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2. Entering notes, rests and lyrics
Introduction. Description of the main screen

2-1. Setting the tempo

2-2. Entering notes and lyrics

2-3. Entering rests

2-4. Changing the pitch of notes

2-5. Removing notes and rests

2-6. Changing the length of note and rests

2-7. Joining notes and rests

2-8. Splitting notes

2-9. Cutting notes and rests/Copy and paste

2-10. Changing the lyrics

2-11. Changing the volume

2-12. Reverting to a previous state/Do it again (Undo and Redo)

2-13. Using and changing the voice files (sound libraries)

2-14. Changing the screen display to 3-beat

2-15. Moving notes horizontally

Introduction. Description of the main screen
The picture below is the display of Ver.0.2.61, the latest version on January 14, 2010. It is the screen of the free version before registration, but even after registration, the only change is that the buttons become three-dimensional. However, please note that a new button has been added to the previous version, and that some buttons and text boxes have changed shape and/or place.

Here is a brief description of the features of each text box and button (for more information, please follow the link)

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2-1. Setting the tempo

 * The global default tempo (the tempo for the entire song) is set to 120. To change the global tempo, click the Tempo Display Area, enter the new tempo value in the "Change the global tempo" screen that appears, then press the "OK" button. The global tempo appears in blue in the upper left corner of the screen.

Note: You can enter up to the second decimal point for the tempo, but if the integer part of the tempo has 3 digits (tempo is over 100), the display area can show only one decimal place, so please verify with the blue section on the upper left of the screen.

 How to change the tempo in the middle of a song 

'''* In UTAU, changing the tempo in the middle of a song can occur only on note (or rest) units. It is not possible change the tempo in the middle of a note (or rest). If you want to change the tempo in the middle of a rest, please split the rest by dragging its right edge of the left.'''

1. Right-click the note at the start of where you want to change the tempo (for example, 「は」), then select "Tempo" 「テンポ」.

2. Enter the new tempo in the "Setting the tempo" 「テンポの設定」 screen, then click "OK".

3. The new tempo is displayed in red on the top part of the note where the tempo has changed.

Note: If the tempo is changed in the middle of a song, the Tempo Display Area shows the tempo of the selected note rather than the global tempo. However, if you select notes having two or more different tempos, the tempo of the last selected note among the selection is displayed.

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2-2. Entering notes and lyrics
 Entering notes using the pencil tool 


 * After pressing the Pencil Tool button (1) at the upper right corner, the cursor shape changes to a pencil when you move it on the Piano Roll Screen. When clicking on the screen, you can enter notes of which the length is selected by the Length (2) pull-down menu.

※ When entering notes, the Pencil tool takes the shape of the image below.


 * You can enter notes of any length by keeping the left mouse button pressed, and drag the mouse to the right, while entering the note.


 * If you did not enter anything in the Lyrics Input Area (3), the word "a" 「あ」 is automatically entered. If some text is entered in the Lyrics Input Area, notes are created using one character at a time, thus disappearing one by one from the left of the Lyrics Input Area. However,  please note that starting from UTAU Ver0.2.74, character strings made of continuous alphabetic characters separated by blanks are entered together in one note. (This a design change for taking into account romaji input) 


 * The pitch of the entered note matches with the piano keyboard on the left edge of the screen, and becomes higher the higher you move. The scales are written with C1 ~ C7 in black letters at the position of the "do" note on the keyboard, but starting from  Ver0.2.61  of UTAU, the scale corresponding to the cursor location in the Piano Roll Screen, like "mi" (E5) in the picture above, is also written in blue.


