how to change octavia song

What is this?

This is an app for viewing and editing Mandachord songs.

The main motivation was to provide a way to be able to copy my songs into the game without having to pause a video. But while I was at it I went ahead and made it a full blown editor.

Mandachord song codes?

There actually is a Mandachord song code format. If you link a song in chat, and then look at your EE.log file after quitting Warframe, then you will see something like this:

[SONG-Best Song Ever:AADDnwAAEggAAIggAEGBAJCAAABIAAAYAAgFwAECkCAgiAAAKEEACYAhAoAAAAgAAQgICCHAgQCQAEEIAABIQgAJgCEEgAAASAAIGAAABYAAIYAIIQgAAEgCBEGAABCAAAAIAAEIAAhBwgEAkA==:BardCorpusPackA:BardGrineerPackA:BardCorpusPackB]

You used to be able to paste this back into the in-game chat window and get a song link back, but unfortunately that hasn't worked in a couple of years. Still, it's as good a format as any, so that's what this editor is using.

I have a program for extracting song codes from your EE.log file, if you're comfortable with running python: songparse.

Getting Started
Basic Editing
- Title
- Instruments
  - Instrument Set
  - Volume
  - Isolation
- Notes
Advanced Editing
- Clear
  - Clear Measure
  - Clear Song
- Copy/Paste
  - Copy/Paste Measure
  - Copy/Paste Song
Undo/Redo
Playback
- Play Song
- Play Measure
- Play Cursor
Saving
- SongCode
- Share URL
- Export to PNG
- Autosave
Library
- Searching the library
- Loading a song
  - Building a playlist
- Reverse Searching the library
Playlist
- Adding a song
- Editing the playlist
  - Selecting a song
    - Highlighting multiple songs
  - Copying songs
  - Moving songs
  - Deleting a song
- Playing the playlist
- Saving the playlist
  - Copy/Paste
  - Playlist URL
  - Autosave
Mixer
- Mixer Volumes
- Mixer Toggles
Instrument Set Notes
- Adau
- Alpha
- Beta
- Bombast
- Delta
- Druk
- Epsilon
- Gamma
- Horos
- Plogg
- Clazz (Concept)
- Zeta (Concept)
Update Notes
To Do
Known Issues

Getting Started

If you came here from a song link then it should already be displayed.

If you have a song code then paste it in the Song Code text box and hit enter.

Basic Editing

If you're familiar with the in-game Mandachord editor then you already know how most of this works.

Title

Enter the title of the song here. The in-game restrictions on Mandachord song titles are pretty severe, but the only thing being restricted here is a 24 character limit

Instruments

You can adjust the settings here for each section individually: Percussion, Bass, and Melody.

Instrument Set

Use the dropdown to choose one of the nine instrument sets.

Volume

Use the slider to adjust the volume. Full volume is all the way to thr right, zero volume is all the way to the left.

Isolation

Use the checkboxes on the right to turn particular sections on and off.

Note that the isolation settings are not part of the song code and don't get saved.

Notes

The rest of the screen is dedicated to the note grid. This is laid out just like the Mandachord screen, except as a rectangle instead of a disc.

The top three rows are percussion, the next five are bass, and the bottom five are melody. Time ordering goes from left to right.

Click a location in the grid to turn a note on, or click a location with an existing note to turn that note off. You can also click and drag across an area to create multiple notes next to each other.

The score is broken out into four measures. Each measure has a maximum number of notes that can be present in each section:

Percussion: 24 notes per measure
Bass: 16 notes per measure
Melody: 16 notes per measure

Exceeding the note limit on a section of a measure will play a small warning sound.

If your screen is wide enough then all four measures will be displayed in a single row. If your screen is not wide enough for that, then there will be two rows of two. If your screen is not wide enough for that the four measures will be arranged vertically.

Advanced Editing

Clear

Clear Measure

Above each measure is a Clear button. This can be used to clear part or all of the measure. Clicking this will bring up a menu:

All: Use this to completely clear the measure
Percussion: Use this to clear just the Percussion section of the measure
Bass: Use this to clear just the Bass section of the measure
Melody: Use this to clear just the Melody section of the measure

Clear Song

Above the Song Title bar is another Clear button. This allows you to clear notes from all four measures. It has the same options as the per-measure Clear button: All, Percussion, Bass, or Melody.

