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When a MIDI or Instrument track is focused, letter keys play notes without any modifier. The Keys Layout picker in the Inspector switches between four layouts, each optimized for a different use case. Hardware MIDI controllers are unaffected by this setting — they always send the notes you play.

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Scale — for melodies and chords

Each key plays a scale degree in the selected key. Only notes in the scale sound, which makes it easy to stay in key while improvising.
  • Three rows across 3 octaves. Root notes aligned vertically: C, D, E.
  • Change the key and scale globally in the Transport Bar.
  • Default layout for new instrument tracks.

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Piano — chromatic layout

Piano-style layout across two octaves. White keys on the middle row, black keys on the upper row.
Q, R, I are dead keys (no black key between E–F and B–C).

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Drums — pad grid

26 sequential chromatic pads across every letter key. Designed for drum plugins like Loopcloud Drum, Battery, or Kontakt kits, which map pads chromatically starting at MIDI 36 (General MIDI Bass Drum).
  • Y/Z (bottom-left) always triggers MIDI 36 — your kick drum.
  • Layout is fixed chromatic and ignores the selected key/scale.
  • If your kit has more than 26 pads, use Keyboard Octave Up/Down from the Command Palette to page through the kit.
  • Gridshift automatically selects this mode when you load a drum plugin.

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Follow — the chord under the playhead

The Scale layout with the chord track in place of the scale. Every key plays a chord tone, so the same finger position changes pitch as the progression moves under it — during playback and while recording.
  • C, D, E always play the root of whichever chord is in force at the playhead.
  • Each key to the right is the next tone of that chord; past the top the ladder repeats an octave higher, so no key is ever dead.
  • The root is placed in the octave nearest your project key, so the hand stays put across a chord change instead of jumping up to an octave.
  • A key you are already holding keeps its pitch until you release it. The chord change takes effect on the next press.
  • Needs a chord track: mark one track as Chord Track in the Inspector and play its chords in. Until it has chords, the picker does not offer Follow.
  • Take the chord track away again and a track already set to Follow keeps the setting — the picker still shows it — but the keys fall back to the Scale layout until there is something to follow again.
  • Playing a few keys in sequence is a hand-played arpeggio that re-voices itself with the progression.

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Audio slices

When an audio track with transients is focused, the same letter-key layout triggers slices directly — this is separate from Keys Layout and always active for audio clips.
When there are more than 26 slices, use Keyboard Octave Up/Down from the Command Palette to switch pages. Playback is monophonic — a new slice stops the previous one.

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Number-key dynamics

The letter keys choose what plays (the pitch or the slice); the number row chooses how hard. With no clip selected, the 1–0 keys retrigger the last note or slice you played on the focused track at a fixed level. On an instrument track the level becomes the MIDI velocity; on a sample track it scales the slice gain.
  • For the retrigger, the “last played” note or slice comes from your most recent letter-key press on that track. Play a note once with the letter keys, then hammer the number row to repeat it at different dynamics. With no prior play this session, the trigger falls back to slice 0 (sample) or the scale root (instrument).
  • Hold a number key to sustain; release to stop. Auto-repeat sustains the trigger rather than re-firing it.
  • The mute key (` / ^) does not trigger — a velocity-0 note would be a Note Off.

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Set a note’s velocity in the piano roll

In the piano roll the same keys edit instead of only replaying. Press 1–0 and the note takes the velocity from the table above, then plays once at the new level:
  • Notes marked: every marked note changes.
  • Nothing marked: the last note you played in the clip changes — the one you clicked, dragged, swept with the selection box, drew, or inserted with Return.
Each press is one undo step; a press that leaves the velocity where it was records none. Holding the key edits once. When there is no such note (nothing played in the clip yet, or you have played a letter key since), the key falls back to the retrigger above. While recording and in step entry, the keys lay down notes as below.

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Recording dynamics from the number row

This is not only for previewing. Arm recording and the same press lays down a MIDI note or a slice clip at the chosen level — so you can punch in a dynamic drum or bass pattern straight from the number row, no controller needed. While recording, the number-key trigger always wins, even if a clip happens to be selected.
The same keys do two things depending on selection. With no clip selected (or while recording) they trigger and record notes/slices as above. With one or more clips selected (and not recording) they instead edit the selected clips’ gain — see Clip gain and normalize. Selection decides which mode runs.

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Octave & configuration

Change octave via Command Palette: Keyboard Octave Up/Down (assignable in Settings → Shortcuts). Range 1–7. Set Key, Scale, and Octave in the Transport Bar. Key and Scale apply to the Scale layout. Follow uses the key only: it decides which octave a chord’s root lands in and how the chord names are spelled. The chords themselves are read from the notes on the chord track, so changing the scale does not change what Follow plays. Piano and Drums ignore both.
Musical typing is disabled during text input and works across keyboard layouts (QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY).
Last modified on October 3, 2026