Sequencer — User Manual

This page covers the four main areas of the Kiwisonic sequencer: the Arrangement, Track List, Melody Editor, and Mixer. It also shows a typical songwriting workflow from empty project to finished demo.

Overview

Kiwisonic organises music in four connected panels. You will normally have all four visible at once.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Track List  │  Arrangement (timeline)                      │
│              │                                              │
│  (headers)   │  [section blocks placed on tracks]           │
├──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Mixer (one channel strip per track)                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Melody Editor (piano roll) opens in a separate pane or floating window when you double-click a melodic section block.

**[Image: Full application window with all four areas labelled with numbered callouts — (1) Track List on the left, (2) Arrangement timeline taking up the centre-right, (3) Mixer strip along the bottom, (4) Piano Roll open below the timeline for one selected melodic track. Use a project with at least 3 tracks and 4–5 section blocks so the layout is easy to read.]**

Track List

The track list runs down the left edge of the window. Each row is one track — a single instrument or voice in your song.

**[Image: Track list showing 5 tracks: a melodic synth lead, a guitar track, a bass track, a drum track, and a second melodic track for pads. Each row should show the track icon, name, instrument badge, mute/solo buttons, and the coloured left edge that matches the blocks on the timeline.]**

What a track contains

Adding a track

Click the + Add Track button at the bottom of the track list. Choose a type in the dialog, then pick an instrument. The track appears as an empty row with no blocks on the timeline.

Reordering tracks

Drag a track header up or down to change its position. The order affects the arrangement view and the mixer strip order, but nothing else — reordering is purely cosmetic.

Deleting a track

Right-click the track header → Delete Track. This removes the track and all its section blocks. The action is undoable.

Arrangement

The arrangement is a horizontal timeline. Time runs left to right. Each row belongs to one track. You place section blocks on the timeline to tell the sequencer what to play and when.

**[Image: Arrangement timeline with a typical song structure — intro (2 bars), verse (8 bars), chorus (8 bars), verse (8 bars), chorus (8 bars), outro (4 bars). Use coloured blocks that match the track colours in the track list. The playhead cursor should be visible somewhere in the verse. The loop region should be highlighted in a lighter shade over the first chorus.]**

Section blocks

A section block represents one pattern assigned to a region of time. One block = "play this pattern for this many bars, starting at this position".

Loop region

The loop region is the highlighted range that the sequencer repeats when loop mode is active. To set it, drag across the ruler at the top of the timeline. Drag either edge to adjust. The loop region is independent of the section blocks — it is just a playback cursor setting.

**[Image: Close-up of the timeline ruler showing the loop region highlighted in a lighter colour with drag handles at each end. The playhead should be inside the loop region. The time positions (bar numbers) should be clearly visible above the ruler.]**

The playhead

The thin vertical line that moves during playback. Click anywhere on the ruler to jump to that position. Press Space to play/pause. Press Return to return the playhead to bar 1.

Melody Editor (Piano Roll)

The melody editor opens when you double-click a melodic section block. It shows the notes inside that block's pattern as horizontal bars on a grid.

**[Image: The piano roll editor open for a melodic track, showing about 16 bars of notes at a zoom level where individual notes are clearly visible. The vertical axis is the keyboard on the left (showing C3–B5). The grid lines for beats and bars should be visible. Some notes should show snap-to-scale highlighting. The toolbar at the top should be visible with at minimum the draw/select/erase tool icons, quantise selector, and snap-to-scale toggle.]**

The grid

• Horizontal axis — time, left to right. Grid lines mark beats and bars.
• Vertical axis — pitch, low at the bottom, high at the top. A small keyboard is drawn on the left edge to show note names.
• Note bars — horizontal rectangles. The left edge is the note's start time; the right edge is its end time. The row it sits on is its pitch.

The default pitch range is C3 to B5 (48 keys, 4 octaves). Scroll vertically to reach pitches outside this range.

Drawing and editing notes

Quantise

The quantise value snaps note start positions to the nearest grid division when you draw or move a note. Common values: 1/16 (16th note), 1/8, 1/4. A finer quantise gives more expressive freedom; a coarser one keeps things locked to the grid.

**[Image: Close-up of the quantise selector dropdown in the piano roll toolbar, showing options 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, with 1/16 selected. Nearby, show the snap-to-scale toggle button in its "on" state.]**

Snap to scale

When snap-to-scale is enabled, notes drawn or dragged vertically snap to the pitches of the active scale. Pitches outside the scale are visually dimmed on the piano keyboard. This makes it very hard to accidentally land on a "wrong" note.

The active scale is set per-track in the track settings panel (accessible via the track header or the melody editor toolbar).

Velocity

Each note has a velocity (how hard it is played). Below the note grid, a velocity lane shows a vertical bar for every note. Click and drag a bar up or down to change that note's velocity. A taller bar = louder. Holding Shift while dragging adjusts all selected notes together.