Copy/Paste

Copy/Paste Measure

Above each measure is a Copy button. This can be used to copy part or all of the measure, allowing it to be pasted to a different measure. Clicking this button will bring up the usual section options: All, Percussion, Bass, or Melody.

Once a copy selection is made in one measure, the Paste buttons are enabled on the other three measures. Clicking the Paste button will copy the selected section from the copied measure into that measure, overwriting any existing notes in that section.

Copy/Paste song

Above the Song Title bar is another set of Copy and Paste buttons. This allows you to copy and paste notes from all four measures.

This is mainly useful when editing a playlist. It allows you to copy all or part of a song into another playlist entry.

Only one thing cna be copied at a time, either part of a measure or part of the whole song

Undo/Redo

Undo and Redo is available using either the Undo and Redo buttons above the Song Title bar, or by using Ctrl-Z for undo and Ctrl-Shift-Z or Ctrl-Y for redo.

All actions can be undone, including note changes, section setting changes, title changes, paste, clear, loading a song from the library, and all edits made to the playlist.

Playback

Use the Play buttons to start and stop playback on either all or part of the song. Playback will loop back to the beginning until stopped.

Just like in game, the current playback location is marked with a vertical line, and individual notes will have a small visual bounce as they are played.

Pressing Space during playback will pause at its current location. Pressing Space again will resume playback where it left off.

Pressing Shift-Space or holding Shift and clicking Play during playback or while playback is paused will restart playback at the beginning of the song or measure.

Pressing the same Stop button while playing will stop playback and clear the current playback location.

Note: The sounds themselves were recorded in-game. I hope this is okay.

Play Song

Click the Play button above the Song Title bar to play the entire song. Playback will go through all four measures before looping back to the beginning.

Play Measure

Click the Play button above a measure to play just that measure in a loop.

Clicking the Play button above a different measure, or clicking the whole song Play button, will immediately stop the current playback and start a fresh playback on the clicked measure or song.

Play Cursor

Click on the ruler bar above the note section to move the playback cursor to that location. This works even when playback is in progress.

Click on the ruler bar or the cursor itself and drag to move the playback cursor across the song while playing any notes under the cursor. It's both fun and pointless.

Saving

There are three ways to save your song for later: by code, by URL, or by generating an image.

Song Code

To save your song by code, simply copy the code out of the Song Code bar at the top of the page. This Song Code is automatically updated as changes are made to the song.

To restore a song from a code, open this page again and paste the song code into the Song Code bar.

Unfortunately, that's all you can currently do with a song code. You used to be able to paste the song code into the in-game chat window and get a song link back, but that hasn't worked in years.

If you want a shareable URL that goes directly to your song, click the Link button at the top of the page. Copy this, and paste it into a browser to bring up this page auto-populated with your song.

Export to PNG

If you want an image, then click the Generate PNG button at the top of the page. This will bring up a link to download your song as a PNG, including section settings and all four measures.

Note that you cannot re-import a PNG to edit it again. You should also save your song as either a Song Code or URL so you can come back to it later.

Autosave

As you are editing, your song will automatically be saved to your browser's location bar. If you use the browser's forward/back buttons, intentionally or accidentally, then reversing that back to this page should resume where you left off.

Note: Updates take a second or two to appear in the location bar.

Library

Click the Library button to enable the library. This contains a demo for each instrument set, along with every Mandachord request I've done.

There are thousands of songs and it's all loaded into your browser. I'm not sure how well this works on devices with limited memory.

Searching the library

By default the entire library is listed. Songs are categorized by my completely arbitrary classification system.

The bar at the top is a search bar. Enter one or more keywords to narrow down the listing. The keyword can be a category, a title, an artist, or one of a couple of tags:

perfect: Matches melodies that translate perfectly onto the Mandachord
filled: Matches melodies that have no space between notes
sparse: Matches melodies that have a lot of space between notes
double, triple, etc: Matches songs that I did more than one Mandachord loop for
adau, alpha, druk, etc: Matches songs that only use one instrument set

Multiple keywords can be entered. Only songs that match all the keywords will be shown.

