Player's Guide

The panel in two minutes

Tonaut is one instrument on one screen, played sideways. This chapter shows you the five parts of the panel and the two keys that reach everything else: SHIFT and HELP.

This guide is about doing things: making a beat, finding a sound, building a pattern, recording a song. Each chapter is a set of short tasks with numbered steps. It covers Tonaut 1.2 and later, on iPhone and iPad. When you want every detail of a control, each chapter ends with the chapter of the Reference Manual that has it. Your work saves itself as you go, so you can try anything.

1.1Open it and play

The first time you open Tonaut it makes a project called Project 1 and opens it, ready to play at 120 BPM. A project has eight lanes. A lane is one instrument with its own sound, its own patterns and its own track on the tape. A new project starts with these:

1. Used Tonaut before? Start a fresh project so these steps match: hold SHIFT, press PROJ, then NEW, then SYNTH.
2. Turn the phone sideways and set the level with the volume buttons. Silent mode doesn't mute Tonaut.
3. Tap 3 CELLAR SNAP at the top and touch any round key. The bass plays. Its keyboard starts two octaves down, where a bass belongs.
4. Tap 4 BOTTLE GLASS and play again. Now lane 4 plays.
5. Tap 1 CHROME KIT. The screen changes to DRUM, and every key is now one drum of the kit.

On a new install, five short tips show one at a time in the right window, with a ring round the control each one is about. NEXT moves on and SKIP puts them away. The panel plays while they show. To see them again later, press TIPS in Settings › ABOUT (11.4).

1.2The five parts

The panel is built in five bands, top to bottom. They stay in the same place on every screen; only what they carry changes.

1. Lane buttons. One per lane, each naming its sound. The filled one is the focused lane: the lane the keys play.
2. Two black windows. What you're working on: the sound's picture, a list, the tape, the pattern.
3. The band. Four sliders for whatever the screen shows (1.4).
4. The button row. SHIFT, then REC, PLAY and STOP, then the tempo key. In the middle, four page keys choose a page of the screen. At the right, the five mode keys, SYNTH, DRUM, TAPE, SEQ and ARP, choose the screen. The red one is where you are.
5. The keyboard. 24 round keys, two octaves. − and + at the ends of the top row move the octave; X/Y in its middle gap opens the X/Y pad (6.8).

The OUT meter shows what leaves the instrument. If its top dot turns red, it's too loud and will distort: turn something down in MIX (chapter 8).

Reading the keys. A key that is filled is on, or is the page you're on. A flat key with no dish can't act right now. Dots under a key's name mean that pressing it again takes you somewhere else, such as an effect list; the filled dot is where you are. A slider reading -- can't be heard right now. Tap it and the notice line, at the bottom left of the screen, says why.

1.3Lanes: what the keys play

• Focus a lane. Tap its button. The keys, a MIDI keyboard and every sound screen now work on that lane.
• Change its sound. Tap the lit lane button again. Its sound list opens: PATCHES on a synth lane, KITS on a kit lane (chapter 3). Tap it once more to close the list.
• See lanes 5 to 8. On iPhone the row shows four lanes at a time. The arrow keys at its ends show the other four. An arrow is filled when the focused lane is on the other page.
• The screen follows the lane. SYNTH edits a synth lane and DRUM edits a kit lane, so tapping a kit lane on SYNTH takes you to DRUM, and back. TAPE, SEQ and ARP stay put.

To swap two lanes, say to put your drums first:

1. Press STOP. Lanes only swap while nothing plays.
2. Hold SHIFT down and tap the first lane's button. It fills. You can let go of SHIFT now.
3. Tap the other lane's button. The two lanes trade everything: sound, patterns, mix and tape track (LANES 1 AND 3 SWAPPED). To swap back, swap the same two again.

1.4The band: drag, fine-tune, put back

• Drag a slider left or right. Touching it changes nothing; the value moves from where it was. Drag slowly for small steps, sweep quickly to go far.
• For the finest steps, touch the slider and hold still for a moment. A small ×8 badge appears; now drag.
• Double-tap a slider to put it back where the sound had it when you loaded it or last saved it. The notice line says so, such as CUTOFF BACK TO 62. If a few drags have made a sound strange or silent, double-tap each slider you moved.
• With SHIFT on, double-tap to take back that slider's last change. Do it again to hear your change once more.
• The second four. Most screens have eight controls. With SHIFT on, the band shows the other four, each marked SH.

You can move two sliders at once with two fingers, and play the keys while you do.

1.5PLAY, REC, STOP and the tempo key

The transport acts on the screen you're looking at. A small word under PLAY's triangle says what it starts: SEQ or TAPE.

STOP stops everything. Pressed again while stopped, it takes the tape back to the start. REC is steady red when it's armed and blinks while something is really being recorded.

The tempo key shows the tempo, such as 120.0. Tap it to turn the click, a metronome, on or off. With SHIFT on it reads TAP TEMPO: tap it in time. Hold it for a little over half a second to open the tempo page, where you can set the tempo exactly.

1.6SHIFT and the SHIFT strip

SHIFT gives the panel a second layer. Use it two ways:

• Tap SHIFT and it stays on: it fills and reads LATCHED. Tap it again to turn it off.
• Hold SHIFT, press one other key, and let go. The layer goes with your finger.

On iPhone, under SHIFT everything right of the tempo key gives way to the SHIFT strip, one row of buttons drawn as words. It starts with this screen's own SHIFT jobs, such as SEQ's UNDO or the tape's mutes. Then, on every screen, come the doors: PATCH (the synth sounds), KITS (the drum kits), PROJ (your projects), EDIT (every control of the sound) and MIX (the mixer). Last is HELP / SETTINGS. Press the same door again, or any mode key, to close what it opened.

Under SHIFT the keyboard changes too. The top row becomes eight quick slots for your sounds (3.9), then UNDO and DIE, a random take on the page's controls (3.10). The keys in the middle of the bottom row still play. On TAPE the whole keyboard becomes the tape's tools (7.6).

In PATCHES, KITS and PROJECTS, SHIFT reads BACK: a tap goes back to where you were. To use a SHIFT job there, hold SHIFT down.

