How to …

Load a set or a clip

Tap FILES (global strip).
SETS or CLIPS (for a clip, select its channel first).
Tap a row: it only shows in the editor.
Load: a set onto all four channels, a clip onto the selected one. Shipped sets load stopped (start with Play|Pause or PLAY all); a set saved while playing restarts its clips on the next downbeat.
Tap FILES again, or any tab, to close.

Warning

Loading a set mid-set stops all four clips and jumps 3d, freq and Q to the set’s values. The room hears it.

In FILES › SETS tap Warmup, tap Load, close FILES: all four channels carry the set, stopped.

Tap channel 2, open FILES › CLIPS, tap a clip, tap Load: channel 2 gets the clip.

Play and stop a clip

To	Do	When
start, or go on after a pause	Play\|Pause pad, or ▶	next downbeat (blinks while waiting)
pause	Play\|Pause again, or ❚❚	next downbeat
stop, back to the top	SHIFT + Play\|Pause, or ■	now
start from the top, now	SHIFT + Play\|Pause on a still clip	now
cancel a waiting start	Play\|Pause while it blinks	now
start all four	PLAY all (panel end column, or PADS), when nothing plays	next downbeat
pause all that play	PLAY all while something plays	next downbeat

PLAY all is one key: it pauses what plays, or starts what stands still; a double tap sends the channels it reached back to the top. A pause keeps the place: the next start goes on from where it stood, on a downbeat, so it lands on the music’s bars again. While paused, ▶ and the pad blink slowly, two beats on, two off. SHIFT or ■ forgets the place, and the next start begins at the top of the shape. Either way the sound stays where it is until the clip plays again.

Tap ▶: it blinks until the downbeat, then plays. Tap ❚❚: it pauses on the next downbeat.

With the clip playing tap ■: it stops at once. Tap ▶: it starts from the top on the downbeat.

Move a sound by hand

Drag a blob — the finger must land on it. The room follows live, not on the beat.
Let go: a playing clip takes it back; a stopped one leaves it there.

Two fingers take two blobs. Seen from straight above, as the sphere starts, its middle is overhead and its rim is ear height. Front is 0° at ear height, the direction Core’s speaker layout calls 0°: the rim’s top point. Turned in camera mode, front turns with the room. A dragged blob pushes others aside on the screen only, so you can reach it; their sound stays where it is, and they ease back when you let go.

Look without moving anything (camera mode):

Tap the small sphere in the global strip.
Drag up/down to lean the view, sideways to walk round.
Double tap: straight above. Tap the small sphere again to leave.

With channel 1 playing, drag its blob across the sphere and let go: the clip takes it back.

Tap the small sphere, drag up, drag sideways, double tap, tap the small sphere again: camera on, lean, turn, reset, off.

In camera mode turn the mouse wheel in and out, then double tap: back to normal.

Change the shape, the speed and the direction

On CLIP, for the selected channel:

To	Do
change the shape, keep the values	drag SVG
change shape and values	drag CLIP
faster / slower	tap a LENGTH key (beats per pass); drag a key to change its length
direction	tap DIRECTION: forwards, backwards, there and back, random start
end of a pass	tap END-ACTION: Loop, Stop, Paus

CLIP and SVG are separate so browsing shapes never loads a preset mid-set.

With the clip playing at LENGTH 16, tap LENGTH 2, then LENGTH 1: the laps get faster.

With the clip playing, drag the SVG field up three steps: the shape changes, speed and values stay.

With the clip playing, drag the CLIP field up three steps: each step is a new preset with its own shape and speed.

With the clip playing, tap DIRECTION three times: Rev, Bnce, Rnd.

Drag a LENGTH key up: 4 becomes 8, then 16, and the key keeps it.

Shape the movement

On MOTION each field has two knobs: right sets, left moves it in bars.

To	Knob
point / keep turning	`rot` / `spin`
wider / breathing	`reach` / `swell`
higher / rising and falling	`elv` / `sway`
ceiling and floor	`clip-top`, `clip-bot` (both set values)
squash front–back / side–side	`sqzX` / `sqzY`
lean forward / sideways	`tilt` / `roll`
back to rest	double tap

On MOTION drag rot: the shape turns. Drag spin: it keeps turning. Double tap spin: it stops.

On MOTION drag elv up: the small sphere and the sphere show the shape rising.

With the camera leant, drag tilt up, drag roll up, double tap both: the shape's plane leans and comes back flat.

Fire and assign actions

To	Do
fire	hold an action pad A1–A6 (panel or PADS): now; ACTION opens on that button
fire from the screen	ACTION: tap a button (chooses, doesn’t fire), hold A
audition privately	SHIFT + action pad: screen only, while held
assign	ACTION: tap the button, tap a script; no action empties it

Note

Turning a value on ACTION changes your own action everywhere it is used. A shipped action is never changed: the first turn makes a copy of your own (“Bloom 2”), and every button that had the shipped one gets the copy. Save the set to keep it. With Developer Mode on, shipped actions are changed in place, as Save in FILES does.

