Playing it in
The 16 buttons are also a keyboard. Stop drawing notes and start playing them.
You now have: a bassline you programmed step by step.
This lesson is being written. The outline below is what it will cover.
Planned outline
- The REC button cycles three modes, shown in the display header:
| Mode | Header | The 16 buttons become |
|---|---|---|
| Step | Stp | A grid — press a button to switch a step on or off |
| Play | Ply | An instrument — drum pads on drum tracks, a keyboard on synth tracks |
| Record | Rec | The same instrument, but what you play is captured into the pattern |
- The keyboard layout on a synth track: the bottom row is the white keys (C D E F G A B C), the top row holds the black keys, and step 1 and step 8 shift the octave down and up.
- On a drum track, buttons 9–16 trigger drum tracks 1–8 — so you can finger-drum the whole kit from one screen.
- Why live recording sounds different from step programming: your timing is imperfect, and imperfect is what makes it feel human. You can always fix individual steps afterwards in the Step Editor.
- Quantising after the fact, and when not to.
- Recording over a loop that’s already playing — layering rather than starting over.
The finished exercise will switch the virtual buttons between step grid, playable keyboard, and live recording, then let the learner compare the recorded timing with a quantised version.
Next: 10 · Lead sounds · Previous: 8 · Bass
Reference: Quick Start · Navigation · Step editing