Step editor and piano roll¶
The editor is the bottom panel. Click a clip to load it, then work in one of two views of the same notes. (Keyboard shortcuts are in Keyboard shortcuts.)
Header controls¶
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| STEPS / PIANO | Switch between the step grid and the piano roll |
| DEVICES | Swap the pane to the selected track's effect chain |
| RACK | Swap the pane to the selected track's macro rack (perceptual encoders) |
| AUDITION | Play notes through the instrument as you click/brush them (default on) |
| SCALE | Snap drawn and moved notes to the project scale |
| KNIFE | Click a note to split it at that beat |
| ARP | Arpeggiate a chord in the roll — Up / Down / Up-Down |
| LEGATO | Stretch each note to the next onset (Shift-click = half) |
| STRUM | Fan out a chord's voices in time (Shift-click = up-strum) |
| Chord | Draw single notes (Note) or stamp a chord — maj, min, 7, maj7, min7, sus2, sus4, dim, aug, add9, 6, 9 |
Piano roll¶
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Click empty | Place a 1-beat note |
| Drag body | Move a note |
| Drag right edge | Resize |
| Right-click / double-click | Delete a note |
| Shift-drag | Marquee-select |
| Drag in the velocity strip (bottom) | Set a note's velocity; Shift-drag = a velocity ramp |
| Mouse-wheel / Ctrl-wheel | Scroll / zoom vertically |
The keyboard shortcuts (Q quantize, H humanize, S strum, L legato, ↑/↓ transpose, Delete) act on the selection if there is one, else all notes — see Keyboard shortcuts.
Step grid¶
A single-lane 16-step-style grid, quickest for drums and simple patterns. Click a cell to toggle a note at the track's default pitch; the number of steps follows the clip's content length (up to 64). Both views edit the same clip — see Clip.
Devices tab¶
DEVICES shows the selected track's effect chain inline: a ◀ Clip back button, + Device to add an effect, a row of device buttons (click to select), per-parameter rotary knobs, and Bypass / × (remove) for the selected device. The analyzer effects — Scope, Spectrum, Vectorscope — draw a live display instead of knobs. The same chain is editable in the full Mixer.
Rack tab¶
RACK shows the selected track's macros — perceptual encoders that each drive
one or more of the track's synth/effect parameters at once. + Macro adds one;
turn a knob (0..1) and every parameter it drives sweeps across its safe range, so a
single knob moves a whole sound. Under each knob is the macro's name and how many
parameters it drives, and the knobs update live when a macro changes elsewhere (for
example a script randomize-macros). Randomize rolls every macro to a fresh value
at once — musical, since each mapping stays inside its safe range.
The ⋯ button on each knob opens its menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rename… | Give the macro a perceptual name — "Brightness", "Drive" |
| Map to synth ▸ | Map the macro onto a built-in synth parameter (over that parameter's range) |
| Map to effect ▸ | Map it onto a parameter of one of the track's insert effects |
| MIDI Learn | Arm learn, then move a hardware knob/fader — that CC now drives the macro |
| Automate at playhead | Drop an automation keyframe for the macro at the current position — move the playhead and repeat to draw an envelope; playback morphs the macro smoothly between points |
| Clear automation | Remove the macro's automation lane |
| Clear mappings | Remove all of this macro's mappings (keep the macro) |
| Remove macro | Delete the macro |
Map a macro to several parameters and one knob morphs them together. Mapping,
renaming, removing, and Randomize are scriptable from the
Python and
Lisp
clients, where you can also set a narrower [lo, hi] safe range per mapping.
Snapshots (variations). The strip under the header saves whole knob states: + Snapshot captures the current positions as a slot; click a slot to recall it (the knobs animate back to it and the slot highlights until you move a knob). Right-click a slot to Morph to this over ½–8 beats (the whole rack glides smoothly from where it is to the snapshot), Recall instantly, Insert at playhead, Overwrite it with the current knobs, Rename, or Delete it. Snapshots are saved with the project.
Insert at playhead stamps the snapshot into the timeline: it writes an automation breakpoint into every macro's lane at the playhead using that snapshot's values. Insert one snapshot at the start and another later, and playback morphs the whole rack between them as it ramps from one set of points to the next — the snapshot becomes ordinary, editable automation. (To drive individual macros instead, use ⋯ → Automate at playhead.)