1.7HELP: ask any control what it does

1. Go to the screen you want to read about.
2. Hold SHIFT and press HELP / SETTINGS, last in the strip. Let go.
3. Tap any control. Instead of acting, it shows one plain line about what it does. On SYNTH's SHAPE page, ATTACK reads HOW FAST A NOTE RISES.
4. To turn HELP off, hold SHIFT and press HELP / SETTINGS again.

While HELP is on, SHIFT reads HELP under its word, and the left window shows a few cells that have no other home: LEAN (tilt to bend, 3.10), SAMPLE (the sample editor, on a kit made from a recording), RECORD (the recorder) and SETTINGS.

1.8On iPad

On iPad, Tonaut has a panel of its own, played in landscape. The windows are at the top with the lane buttons under them. In place of the band, two to four rows of sliders show every control of a page at once, so there's no SH layer to look for. The doors PATCH, KITS, PROJ, EDIT and MIX are keys of their own on the button row. A strip above the keyboard holds OCT-, quick slots SLOT 01 to SLOT 08, DIE, UNDO, HELP, SETTINGS and OCT+, one tap each. The keyboard has 32 keys.

Everything else in this guide works the same way on iPad. Where a step differs, it says so. Settings › THEME › Housing changes the panel's look on either device: LIGHT, DARK, and three hardware looks, TN-1, TN-1 DARK and TN-XY, whose keys light up with LEDs (11.2).

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 2 (the panel, SHIFT and HELP) and chapter 17 (Tonaut on iPad).

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Make your first beat

Choose a kit, play its pads, let a groove play for you, then write a beat of your own on SEQ and shape each drum on DRUM.

A kit lane holds a drum kit instead of a synth sound. On a kit lane the 24 keys are 24 pads, each its own drum. A new project has kits on lanes 1 and 2. Any lane can hold a kit.

2.1Choose a kit

1. Tap 1 CHROME KIT at the top to focus lane 1.
2. Tap it again. KITS opens, with the cursor on the kit the lane plays.
3. Tap that row once more. It plays two bars of a beat through the kit, so you hear the whole thing.
4. Move through the list with your finger or the CURSOR slider. The kit under the cursor loads onto the lane at once; tap its row again to hear its beat.
5. Tap the lane button again, or SHIFT (it reads BACK), to go back with the kit you chose.

Tonaut has 43 kits on three kit engines. The engine column narrows the list to one of them:

• SLICER plays slices of one recording. The seven sample kits, Arena, Boom, Chrome, Hall, Pop, Punch and Smoke Kit, are recordings of real drums. Every kit you make from your own sounds is a SLICER kit (2.7).
• KNOCK makes every drum from scratch, with no recording: 25 kits, such as Room Kit and Tin Kit.
• CINDER builds each drum from two layers and rings the whole kit through one shared resonator, like a classic digital drum synth.

Tap a row's star to make that kit a favorite, and the star at the top of the list to put your favorites first.

2.2Play the pads

The pads are numbered on the keys: 1 to 14 along the lower row, 15 to 24 along the upper row. The KNOCK kits, the CINDER kits and the seven sample kits share one layout for the main drums, so a beat written on one plays the matching drums on another:

These kits also keep a second kick on pad 13 and a second snare on pad 14. A kit has no octave, so − and + are dimmed on a kit lane.

2.3Let a groove play

GROOVE plays a whole beat on the kit while you hold one pad: the quickest way to hear drums. To start one:

1. With a kit lane focused, press ARP. On a kit lane this screen is GROOVE.
2. Drag the first slider, GROOVE, to ON.
3. Hold any pad. The kit plays a beat until you let go. The pads you press sound on top, so you can add hits of your own.
4. Drag STYLE to pick one of sixteen, from ROCK to ELECTRO, and COMPLEXITY to go from a plain beat to fills.
5. Set HOLD to ON and the groove keeps playing with no pad held. Set GROOVE or HOLD to OFF to stop it.

STOP doesn't stop a groove. Section 6.4 has more on grooves, including how to put one into a pattern.

2.4Write a beat on SEQ

SEQ is the step sequencer: a loop of sixteen steps, one per sixteenth note, that plays when you press PLAY. On a kit lane each step holds pads. Chapter 4 covers SEQ in full; this is the fastest way to a beat.

1. Focus a kit lane and press SEQ. The wide window shows sixteen cells, one per step.
2. Press LATCH, the fourth page key. It fills, and the screen says LATCH ON · A KEY, THEN TAP THE STEPS.
3. Press pad 1, the kick. Tap cells 01 and 09. Each gets a kick.
4. Press pad 2, the snare, and tap cells 05 and 13.
5. Press pad 3, the closed hat, and tap cells 03, 07, 11 and 15.
6. Press LATCH again to turn it off, then PLAY.

Now make it move. Tap a cell to select it and the band edits that step: RATCHET plays it two to eight times inside the step, for rolls; LOUDNESS makes an accent; CHANCE lets it play only some of the time. Under SHIFT, EVERY plays it only every 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 8th time round. For a fill, select no cell, set LENGTH on the PAT page to 64 (the new bars start as copies of bar 1), and change the fourth bar.

2.5Shape a drum on DRUM

Press DRUM. To edit a pad, play it: the last pad you played is the selected pad, and the band edits that pad alone. A pad the pattern or a groove plays flashes, but it doesn't take the band away from the pad you chose.

• KIT: the selected pad's own eight controls. On a KNOCK kit the band holds PITCH, TONE (a clean body to a metal one), DECAY (how long it rings) and LEVEL; SHIFT brings up SNAP (the click at the start), PUNCH (the pitch drop that makes a kick thump), NOISE and PAN. A SLICER pad has IN and OUT, where its slice starts and ends, then PITCH and GAIN.
• KEY: the whole kit at once: PUNCH, GAIN, RELEASE and LEVEL, and under SHIFT TIMING, TUNE, CHOKE and BEND.
• FX and MOVE: the kit's four effects (8.4) and its modulator (3.5), as on a synth sound.

Change a slider with nothing playing and the pad plays once when you lift your finger, so you hear the change. In the right window, the PADS map flashes as pads sound; tap a pad there to play it and select it. On a KNOCK or CINDER kit the left window draws the kit in 3D, each hit ringing its plate or drum. Tap the window for the plainer CLASSIC view.