**[Image: The velocity lane below the main note grid, showing bars of varying heights. One bar is being dragged upward with the mouse cursor visible. A few notes in the main grid above should be highlighted/selected to show which note the velocity bar corresponds to.]**

Mixer

The mixer sits at the bottom of the window. It has one channel strip per track, plus a Master strip on the right.

**[Image: The full mixer panel showing 5 channel strips and one master strip. Each strip should show (from top to bottom): the instrument name badge, a send/FX insert area (can be empty), a pan knob, a volume fader, a level meter showing some activity, mute and solo buttons, and the track name at the bottom. The master strip should be visually wider or distinctly coloured. Use a moderately active state so the level meters show some bar movement.]**

Channel strip controls

Master strip

The master strip controls the final stereo output level. Keep it below 0 dBFS to avoid clipping. The master level meter shows the combined output of all tracks.

Linking mixer to track list

The mixer and track list are always in sync. Muting a track in the mixer mutes it in the track list, and vice versa. Changing the instrument in the track list immediately updates the channel strip label.

Typical workflow: from empty project to finished demo

This walkthrough shows the normal sequence of steps for a short song.

**[Image: A finished project state showing the arrangement filled with a verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure across 4–5 tracks, all mixer faders set to balanced levels, and the piano roll open showing a melodic pattern from the chorus. This is the "end state" screenshot that gives the reader an idea of where they are heading.]**

Step 1 — Create tracks

In the Track List, click + Add Track and create the tracks you need. A minimal setup:

• 1 melodic track for a lead melody or synth arpeggio
• 1 melodic track for bass or pad chords
• 1 drum track

Assign an instrument to each track. For melodic tracks, pick a VST3 plugin or an SFZ instrument. For the drum track, pick a drum plugin.

Step 2 — Block out the song structure in the Arrangement

Before writing any notes, lay out the section blocks on the Arrangement timeline to define the overall shape. A simple structure:

Bars:   1-2       3-10       11-18      19-26      27-34      35-38
        Intro     Verse 1    Chorus 1   Verse 2    Chorus 2   Outro

Click the empty grid for each track at each section's start position to create blocks. Resize each block to match the section length. Do not worry about the content yet — you are just deciding the duration and arrangement at this stage.

**[Image: The arrangement with empty (no-content placeholder colour) blocks laid out across all tracks for each section. No notes have been written yet. The blocks are clearly laid out but visually "empty" — a different shade or with a "no content" label.]**

Step 3 — Write the drum pattern

Double-click the drum block in the Intro or Verse 1 position to open the Drum Editor. Write a basic pattern (see the Drum Editor manual for details). Close the editor when done.

Duplicate the drum block to other sections using Ctrl + drag. For the chorus, double-click the chorus drum block and modify it slightly (e.g. add a crash on beat 1, make the hi-hat busier).

Step 4 — Write the bass pattern

Select the bass track. Double-click the verse block to open the Melody Editor. Draw a bass line using the piano roll. A simple starting point: one note per bar on the root of the chord, lasting about 3 beats.

**[Image: Piano roll open for the bass track, showing a simple bass line — one note per bar, around C2–G2 range, each note roughly 3 beats long. The snap-to-scale indicator should be on. Only 4–8 bars visible so the notes are large enough to read clearly.]**

Enable snap to scale so the notes you draw stay in key. Copy the pattern to other sections of the same type (e.g. Ctrl + drag the verse block to Verse 2).

Step 5 — Write the melody

Open the Melody Editor for the melodic lead track, chorus block. This is where you spend the most creative time. Suggested approach:

1. Set the quantise to 1/16 for fine control.
2. Enable snap to scale.
3. Draw a short motif (4–8 notes) in the first 2 bars.
4. Repeat, vary, or invert the motif for the rest of the chorus.
5. Leave rhythmic gaps — a melody with rests breathes better than one that never stops.

For the verse, write a simpler or lower-energy version of the same motif.

Step 6 — Balance in the Mixer

Play the whole song and adjust the Mixer as you listen:

• Bring the drums to a solid level (volume around 75–80).
• Lower the bass slightly below the drums so the kick remains clear.
• Set the lead melody to sit above both (it should be the loudest melodic element).
• Adjust pan to spread elements: e.g. guitar slightly left, pad slightly right, lead and bass centred.

**[Image: Mixer panel during playback showing all level meters active. Drum fader at 78, bass at 65, lead melody at 85, pad at 60. The lead melody channel meter should be the highest. Pan knobs should show the spread described above.]**

Step 7 — Refine and iterate

Loop a section using the loop region on the arrangement ruler and listen repeatedly while tweaking. Common refinements:

• Adjust note velocities in the piano roll velocity lane so the melody has dynamics.
• Tweak the drum pattern to add ghost notes or fills at bar boundaries.
• Duplicate and vary chorus blocks so Chorus 2 is slightly bigger than Chorus 1.

Reference: keyboard shortcuts

See docs/shortcuts.md for the full reference.