1.1 - What is the Track Builder?
The Track Builder lets you create simple arrangements of chord progressions quickly. You can then
play along with these progressions to easily practice what you've learned on the site. You can also
use it to quickly compose new ideas for your own tunes with a few simple clicks. You can also include them
as backing tracks or the main music in an on-line lesson using our
Lesson Builder authoring tool.
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1.2 - How do I enter chords?
You can enter chords into your track by selected the radio button pertaining to the root of your
chord and its quality (i.e. "D" and "Major"). This selection will be automatically inserted
into the track, and the current slot to be edited will be advanced. If your desired chord is
not a "Major" or "Minor", find it in the drop-down menu, and select the root of your desired
chord in that row of radio buttons.
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1.3 - How do I play back the track?
There is a Play 
button
and a Stop 
button,
which you can use to control track playback. In addition, you can select a subset of measures to
be played. Simply use the drop-down menus located next to these buttons to select the start measure
and end measure to use for playback.
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1.4 - Is there a way to change the arrangement of my track?
ActiveBass has provided a set of pre-determined arrangement formats. You can apply any format to
any chord progession you've entered by simply choosing a
different format in the format drop-down menu, and hitting the play button. For more information,
check out our Visual Overview of the Track Builder.
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1.5 - Can I change the sound or make it faster/slower?
The Track Builder uses the playback preferences located in the bottom of your browser
window (i.e. tempo, sound, click, and loop), so you can speed up or slow down your track,
use a different guitar sound, add a click track, or loop it.
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1.6 - How can I save my tracks?
Members can save their tracks by using the Member Track Builder.
You specify a title and at the same time, create it. If you decide to use it in one of your lessons,
then your track will appear in the lesson in its published form.
For non-members, the only way to save your track is to e-mail it to yourself or to your friends. In the
upper-right hand corner of the Public Track Builder page, there is
a link to the "Email this to a friend" page. This page allows you to email the URL for this track to
yourself or anyone else who might be interested. By clicking on the emailed link, you or your friends
will automatically be taken to the Public Track Builder, pre-loaded with your track, and ready to go.
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1.7 - How can I use my track in a lesson?
Members can include their tracks as backing tracks or as the main music in their lessons. Refer to our
Visual Overview of Lesson Authoring
to learn how easy this is.
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1.8 - Is there on-line help for the Track Builder?
Yes. In the upper-left hand corner of the Track Builder, there is a button to launch a popup
help window that you can use for reference when creating tracks with the Track Builder.
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1.9 - Why do I get a script error upon entering the Track Builder?
Occasionally, scripting errors will occur at the ActiveBass site due to differences in how certain browsers deal
with Javascript. If this occurs, simply choose the option of "Continue to Run Scripts in this Page".
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1.10 - Why is my chord entered twice each time I select it?
With certain older browsers, selected chords may be entered twice into the track. This is an unfortunate
side-effect of how the Track Builder functions. If this occurs, you should download the latest browser
from either
Microsoft
or Netscape.
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1.11 - Why is nothing updating when I click to insert a chord?
Make sure that you can see the frame below the input section of the Track Builder. This section is
where the chords for the track are displayed, and should appear as you start to insert chords or rests.
If you are having problems viewing this section (and this may occur with low-resolution monitors), simply
grab the frame handle above the track display, and drag it upwards. You should now see the chord progression
that comprises your track. Note: IE4.0 users on a Mac will not be able to drag this frame, due to a bug
in the browser. For more information on this bug, consult our known bugs & issues page.
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1.12 - Why don't I hear anything when I create a long track with infinite looping?
Long tracks with looping set to "4 times" or "infinite" can generate a lot of MIDI data, and some browsers will not play
MIDI files that are above a certain size (100-200K). If this occurs, simply choose a low loop count in
your playback preferences and re-play the track.
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