2.6Mute a pad, or choke the hats

To drop one drum out of the beat while it plays:

1. On DRUM, hold or latch SHIFT and tap the pad's number in the PADS map. It mutes at once, so it can fall on the beat: PAD 03 MUTED · SHIFT + TAP TO UNMUTE.
2. The number turns red and the pad stops playing in the pattern and the groove. It still plays under your finger.
3. SHIFT + a tap on it again brings it back.

CHOKE. Normally each pad rings over the others. On the KEY page, under SHIFT, set CHOKE to ON and every hit cuts the other pads of the kit that are still ringing. Use it so a closed hat silences an open one, or so each slice of a loop stops the last.

2.7A kit from your own samples

Any audio files in the Files app can become a kit, as WAV, AIFF, CAF, M4A, MP3 or FLAC.

1. Focus the lane the kit should go on and tap its button again. KITS opens.
2. Drag the second slider, FROM, to FILES, then press IMP, the last page key. Your files open.
3. Pick up to 24 files, one per pad. Files named for a drum go where Tonaut's own kits keep it: a file with kick in its name on pad 1, snare on pad 2, hat on pad 3, and so on. Or pick one file, such as a loop, and it's sliced into 24 equal parts.

The screen says what it made, such as KIT MADE · 12 FILES ON 12 PADS. A kit holds 20 seconds of sound in all. It's named after the folder the files came from, and it's kept in USER KITS too, so any project can load it.

To put one of your samples on one pad of any SLICER kit, such as your own snare in Punch Kit:

1. Play the pad, so it's the selected pad.
2. Hold SHIFT, press HELP / SETTINGS, and tap the SAMPLE cell. The sample editor opens on that pad.
3. Hold SHIFT and press LOAD, first in the strip. Pick the file. Only that pad changes.

A KNOCK or CINDER kit has no recording, so it shows no SAMPLE cell.

2.8Keep your kit

A kit you changed lives in its project. To use it in other projects, save it to USER, your own list:

1. Open KITS and press KIT again. The header reads USER KITS.
2. Press SAVE, type a name and press SAVE.

Do this before you move the cursor in KITS: moving it loads another kit over your changes. A kit made from files with IMP is already in USER. You can also keep a kit in a quick slot (3.9).

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 6 (DRUM, every pad control and all three kit engines), chapter 9 (GROOVE) and chapter 12 (sampling and the sample editor).

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Find, play, edit and save sounds

Every lane holds one sound. Find one in PATCHES, shape it on SYNTH or in EDIT, and keep it in your own list or a quick slot.

A patch is a saved synth sound. An engine is the kind of synth that makes it; each engine works differently, so each has its own controls. Tonaut comes with over 500 sounds: 489 patches on nine synth engines, and 43 drum kits.

3.1Try sounds on a lane

1. Tap a synth lane's button, such as 4 BOTTLE GLASS, then tap it again. PATCHES opens, with the cursor on the lane's own sound.
2. Press PLAY if you have patterns, so you hear each sound in your music, or play a few notes as you go.
3. Move through the list on the right with your finger or the CURSOR slider. The sound under the cursor plays on the lane at once; there's no separate preview and no OK button. Tap a row to jump straight to it.
4. When you like one, tap the lane button again, or SHIFT (it reads BACK). The lane keeps it.

A chip such as L4 marks a sound a lane is playing. A bass loads with the keyboard two octaves down, where it belongs; − and + move it. Loading a sound replaces the lane's sound, and any changes you made to it. The lane's patterns, mix and arpeggiator stay. So keep a sound you've changed before you browse on (3.8).

3.2Narrow the list

The left window holds two columns. Choosing in them changes the list; it never loads a sound.

• The engine column: ALL, then the nine engines, A to Z. EXTERNAL sits among them; it isn't an engine but a way to play your own MIDI gear (9.5).
• The type column: ALL, then NEW (the forty newest sounds), then the types: BASS, DRONE, KEYS, LEAD, PAD, PERCUSSIVE, PLUCK and TEXTURE.

So to hear every bass in the instrument, whatever engine makes it, tap ALL at the top of the engine column, then BASS. Each lane remembers where you left its list.

Favorites. Every row ends in a star. Tap it to make that sound a favorite; tap it again to take it off. The star at the top of the list puts your favorites first, A to Z, with the rest after them. Favorites stay on this iPhone or iPad, for every project.

3.3The nine engines

3.4Shape a sound on SYNTH

Press SYNTH. The four page keys choose what the band edits. Each page has eight controls: four on the band and four more with SHIFT on.

• CORE: the engine's own eight controls, so each engine has a different eight. On SLOPE they are WAVE, TONE, EDGE and SUB, then DRIFT, TRACK, WIDTH and NOISE.
• SHAPE: how a note rises and falls. ATTACK (how fast it rises), DECAY, SUSTAIN (the level while you hold the key) and RELEASE (how long it rings after you let go). Under SHIFT: PLAY MODE (POLY, MONO, LEGATO or UNISON), GLIDE, BEND and LEVEL.
• FX: four effects on the sound. The band sets how much of each you hear (8.4).
• MOVE: one modulator that moves a control for you (3.5).

On CORE the left window draws the engine in 3D. It moves with what you play: a hard note hits harder and a chord moves it more. Tap the window for the CLASSIC screen, a small plot per control; tap again, or change lanes, for the 3D picture. The SCOPE on the right always draws the sound you hear. On a SAMPLER sound, press CORE again for its FILTER page.

Changing lanes keeps you on the same page, so you can compare two sounds' SHAPE pages by tapping between lanes.

3.5Make it move: MOVE

A modulator moves one control for you, over and over or note by note: a filter that sweeps, a wobble in pitch, a level that pumps. Each sound has one.

1. Press MOVE, then press it again for the modulator list.
2. Move the cursor to one: Envelope, LFO (a slow, repeating wobble), Steps, Drift, Follower or Expression (how hard you play, or a MIDI keyboard's mod wheel or pedal). It goes onto the sound at once.
3. Press MOVE again to go back to the page. The band's first slider is the modulator's own speed or time.
4. Aim it with the other three. DEST picks the page it moves, CORE, SHAPE, FX, or the lane's PITCH or LEVEL; SLOT picks the control on that page, 1 to 4 on the band and 5 to 8 under SHIFT; AMOUNT sets how far, either way from the middle.

A new LFO starts aimed at CORE's second control. On SLOPE that's TONE, so you hear the filter move straight away. Choosing None takes the modulator off.