 * Starting from Ver0.2.61 of UTAU, if you open the "Options" 「オプション」 screen from the "Tools"「ツール」 menu, select "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" in the "MIDI OUT" pull-down menu of the "MIDI" tab, and press the MIDI OUT Monitor Button (the speaker icon between and below the Mode2 button and the Trace button), then when clicking the piano keyboard, this plays a piano sound of the corresponding scale, allowing you to validate its pitch. In addition, starting from Ver0.2.40 of UTAU, if you check "Play on note addition" 「音符を置いた時に音を鳴らす」 in the "MIDI" tab of the "Options" 「オプション」 screen, and if the MIDI OUT Monitor Button is pressed, a piano sound is played when entering a note with the Pencil tool, allowing you to validate its pitch.

Note: by UTAU's design, you can not leave an empty space between two notes. The parts with no sound (the parts that contains the rest) are represented by a rest note "R" in white. (Notes are entered in the Piano Roll as long and narrow horizontal rectangles.)

The rest "R" input method is described in 2-3. Entering rests

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 How to enter notes and lyrics at the same time 

※ For the way to enter (or change) lyrics of already entered notes, please refer to 2-10. Changing the lyrics.


 * When you press the Note Insert button (2) after entering lyrics in the Lyrics Input Area (1), C4 ("do") notes are entered along with the lyrics, as in (4) in the picture below.


 * The length of the entered notes can be specified by selecting it from the Length pull-down menu (3).


 * If the lyrics are not yet decided, enter as many 「あ」 "A" or other appropriate vowel as the number of notes you want (vowels are better because the pronunciation timing of consonants is easily misaligned).


 * If you want to enter additional notes, right-click on the Note Input Screen like in the image below, then select "Deselect All" 「選択解除」 (or click on the right edge of the Note Input Screen, where there is no note): all the deselected notes become blue. Enter the lyrics you want into the Lyrics Input Area, then press the Insert Notes button.


 * If you wish to insert a note between already entered notes, click on the note just behind the place where you want to add, which becomes selected (pink). Enter the lyrics you want in the Lyrics Input Area, then press the Insert Notes button.


 * When you double-click the Lyrics Input Area, the "Text input" 「テキスト入力」 screen appears. After entering lyrics into the "Text input" screen, close the screen by clicking on the "x" button on the upper right of the screen. The entered lyrics appear in the Lyrics Input Area, and you can now enter notes with the Insert Notes button. Use this when you enter many lyrics at once, that can not all be displayed in the Lyrics Input Area.

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2-3. Entering rests
UTAU is different from usual software sequencers in that it is necessary to enter rests for silent parts, using the following method. This is because silent part must be explicitly entered as rests (silence part between notes) or "R" (half-width uppercase alphabetic letter) like in (3) in the image at the right below.


 * Click on the note that immediately follows the point where you want to enter a rest ((1) in the picture below), and when selected press the Insert Rest button (2). (You may also select "Insert Rest" 「Rを挿入」 from the "Edit" 「編集」 menu, or press the Ctrl and R keys simultaneously).


 * The length of the inserted rest may be specified with the pull-down menu (4) used to specify the length of the entered notes.

※ If you want to attach a rest at the end of a note sequence, you can either click on the right edge of the screen where there is no note, or right-click and select "Deselect All" 「選択解除」. Once all the notes are unselected (blue), press the Insert Rest button. (Use this when exporting to a Wav file, if you want to set a silent part at the end)


 * As shown in the image below, you can enter notes and rests at the same time if you enter a half-width uppercase "R" letter between lyrics in the Lyrics Input Area, then press the Insert Notes button.

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2-4. Changing the pitch of notes

 * When selecting a single note and dragging it vertically, this moves a rectangular black frame like in the image below. Look at the keyboard on the left edge of the screen, then drop the frame to the vertical position that matches the pitch.


 * Codes like C1 ~ C7 are written in black on the "do" position of the keyboard, and the sound pitch is higher when moving up (the numbers attached to C get higher too). In addition, starting from  Ver0.2.61  of UTAU, the scale code corresponding to the cursor location is displayed in blue on the keyboard, like the note "re" (D4) in the image below. (The Note Input Screen lines are grey at the position of semitones (the sound of the keyboard black keys).)