Keywords must be three characters or longer before they will be searched

Loading a song

Click on a song entry to load it into the Mandascore editor. If the editor is currently playing then playback will be reset to the beginning.

If the selected song has more than one Mandachord loop then the Playlist will be temporarily enabled, and playback will go through all the loops.

Building a playist

By default, clicking a song in the library will replace the song currently in the Mandacore. If the previously selected library song had multiple Mandachord loops then the playlist will be cleared for the new song.

Enable the playlist by clicking the Playlist button, making sure it's lit up. This will keep the playlist up and append songs as they are selected.

Reverse Searching the library

Clicking the Reverse Search button above the library will kick off a reverse search. This searches the entire library for songs matching the one currently in the editor.

The reverse search will only take into account sections in the editor that have notes in them. If the Percussion, Bass, or Melody section is left blank then the that section will be ignored while searching library songs.

I highly recommend limiting the search to one section

The reverse search will return an ordered list of results, with the closest match at the top of the list. Each match has a "closeness" number in blue, where 60.00 is a perfect match for all three sections and partial matches have lower closeness numbers.

Note: The reverse search is still a work in progress and it's tuned pretty arbitrarily for how I search.

Playlist

The playlist feature allows you to queue up a sequence of song loops to play one after the other.

Enable the playlist by clicking the Playlist button in the top bar.

This is purely for my own amusement, use it if you want.

Adding a song

If the playlist is empty, then clicking the Add button will add the current contents of the song editor as a new song in the playlist.

Editing the playlist

Selecting a song

Click on a title in the playlist to select that song and display it in the song editor. Any changes will be saved to the selected playlist entry.

Highlighting multiple songs

When a single song is selected, click the highlight button beside another song entry above or below it to highlight a contiguous block of songs. Currently highlighted songs will be marked with .

Only one song can be selected and displayed in the song editor, but any number of songs above or below the selected song can be highlighted.

Click another or button to change where the highlight stops.

Selecting a new song will clear the highlight.

Copying songs

When a song is selected in the playlist use the Add button to make a copy of this song. It will be inserted directly after the selection and automatically selected.

If there are highlighted songs in addition to the selected song, then the entire block of songs will be copied and placed after the last highlighted song.

Moving songs

Click and hold the move button beside a song to drag that song to a new location.

You can move any song, whether it's selected or not.

If there is a block of songs highlighted, then clicking an dragging the move button beside any highlighted song will move the entire block.

If there are enough songs to scroll out of the playlist window, then dragging near the edge will automatically scroll.

Deleting a song

Click the delete button beside a song to remove that entry from the playlist.

If the currently selected song is deleted then the next song will be automatically selected.

Playing the playlist

By default playlist looping is enabled. This means that if you play the full song then it will automatically advance to the next entry in the playlist at the end of measure four.

The playlist will not advance when playing a single measure.

Click the Disable button above the playlist to disable it. While disabled the song will not advance to the next playlist entry after measure four; it will stay on the same song. Click the same Enable button to re-enable it.

Saving the playlist

There are two options for saving/loading a playlist.

Copy/Paste

Click the Copy/Paste button to bring up a text area containing the song codes for every song in the playlist. You can copy this and save it wherever you want.

You can also paste a new song list into this text area. This will replace the current playlist, if any.

Playlist URL

Click the Link button above the paylist to generate a shareable URL with the entire playlist embedded in it. Opening the URL will open Mandascore and restore the playlist.

I'm compressing it, but this URL can still be very large.

Autosave

As you are editing, your playlist will automatically be saved to your browser's location bar. If you use the browser's forward/back buttons, intentionally or accidentally, then reversing that back to this page should resume mostly where you left off.

Note: Updates take a second or two to appear in the location bar.

Mixer

The mixer feature allows you to control the volume of and toggle individual note tracks.

Changes made in the mixer apply to every song in a playlist. Copy/pasting a playlist or generating a playlist link will include the mixer settings, if any.

Mixer Volumes

The volume sliders in the mixer section allow control over a section's volume or an individual note track within that section.

The master volume controls overal output volume, on top of section and track volumes.

