Song header
In this section we will set up the song header for Tutorial Groove — the metadata and global directives that every BeatBax song starts with.
- Metadata holds information like the song name and author.
- Global directives set overall playback options, such as the sound chip and tempo.
The header for our Tutorial Groove song will be as follows:
song name "Tutorial Groove"
song artist "BeatBax Tutorial"
song description "Built step by step in the BeatBax Game Boy tutorial."
song tags "tutorial, gameboy"
chip gameboy
bpm 140
Metadata
The song … lines are optional but recommended. Tutorial Groove uses:
| Directive | Purpose |
|---|---|
song name "<name>" | The title of the song — this name will be the default when creating a physical .bax file via Save. |
song artist "<artist>" | The composer / creator of the song — this can be defaulted in the Settings of BeatBax Desktop |
song description "<description>" | A short description of the song (you can also use a multiline string with """…""") |
song tags "<tag>,<tag>" | Comma-separated list of tags (note: these are not used currently) |
Global directives
These lines configure playback for the whole song. BeatBax requires a minimum of chip, Tutorial Groove uses:
| Directive | Purpose |
|---|---|
chip <name> | The sound chip to use — this is required (some chips have aliases, e.g. gb for gameboy) |
bpm <number> | The tempo of the song in beats per minute |
There are other optional global directives you may use, for example
volume 0.0–1.0andstepsPerBar(editor bar grouping). For full details see Metadata directives.
Next
Continue with Notes and lengths — how pitches and timing are written in patterns.