Faust music creator is a tracker for the yamaha OPL2 chip, found in Creative's "Sound Blaster" line of soundcards (n.b. Creative continued using the "Sound Blaster" name long past the last soundcards to contain OPL chips), which were common in PCs in the 1990s. Prior experience of trackers would be helpful if you are intending to use FMC, but is not essential. Bear in mind that this is a manual, not a tutorial. FMC also comes with a perfectly good manual of its own, so refer to that if you want more help. A basic understanding of FM synthesis is also important, and will not be discussed further here. All numbers within FMC are displayed/entered using the hexadecimal system (base-16, as opposed to the more common base-10 decimal), so an understanding of that will be needed too.
A tracker is a popular type of software used to create music on a computer. Trackers were not hugely popular with professional musicians, but popular with hobbyists, but also popular for writing (e.g.) game soundtracks. A tracker is laid out somewhat like a spreadsheet - notes are organised in columns, with one column corresponding to one "channel" of sound (the OPL2 had nine channels, but FMC supports only eight). One row corresponds to a moment of time - notes on the same row will happen simultaneously. A number of rows form a pattern (in FMC, always 64), more than one of which can be arranged sequentially to form a song. A cell can also contain a number referring to the instrument to use, and an "effect" (this means not a DSP effect as "effect" is commonly understood to mean in computer music parlance, but more generally something that has an effect on the song), plus its parameters.
Notes are entered with the keys on a standard computer keyboard (QWERTY - I am not sure how well the tracker behaves with AZERTY, Dvorak, etc). Notes are represented on the keyboard positionally, rather than symbolically - C does not enter the note C, but in fact the note E. The keyboard is laid out like a piano keyboard (two on top of each other, in most cases), usually with Z to M and Q to P representing the natural ("white") notes and A to L and 2 to 9 representing the sharp ("black") notes. The vast majority of trackers make no distinction between sharp and flat, and the vast majority of these have chosen to display all "black" notes as sharps. This keyboard entry system is quick to learn and quick to use, particularly for anyone has used a keyboard instrument before.
| F1 | music editor |
| F2 | instrument editor |
| esc | quit |
| tab | switch between song data and pattern data |
| cursor | navigate song data/pattern data fields |
| T | set song name |
| L | load song |
| S | save song |
| space | play song from cursor/stop song |
| insert | insert order |
| delete | delete order |
| < | remove last track |
| > | add new track |
| shift-f3 | cut pattern |
| shift-f4 | copy pattern |
| shift-f5 | paste pattern |
| f10 | "zap" - wipe patterns, instruments or both |
| ZSXDCVGB etc. | enter a note! |
| space | play from start of pattern |
| enter | enable/disable editing |
| < and > | select instrument |
| + and - | select pattern |
| insert | add row |
| delete | delete row |
| f3 | cut track |
| f4 | copy track |
| f5 | paste track |
| shift-f3 | cut pattern |
| shift-f4 | copy pattern |
| shift-f5 | paste pattern |
| f7 | transpose track up |
| f8 | transpose track down |
| numpad 0 to 6 | set keyboard octave (numlock must be on) |
| f10 | "zap" - wipe patterns, instruments or both |
| R | repeat (go back to start) |
| H | halt (stop) |
| 0xy | arpeggio | x = 2nd note, y = 3rd note |
| 1xx | slide up | xx = speed |
| 2xx | slide down | xx = speed |
| 3xx | tone portamento | slide from last note to current note, xx = speed |
| 4xy | vibrato | x = speed, y = depth |
| 500 | note off | trigger instrument's release phase of envelopes |
| Axy | volume slide | x speed up, y speed down |
| Bxx | order jump | jump to order (refers to the fixed top row in SONG DATA) |
| Cxx | set volume | set volume for current note - 00 to 3F |
| D00 | pattern break | jump to next pattern in SONG DATA |
| E9x | retrigger | retrigger current note after x ticks |
| EDx | note delay | delay current note by x ticks |
| Fxx | set speed | set speed to x ticks per low (higher = slower) |
| cursor | navigate screen |
| L | load instrument |
| S | save instrument |
| < | previous instrument |
| > | nextious instrument |
| space | test instrument |
| enter | stop instrument test |
| + | increase test tone |
| - | decrease test tone |
| T | set instrument name |
| X | swap carrier/modulator |
| Instrument number | number by which instrument will be referred to |
| Instrument name | name - for your sake only |
| Freq. mod | enable FM? "Y" to enable, "N" to disable |
| Feedback | modulator feedback - 00 to 07, higher = more |
| Pitch shift | pitch bend - 00 = off, 01 to 7F pitch bend up, higher = faster, 7F to FF pitch bend down, lower = faster |
| Attack | volume attack rate, 00 to 0F, higher = faster |
| Decay | volume decay rate, 00 to 0F, higher = faster |
| Sustain | volume sustain level, 00 to 0F, higher = louder |
| Release | volume release time, 00 to 0F, higher = faster |
| Volume | 00 to 3F, higher = faster |
| Level scale | scales volume by pitch (higher pitch = lower volume), 00 to 03, higher = more |
| Multiplier | frequency multiplier, 00 to 0F, higher = higher |
| Waveform | waveform, 00 to 03, higher = more harmonics |
| Sustain sound | enable Sustain? "Y" to enable, "N" to disable |
| Scale envelope | scales envelope by pitch (higher pitch = faster envelope), "Y" to enable, "N" to disable |
| Pitch Vibrato | vibrato, "Y" to enable, "N" to disable |
| Volume Vibrato | tremolo, "Y" to enable, "N" to disable |