3.6Every control: EDIT

SYNTH's pages hold each sound's most useful controls. EDIT holds every one, grouped. On DIVINER that's forty controls.

1. Focus the lane. Hold SHIFT and press EDIT in the strip (on iPad, press EDIT).
2. The left window lists the groups and the right window shows the chosen group's controls and values. Tap a group, or use the page keys, which are now the sound's sections, such as OSC, FILTR, AMP and MOD. Press a section key again for its next group.
3. The band edits the group. Play as you go.
4. To leave, press SHIFT + EDIT again, or a mode key. Nothing you change is undone when you leave.

A value moved in EDIT is the same value on SYNTH's pages. The effects and the modulator aren't in EDIT; they stay on FX and MOVE. On a kit, EDIT holds every control of the selected pad and the kit.

3.7Undo and put back

• Double-tap a slider to put it back where the sound had it when you loaded it or last saved it.
• SHIFT + double-tap takes back that slider's last change.
• Go back to the start: move the cursor in PATCHES to another sound and back, and you get the factory sound again. Your changes are lost, so only do this when you mean it.

3.8Keep a sound: USER

A sound you change saves with its project, but loading another sound over it replaces it. USER is your own list of sounds, on this iPhone or iPad, open to every project.

1. Open PATCHES on the lane (KITS for a kit) and press PATCH (or KIT) again. The header reads USER PATCHES.
2. Press SAVE. A pop-up comes up with the iPhone keyboard and the sound's name.
3. Type a name, up to 32 characters, and press SAVE: SAVED TO USER PATCHES.

A factory sound is never written over: saving one always makes a new USER sound. Once the lane holds a USER sound, SAVE with the same name saves over it, and a new name makes another. The same key again goes back to the factory list.

• Rename or delete: put the cursor on the sound and press RENAME or DELETE at the foot of the list. DELETE asks you to press it again within eight seconds. A lane that holds the sound keeps its own copy.
• Send sounds to a friend or another device: press TICK on each sound you want, then hold SHIFT and press SHARE, first in the strip. Name the file and press SEND; the share sheet opens. Patches and kits can go in one file, recordings included.
• Sounds someone sent you: tap the .tonautsounds file in Messages, Mail, AirDrop or Files. Its sounds go into your USER list.

3.9Quick slots

Quick slots keep eight sounds one tap away, in every project. Kits have their own eight.

• Save: hold SHIFT, then press and hold a key from 1 to 8 on the top row for a little over half a second. A ring closes round it: SAVED TO SLOT 3.
• Load: hold SHIFT and tap the slot: LOADED SLOT 3. An empty slot is drawn flat.

Slot 8 sits in the gap after 7. On iPad the slots are SLOT 01 to SLOT 08 on the strip, with no SHIFT, each showing its sound's name. Slots stay on the device, not in a project, so use USER for sounds you want to keep under a name.

3.10DIE and LEAN

DIE rolls a new random set for the eight controls of the page showing. Under SHIFT it's the top row's last key (on iPad, DIE on the strip). Press it again for another roll. UNDO, beside it, takes the rolls back one at a time, up to eight. Once you move a slider yourself, the rolls can't be taken back.

LEAN bends a held note when you tilt the phone like a steering wheel:

1. Hold SHIFT, press HELP / SETTINGS, and tap the LEAN cell so it reads ON (LEAN ON). Turn HELP off again.
2. Hold the phone up, screen facing you, and press a key. Wherever the phone is now counts as level.
3. Tilt it. Dipping the right end raises the pitch. Let go and the sound springs back.

LEAN is set for each lane's sound, and only works while a key is held. In EDIT you can aim the tilt at other controls.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 4 (SYNTH: every engine's controls and pictures), chapter 5 (the browsers and USER), chapter 7 (EDIT) and chapter 3 (quick slots, DIE and LEAN).

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Build patterns

SEQ plays patterns: loops of steps that hold notes or drum hits. Write them a step at a time, record them as you play, then move the whole song from one set of patterns to the next.

Each lane has 16 patterns and plays one at a time. A pattern is up to 64 steps long: four bars of sixteen, one step per sixteenth note. A step holds up to eight notes, so it can hold a chord. PLAY on SEQ plays every lane's pattern together.

4.1Find your way round SEQ

Focus a lane and press SEQ. One wide window shows sixteen cells, one bar of the lane's pattern, with thin rows under them mapping the other lanes. The header names the lane and pattern, and at its right the bar showing, such as BAR 3/4; while the pattern plays, the grid follows it bar by bar. A cell holding notes names them. The step playing has a red outline. The page keys are PAT (the pattern and the selected step), BAR (which bar shows, and recording settings), MUTE and LATCH (one note on many steps, 2.4).

4.2Write notes: tap a cell, then a key

1. Tap a cell. It fills: it's selected. Nothing is written yet. (A tap on a cell that holds notes plays them.)
2. Press a key. You hear it, and the cell names it. Press more keys to build a chord, up to eight. A key already in the cell takes its note out.
3. Tap the next cell you want and press its key. Repeat.
4. Tap the selected cell again to let it go, and press PLAY.

The selected cell's notes are lit on the keyboard, so a lit key is one a press takes out. Use − and + to reach notes outside the two octaves on screen. To write without hearing the notes, keep a finger on the cell and press keys with your other hand.

4.3Shape a step

Select a cell that holds notes and the band edits that step. Every note in the step changes together.

CHANCE and EVERY keep a short loop from sounding the same every time round.

4.4Length, speed, swing and octave

With no step selected, the PAT page edits the whole pattern:

• PATTERN picks which of the lane's sixteen patterns plays and shows. While the music plays, the new one starts at the next bar line.
• LENGTH: 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps. Making a pattern longer copies what you have into the new bars, so write one bar, grow it, then change the copy. Shortening deletes nothing; the bars come back as you left them.
• SPEED: ×1/2, ×1, ×2 or ×4 against the tempo.
• SWING pushes every second step late, for a shuffle.

To move a whole pattern an octave, hold SHIFT and press PAT OCT- or PAT OCT+ at the ends of the keyboard's bottom row.