 * You can change the pitch of several notes at once by selecting, then drag, the notes you want to move. Note that, starting from  Ver0.2.61  of UTAU, when moving multiple selected notes, the notes to be moved are surrounded with a blue frame.

※ It you click and erase the "M" toggle of the Multiple Notes Pitch Change mode, even if multiple notes are selected, you can only move them one at a time. (Click again to redisplay "M", and you can drag multiple notes again.)


 * When you click on "Move Region Up" 「選択部分を上へ起動」 or "Move Region Down" 「選択部分を下へ起動」 in the "Edit" 「編集」 menu, you can move the selected notes one semitone up or down.


 * When you click "Move Region by Number" 「選択部分を数値で移動」 from the "Edit" menu, the "Enter Move Range in Semitones" 「移動量を半音単位で入力する」 screen appears. When you enter the movement range in semitones, then click "OK", you can move at once the selected notes to any height. A positive number moves up, a negative number moves down. For example, if you want one octave higher, enter "12", and if you want one octave lower, enter "-12".

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2-5. Removing notes and rests

 * Select the notes or rests you want to delete, right-click the selected notes (or rests), then select "Delete" 「削除」. The selected area is removed, and the following notes and rests are shifted in contact with the preceding notes. (You can also delete by selecting "Delete" 「削除」 from "Edit" 「編集」, or with Shift + Delete)


 * If you want to change a note into a rest, instead of packing to the left when the note is deleted, you can double-click the note, remove the lyrics and enter a half-width uppercase "R" to change it to a rest. (Conversely, you may also double-click a rest to remove the "R" and change it to a note with lyrics)

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2.6. Changing the length of note and rests

 * Select the note of interest. A black arrow (⇔) is displayed when you place the cursor over the right edge of the note, and the note is shortened when dragging it to the left. (A right neighbor rest is extended. If there is a note to the right, a rest will be automatically inserted.)

In addition, if the right neighbor is a rest, dragging to the right extends the note. (The right neighbor rest is shortened. You can thus extend a note till the point where another note begins (the point where the rest ends).)


 * The minimum adjustment unit for the length of notes and rests (quantization) is one 32th note by default. You can change to any unit with the Quantize pull-down menu. (The greater value is a quarter note / the smallest is 10 ticks (one third of a 64th note)). In addition if "(None)" （なし） is selected in the bottom of the pull-down menu, you can adjust in ticks units, without any quantization.

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 How to change together the length of notes and rests (by the end side), and to move all the following notes and rests 

Select notes or rests, and drag laterally the right edge of the notes or rests while pressing the Shift key. Notes or rests are extended proportionally, and all the following notes and rests are moved.

For example in the picture below, dragging the right edge of the quarter notes "i" 「い」 and "ro" 「ろ」 to the right while pressing the Shift key extends them to half notes.

In the two pictures below, dragging laterally the right end of the fourth rest "R" while pressing the Shift key extends it to a half rest, or shortens it to a eighth rest.

In addition, you can also adjust the length by selecting the note or rest of which you want to change the length, select "Edit" 「編集」 -> "Region Properties" 「選択部分のプロパティ」, directly input the Length 「長さ」 in the upper right of the "Sound properties" 「音のプロパティ」 screen, then press "OK". (In this case too, all the notes and rests that follow the part of which the length has changed are moved)

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 How to change together the length of notes and rests (by the end side) while extending the length of the right neighbor notes 

Select the notes or rests, and drag laterally the right edge of the notes or rests while pressing the Ctrl key. Notes or rests are extended proportionally, and the left side (front side) of the right neighbor is shortened.

As UTAU can not change the length of a note by dragging its left side (front side), please use this method to adjust the length of notes from the left side (front side).

