To click on the 'Options' button opens the following dialog window:
This dialog allow you to change three values:
When you select 'Yes' for this option, Canta will automaticaly decrease the input level of the microphone if it is too loud. This avoids saturation and distorsion of the voice. This is really usefull when you record your voice. If it is not the case, the voice distorsion due to a too high input level will not affcet Canta too much wich is able to mesure the pitch even if the voice is hardly distorded.
If you select this option and you sing too loud so that the level indicator becomes red, you will see the microphone button go down by itself. When is is down it will no go up, it will stay at the level wich will allow you to sing without distording you voice. If you want to increase the input level you have to do it manually by dragging up the button with the mouse.
If you select 'No' for this option, Canta will not change the microphone input level, it is up to you to find the right setting which will allow you to sing as you like without distord your voice when you rcord it.
When 'No' is selected for this option, the two dialog box below 'Instrument families' and 'Melody instruments'are disabled. The instrument used to play the melody will be wathever is defined in the loaded MIDI file. If you have not already loaded a MIDI file and if you press the left mouse button on the main display you will hear a note played by the default instrument which is a piano.
If you select 'Yes' for this option the two dialog box 'Instrument families' and 'Melody instruments' will be enabled. They will allow you to select the instrument wich will be used for the melody. This selection is done in two steps:
This decomposition in families and instruments comes from the 'General MIDI' standard which is an extension of the MIDI standard. The names used are those defined by this standard. The families are the following:
| Familles | Exemples |
| Piano | Acoustic piano, electric piano, harpsichord, clavinet |
| Chromatic percussion | Xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, tubular bells |
| Organ | Drawbar organ, church organ, rock organ, accordion, harmonica |
| Guitar | Nylon string guitar, electric guitar, jazz guitar, overdriven guitar |
| Bass | acoustic bass, electric bass, synth bass |
| Solo string | Violin, viola, cello, contrabass |
| Ensemble | String ensemble, synth strings, choir aahs, voice oohs |
| Brass | Trumpet, trombone, tuba, French horn |
| Reed | Saxophones, oboe, bassoon, clarinet |
| Pipe | Flute, Pan flute, picolo, ocarina |
| Synth lead | |
| Synth pad | |
| Synth effects | |
| Ethnic | Sitar, banjo, koto, kalimba |
| Percusive | Tinkle bell, melodic tom, reverse cymbal |
| Sound effects | Breath noise, seashore, telephone ring, applause |
Not all these instruments are usefull as melody instrument for a song !
When you select the familie in the first selection box the instrument list in the second box is updated. In the following example, the selected family is 'Brass' and the 'Melody instruments' box shows the list of all the instruments defined in this family by the 'general MIDI' standard.
You can change the look of Canta by changing its skin. The functionalities of Canta are not changed, only the graphics are replaced by others. Canta is provided with a few skins you can see below (click on the thumbnails to see the skins in actual size):
| Default | |
| Fruity | |
| Kontakt | |
| Lounge | |
| Massive | |
When you change the skin in the option dialog, Canta appearance is not changed immediately. When you click 'OK' to confirm your choice, an information window appears to remind you that the change of skin is done at the application startup. You must therefore get out of Canta then restart it for the change to become visible.
