Caps Lock. Record mode follows the key: the Caps Lock light is on exactly when record mode is on. Record mode arms the selected track — it does not start playback. Press Space to start playback and begin live recording, or enter notes directly for step recording while the transport is stopped.
What gets recorded
What Gridshift records depends on the selected track:- Instrument track — MIDI notes from your keyboard or Musical Typing
- Sample track with transients — Slice triggers from your keyboard
- Empty sample track — Audio from your input device (microphone, line in, audio interface). See Audio input recording below.
Live recording
Activate record mode, then pressSpace to start playback. A ghost clip appears and grows with the playhead.
Record Quantize
MIDI notes can be snapped to a grid at commit time (not during recording, so your performance feels natural while playing). The grid is configurable via the Command Palette → Set Record Quantize:
The same setting is applied to MIDI captured retroactively from the jam buffer. Edit-time quantization is still available afterwards via the piano roll regardless of this setting.
Loop recording (overdub)
When looping is active (⌘L), each pass layers on top of the previous one. Notes accumulate across loops — stop recording to keep all layers. Overlapping clips are automatically trimmed.
Audio input recording
Record from a microphone, line in, or audio interface onto a sample track.1
Create a new sample track — or select an existing one that has no sample loaded yet
2
Activate record mode (Caps Lock)
3
Press Space — a ghost clip appears on the track and grows in real time as audio is captured
4
Press Space (or Esc) to stop
The take is committed as a clip on the track.
Permissions
On first use, macOS will ask for Microphone permission. You can manage this inSystem Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
Input device, gain, and level meter
Configure your input inSettings → Audio → Input:
Step recording
With record mode active and the transport stopped, notes are entered one at a time at the cursor position:1
Press a key — the note is placed at the cursor position
2
The cursor advances by one grid step automatically
3
Play multiple keys within 50 ms
They form a chord at the same position.
4
Extend or shorten the last entered note
Press
→ to extend by one grid step, ← to shorten. Modified arrows keep their navigation meaning.Audition, then commit
Holding a note, chord, or slice auditions it; pressingReturn while still holding writes it at the edit cursor. This needs no record mode.
1
Play keys until you find the note, chord, or slice you want
Computer keyboard, hardware MIDI, and the MPC-levels number keys all work as hold anchors.
2
Press Return while the keys are still held
The held pitches commit as one chord step at their audition velocity; a slice commits at the gain it auditioned at. The cursor then advances.
3
Adjust the length with → / ← before releasing
Releasing the last key disarms the resize. This works inside an open clip too, by that clip’s own grid.
Return repeatedly lays a line of steps out end to end. Keep holding and → / ← set the length, one cell at a time, and the cursor follows the new end. The commit stops at the end of the clip: where a neighbouring clip leaves no room to grow, further presses do nothing rather than overwrite the step before them, and → stops growing the note there too.
The commit defers to
Return’s established meaning where it already has one: in record mode (every key-down already inserts), during live recording, with a range marquee active (Return fills the region), and — inside an open clip — whenever the piano roll has its own marked content, where Return stamps the drawn region or duplicates the selected notes.Delete with Backspace
PressBackspace to delete the previous grid division and move the cursor back — exactly like deleting a character while typing. This works inside step entry and, with the transport stopped, whenever the timeline has focus and no clip or marquee is selected:
- Any clip content on the cursor’s track in the deleted division is trimmed away. Clips entirely inside the division are removed; clips spanning into the division are split or trimmed so only the division’s content is removed.
- If the division is empty, the cursor still moves back without changing anything.
Backspace deletes the selection instead.
Exit with Escape
When step entry is active, pressEsc to leave record mode without reaching for Caps Lock.
Esc has slightly different behavior depending on context: if a plugin window is open it closes that window first; if live recording is running (transport is playing) it stops the recording. When the transport is stopped and record mode is already active, Esc exits step entry by turning record mode off.