4.5Record as you play

1. On SEQ, with nothing playing, press REC. It turns red: PATTERN REC ON · FIRST NOTE STARTS.
2. Play. Your first note starts every lane's pattern, on step 1 exactly, and REC blinks while it records.
3. Press STOP when you're done. REC stays red.
4. Press REC to turn recording off, then PLAY to hear the take. (With REC still red, PLAY records again.)

Notes land on the nearest sixteenth. On the BAR page, QUANTIZE sets that grid (OFF keeps your timing) and STRENGTH how far notes move onto it. Both work after the take too, as often as you like: each note remembers where you played it. If a take sounds stiff, try STRENGTH around 70.

For a count-in, turn the click on (tap the tempo key), arm with REC, and press PLAY instead of playing a first note: one bar of clicks comes first. The click never goes into the pattern or onto the tape. Each take is one UNDO step.

4.6STEP REC: one step at a time

STEP REC writes a pattern with nothing running, so you can take as long as you like over each step.

1. Stopped, on SEQ, hold SHIFT and press REC: REC MODE · STEP. Let go.
2. Press REC. Cell 01 fills: it's the cursor. The page keys now read UNDO, REDO, REST and TIE.
3. Play a note or a chord. When you let go, it's in the step and the cursor moves on.
4. REST leaves a step empty. TIE makes the last note a step longer. A tap on a cell moves the cursor there.
5. The pass ends by itself at the pattern's last step, or press PLAY.

The mode is kept: SHIFT + REC again goes back to LIVE.

4.7Undo, clear and mute

With SHIFT on, SEQ's strip starts with four buttons:

• UNDO and REDO: up to 32 steps back for each pattern. One UNDO takes back a note, a slider move, a take or a STEP REC pass.
• CLEAR: empties the pattern on screen. One UNDO puts it back.
• RESET: erases every pattern on every lane. It asks you to press it again, and it can't be undone.

To stop one lane's pattern while the others play on, press MUTE and tap that lane's pill, such as LANE 2 MUTE. It lights and the pattern goes silent; tap it again and the pattern comes back in time. You can still play the lane on the keys.

4.8PATTERN PLAY: move the whole song on

PATTERN PLAY switches every lane to the same pattern number together. Use pattern 01 for a verse and 02 for a chorus, and play the song live.

1. On SEQ, press PAT a second time. Sixteen boxes show, one per pattern number: outlined where any lane has notes, solid for the one playing.
2. While the song plays, tap a box. It flashes and reads NEXT.
3. When the longest pattern playing reaches its end, every lane switches together; a lane with nothing in that pattern goes quiet. Tap the playing box to cancel a switch; stopped, a tap switches at once.

4.9PATTERNS: copy, swap and clear

Press PAT a third time for the focused lane's sixteen patterns as tiles. The solid tile is the one playing; tap a tile to play that pattern.

• COPY, then a tile: copies the playing pattern there, notes and settings. A tile that holds something asks for a second tap.
• To copy to another lane, press COPY, then that lane's button, then a tile. A synth pattern can't go on a drum lane, or the other way round.
• SWAP, then two tiles: they change places.
• CLEAR: empties the playing pattern, or tap another tile first. Press CLEAR again to confirm.
• With SHIFT on, the strip's COPY, SWAP and CLEAR act on every lane at once.

Back on the steps (PAT), SHIFT + UNDO takes the last copy, swap or clear back.

On iPad, SEQ shows four bars at once (two on iPad mini), and SEQ pressed again goes round PATTERN PLAY, PERFORM and PATTERNS.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 8 (SEQ: every step setting, recording, PATTERN PLAY and PATTERNS) and chapter 17 (SEQ on iPad).

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Chords

Set a lane's key and scale, keep every note in it, play a whole chord from one key, or switch to the chord pad: seven chords and a stick that changes them.

5.1Set a key and scale

1. Focus a synth lane and press ARP, then press it again. The window reads KEY, and the band reads KEY, SCALE, LOCK and CHORDS.
2. Drag KEY to the root, the note the scale starts on, such as A.
3. Drag SCALE to a scale, such as MINOR. There are twelve, from MAJOR and MINOR to DORIAN, the pentatonics and BLUES.

Every key in the scale now carries a small light, and the root's light is larger. The lights show where the notes are; every key still plays its own note. Each lane has its own key, so a bass can sit in A minor while another lane plays something else. To keep every synth lane in one key, see 5.7.

To change only the key while you're on SYNTH: hold or latch SHIFT and tap KEY in the strip. Each tap moves up a semitone and keeps the scale: KEY D MAJ.

5.2LOCK: no wrong notes

Set LOCK to ON and every note you play moves to the nearest note of the scale. A key already in the scale plays its own note. LOCK works on the keys, a MIDI keyboard, SEQ's step entry (the cell gets the note you heard) and the arpeggiator. It never changes anything already recorded, and drum lanes ignore it.

5.3CHORDS: one key, a whole chord

Set CHORDS to ON and each key plays a chord built on its note.

• With a scale set, the chords follow the key: each key plays its note with every second note of the scale above it. In D minor, the notes of the scale play D minor, E diminished, F major, G minor, A minor, B♭ major and C major: the chords a song in D minor is made of. Under SHIFT, 7THS makes them four-note chords.
• With SCALE on OFF, TYPE (under SHIFT) picks one shape for every key: MAJ, MIN, 7, MAJ7, MIN7, SUS2, SUS4, POWER, or MEM, a chord of your own.

CHORDS is set lane by lane: turn it on for a pad or keys lane and leave the bass playing single notes. The lane keeps it when you load another sound.

To teach a lane your own chord shape:

1. On KEY, set SCALE to OFF.
2. Hold SHIFT, press LEARN and let go. The screen reads LEARN · PLAY A CHORD, THEN LET GO.
3. Play the chord, two to eight keys, and let go: LEARNT 3 NOTES · MEMORY ON. Every key now plays your shape from its own note.

5.4Chord buttons on SYNTH

On SYNTH, on a synth lane, the SHIFT strip starts with four chord buttons, each showing its setting:

CHORD

Steps through OFF, ON (CHORDS, 5.3) and PAD (the chord pad, 5.5).

KEY

Moves the lane to the next key, a semitone up, its scale kept.

STRUM

OFF, SHORT or LONG: rolls each chord's notes upward, lowest first, like a strummed guitar, in time with the tempo.

BASS

ON adds the chord's root an octave below.

