1. Establish the signal
Open the studio in a current desktop browser and select Start audio. Keep Master at −12 dB for the first notes. Play A S D F G H J K, or press the labelled notes. Touching the performance surface makes sound; moving over it without pressing does not.
2. Choose a relationship
Contour begins with resonant strings. Each instrument remembers its own root, mode and patch. Open / Chromatic exposes all twelve semitones; Custom lets you choose intervals from the root. Eightfold can follow that scale or keep its continuously tuned voice frequencies. Root and Mode constrain Contour’s screen keys and phrase to a coherent pitch collection; external MIDI notes remain chromatic. Drone adds a root/fifth bed. Sequence uses sixteen eighth-note steps. Change a few notes, then leave enough space to hear them.
Eightfold has eight continuous voices. Touch a pad, or use Hold to keep it sounding. Tune two voices close together and listen to the beating. FM depth changes how their envelopes and oscillations affect one another. Four pairs, across banks and one ring produce different relationships.
Attractor is made for independent gestures. Start with a soft chord. Pressure gives each note intensity and instability; vertical movement changes colour and folding; horizontal movement bends pitch. Use the MPE panel to match the controller’s zone and bend range.
The fourth instrument / a complete beat machine
Beat machine combines harp, bass, four drum voices, drone and a separate vocal channel. Start audio and press Play. Each sixteen-step pattern is one bar of sixteenth notes. Click a step to toggle it, or Shift-click to select it without changing its state. The editor sets scale degree, velocity, gate and probability. A/B changes wait for the next bar while running; editing the other pattern does not interrupt the current one. Copy and Clear help create variations; Clear offers an immediate undo.
Channel level, pan, colour, decay, individual drive, effect send, mute and solo shape the mix. Draw bass notes in the piano roll; use Pitch & length to drag pitch vertically and duration horizontally. Step buttons also support these gestures, with vertical drum drags changing velocity. Randomise steps changes a lane’s rhythm; Randomise pitches / accents keeps its rhythm. Undo edit restores the previous pattern. The live harp surface strums across sixteen strings or bends a held note under each finger. MPE pitch, slide and pressure affect live notes independently and never change sequenced notes. Drone breathing depth, rate and growl add evolving amplitude and FM movement. The harp is a modal pluck, the bass a bandlimited saw/sub voice, the drums are synthesised and the drone combines slowly moving tones. Record runs independently from Play. Capture the opening voice, start the pattern, stop it and leave the effects to finish before ending the take. Focus view compacts the performance desk.
3. Connect MIDI deliberately
Select Connect MIDI and grant permission if you want to use hardware. Choose the named input. The default is lower-zone MPE: channel 1 manages channels 2–16. Member bend is ±48 semitones, manager bend ±2. A standard keyboard can use Standard MIDI. The instrument recognises channel pressure, polyphonic aftertouch, CC74 and sustain. Web MIDI availability varies; touch and computer keys remain available.
Follow MIDI clock is optional. Clock changes the tempo and Start/Continue/Stop control the phrase. If clock disappears, the sequence stops. For an unfamiliar controller, test two held notes: bend or press only one, then check that the other stays still.
Map the controls to your hands
All four instruments have MIDI learn. Connect and select an input, enable Learn, select a highlighted control and move an absolute CC knob or fader. Buttons can learn a MIDI note or CC; playable pads follow press and release. Turn Learn off to perform. Soft pickup prevents a hardware knob from jumping a stored parameter: move across its present value first. Mappings remember the input device and channel, persist locally and travel in session files. Relative encoder formats are not supported. Remove selected deletes one assignment; Clear these mappings removes the displayed instrument’s assignments.
MPE pitch, pressure and CC74 continue working unless you explicitly map the same message to another control. Permission prompts, file selection and downloads still use the screen. A loaded session never automatically arms a microphone.
4. Add a voice or another device
Audio devices lists available inputs and outputs. Arm input requests microphone/interface permission and connects the selected source. Use your interface’s gain first, then the channel Trim. A high-pass filter, compressor, low-pass colour, saturation, echo, space and shimmer shape that channel independently.
Monitoring begins off. Armed input still reaches the recording. Enable monitoring with headphones when you want to hear it through the browser. Disconnect releases the input device. Select audio file lets you use a local recording as a source; it shares the same processing and monitoring switch.
5. Keep the performance
Record captures the processed stereo mix. Stop waits for the audio thread to finish the take; WAV then downloads a real 24-bit PCM file at the device sample rate. The ten-minute limit bounds memory. Save each take before starting another. Session downloads preserve patch, phrase, input settings, MPE configuration and your notes, separately from the audio.
6. Let the image follow
Projector opens the performance surface fullscreen. The line field follows the current sound; touch marks reveal gestures. Turn Visual motion off for a still background, or use your system’s reduced-motion preference. For more extensive audiovisual routing, start with the Magic study in the journal.
When a setup is quiet
Check Audio running, Master, the selected output and the system volume. For external audio, look at the input meter and the monitoring switch. For MIDI, check input selection, MIDI channels and bend ranges. Panic clears instrument voices and tails, stops the loaded file and disconnects the microphone. Browser base latency is a useful diagnostic, not a round-trip latency guarantee.
Physical-controller feel, audio-interface latency and microphone feedback behaviour must be judged on your own hardware. The browser tools are original instruments, not hosted VSTs.