Each section's main volume controls output volume for all tracks in the section. Adjusting the section volume will lock all the note track volumes to the same value.

Adjusting a note track volume will only affect that note track. The section volume will show the average of the note track volumes, but it's just for show.

Note: The section mixer volume is separate from the volume in the song info. The song info volume applies only to that song loop, and is saved along with it. But the section mixer volume applies to every song loop and is not saved as part of any song.

Mixer Toggles

The toggle buttons in the mixer sections allow control over whether a section or an individual note track is enabled

Toggling a section on or off will apply the same setting to all of that section's note tracks.

Toggling a note track will only affect that note track.

If all of a section's note tracks are disabled then the section itself is automatiacally disabled, and if one of a section's note tracks is enabled then that section is automatically enabled.

Note that the setion toggle under the mixer is exactly the same as the section toggle in the song info, and changes made to one will be reflected in the other.

Reset Mixer

Clicking the Reset button Will revert the mixer to having all note tracks enabled at full volume.

Instrument Set Notes

Adau

The default instrument is ironically one of the hardest to work with.

The percussion is different from all the other instrument sets. It's a low drum, a double-drum, and a high drum. The double-drum is unique: a single note actually plays twice, a sixteenth note apart. Putting a series of middle-drum notes one grid square apart will play a continuous drum roll.

I've found the best way to work with Adau percussion is to use the high and low drums as the basis of the rhythm, and the middle double-drum supporting the other two as a lead-in or filler.

The bass is the only bass in the current instrument set lineup that's pitched high and clear enough to do chords. That's usually how I use it. Unfortunately, because it's pitched so high, and because I'm usually doubling up with chords, it tends to drown out most melodies. For that reason I usually back the volume off a bit.

The melody is very, very mushy. Single notes are very hard to distinguish a clear start time. Fast notes just blend together.

The one place where the Adau melody shines is emulating long-held notes. Because of the mushiness, repeating a note every grid space will blend together into a single, long note. Adau is the only melody that can do this well. You can also quickly alternate between 2-3 notes and get a similar effect as a long-held chord.

Alpha

The Alpha instrument set is 100% Techno.

The percussion has a very distinctive 80's techno bass drum, but it should be used sparingly unless you're going for an obnoxious "hard-bass" style. The snare is a relatively high-pitched whip-crack snare, also best used sparingly. The hi-hat is one of the strongest in the line-up, but not overwhelming.

I've found the best way to use the Alpha percussion is to keep it simple with the bass and snare, and save the creativity for the hi-hat.

The bass notes take about half a measure to play out and aren't very strong. This is more of a atmospheric bass than something you can make a recognizable bass line out of.

The melody is one of the best overall melodies in the line-up. Each note takes about 2-3 grid spaces to play out, so it's not great for fast melodies. Otherwise it's very strong and clear. I use it a lot for mid-range, slower melodies that I want to be recognizable.

Beta

Beta is one of the more low-key instrument sets.

The percussion bass and hi-hat are relatively gentle. I tend to use them if the song I'm trying to adapt doesn't have percussion at all. The snare, on the other hand, is pretty aggressive. In some of my longer videos I use the Beta snare in place of a crash cymbal.

The bass is very low, almost sub-audible. You feel it more than you hear it. You can do a pretty chill bass line with it, but people aren't really going to be able to recognize it as anything. It's also pretty good at doing a long-held bass note if you repeat it.

The melody kind of suffers from the out-of-tune sound, but it's pretty short not counting the echo. It's a decent choice for fast melodies, and the echo can fill in slower ones.

This is my default substitute melody for Piano.

Bombast

This instrument set comes with Octavia Prime. This might be a problem after Octavia Prime is vaulted, but for now I plan on using it.

The percussion might replace Gamma as my go-to Hip Hop percussion. A strong bump bass, a sharp clap for a snare, and a clear hi-hat.

The bass is excellent. It's low like Beta, but shorter and stronger. It blends together very nicely when played fast. I can do a lot with this bass.

The melody is unlike anything else in the Mandachord lineop. It's your classic West Coast hip hop lead. There are built-in bends that make it awkward, especially on the lower two. It's pretty niche, but it's good for making anything sound like it's backing Snoop Dogg.