For example in the the image below, after dragging to the right the right edge of the quarter note "i" 「い」 and the quarter rest while holding the Ctrl key, they are extended to a dotted quarter note / rest (1.5 times), and the left-hand half of the right neighbors quarter notes "ro" 「ろ」 and "ha" 「は」 is cut, shortening their length to eighth notes.

Conversely, after dragging to the left the right edge of the quarter note "i" 「い」 and the quarter rest while holding the Ctrl key, they are shortened to a eighth note / heighth rest, while in the same time the left-hand side of the right neighbors quarter notes "ro" 「ろ」 and "ha" 「は」 is extended, extending their length to a dotted quarter note / rest (1.5 times).

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2-7. Joining notes and rests
Select the notes and rests you want to join; when selecting "Edit" 「編集」 -> "Merge Notes" 「ノート結合」 (or pressing Ctrl + U), they are combined into a single note. As the displayed note lyrics is the combination of all the previous note lyrics (starting from Ver.0.2.09, the "R" of the rests are excluded), double-click the resulting combined note to correct the lyrics. Please refer to 2-10-1. Changing the lyrics one by one

Note: the properties of the merged note (volume, modulation, flags, etc.) are set to the values of the note that was at the head before merging.

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2-8. Splitting notes
Select the note you want to split. Dragging the right edge of the note to the left while pressing Shift + Ctrl allows you to split it in two. The same lyrics as before the split are automatically entered, and the properties of the note before partition (volume, modulation, flags, etc.) are reported to the note at the head after the partition, while the note at the tail returns to default values (displayed blank in the Note Properties screen), so please be careful.

※ Rest can be broken simply by dragging their right edge to the left. If you want to move together to the left the notes following a rest, this method could also be used to split the rest to the amount you want to move, then delete this part.

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2.9. Cutting notes and rests/Copy and paste
Example: Cut the first "i" 「い」 note (or copy it), then paste it between "ro" 「ろ」 and "ha" 「は」.

1. Select the "i" 「い」 note you want to cut (or copy).

2. Select "Cut" 「切り取り」 from "Edit" 「編集」, or press Ctrl + X (if you want to leave "i" 「い」 at its original location, select 「コピー」 "Copy" or press Ctrl + C).

3. Select the "ha" 「は」 note, which is immediately after the location where you want to paste.

4. Select "Paste" 「貼り付け」 from "Edit" 「編集」, or press Ctrl + V.

5. The "i" 「い」 note is pasted in the specified place.

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2-10. Changing the lyrics
* Changing the lyrics one by one

Double-click the note of which you want to change the lyrics (or press Shift + Enter): the note becomes white and is now in a state where you can change the lyrics displayed under the cursor. After changing the lyrics, press Enter or click on the screen where there is no note, and the modified note returns to its previous state.

※ You can change the note to a rest by entering a half-width uppercase "R". Conversely, you may change a rest to a note by entering lyrics instead of the rest's "R".

※ Starting from Ver0.2.72, you may adjust the Option Settings so that only the Enter key can change the lyrics.

To do this: click "Options" 「オプション」 from the "Tools" 「ツール」 menu, thus opening the Options Settings 「オプション設定」 screen, then check "Change Lyrics only with Enter" 「エンターで歌詞変更」 in the "General" 「全般」 tab. Finally, press "OK" to close the Options Settings screen.

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 * Changing lyrics together (inserting lyrics functionality) 

1. Select all the notes of which you want to change the lyrics.

2. Enter the new lyrics in the Lyrics Input Area (2). (Steps 1 and 2 may be inverted)

3. Press the Replace Lyrics button (3), the lyrics are all changed at once.

Note 1. If you select notes and rests "R" together (or only rests) and replace lyrics, the rests remain as-is. ''' You can not change rests to notes with the Replace Lyrics button. ''' Double-click the rests, and enter directly the lyrics one rest at a time to change it to a note. This also means that if you select only rests and press the Replace Lyrics button, the lyrics of the notes behind the rests are replaced.