Latch SHIFT and you can tap CHORD again and again to step through its settings. STRUM and BASS need CHORD on first. CHORD and the KEY page are one setting, so whichever you use, the other follows.

On iPad, the same four buttons stand in a CHORD MODE section beside SYNTH's slider rows, one tap each, with no SHIFT.

5.5The chord pad

The chord pad puts the seven chords of your key under seven keys, with a stick to change them.

1. On SYNTH, on a synth lane, hold or latch SHIFT and tap CHORD until it reads PAD (on iPad, tap CHORD in CHORD MODE).
2. Let go of SHIFT. The stick takes the keyboard's left side and seven chord keys its right.
3. Play a chord key. Each one plays the chord built on one note of the lane's scale and shows its name. In C major they are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. With no scale set, it plays the major scale on the lane's root, so a new project's pad is in C major.

One chord plays at a time: the newest key you hold. − and + at the pad's ends move it an octave. To get the keyboard back, tap CHORD until it reads OFF.

5.6The stick

Put your thumb down anywhere on the stick's panel. Where it lands is the middle; push from there in one of eight directions and the chord changes:

DOM7 is the quick way to a chord that wants to move on, such as E7 before Am. The keys' names follow the stick, and a push while a chord sounds changes it at once. Let go and the stick springs back, unless you set it to hold (5.7).

5.7Chords with everything else, and the CHORD PAD settings

• Arpeggiator: with ARP on, one key, or one chord key on the pad, arpeggiates its whole chord (6.3).
• SEQ: one key writes its whole chord into a step, live or with STEP REC.
• MIDI keyboard: with the pad on, the white keys C to B play chords 1 to 7, the bend wheel pushes the stick left and right, the mod wheel up, and a held black key down.

Settings › CHORD PAD (11.1): tap the Chord pad row or drag SECTION to it, then pick a setting with SETTING and change it with VALUE.

• Voice leading: OFF, each chord key always plays the same notes; ON, each chord sits close to the one before, so a progression glides.
• Chords, Key and Chord pad: PER LANE, or ALL SYNTH to change every synth lane at once. Set Key to ALL SYNTH and every synth lane takes the focused lane's key.
• Stick: SPRING comes back to the middle; HOLD keeps the direction until you tap the stick, so your thumb is free for the sliders.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 3 (sections 3.11, the KEY page, and 3.12, the chord pad), chapter 14 (section 14.11, the CHORD PAD settings) and chapter 17 (CHORD MODE and the pad on iPad).

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Arp, grooves and playing live

The arpeggiator plays the notes you hold one after another, in time. GROOVE does the same for a drum kit. PERFORM and the X/Y pad reshape the sound while the music runs.

The arpeggiator belongs to the lane, not the screen: once it's on, it plays from SYNTH, SEQ, TAPE or anywhere else. On a synth lane ARP opens ARP; on a kit lane it opens GROOVE.

6.1Your first arpeggio

1. Tap a synth lane, such as 4 BOTTLE GLASS, and press ARP. The page keys, LANE 1 and on, also pick the lane.
2. Drag the first slider, ARP, to ON.
3. Hold a chord, such as C, E and G. You hear C, E, G repeating, one sixteenth note each, at the project's tempo.
4. Let go. The note sounding finishes, and the arpeggio stops.

6.2Shape the arpeggio

Add a key while it runs and its note joins the run; lift one and it drops out. Hold one key and it repeats that note: a quick way to a pulsing bass. The sound's own RELEASE on SHAPE still lets each note ring past its gate.

6.3Arpeggiate chords from one key

Turn CHORDS on (5.3) as well as ARP, and one key is an arpeggio of its whole chord. In A minor at MODE UP, A4 plays A4, C5, E5, over and over. Play another key and the run takes that key's chord. The chord pad works the same way: one chord key arpeggiates its chord, and pushing the stick changes the notes from the next one. STRUM doesn't apply to the arpeggiator.

6.4GROOVE: a drummer for any kit

On a kit lane, ARP opens GROOVE (2.3 has the first steps). Set GROOVE to ON and hold any pad: the kit plays a beat until you let go. HOLD ON keeps it going with no pad held, even when you focus another lane, so turn it on before you go to play something else.

• STYLE picks one of sixteen, each written for Tonaut: ROCK, POP, FUNK, DISCO, HOUSE, TECHNO, BOOM BAP, TRAP, BREAKBEAT, DRUM & BASS, ONE DROP, BOSSA, SHUFFLE, AFROBEAT, 2-STEP and ELECTRO. Some swing on their own.
• COMPLEXITY only ever adds hits as you raise it. At 00 it's the plain kick, snare and hat; from about 25, ghost notes, claps and rims; from 40, open hats, ride and toms; from 65, fills at the end of every four bars. You can ride it while the groove plays.
• Under SHIFT, SWING adds swing on top of the style's own.

The pads you press still sound, so you can play fills over the top. Started while patterns play, a groove comes in on their beat.

6.5Choose the kick, snare and hat

A groove plays parts, and each part plays one pad. The open hat, toms, clap, rim, ride and crash use the shared layout (2.2). You choose the pads for the three that matter most:

1. On GROOVE, hold or latch SHIFT.
2. Drag KICK. Each time it lands on a new pad, that pad plays once, so you hear each one. Stop on the one you like.
3. Do the same with SNARE and HAT.

On a kit made from your own files, or a SLICER treatment such as Gate Slices, point these three at the slices you want. A pad muted on DRUM stays silent in the groove too (2.6).

6.6Record an arpeggio or a groove

Into a pattern, so you can edit each note:

1. Switch the lane's ARP or GROOVE on.
2. Press SEQ, choose the pattern, and make sure no cell is selected.
3. Press REC (record mode LIVE). Hold your chord or pad: the first note starts the take on step 1.
4. Press STOP, then turn ARP, GROOVE or HOLD off to hear the take on its own.

The pattern holds the notes the arpeggiator played, not the chord you held. For a fast arpeggio, set QUANTIZE on SEQ's BAR page to 1/32 or OFF so its notes aren't pulled together.

Onto tape, nothing special is needed: an arpeggio or groove is sound on its lane, so a tape take records it (7.2). Played something good and weren't recording? CATCH keeps the last thirty seconds (7.5).