Both the melody and the bass are monophonic. They literally won't do chords; if you put multiple notes at the same time then only the highest one will play. This is very noticeable with the melody, it would be a mess without it, but the bass does this as well.

Delta

Delta is kind of an oddball. I use its percussion a lot, but I almost never touch its bass or melody.

The percussion has a strong, short snare that I use a lot for drum and bass and a couple of EDM styles. The bass and hi-hat fit well but aren't anything special, I mostly use this for the snare.

The bass is both very disinctive and hard to deal with. The main sound is delayed enough that you have to place it a grid square ahead of when you want it to actually play. When it plays its sound cuts through everything, you usually have to knock the volume back to hear anything else.

I just never end up using this bass. You need a really good sound match before it makes sense over any of the other bass options.

The melody. Personally, I've never heard the Delta melody used in-game in any way other than to be as obnoxious as possible.

It is possible to make something interesting and okay to listen to. But you have to spend a lot of time playing with the five notes and seeing how they can blend together. They all sound very different, and bear only a passing resemblance to the scale note they represent. The bottom four take almost half a measure to play out, but the top note is faster can get away with being played quicker.

Druk

Druk is heavy metal all the way

The percussion is very strong and loud. Since you can't vary the volume it comes off a little too strong if you really hammer on it like a heavy metal drummer, but it's not usually a problem. For any music with a live drummer it's usually either Druk or Plogg, depending on how heavy it is.

The bass is my favorite bass in the line-up. It's clear and short. You can build a huge variety of complicated bass lines. It cuts through battle noise very well in game. Sometimes if you've got a very busy bass against a weaker melody you'll want to cut the volume a bit.

This is easily my most used bass.

The melody is kind of mushy, and also an octave below most of the other melodies in the line-up. If I try and do a busy melody line with this then I'll always double it up on the bass to give it more definition.

I have a pretty hard time hearing the Druk melody when I'm in mission, so I usually keep it simple.

Epsilon

Epsilon is EDM with a more Eurobeat-feel to it.

The percussion has among the longest snare and hi-hat sounds, good for filling a lot of space or cutting through other sounds. The bass drum is low and long as well, but my reasons for using Epsilon percussion are mostly for the snare and hi-hat.

The bass is hard to work with because it's a dual sound. First a low note, then one grid square later a higher, clearer note. I find this works best when you place it a grid square before where you want it to sound. The higher part also tends to overshadow some melodies, making it even tougher to use effectively.

The melody is an octave or more above all the other melodies in the line-up. It takes a whole quarter note to fully play out, but it doesn't get mushy with faster melodies.

This is my go-to choice for high-pithed melodies, including high strings.

Gamma

Gamma is mainly for hip-hop, but the melody is extremely versatile.

The percussion is my go-to for any rap or hip-hip. It has a very strong hi-hat, and a high pitched snare that's almost like a hand-clap. The bass drum is pretty standard but fits with the theme.

The bass is a low brass note that takes about a quarter-note to play out. You can't do fast bass-lines, but you can fill space with it. Most of the time, if I'm doing hip-hop then I end up doubling up the base on the bass drum rhythm.

The melody is my go-to melody for anything fast-paced. Aside from a little but of de-tuning, it's short and clear and great for just about anything with a lot of sixteenth notes.

It's a toss-up whether Gamma or Alpha is my most used melody.

Horos

Horos is the community-voted "EDM" pack which... I mean, half the instrument sets in the line-up qualify as "EDM". The community is dumb sometimes, but it's a good instrument set.

The percussion bass drum and snare make a solid club beat. I find myself just doing bass drum on the beast and snare every other beat a lot with this instrument set. The only unfortunate thing is the hi-hat, which is so weak it's almost inaudible compared to the rest.

The bass is my second-favorite bass after druk. It's short and clear, and you can do tons of stuff with it. I find myself using it a lot for repetitive synth-wave bass lines.

The melody is pretty hard to use. Each note has is a built-in chord, a ton of overtones, and echoes for a good 3/4 of a measure. The best way to use this is sparingly.

Plogg

Plogg is kind of a lighter rock, except the bass player keeps his amp turned up way too loud even though they keep asking him to dial it back.

