The Mastertrack items that you may see around Animal Jam are musical works created by your fellow Jammers! These custom-made audio tracks can be played as music in a den, sold in My Shops, and traded between players.
1. To create your own Mastertrack, head over to the minigame menu and choose "Mastertracks" to open the music creating game.
2. Choose "Create Track" to start a new musical masterpiece! When returning to the game to work on past Mastertracks, you can use the "Load Track" to continue working on previously saved music.
Starting a musical piece from scratch can be tough, so to start out let's break down what each button in the music creator game does. "Song Length," located at the bottom of the screen, controls how long your song will be.
3. To increase the length of your song you press the plus button, and to decrease the length of your song press the minus button!
The line and circle above Song Length is a visual representation of your music track's duration. You can drag the circle left and right to move your editing view to different parts of the Mastertrack.
To preview how a note will sound you can click on the box that aligns horizontally with its corresponding piano key (white keys are natural notes, black keys are sharp/flat notes.
4. To make any given note a part of your song, click a second time on the currently highlighted note box (or press spacebar on PC). Doing so will insert a single note at that location and bring up the Note Editor menu.
To make the note last longer, you can increase the duration (click the plus button under "Duration"). To shorten the note click the minus button. To make the note higher or lower, you can increase or decrease the octave respectively (click the plus/minus buttons under "Octave"). To remove the note, simply click on the note block another time.
5. Click the camera button to switch your view between looking at either your currently selected note or the current location of your "playhead" (the triangle & blue line).
The playhead is also from where in the Mastertrack you will start playing should you press the play/pause button (pictured below).
6. Another way to alter how you view your Mastertrack is to drag the magnifying glass left and right, which allows you to zoom in and out of your piece.
7. The arrow to line button takes your playhead and places it on whatever note you currently have highlighted, allowing you to quickly listen your most recent song changes.
8. Click the bookmark button to place a marker on your current highlighted note. The bookmark can be placed at any part of your song that you'd like to mark for your own reference (it will not make any sound in the exported Mastertrack).
9. Click the bookmark and play button to take your playhead to wherever your mark is currently located. This can be helpful for when you're working on a specific section of your Mastertrack; you won't have to look back and search for that area each time you want to hear it.
10. The back arrows take your playhead back to the very beginning of your Mastertrack, so you can listen to it from the start.
11. The clock icon at the top of the screen represents your Mastertrack's tempo. Move the clock icon left to slow down your track, or right to speed it up.
12. There are multiple types of instruments you can play your notes on, including Simple Piano, Bass, Chip Synth, and Drums (select which one you'd like the current layer to use by clicking the green instrument drop down menu).
13. You can play multiple instruments at the same time (in the same song!) by adding another instrument layer with this drop down menu:
After you're done making your Mastertrack, be sure to create a name for it, save the piece (by clicking the file folder icon), and then export it so you can play the tune in your den! You will also be able to trade your Mastertrack with your buddies, or put it up for sale in your My Shop, just like any other music track available for sale in Animal Jam.
Best of luck creating your musical masterworks, us at AJHQ can't wait to hear what you create!