Page Index
Hardware Requirements
FretPet requires a Macintosh computer with a fast PPC or Intel processor, a graphics card supporting Quartz Extreme, and a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. 512MB of RAM is recommended.
System Requirements
Older versions of FretPet will run on Mac OS X as early as 10.3, while newer versions require at least Mac OS X 10.6. The App Store version of FretPet requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher.
QuickTime™ Support
FretPet uses QuickTime's built-in synthesizer as its basic output. QuickTime comes pre-installed with Mac OS X and Apple periodically publishes updated versions. The QuickTime synthesizer is called DLSSoundModule by programs like SimpleSynth and GarageBand.
The QuickTime synthesizer is notoriously lo-fi, though GarageBand enhances it a lot with added filters and effects. The QuickTime synth may be fine for some purposes, but you'll want to try the other synth options available to get a truly high-quality sound.
CoreMIDI Support
MIDI output is supported through Apple's built-in CoreMIDI technology. This opens up a whole world of exciting sound possibilities. Thanks to CoreMIDI you can use FretPet to drive software synthesizers like GarageBand and the popular Native Instruments synthesizers and a myriad of others. Using the freeware program MIDIPipe you can route the output of FretPet to external synthesizers and apply all kinds of cool effects, arpeggiation, etc.
ReWire™
ReWire is not currently supported by FretPet due to Propellerhead's licensing restrictions. However I'm exploring this technology for a future version.
SunVox
I'm really fond of SunVox. Not only is it the best old-school music tracker program in existence, but it's completely FREE for every desktop platform.
FretPet 1.4 and higher can export SunVox files. Export brings over all your picking patterns as SunVox Pattern Data and provides some basic Generator and DrumSynth modules as a starting point for your further development. Later versions will produce a SunVox file that sounds much closer to your original in FretPet, once I have SunVox modules ready with all 128 MIDI instruments.
Special Knowledge
Does FretPet require any special knowledge to use effectively? Definitely not! If you already understand the concepts of Music Theory it'll be easier for you to understand things like the Roman and Numerical Notation used in the manual and interfaces. But all that's really required is the ability to enjoy music and a willingness to explore. If you feel a desire to explore further, Wikipedia has an enormous wealth of articles concerning musical concepts. Here are some links to just a few: