Chapter 6. Main Menu

Table of Contents

6.1. Project
6.2. Undo
6.3. Drumkits
6.4. Instruments
6.5. View
6.6. Options
6.7. Debug
6.8. Info

Figure 6.1. The Main Menu

The Main Menu

6.1. Project

This menu offers file related functions.

[Note]Note

If you are using Hydrogen within a NSM session, some of the options below will be called and behave differently (see Section 4.5.1 for details).

  • New: creates a new and empty song.

  • Show Info: sets general properties of the song such as name, author, license, and generic notes.

  • Open: opens an existing song (a .h2song file).

  • Open Demo: opens one of the demo song shipped with Hydrogen.

    [Note]Note

    The demo songs are stored in $INSTALL_PATH/share/hydrogen/data/demo_songs).

  • Open recent: opens a menu showing the last used songs (ordered from most recent to least recent).

  • Save: saves changes to current song.

  • Save as: saves current song as .h2song file to a path of your choice.

    [Tip]Tip

    In order for Hydrogen to automatically list it in the Songs section of the Sound Library, you have to store it in $HOME/.hydrogen/data/songs/.

  • Open pattern: opens a pattern (a .h2pattern file) belonging to the current drumkit.

  • Export Pattern As: saves a pattern as a .h2pattern file.

    [Tip]Tip

    In order for Hydrogen to automatically list it in the Patterns section of the Sound Library, you have to store it in $HOME/.hydrogen/data/patterns/drumkit_name/.

  • Export MIDI file: exports the current song in MIDI format.

  • Export song: exports the current song into an audio file.

    The Export mode option Export to a single track will export one stereo downmix of your song - the master output. Export to separate tracks will create files for each instrument/track. Both will create a stereo downmix + audio files for all individual instruments.

  • Export Lilypond file: exports the current song to LilyPond.

    [Warning]Warning

    It has the following limitations: Only the GMRockKit and no triplets are supported.

  • Quit: exits Hydrogen.