With channel 1 playing, open ACTION, tap A1, hold A in the global strip: the action moves the clip; let go and the clip comes back.

Tap A2, tap a script in the list: A2 carries it. Drag the list back to the top and tap "no action": A2 is empty again.

Tap A3, drag the 3d max knob up, hold A: the arc on the channel's 3D pot fills in and falls back when you let go.

Tap A1, open the card's MOTION tab, turn spin, tap EDIT: FILES shows the script with ~spin = 4.

Tap A1, tap the then key three times: then A1, then A2, then A3.

Tap A3, tap the mode key: 1shot, a short A runs it through. Tap the mode again: Hold, the action ends when A is released.

Record a take, and keep it or throw it away

Select the channel.
Tap ●: armed (REC opens, ● and ▶ lit, the clip plays on). ■ or ● disarms.
On REC: the lit LENGTH is the take’s length; rec mode Touch to draw.
Tap ▶: the take starts on the next downbeat.
Drag on the sphere; the first finger writes. MOTION knobs record too (below).
● or ■ ends it. A take is the last full pass.
SAVE (where ● was) keeps shape and clip. DISCARD (where A was) asks twice and restores the channel, stopped.

The room hears the take; to practise, turn 3d down. An undecided take keeps playing, unsaved, until SAVE, DISCARD, a new take, a load or a restart. Panel: hold REC + Play|Pause (no arming); REC again ends.

With the clip playing tap ●, tap ▶, draw circles on the sphere from the downbeat, tap ●: the last full lap is the take.

After a take tap DISCARD once (it asks), then tap SAVE: the take is kept.

On REC tap LENGTH 4, then LENGTH 2: the lit key is the take's length.

Record knob moves

After ●, tap MOTION again, then ▶ (on REC that spot is CLIP). Knobs turned during the take become lanes (red while writing, same rec mode). On playback the lane turns the knob; your hand wins while it holds. Double tap a knob to clear its lane.

On MOTION tap ●, tap MOTION again, tap ▶, turn rot during the take, tap ●: rot plays back as a lane. Double tap rot: the lane is cleared.

Keep a tweak and save your set

To	Do
keep a changed clip (drift dot on CLIP)	FILES › CLIPS › from clip › Save as (“Warmup Halo 2”); the channel keeps the original until you Load the copy
keep tonight’s set	FILES › SETS › from set › Save as (named after the loaded set: “Tribal 2”, then “Tribal 3”); rename it
rename	row › Rename, type, Keep or ENTER
delete	row › Delete › Delete again; what is loaded keeps playing

The CLIP field shows the drift dot. Open FILES › CLIPS, tap from clip, tap Save as: the tweak is a new clip.

In FILES › SETS tap from set, then Save as: the device's set is kept as a new set of your own.

In FILES tap your own file, tap Rename: the keyboard comes up; DEL back to "Speed ", type Riff, ENTER.

In FILES › CLIPS tap one of your own clips, tap Delete (it asks Sure?), tap Delete again: the row is gone.

In FILES › ACTIONS tap your own copy, type in the editor, tap another row (refused), tap Save.

Mix from the screen

One channel: CHMIX tab. All four and master: MIXER.
Volume: drag the handle on the meter, one to one; a drag elsewhere does nothing, so a stray finger can’t pull a loud channel down.
Double tap a knob: EQ flat, SEND off, volume full. Not the master.

The desk follows, but has no motor faders: its next touch jumps to where the hardware control sits.

On CHMIX drag the handle on the meter down and up, then double tap the meter: full volume.

On CHMIX drag HIGH up, double tap it: flat. Drag SEND up, double tap it: off.

In MIXER drag the master handle down and back up, then drag PHN up.

In MIXER tap FX MODE twice (HPF, LPF), drag FX FREQ up, double tap it: back to the middle.

Set the tempo by hand

Tap the clock key to INT.
Tap the beat display (or TAP) in time; the first tap after a pause is the one.

In EXT and PIO taps go to the beat analyser. Stepping the clock key round loses your taps: back on INT you get the tempo INT had when you first left.

Tap the clock key to INT, tap the beat display eight times: the BPM follows.

Change the look

CLEAN (status bar): thin lines, no effects, lighter on the machine. The shipped default skin already is clean.
Another skin: MENU, double tap Skin; tap a skin to preview it, tap it again to keep it. Back goes to the old one (or ↑ ↓, ENTER, Escape).
Your own: MENU › Skin Editor. On the default skin, leaving saves a copy called custom and switches to it, even unchanged.

Type on the device

The keyboard comes up by itself when there is something to type; KEYS shows or hides it.

Point the device at another Core

Not on the device: change a3-osc.json on the Core and every device follows (Following Core, how).