The percussion is a pretty standard live drum kit. Its strength is that it's so generic that it fits in everywhere.

The bass is the loudest in the line-up. Honestly, when I use this bass I usually turn it down to half-volume. It takes two grid squares to sound out, so it's not for fast bass lines.

The one exception is if I need a long-held bass note that's as hardcore loud as possible. Repeating a Plogg bass note like with the Adau melody works pretty good for that.

The melody, like Druk, is an octave below most of the other melodies. I use this a lot for low male vocals, and the occasional clean guitar. It takes two grid squares to sound out so it's not great for fast melodies.

Clazz (Concept)

Original video

The instrument set request I hear the most is "piano". So here's my concept.

The percussion is smooth jazz, because even Plogg is still too heavy for some songs.

The bass is high and clear enough to play chords. The only other bass that can do that right now is Adau.

The melody is an octave higher than most of the other melodies. We don't have enough of those and most piano requests I get fall into that range.

Zeta (Concept)

Original video

I would love a reto-gaming chiptune instrument set. So here's my concept.

The percussion is based on a Commodore 64, the earliest thing I could think of that can pull off a distinct bass drum.

The bass is from some Super Breakout clone I used to play. I can't remember the platform but I can hear that ball bouncing sound very clearly in my head.

I wanted something high and chill for the melody, because we don't really have anything like that yet. I guess it turned out a little Nintendo-esque?

Update Notes

v1.0: 2020-10-14

Attempt to make starting playback right after loading the page smoother.
Added my concept instrument sets because I can.
Fixed the volume encoding (thanks HZDeluxe)

v2.0: 2020-01-26

Added a Playlist function, for the lulz.
Fixed a little problem with the playlist incrementing when you're only playing a single measure.

v2.1: 2020-02-14

Added a searchable library of songs.
Fixed issue with searching causing playback to stop making sound, I think.

v2.2: 2020-02-23

Added Bombast instrument pack, along with support for monophonic instrument packs.
Added a confirm step to clearing the playlist, that's bit me one too many times.
Added color coded tag displays to the library list for filled, sparse, perfect, multiple shots, and instrument sets.
Smoothing out playlist playback when the instrument set changes.

v2.3: 2020-03-11

Added a Mixer function.
Put the demos in the library
Needs a master volume in the mixer.
Shift-play and Shif-space start from the beginning
Re-recording Bombast for melody sound change on the low D, also adding support for multiple samples for each sound, like it does in-game, and re-recording Bombast and Adau in full.
Re-recording multiple samples for the other instrument. If you can tell the difference you've got better ears than I do.
Fixed an issue with changing an instrument set too quickly

v2.4: 2020-06-22

Added an experimental search to the Library to find songs "similar" to the current one. Open the Library and Shift-click on the Library button to try it out.

v3.0: 2020-08-11

You can now click and drag the playback cursor. What a country.
Revamped copy/paste so you can use it between loops in a playlist.

v3.1: 2020-10-19

Reworked the playlist editor to support moving entries by dragging, and also undo.
Added whole song copy/paste options.
Added autosave to the browser URL, why did that take me so long

v3.5: 2020-11-02

Switched most icons to buttons.
Multi-select support in the playlist editor for moving and copying.
Added button for reverse song search because why not

To Do

Saving to local storage?

Known Issues

The library data store and search function is pretty dumb right now. It possibly doesn't work so great on devices with limited horsepower.
There may be some delay when playing an instrument pack for the first time. This is because of the safeguards a lot of browsers have in place to prevent auto-play video and audio. There isn't much I can do about it. You have to click something before it can even load the sounds.
The playback note animations sometimes cause Firefox to continually reload the note images over and over again.
With Safari and possibly iOS, minimizing or otherwise hiding the window while it's playing will stop the audio. When you come back it takes a few tries playing and stopping before it fully returns. I'm not quite sure what's going on there yet.
Not sure if it's just my phone, but playback on Chrome for Android kind of sucks.
Dragging the playback cursor, mousing over a disabled Paste, then dropping, will not register the drop and you have to click again to stop dragging the cursor. I'm too lazy to fix it right now.