Welcome to Lucent Guide v1.2! This site was last updated on September 21, 2022. Site is currently on hiatus indefinitely.
By dragging one note over another, multiple notes may occupy a space at a time.
You can use note stacking to create a variety of unique sounds in your sequence, or to create makeshift volume changes for an individual instrument.
While this is a straightforward concept, this article will teach you the step-by-step process of how to note stack, as well as giving additional insights on how to apply note stacking.
Take two instruments you like and drag the notes on top of each other.
-OR-
Lasso over the area you want to use two instruments and hit copy (Ctrl+C).
Paste with Ctrl+V and keep the notes selected.
Change the instrument of selected notes by choosing from the dropdown instrument list.
Contemplate if the instrument sounds okay before deselecting.
There is an indefinite number of instrument combinations that it would be impossible to list them all. I would recommend experimenting with instruments based on their sound quality, texture, timbre etc. as well as playing with their EQ/Detune settings under the Advanced tab of each.
You may also be interested in combining 8-bit sounds. This article will give more information regarding the qualities of 8-bit instruments and how to fully utilize them.
Protip: If you want to select every note of one instrument, you can hit the “Highlight this one” button next to the dropdown menu and copy from there.
Place a random note outside the area you want to make louder.
Drag it inside the area you want to make louder.
Repeat as necessary.
Note: With the addition of Individual Note Volume in the 11/26/20 update, manually note stacking for increasing instrument volume is generally obsolete. You can use Alt+Scroll or Alt+/- to change the volume as indicated by the white line at the bottom of note.
However, for conceptual reasons, I've kept the following information below. Let's look at how we can apply stacking in regards to technique.
For volume stacking, I recommend lowering your instrument volume by a fraction based on how many layers you use.
For example: If I use two layers of notes, I should use 1/2 of my original volume. If I use eight layers of notes, then I should use 1/8 of my intended volume.
The more layers you use, the smoother dynamic changes you can make. However, this comes at a cost of using more notes, so use only as many as you need.
Some percussion sets have louder individual notes than the rest of their kit. Snare Drum 1 from the 8-bit Kit is a huge violator.
You can control misbehaving notes by decreasing the overall volume of the kit, then volume stacking the weaker notes of the kit.
You can vaguely check how many notes/which instruments are under a square by locking the respective instrument(s) using Ctrl+Shift+Click, which also lowers the opacity of the notes.
Most people use the Delay setting on an instrument in order to create an echo effect. While it takes more effort to accomplish, using Note Stacking to resemble Delay enables more control over the environment and produces cleaner results in the long run.
First, lower your instrument volume to however much you like. For note rippling, I typically use at least 4 layers, therefore my volume is set to 1/4th of my loudest note.
In order to create the illusion of distance, initial notes will start with the most layers—before fading off with less layers. You can customize how quickly you want notes to fade by adjusting the proportion of layers in a segment.
You can add note rippling just about anywhere in a sequence. One of its main purposes is to provide subtle detailing for support sections.
Depending on the genre you're composing in, dissonant chords synergize well with note rippling. They do not interfere with main parts of the music and add a lot of depth to the song!
You can try adjusting the interval in which notes echo from each other. When done correctly, the final result of having groups of "note waves" at different offsets can be very atmospheric.
You can listen to the example sequence displayed on the right here.
