The basic workflow is similar to pxtone collage's:
- Start a session
- Load a number of voices (instruments—ogg/wav samples, or ptvoice/ptnoise)
- Create a number of units (lines that can play a single sound at a time) assigned to voices.
- In the piano roll, input and delete notes with left and right-click.
The primary difference is that you can also host or connect to a
public session.
In addition to the piano roll, you can configure other song parameters:
- Loop points, via the measure ribbon above the piano roll
- Automation for each unit, including pan, tuning, voice, volume, portamento
via the bar below the piano roll
- Tempo and time signature, via the Song tab
- Echo and overdrive effects you can apply to groups of units, via the
Song tab
Once you're familiar with the basic workflow, there are a bunch of
shortcuts to make certain actions easier:
- Space to play/pause, Escape to stop, Shift+click to seek
- Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y/Ctrl+Shift+Z to undo and redo
- Ctrl+click to modify just pitch values, not notes (useful for portamento)
- Selection
- Ctrl+shift+click to select
- Ctrl+A to select all
- Ctrl+shift+rclick or Ctrl+D to deselect
- While something is selected:
- (shift) up / down to transpose or shift
parameters. Add Ctrl to shift by an octave.
- Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy/paste
- Keyboard shortcuts for navigation:
- W/S for next previous / next unit (PgUp / PgDn also work)
- Q/A for previous / next parameter
- F1..F4 for the tabs in the menu
- 1..9 for jumping to a unit directly
- Mouse-related shortcuts for view / mode changes
- Middle-click drag to move around
- Shift+wheel to scroll horizontally
- Ctrl+(shift)+wheel to zoom vertically (horizontally)
- Alt+wheel to change quantization
