SynthMaker Manual Open SynthMaker (opens in a new tab)
Grids of pads and buses

A row for every pad

Wire a bus into a Chord, a Note or a Track and it lists every pad that arrives. Each row says what its pad plays.

New words

A list is a Chord's, Note's or Track's rows when a bus is wired in: one row per pad, each saying what that pad plays.

Note Pads: a 2 by 4 grid, pad 4 lit, beside its Patch: a bus labelled Notes ×8 into a Note, into the Voice.
Hold a pad: each plays its own note. Open the example sound: Note Pads ↗ (opens in a new tab)

1A chord for every pad

Chord Pads from the bus page: one Chord, sixteen pads. Its rows come in the bus's order.

  1. Look at the Chord's card. Under its title is Chord for each pad, and a row per pad: its name, Chords 1, over its tag.
  2. Pick a chord for a pad, from the song's key: Am7 · i7, Fmaj7 · VI7…
  3. Or let Fill do them all at once, from the song's chords or the key's.

A pad without a row plays nothing.

Try it

  1. Open Chord Pads and hold pad 1, then pad 2: two chords, each ending when you let go of its own pad. Pads 9 to 16 have no chord yet, on purpose.
  2. Give pad 9 a chord. The amber note now starts at Chords 10.
Open the example sound: Chord Pads ↗ (opens in a new tab)
The Chord's card, wired: Chord for each pad, a Fill menu, the amber note Chords 9–16 aren't used yet, and rows Chords 1 to 8 with Am7, Fmaj7, Cmaj7, G7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7 and Am7.
Wired: a row per pad. Pads 9 to 16 are left without a chord on purpose, so the amber note shows: Chords 9–16 aren't used yet.
The same card with the bus unwired: the rows keep their chords, greyed out, each saying not connected.
Unwired: the rows wait, grey. Wire the grid back and they play again.

2Fill them all at once

Fill gives every arriving pad a value, in order, and goes round again if there are more pads than values.

ModuleFill offers
ChordThe song's chords (when the song has a progression), or The key's chords, I to VII, as sevenths
NoteSemitones up from its own note, as a drum kit is mapped, or The key's notes up from it
TrackThe song's tracks, in order
The Note's card with its Fill menu beside Note for each pad.
Fill sits beside the list's title.

3A note for every pad

A Note's rows hold a note name with its octave, where middle C, MIDI 60, is C4: A3, F#1, Bb2. Note Pads plays a pentatonic scale, a note per pad.

With Key Snap on, each pad's note moves into the song's key, as the Note's own note does.

The Note's card: Note for each pad, a Fill menu, rows Notes 1 to 8 with A3, C4, D4, E4, G4, A4, C5, D5, and the Note's own knobs below: Note 60, Velocity 90%, Key Off.
The Note's card: a note per pad, and its own knobs below.

4A track for every pad

A Track's rows name a track of the song, as its track picker shows them. A tap on a pad starts its own track, or stops it if it's playing; a pad held starts it and letting go stops it. A name no track has shows (not in the song) and launches nothing.

Wire the Track's playing into the grid's isLit and each pad lights while its own track plays.

A Track's card: Track for each pad, Fill, and rows Launch 1 to 4: Bass, then Lead, Pads and Drums each marked (not in the song).
A Track's rows. Pad 1 starts the song's Bass; the other names aren't tracks of this song, so they say (not in the song).

5The list in code

In the Code view a list follows the module's settings, in braces: a pad's tag, a colon, its value. A long list takes a row per line.

Note Pads · SMPL, the list
notePads = NotePads()note     = Note() {  notePads.notes[1]: A3  notePads.notes[2]: C4  notePads.notes[3]: D4  notePads.notes[4]: E4  notePads.notes[5]: G4  notePads.notes[6]: A4  notePads.notes[7]: C5  notePads.notes[8]: D5}  …notePads.notes.onPressingChanged -> note -> voice
The Note's card with its rows, Notes 1 to 8.
The same rows, on the card.

Try it

  1. Open Note Pads and play pads 1 to 8 in turn.
  2. Choose Fill › Semitones up from C4 and play them again.
  3. Turn on Key Snap: the pads stay in the song's key.
Open the example sound: Note Pads ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Remember