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Setup and Settings

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Orfeo’s settings live in two places: Setup, a tab in the left panel with the switches you reach for while playing, and the Settings window, with every setting written out in full. Every change takes effect immediately and is remembered the next time you start Orfeo.

IMAGE · settings-window.png · 1600 × 1000 px · The Settings window open on Playback: the ten groups down the left, the search box at the top, the group’s intro sentence and its settings as cards, and Open in user manual at the bottom right.

Setup

Click the  Setup tab at the top of the left panel, next to  Library. If the panel is closed, click the Setup icon on its edge.

  • Setup holds only the everyday switches, in the same groups as the Settings window. Each has a short line underneath saying what it does.
  • It also shows details at a glance: the output delay, which sound set is loaded, a preview of the note names and of sharps or flats, and what the chosen chord tracking listens to.
  • Click a group’s header to fold it away. The small ↗ arrow on the header opens that group in the Settings window.
  • At the bottom: your Orfeo version (click it for the project’s GitHub page), the  User Manual link and the  update button. The manual link and update button stay at the bottom of the panel in the Library tab too.

Group

In Setup

Audio

Sound engine

MIDI Files & Library

Show demo content

Playback

Focus mode, Tap Tempo

Practice

Step Through, Chord Prompter

Editing

Hand Assignment

Chords & Notation

Display system, Accidentals, Chord tracking

Virtual Keyboard

Key range, Show octaves, Show note names

Piano Roll

Zoom, Bar numbers & grid lines, Show Playbar

Appearance

App Zoom, Tooltips

IMAGE · setup-panel.png · 600 × 1000 px · The Setup tab: the Open settings button at the top, the nine groups with their everyday switches and short descriptions, the ↗ arrows on the group headers, and the version, User Manual link and update button at the bottom.

The Settings window

Open it in any of three ways:

  • Click  Open settings at the top of Setup. It stays in place while you scroll.
  • Click the ↗ arrow on a group in Setup to open the window on that group.
  • Press Ctrl, anywhere in Orfeo. Press it again to close the window.

Esc, the X or a click outside the window closes it, and the music keeps playing. Drag it by its header to move it, like the Console Mixer.

  • Groups: the ten groups are listed down the left. Each opens with a short heading and a sentence on what it’s for, then its settings as cards, three across, or two or one on a small window or at a high App Zoom. Every card has its full description written out.
  • Extra options: options that only matter once a setting is on, such as Tap Tempo counting, Count-in bars, Max Fingers, the visual-effect pattern or the instrument to follow, appear inside that setting’s card when you turn it on.
  • Switches:  amber means on,  grey means off. Click to change.
  • Search: type in the box at the top to find a setting by name or by what it does, across all groups. Esc clears the search first.
  • Open in user manual: at the bottom right of every group, opens the matching page of this manual.
  • Version and updates: at the bottom of the group list, ORFEO and your version (click for the GitHub page), and  Check for updates.

Two choices in Setup open the window for you: the first time you pick Studio as the sound engine, it opens on Audio so you can watch the sounds load; and picking Follow in chord tracking before you’ve chosen what to follow opens it on Chords & Notation, so you can choose.

The ten groups

Group

What it’s for

Audio

How Orfeo sounds: the sound engine, extra sound sets, and automatic loudness balancing.

MIDI Keyboard

Your keyboards, how quickly your playing is heard, touch, pedals and a delay check.

MIDI Files & Library

What the Library shows and what Orfeo can create from your files.

Playback

Tools for playing songs: tempo fixes, count-in, scrubbing, looping and focus.

Practice

Helpers while you practise: Step Through, the chord prompter, a clear screen during playback, hand tags, lighting the keyboard from the piano roll and the Starmap.

Editing

Tools for correcting songs: hand assignment, the MIDI Note Editor and the track colour level meters.

Chords & Notation

How notes and chords are named, and which instruments the chord display listens to.

Virtual Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard: its size and what’s printed on the keys.

Piano Roll

The falling-notes view: zoom, bar lines, the playbar and visual effects.

Appearance

How Orfeo looks: theme, the size of everything on screen, and tooltips.

In this manual, a path like Settings → Playback means that group in the Settings window. Settings that are also in Setup sit under the same group name there.

 Tip

Several features are off until you switch them on: the Note Editor, Tap Tempo, tempo warnings, count-in, the Chord Prompter, Chord Transcription, Hand Assignment and the loop strip. If a button described in this manual is missing, check its setting first, or search for it in the Settings window.