6.7PERFORM: brighter, darker, wetter, drier

PERFORM shapes the song as it plays: open up the strings for the chorus, dry the lead out for a verse, darken the drums for a break. Nothing here changes a saved sound.

1. On SEQ, press SEQ again. Its second dot fills.
2. The left window is TONE, one fader a lane, darker down and brighter up. The right is SPACE, drier down and wetter up, moving all the sound's own effects together. Each fader starts in the middle, where the sound is exactly as saved.
3. Drag them while the music plays.
4. Press STOP: every fader glides back to the middle. To keep them where they are through STOP, press KEEP, the fourth page key. Press it again to bring every sound back.

A fader that can't act says why under it: NO TONE (on SAMPLER sounds), NO FX (no effect turned up), EMPTY or MIDI. The tape records what you hear, so a PERFORM move during a take is on the take.

6.8The X/Y pad

1. On SYNTH, DRUM, TAPE or ARP, press X/Y, the small key in the middle gap of the keyboard's top row. The right window becomes a pad for the focused lane.
2. Play keys with one hand and drag on the pad with the other, from anywhere.
3. Left and right (X) bend the pitch, as far as the sound's BEND on SHAPE. Lift your finger and it springs back.
4. Up and down (Y) move the sound's mod wheel, or on a sound with no wheel its PERFORM TONE. The pad's header says which. Y stays where you leave it until STOP.
5. Press X/Y again to put the window back.

To give a sound a mod wheel, choose Expression as its modulator on MOVE and set its first slider, SOURCE, to WHEEL (3.5).

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 9 (ARP, GROOVE and the one clock) and chapter 15 (PERFORM and the X/Y pad).

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Record to tape

TAPE is a multitrack recorder built into every project: up to 30 minutes of tape. Record what you play, layer takes, put your patterns on tape, and play the tape itself like an instrument.

A new project's tape has eight stereo tracks of 20 minutes each, one per lane. You can make it six tracks of 30 minutes instead (10.5). You never load or save a tape: it's part of the project, written as you record.

7.1The TAPE screen

Press TAPE. The left window is the deck: the counter (bar and beat), the red line naming the track the next take goes onto, such as REC TRK 1, the time left, and the two spools. The right window, TRACKS, shows each track's takes and the playhead. The page keys, TRK 1 and on, choose the track you record onto; on iPhone the lane arrows bring up tracks 5 to 8. The keyboard still plays the focused lane, so you can play and record without leaving TAPE.

7.2Record a take

1. Press TRK 2 to choose track 2.
2. Press STOP twice to go to the start of the tape.
3. Press REC. It turns steady red: the tape is armed. Nothing is recorded yet.
4. Press PLAY and play. REC blinks while the take is written. The keys on any screen, MIDI, arpeggios, grooves and running patterns all go onto the tape. With the click on, you get one bar of count-in first; the click never goes onto the tape.
5. Press STOP. The take is saved, and REC stays red.
6. Press REC to turn it off, then STOP twice and PLAY to hear the take.

• On TAPE, PLAY rolls the tape and nothing else. Your patterns stay stopped unless you record them with REC SEQ (7.3), or start them on SEQ first.
• Recording over a take adds to it; it doesn't erase it. To replace part of a track, clear it first (7.6).
• Punch in: with REC off, play the tape, and press REC when you reach the part. Press it again to punch out. The tape keeps playing.
• The take keeps going if you change screens. Come back to TAPE to stop it, or press STOP anywhere.
• A take records each lane after its own effects but before MIX, so you can rebalance takes later on TAPE MIX (8.6).

7.3Put your patterns on tape: REC SEQ

REC SEQ records the sequencer in the next take. It's TAPE's third slider under SHIFT.

• EACH: each lane's pattern onto its own track, lane 1 onto track 1 and so on, so you can still mix the parts on TAPE MIX later.
• ONE: every lane you hear, mixed as you've balanced them on MIX, onto the track you chose.
• OFF: the patterns stay out. Every new project starts here.

1. To leave a lane out, mute its pattern on SEQ's MUTE page.
2. On TAPE, hold or latch SHIFT and drag REC SEQ to EACH. The deck shows which lanes will play in, such as SEQ 1 3.
3. Press STOP twice, then REC. The armed line names every track the take will write, such as REC TRK 1 3.
4. Press PLAY. The patterns start on a bar line, so separate passes line up. Press STOP when you have enough, then REC to disarm.

The whole pass is one UNDO step. A PATTERN PLAY switch during the take is recorded too, so you can record a song's sections in one pass. A lane playing your own MIDI gear isn't recorded: its sound is in the gear.

7.4Move around the tape

• POSITION, the first slider: drag slowly to move a bar at a time, flick to jump further. Hold still first for fine steps between bar lines.
• Wind the tape: put a finger on the deck and slide right to wind forward, left to wind back. The further you slide, the faster it winds. You hear the tape as it moves.
• STOP twice goes back to the start (to LOOP IN while a loop is on). Under SHIFT, TOP goes to 00:00 and keeps playing if the tape was.
• Zoom: pinch TRACKS to see 16, 32 or 64 bars or the whole tape. Double-tap for 8 bars again.
• Mute a track: hold SHIFT and press its MUTE in the strip. The lane itself still plays live.

7.5CATCH: keep what you just played

Tonaut always keeps the last 30 seconds of what you played, recording or not. To put it on tape:

1. Go to TAPE and choose the track with its TRK key. If you played with the tape stopped, put the playhead where the audio should start.
2. Press SHIFT + CATCH: CAUGHT TO TRACK 2.

If you played along with the tape rolling, press CATCH before you stop it, and the part lands exactly where you played it, in time with the other takes. Wait too long after your last note and it's gone: NOTHING HELD TO CATCH.

7.6The tool row: loop, edit, undo

With SHIFT on, TAPE's keyboard becomes the tape's tools. Hold SHIFT for one tool, or latch it to use several in a row.

Loop a stretch.

1. Put the playhead at the start of the part and press SHIFT + IN.
2. Move the playhead to its end and press SHIFT + OUT. Two markers stand in TRACKS.
3. Press SHIFT + LOOP (LOOP ON) and PLAY. The tape plays the stretch over and over. Record while it loops to layer a part.

Edit takes on the chosen track, at the playhead. Each edit is one UNDO step.

