Controls

Basic Desktop Controls

Most of the operations are performed with the mouse. In general:

  • The Left mouse button adds and removes stuff.
    • Single-clicking add notes/patterns.
    • Double-clicking deletes notes/patterns.
  • The Light mouse button opens context menus and selects things.
    • Right-clicking quickly will open a context menu.
    • Right-clicking + holding and dragging will select a range of notes or patterns in the piano roll or sequencer.
  • The Middle mouse button is used for navigation:
    • Middle-clicking + holding and dragging will pan the viewport.
    • Rotating the mouse wheel will zoom the viewport in/out.

If you are working on a trackpad, please check out how to enable Trackpad controls in the configuration dialog.

Basic Mobile Controls

On mobile, there are 4 main gestures used:

  • A Quick Tap will usually add stuff such as pattern, notes or vertices on a curve.
  • A Swipe will pan the viewport around.
  • A Pinch will zoom the viewport in/out.
  • A Long Press on something will reveal advanced options or start a rectangular selection. In some cases where multiple actions are available (ex: selection + contextual menu), a pulsing circle will appears to give you a choice.

Main Window

The main window is composed of a few main controls:

  • The Toolbar contains shortcuts to various common functions such as undo/redo, copy/paste, etc.

  • The Sequencer (or Pattern Editor) is where you add or remove channels & tracks. It is also where organize your patterns, which are reusable little snippets of music that form the high-level structure of your songs. On mobile, this is your home base and where you always return to when you close every views.

  • Below the Sequencer are various views such as the Piano Roll, Automation Tracks Editor, various Curve Editor, etc. On phones, these views are full-screen and are opened and closed as needed.

  • The right side pannel is the Project Explorer. This panel allows navigating through the various objects in your projects (songs, instruments, effects, etc). It also allows editing and automating the parameters of these objects. On mobile, this panel retracts and can be opened by either pressing the Project button in the toolbar, or by double-tapping a channel in the Sequencer.

  • The Pop-up Piano is at the very bottom. This piano allows previewing the instrument associated with the Active Channel, which is the highlighted channel in the Sequencer. This piano can be toggled using the Piano button in the toolbar.

TODO : Tablet screenshot + crop titlebar + write name of things on images.

TODO : Mention text editing on desktop somewhere.

TODO : Talk about sliders here, desktop + mobile

TODO : Undo redo, autosaves, etc.