Tutorial: your first piece of music

This walkthrough builds a simple beat from an empty project. It uses the standalone application; the workflow is identical inside a DAW. The key letters refer to the QWERTY layout described in §5.1 — keep that diagram handy.

Throughout: step keys are the bottom two QWERTY rows (S D F G H J K L = steps 1–8, X C V B N M , . = steps 9–16).

Step 1 — Load a sample

Drag an audio file (a kick drum, say) onto the sample pool area of the window, or use the file dialog. The sample is decoded and added to the pool. Track 1 hosts the sampler by default and will use the first pool entry.

On load each pool entry is analysed (message thread): tempo, musical key, and tuning reference are detected and shown in the browser hint as 128 bpm Amin (either part may be absent). A rhythm-less, keyless entry reads one-shot. Detection is corroborated by hints parsed from the filename (drums_120bpm, pad_F#maj) and embedded ACID WAV tags — detection wins, a hint only resolves a tempo octave-fold or fills a gap. The result is cached with the project (keyed by the sample hash), so reopening is instant and only a changed file re-analyses. Analysis of very long files (>30 s) is skipped — that is StreamMachine's domain.

Step 2 — Place some trigs

Press step keys to toggle trigs on the focused track. For a four-on-the-floor kick, toggle steps 1, 5, 9, 13 (S, H, X, N).

Press Play (key O) to start the transport. You should hear the kick on every beat. Press O again to stop.

Step 3 — Add a second track

Hold Track (2) and press a step key to select a track: 2 + F selects track 2 (the step keys D F G H J K L ; are tracks 1–8). Release 2. Track 2 is now focused.

Load a snare into the pool and place trigs on steps 5 and 13 (H, N) for a backbeat. (If track 2 isn't pointed at the snare yet, open the SRC section — see Step 5 — and set its sample.)

Step 4 — Make a track polymetric

Focus a track, then hold Track and tap the TRIG section key (2 + 5) to reach the track-meta layer, and set its length to something other than 16 — try 7. That track now loops every 7 steps while the others loop every 16, and the two phase against each other. This is the heart of Lockstep's groove.

Step 5 — Tweak a sound (and lock it per step)

The Section Bar is keys 5–0 (TRIG / SRC / FILTER / AMP / MOD / FX). Press a section key (e.g. SRC, the sound-source section) to bring its parameters into the Manipulation Zone. Turn the on-screen encoders (or a mapped MIDI knob) to adjust them.

Page dots under a section key mean pressing it again cycles — one dot per page, the current one filled. A key with several parameter pages (e.g. Analog's two FILTER pages) shows a dot per page; while a subpage overlay is open its owning section key shows its subpages instead (VEL on AMP = 4 dots, DENSITY on MOD = 3, TIME/KEY on TRIG = 2). If a key shows one dot or none, a re-press does nothing to cycle. This is the single "re-press to cycle" affordance across the whole surface.

Now the magic: hold a step key and turn the same control. Instead of changing the track's base value, you've written a P-Lock — that parameter change applies only on that step. Hold step 9 and drop the pitch, for example, and only the third kick is lower. Release the step; the lock stays.

To remove a lock, hold the step and clear it (push the held encoder, or use the section-clear gesture).

Step 6 — Add a conditional trig

Open the COND layer. With no step held, Func + TRIG (i.e. 1 + 5) sets the track's base condition (probability, iteration m:n). Set probability to, say, 50% and that track fires stochastically each loop.

Hold a single step and the same controls now write that step's condition — so you can make just one trig 50%-likely, or fire it only on every 4th pass (set m:n to 1:4). While a step is held you don't need Func: a bare TRIG press promotes straight to that step's COND (the TRIG key relabels COND while any step is down), so the per-step-conditions flow is a single held-step gesture. Releasing every step, bare TRIG returns to its normal DIV meta and Func + TRIG still reaches the track base condition. The grid shows you what will fire before it happens: certain hits are bright, skips are dim, probabilistic steps are in between.

Step 7 — Record a melody live

Press Record (U) with no scope held to arm recording. Now play notes (via the on-screen keyboard or an attached MIDI keyboard) and they're captured as trigs, quantised to the focused track's grid. Hold a step while playing a note to write that note's pitch onto that specific step instead.

Each pass through the pattern overwrites whatever notes were on a step (default). Double-tap Record to enter overdub mode (button turns amber, labelled "Overdub") — notes accumulate across passes up to 4 per step. Single-tap to return to overwrite mode.

Press U again to disarm.

Step 8 — Perform variations

• Mute a track live: hold Mute (Z) and press a track's step key (Z + D = mute track 1). Non-destructive. Audio tracks fade out over a short (~100 ms) declick ramp rather than cutting hard; MIDI-out tracks stop emitting and send note-offs so nothing hangs. Toggle again to bring it back (audio ramps back in). Scene mutes use the same fade.
• Fill: hold Fill (X). Any steps you've marked as fill-only fire only while you hold it — instant live variation.
• Copy a phrase and mutate it: hold Phrase (Q) and press Record (U) to copy; move to another phrase slot and press Play (I) to paste. Now change it without touching the original.
• Checkpoint before a risky idea: press Y (SNAP) to push a snapshot. Experiment freely. Press Func + Y (RESTORE) to revert (tap = pop one, hold = jump to the saved floor). Up to 8 levels deep.

Step 9 — Save

Save the project (host save inside a DAW, or the standalone's save). The project stores your sequence, P-Locks, conditions, and sample references — not the audio itself, so keep your sample files in place.

That's a complete loop: load → trig → polymeter → P-Lock → condition → record → perform → save. Everything past this point is more of the same grammar applied to more scopes.

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