Basic playing · Single mode

Basic playing

Start with one four-lane stereo instrument. All 32 pads play the same program, with eight independent source voices and one complete effects chain.

Start with Single

Single is the basic playing mode: the whole pad grid controls one program over four stereo lanes. Saved clips can recall another mode. To return to Single, hold Capture and press Menu, choose Instrument Mode, select Single, and click the main encoder. Finish recording before changing mode.

The Track keys choose a source lane for recording, loading, and editing. They do not turn the four lanes into separate instruments: the selected playback engine determines which lanes each note reads.

Single waveform view with four source lanes and independent playheads. — Single uses all four lanes and up to eight source voices. Each hollow marker shows one voice’s lane or between-lane blend.

Load or record a sound

Press Track 1–4 to choose the destination lane.
To load a WAV, hold Shift and press that Track key. Turn the main encoder to browse; click to enter a folder or load the selected file. Highlighted files audition at Preview Level.
To record instead, choose Move’s microphone or line input and set its input gain, then use Shift + Record to start and stop a stereo capture. The finished recording becomes the selected lane’s source.
Repeat for the other lanes you want to use. A scanning engine can become quiet when it reaches an empty lane.

Use headphones when recording the microphone. Leave Input Monitor at zero unless direct monitoring is intentional. See Samples and recording for input setup, library browsing, saved recordings, and source ownership.

Play notes

In the Keys pad mode, press pads to play pitches. Up/Down changes the keyboard octave. Choose Root and Scale on Pads & Scale to change the available notes. Root-pad colors identify tonics; an active note uses its playhead color. Pad strike velocity does not set sample volume.

Each note has its own voice and path through the source stack. Higher notes transpose the source according to the chosen engine; grains and time-based processing can change duration independently of pitch. A long release still occupies a voice slot. Use the engine guides to choose direct Sample playback, moving stacks, grains, cuts, or other treatments.

Press Menu to open parameter pages. The eight encoders match the eight screen positions. Use Up/Down to change parameter pages, or Capture + Menu to choose a page directly. The Engine, Pads & Scale, and Amp Envelope references explain the shared controls.

To play different engines in one chord, enable Engine List on Pads & Scale. Touch assignment offers Up, Down, Random, Cycle and Shuffle. Voice Setup can instead assign engines by scale degree or keyboard register, and add entry variations, within the same voice budget. Pressure expression adds per-note scan braking or character control.

For consistent engine roles across the keyboard, follow Play engines by keyboard position: enable LIST, fill Voice Engines, then set Voice Setup’s ASSN to DEGR or REG. Character pressure follows each note’s assigned engine; Brake catches only that note’s stack scan while its audio continues.

Momentary performance controls

Hold Capture to use the bottom eight pads as temporary performance controls. The display shows their names; releasing Capture restores the page you were using. Tap Capture to change editing focus in multi-instrument modes.

Capture performance screen with four lane rides and four temporary effects controls — The bottom hardware row reads left to right as L1, L2, L3, L4, DARK, CRSH, ECHO, SPCE. The screen arranges these eight labels in two rows. Other pads keep playing notes.

Pad	Display	What it controls
1–4	L1–L4	Lane grab: hold one pad to select its lane fully, even with light pressure. Hold more than one to choose a pressure-weighted position between their lanes. Release returns to the path or held position underneath.
5	DARK	Deep low-pass tone. A light press is already audible; pressure closes the filter further.
6	CRSH	Strong bit-depth and sample-rate reduction. Pressure increases both and never reduces stronger existing settings.
7	ECHO	Temporary delay amount; in multi modes, the focused part's Delay send.
8	SPCE	Temporary reverb amount; in multi modes, the focused part's Reverb send.

Only loaded lanes belonging to the focused part are available. Single and Shared Dual offer four; Split offers its owning pair; Quad has no lane rides. Continuous-stack engines crossfade to the target. Active Grains, Weave grains, and Motion packets follow without restarting their events. Sample and Slices change readers with their normal transition, and Cutups changes lane on the next cut. The underlying scan keeps running unless Loop is holding it.

The focused part stays fixed during the gesture. DARK and CRSH use its private processing in multi modes. ECHO and SPCE use its sends; raise the shared return levels on FX Sends if they are off. Release restores the current settings or automation. There is no extra effect latch. Notes held before Capture keep their usual pressure and release behavior.

Record captures these gestures as performance data, including ones held when recording starts. Capture + Menu still opens Pages, and Capture + encoder 8 adjusts Blend in the dual modes. Release Capture to edit other encoder parameters. Shift + Capture belongs to Schwung Skipback.

Shape the source and stack movement

On the waveform page, POS moves the source window and FLD changes its width. The display enlarges that region across all four rows. SPD sets the base transport rate; note pitch remains an additional transposition. See the waveform control map for the eight encoders.

For engines with stack motion, Stack Start seeds a new voice’s lane position and Scan Rate advances it along the selected path. Pressure offsets that voice’s position. With a Manual path, Stack Start selects the exact lane blend. Press Loop to hold the audible stack positions, including blends between lanes; press again to resume.

For pauses, uneven travel, and repeated visits, choose DRAW on Stack Path and click the main encoder to open Path Editor. Each part has four to eight points, and each voice follows that shape with its own phase.

Controls adapt to the engine. Cutups uses Lane and Advance for discrete source changes; Sample and Slices use their Direct Play settings. The engine guide explains these differences.

Hold and release notes

A normal pad press is momentary. Shift + pad toggles that note’s latch; repeat to release it. Pads & Scale’s Hold Off can keep latches until toggled, or release them after a chosen delay. Amp Envelope sets attack, decay, sustain, and release.

Hold Delete and press Play for Panic: stop the performance loop and release notes, latches, Rolls, and preview. Existing effect tails decay naturally. See held notes and Panic.

Set level and effects

Single sends the instrument through the complete effects chain. Use Level for the instrument’s playback level and Mix / Rec’s lane gains to balance sources. Record Gain affects new audio recordings. FX Order changes the series of effects; each effect has its own parameter page.

Capture a performance

Press Record without Shift to record notes, pressure, stack holds, and parameter movements as data. Notes already held are included. Press Record again to finish, and use Play to start or stop the loop. Step keys select stored clips rather than individual note steps. The Performance loops chapter covers Replace, Overdub, takes, clip banks, and chains.

When you want more than one independently configured instrument, compare Split, Shared Dual, and Quad. They keep the same sources and performance recorder while dividing the eight source voices differently.