Note 2. Starting from  Ver0.2.73 , the repartition input method for alphabetical characters has been changed to notes delimited by blank spaces. (This is for dealing with romaji input) Accordingly, up to version 0.2.72, it was possible to enter consecutive half-width uppercase "R" in the Lyrics Input Area, press the Replace Lyrics button and replace notes with rests but, ''' starting with Ver0.2.73, please enter them with white spaces like in "R R R R". '''

※ As numerals and symbols other than latin letters are decomposed one kana character at a time, like hiragana and katakana, enclose with "" the character strings you don't want to be decomposed.

Note 3. If the number of words entered into the Lyrics Input Area is greater than the number of selected notes, the lyrics in excess to the number of selected notes will not be replaced. However, ''' starting from Ver0.2.61 of UTAU, by checking "Do not limit to the selection extent when inserting lyrics" 「歌詞流し込み時に選択範囲制限を行わない」 in the "General" 「全般」 tab of "Options" 「オプション」, the lyrics of the unselected notes exceeding the note selection can be replaced too. ''' (This allows selecting just the note at the beginning of the new lyrics, then inserting the lyrics block, like VOCALOID2)

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Reference: How to easily convert to a higher or lower pitch

Select the one note of which you want to change the pitch, then right-click while holding the Shift key. A catalog of the various sound types that are compiled into the voice library, like e.g. "a+" 「あ↑」, "a-" 「あ↓」, 「あ強」, is displayed: when one is selected, it is entered in the note.

※ Please refer to the following link about switching multiple notes at once using the SurffixBroker feature.

13-2. Manually using the proper pitch file (SuffixBroker function)

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2-11. Changing the volume

 * Press the "~" button at the bottom left of the main screen, or select "Show Pitch Curves" 「曲線を表示」 from "View" 「表示」 (or press F4), to display the notes envelope (changes in volume) and pitch bend (changes in the pitch height). Select one by one the notes of which you want to change the volume, then change it by dragging up or down. (The default volume is 100. The volume is displayed on the upper left of the note.)

Note: When placing a note in the state where you can change its volume by dragging, there were cases in old versions of UTAU where you could not adjust the note length by dragging. Press the "~" button again, or select "Show Pitch Curves" from "View" (or press F4), to return to the previous screen.

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 Changing the volume of multiple (or all) notes at once 

Press for example the "~" button on the bottom left of the main screen, and when the envelope is displayed, select all the notes of which you want to change the volume. You can increase and decrease the volume of all the selected notes by the same amount, by dragging any one of the selected notes up and down. For example in the picture below, select three notes with a different volume each, "i" 「い」 = 100, "ro" 「ろ」 = 80, ha 「は」 = 60, then drag the "i" 「い」 note down to make it 90. The volume of the other notes is also reduced by 10 and becomes "ro" 「ろ」 = 70, "ha" 「は」 = 50.

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 Changing the volume of multiple notes in dB units (VolumeFunctionizer function) 

After selecting all the notes of which you want to change the volume, select the menu "Tools" 「ツール」 -> "Built-in Tools" 「組み込みツール」 -> "Volume Functionizer" to open the "Volume Functionizer" screen. You can change the volume of the selected notes in dB units, by moving the slide bar laterally, or input directly in the dB display area the amount in dB you want to increase or decrease, then press "OK". For example in the picture below, 1dB is deduced from a volume 100 to make it a volume 89, by moving the slide bar one graduation to the left, or entering "-1' in the dB display area.

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 Standardize the volume of multiple (or all) notes at once 

If you want to line up at once to the same value the volume of multiple or all the notes, select the notes of which you want to change the volume, select "Region Property" 「選択部分のプロパティ」 from "Edit" 「編集」. Enter the new volume directly in the Volume 「音量」 box of the Region Property screen 「選択範囲のプロパティ」, or press the up/down buttons on the right side of the box to change the volume, then finally press "OK" to apply the change. (You can also change the volume of individually selected notes with this method.)

