.

You can listen to song, without saving a track. In other words you can try different volume levels, instruments and etc. When you are done - you can save a track - so everybody will see the changes.

To mute track - click on "M" button.

To play only this track (solo) - click on "S" button.

Notes

Use arrows on your keyboard for comfortable navigation.

To create a note - click on tablature area. Every line represents a string. Click on the line, and enter a number with your keyboard to enter a fret number. To finish adding - press arrow on keyboard (to start adding a new note on your right, for example) or click to different area. The note will be saved automatically so everybody will be able to hear it next time when they play a song.

Editing note - just click on it and enter new fret number, or with the right mouse button click - edit all possible note params.

Durations - under the song name you can find notes' durations controls. You can also see the changing numbers when you click on different note lengths. The number represents the duration of the note. 480 - is full note duration, 240 - half note, 120 quater and etc. The same format is used to position notes in measure. Get used to it :)

Deletion of a note - click on note and press del button on your keyboard.

Different modes - there are editing mode and selection mode - pencil and arrow icons accordingly.

Working with selection mode (with notes)

Selection mode may work unstable - be carefull.

Moving - select notes, drag and drop them where you need.

Mass deletion - select notes and press delete on your keyboard.

Copying - select notes, start dragging, press and hold ctrl on keyboard - release mouse (drop), release ctrl.

Add notes to selection - press and hold shift and select notes that you want to add to selection.

Remove notes from selection - press and hold alt and select notes that you don't want to be in selection any more.

Step of note moving depends on the selected notes duration - be attentive!

Measures (bars)

To add more measures - there is a button on the top of the screen near the name of the song.

Editing step details - right mouse click on the timeline (with step numbers), or right mouse click on tablature area and clicking the link "Edit Measure".

Adding marker - during editing measure params there is a link "Marker". They can be used to navigate within a song.

Tempo (bpm)

Editing main song tempo - just click on the tempo which is located at the very beginning of a song.

Editing tempo - right mouse click anywhere on the tabs area and click on the "Tempo" link.

Deletion - during editing the tempo - just erase everything in the editing window.

Text (lyrics)

Adding - right mouse button click on tablature area, click on "Text" link, enter text.

Editing - either click on the text itself, or just like when adding text.

Deleting - start editing text, erase everything from input field with text.

Vocals

After you are done with most of the song and you are ready for vocals part - you'll need to create a separate track. We suggest Vocals or Violin as instrument. Or anything else - it is up to you :) Compose vocal part and enter text for it like in the above instructions.

Drums

There is a special button to create a drum track. And here is the list of fret numbers that match drums (does not matter which string you use).

35	Acoustic Bass Drum	59	Ride Cymbal 2
0-16 36	Bass Drum 1	60	Hi Bongo
37	Side Stick	61	Low Bongo
38	Acoustic Snare	62	Mute Hi Conga
39	Hand Clap	63	Open Hi Conga
40	Electric Snare	64	Low Conga
41	Low Floor Tom	65	High Timbale
42	Closed Hi-Hat	66	Low Timbale
43	High Floor Tom	67	High Agogo
44	Pedal Hi-Hat	68	Low Agogo
45	Low Tom	69	Cabasa
46	Open Hi-Hat	70	Maracas
47	Low-Mid Tom	71	Short Whistle
48	Hi-Mid Tom	72	Long Whistle
49	Crash Cymbal 1	73	Short Guiro
50	High Tom	74	Long Guiro
51	Ride Cymbal 1	75	Claves
52	Chinese Cymbal	76	Hi Wood Block
53	Ride Bell	77	Low Wood Block
54	Tambourine	78	Mute Cuica
55	Splash Cymbal	79	Open Cuica
56	Cowbell	80	Mute Triangle
57	Crash Cymbal 2	81	Open Triangle
58	Vibraslap

History of changes

There are always risks in spoilting something when so many people have access to the songs. That is why there is a version history (icon with clocks and red arrow). Not everybody have permission to revert songs to earlier revisions - only song creator and website admins, although everybody can find out how the song looked over time.

Scaling^new

To be able to zoom in and zoom out - use your browser capabilities - ctrl+mouse scroll or ctrl+plus or ctrl+minus. To revert to no zoom - hit ctrl+0.

When something goes wrong

Try refreshing the page (f5). Notes are saved right away - that is why nothing awful should happen. You are also welcome to write to aleks@rockby.net

Have fun :)