Tempo is the speed of the song, in beats per minute (BPM). The range here is 70 to 140. Around 90 suits hip hop, around 120 suits house and pop. Changing it never alters the notes.
Clear every part and section in this song? Sounds, tempo and recordings are kept.
Song cleared.
The arrangement shows the whole song. Each lane is one track and time runs left to right. Each clip is one bar of that track; the marks inside show what it plays, and the letter is the part (pattern) the bar uses. The playhead moves across during playback. Select a clip to open its part in the editors below. M mutes a track and S solos it.
Step sequencer. One row per drum, one column per step.
Each row is one drum sound and each column is one step, a sixteenth note. The bar plays left to right and repeats. Switch a step on and that drum plays at that point in the bar. The numbered columns are the beats.
Pitch runs bottom to top, time left to right.
A note grid, also called a piano roll: rows are pitches and columns are steps. Each of the three tracks plays one note per step, which keeps the layers distinct. The rows are limited to the notes of the current scale, so any combination is in key.
Sets the scale, and with it the mood. The pattern stays; the pitches change.
A scale is the set of notes a song draws on, and it sets most of the mood. Sad is a minor scale and Happy is a major one. Changing the scale keeps every note in its row and step and changes the pitch that row plays.
The key is the note the song treats as home. Changing it transposes every note together, so the tune is the same but sits higher or lower. Useful when a song is out of range for a voice.
Label the note rows by position or by letter name.
Notes are named with the letters A to G. A ♭ (flat) lowers a note by a semitone. The letters repeat going up, which is why C appears twice on the grid: the higher one is the same note an octave up.
The instrument each track plays. Select one to audition it.
Every sound here is synthesised in the browser, not sampled, so the app works offline. Changing an instrument does not change the notes; the same part is played by a different sound.
Choose a genre to compare the song against its conventions. Nothing changes unless you press Try.
A style, or genre, is a set of conventions many songs share: tempo, density, choice of sounds. They are conventions and not rules, and many well-known songs ignore them. Choosing one gives the app a reference to compare the song against. “No style” switches the comparison off.
Eight sample pads. Trigger one by tapping it or pressing its key.
A pad holds one sound and plays it when triggered, like a hardware sampler. Capture this bar copies the bar that is playing (or the bar you last tapped in the track) onto the next empty pad. What lands on the pad is that bar’s instruments and recordings, at their mixer levels and tone. The master effects and the automation are left out, because the pad plays through those knobs when you hit it. Slice to pads slices one recording into eight equal pieces, one per pad, to be played in any order. Tap an empty pad to put one drum or one note on it. With Play in time on, a pad waits for the next step of the song, so it lands in time (quantise). Pads are for playing: they are not written into the grid and they are not in the file when you save the song. Record a live take in the Mix area records what comes out of the speakers, so it keeps your pad playing too. Pad sounds stay on this device. MIDI learn: with a USB controller connected, select a pad, then press a button on the controller. That button triggers the pad from then on. The live effects in the Mix area can be assigned the same way.
Choose a parameter, then draw its value for each bar.
Automation changes a parameter over time without anyone touching the control. At the start of each bar the parameter glides to the value drawn for that bar. A common use is closing Brightness in a verse and opening it for the chorus, so the chorus sounds wider. While a parameter is automated its knob shows an “auto” tag and the lane controls it. Choose Off to return control to the knob. Flat resets every bar to the knob’s own value.
Level sets a track’s volume. Tone filters it: darker to the left, thinner to the right.
Mixing is mostly balance. With every track at full level nothing stands out, so it usually works better to turn one track down than another up. Tone is a filter: left removes high frequencies (low-pass), right removes low frequencies (high-pass), centre is off.
Delays every second step, for a looser feel.
Swing delays every second sixteenth note. At 0% the timing is exact (straight). Most blues, jazz, hip hop and house is played with some swing, and drummers add it by feel.
Applied to the whole mix. Drag a knob up or down.
Brightness is a low-pass filter: turning it down removes high frequencies, as if the music were in the next room. Space is reverb, the sound of a room. Echo is a delay that repeats the signal in time with the song. All three apply to the whole mix.
Hold during playback. Release to return to normal.
Momentary effects for performing the song. Echo throws everything into repeats. Stutter repeats the half-beat you pressed it on. Muffle filters out the high frequencies. Build-up thins the sound out with a rising hiss, and lands with a kick when you let go. Echo out stops the song and lets the last sound ring away, which works as an ending. None of these alter the song; record a live take to keep a performance.
Three audio tracks for a voice, an instrument or an imported file.
Recording starts after a one-bar count-in and runs for exactly the length of the song, so the take loops with everything else. Recorded and imported audio passes through the master effects. Use as an instrument turns a recording into a sampled instrument that the note grid can play at any pitch.
Recordings stay on this device. They are never uploaded and are not included in a shared song code.
Each item is marked automatically the first time the technique appears in a song. The list is a record of what has been covered; the open items are suggestions.
Describe what the app should do that it does not do yet.
Feedback goes to the developer. Only the text shown under “Preview what is sent” is transmitted, and only when Send is pressed. It is plain text and contains no name. Nothing is sent automatically.
What worked, what was unclear, what is missing.
The guided introduction covers the basics in a few minutes.
A short introduction to the basics.
No musical knowledge is assumed. It takes a few minutes.