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2-12. Reverting to a previous state/Do it again (Undo and Redo)
If, after performing an operation, you want to restore (undo) the status before this operation, select "Undo (just performed operation)" 「（直前に行った操作内容）を元に戻す」 from the "Edit" 「編集」 menu, or press Ctrl + Z. Moreover, if after executing Undo you want to revert to (redo) the state before performing the Undo, select "Redo (last action)" 「（直前に行った操作内容）をやり直す」 from the "Edit" 「編集」 menu.

Note: in the example image below, Undo is written "Undo Note Change" 「ノートの変更を元に戻す」, and Redo is written "Redo Note Change" 「ノートの変更をやり直す」, but in fact what is actually written in the edit menu changes depending on the action that was performed just before. Also, when Undo has not been performed even once, Redo is grayed out in the Edit menu to indicate that it can't be selected.

※ In UTAU, Undo and Redo can be performed multiple times. (There is only one level of Undo and Redo in the original VOCALOID2.) The number of possible times depends on the available memory, but one can safely say it is 10 times, I think. (It is unknown whether there is a limitation on the number of undo/redo times.)

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2-13. Using and changing the voice files (sound libraries)
Note: When UTAU is installed, just one voice bank is installed with it: the default female voice. To use a non-default voice like e.g. Teto Kasane, you need to download its voice file set and to register it. -> 1-3. Adding UTAU singers (voice banks) to the default singer

1. From the "Project" 「プロジェクト」 menu, select "Project Properties" 「プロジェクトのプロパティ」.

2. In the "Project Settings" 「プロジェクトの設定」 screen, select the voice file name you want to use from the "Voice Bank" 「原音ファイルセット」 pull-down menu, then press "OK".

※ You may also click "Select" 「選択」 from the "Voices" 「原音」 menu of the "Project Setup" 「プロジェクトの設定」 screen, then select one from all the displayed voice file names.

3. If the voice name you want to use is displayed in the Voice Name Display Area on the upper left of the main screen, then everything is OK. (Starting from Ver0.2.61, the illustration attached with the voice files is displayed too.)

''' ※ Starting with UTAU Ver0.2.61, you can also just drag and drop an already registered voice file onto UTAU's main screen to change the currently used voice. '''

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2-14. Changing the screen display to 3-beat
When you select "3-Beat" 「３拍子」 from "View" 「表示」, a pink vertical line appears every three beats. To return to the 4-beat display, select "4-Beat" 「４拍子」 from "View" 「表示」.

Note: Setting the display to 3-beat is not saved in the project file (ust file). As the display will return to 4-beat when re-opening the project file, please fix the display settings each time the project is opened.

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2-15. Moving notes horizontally
Starting from Ver.0.2.30, notes and rests can be dragged horizontally one at a time. (When multiple notes and rests are selected, they can't be moved horizontally.) However, the displacement destination is limited to the position of gaps between existing notes and rests. (If you drag a note toward a neighboring rest, the movement exchanges the disposition of the note and rest)

Example 1: Select and drag the note "ha" 「は」, move the gray box, and drop it to match the rest position. "ha" 「は」 is moved to the rest position, and the rest is pushed after "ha" 「は」.

Example 2: You just want to move the note "ha" 「は」 before a eighth rest.

Select the fourth rest before the note, drag its right edge to the left, and drop the grey frame when its length reaches a heighth note: the fourth rest is splitted in two heighth rests.

Drag and drop the note "ha" 「は」 toward the eighth rest on the left: the note "ha" 「は」 is moved to the left heighth rest, and the latter is pushed behind.

Example 3: Drag and drop the note "ha" 「は」 till the position of the note "i" 「い」: "ha" 「は」 is moved to the previous position of "i" 「い」, and the notes or rests after it are pushed behind.

Example 4: Drag and drop a rest to the location of a note: the rests is inserted, and the notes are pushed behind.

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Next: 3. Audio playback

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