LIFT

Cuts the take under the playhead to the clipboard (with LOOP on, exactly the loop).

DROP

Puts the clipboard down at the playhead, replacing what's there. Move a take: LIFT, choose another track or place, DROP.

SPLIT / JOIN

Cuts the take in two at the playhead; joins it to the next one.

ERASE / TRACK

Wipes the take under the playhead; wipes the whole chosen track.

ALL / ONE

Lifts the loop from every track; drops that onto one track, mixed.

UNDO / REDO

The last eight takes and edits, kept even after you quit.

RESET

Wipes every track. Press it twice.

To erase part of a take: put the playhead where that part begins, press SPLIT, then ERASE the second half. To copy a take rather than move it, press UNDO straight after LIFT, then DROP it somewhere else.

7.7Reverse, stutter and brake

Three tools play the tape like an instrument while it runs. Each acts for as long as you hold it:

• BRK (BRAKE) slows the tape to a stop, the pitch falling with it, like a tape machine switched off. Let go and it spins back up. Let go early for a dip.
• REV (REVERSE) runs the tape backwards. Let go and it runs forward from where it got to.
• STUT (STUTTER) repeats the last sixteenth note in time, while the tape keeps moving underneath.

They act on the tape's playback only; lanes you play and running patterns carry on. You can hold two at once. During a take, holding one pauses the recording.

7.8TAPE on iPad

On iPad the deck shows the spools; tap the window to switch to the tape running past the head, and drag across it to wind. The tools are keys of their own in a TOOLS row, one tap each, with ERASE, TRACK and RESET under SHIFT. Each track has a MUTE key along the foot of TRACKS, and SHARE ends the TAPE row of sliders.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 11 (TAPE: every tool, speed and tempo, sharing the tape) and chapter 12 (recording the microphone or a USB input to tape).

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Mix and effects

Balance the lanes in MIX, give each one room with its EQ, color each sound with four effects, and finish the whole mix with the master effect and DRIVE.

8.1Balance the lanes

1. Hold SHIFT and press MIX in the strip (on iPad, press MIX). MIX opens on LEVEL. No mode key is red while it shows.
2. Each fader in the left window is one lane: CHANNEL 1 is lane 1. Put a finger anywhere in a fader's column and drag up for louder, down for quieter. 80 is the lane as it is, where every fader starts; 99 is about 6 dB louder.
3. The band sets each lane's balance, left to right, such as CHAN 1 BAL. Double-tap one to center it.
4. To leave, press SHIFT + MIX again, or any mode key.

On iPhone MIX shows the lanes the lane row shows; use the arrows for lanes 5 to 8. You can move two faders at once. A small dot in a knob means that fader is exactly at 80. If the OUT meter's top dot turns red, or a lane's own meter does, bring something down.

8.2Mute: four kinds

On MIX, latch SHIFT and the strip starts with a MUTE for each lane showing. Press one: the lane goes silent and its fader's name turns red. Its pattern keeps running underneath, so it comes back in time. Tonaut has four mutes, each for a different job:

A lane mute shows only on MIX. If a lane plays nothing anywhere, look here first.

8.3EQ: give each part its room

An EQ lifts or cuts the bass, the middle and the top of a sound. Each lane has its own, and there's one more on the whole mix.

1. On MIX, tap the lane's button, then press EQ. The right window reads LANE 3 EQ, say.
2. Drag up or down in the left, middle or right third of the window, or use the band's LOW, MID and HIGH. AMOUNT sets how much of the EQ you hear; drag it to 00 to compare with and without.
3. Press EQ again for the MASTER EQ, which shapes everything together. Again goes back to the lane.

Under SHIFT, LOW HZ, MID HZ and HIGH HZ move where each band sits. Take some bass out of a pad so the bass line comes through; brighten a lead so it sits on top.

8.4Effects on a sound

Every sound, synth or kit, has four effect slots. A new sound holds Reverb, Delay, Chorus and Drive, all at 00, so it starts dry.

1. On SYNTH (or DRUM), press FX. The band holds the four slots' amounts, each named for its effect. Drag one up to hear it.
2. To change what a slot holds, tap its name, the word above its slider. The effect list opens for that slot.
3. Move the cursor with your finger or the CURSOR slider while you play. The effect under the cursor goes into the slot at once.
4. Press FX again for CONTROLS: all eight of that effect's controls, four on the band and four under SHIFT. Press FX once more to go back to the page.

Under SHIFT the FX page shows each slot's main control, such as Reverb's SIZE or Delay's TIME. The sound runs through the slots from 4 to 1, so slot 1 comes last: keep a reverb there. A slot at 00 costs nothing. SLOT, the list's second slider, moves the list to another slot.

8.5The sixteen effects

8.6TAPE MIX: the tape's own mixer

A take is recorded at full level, before MIX. TAPE MIX sets how each tape track plays back, so you can rebalance takes after you've recorded them.

1. Press TAPE, hold SHIFT and press the strip's TAPE MIX button (it reads TAPE over MIX).
2. The faders are now the tape tracks, TRACK 1 and on, with their balances on the band and their mutes under SHIFT.

Exports of the tape go through TAPE MIX, so what you hear is what you get.

8.7The master effect and OUT

The master effect is one effect on the whole mix, the tape included. A new project has none.

1. On MIX, press FX, then FX again. The master effect list opens.
2. Move the cursor to an effect while the music plays; it goes on at once. Choose None to take it off.
3. Press FX again. The page shows its eight controls, four on the band and four under SHIFT.

OUT is the last stop. DRIVE pushes the whole mix: it squeezes the loud parts, adds warm saturation and makes it louder. Raise it slowly while the music plays and watch the OUT meter climb; back off if the mix goes flat. RELEASE sets how it breathes. OUT L and OUT R set each side's level. A limiter after them keeps what leaves Tonaut from clipping.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 10 (MIX, TAPE MIX, the EQs and the master section) and chapter 4, section 4.7 (every effect's eight controls).

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MIDI keyboards and MIDI out

Play Tonaut from a MIDI keyboard over USB or Bluetooth, and let Tonaut's lanes play your own synths and drum machines.

9.1Plug in a USB keyboard

1. Plug a class-compliant USB MIDI keyboard (one that needs no driver) into your iPhone or iPad, through an adapter if it needs one. Tonaut can already be running.
2. After about a second the screen says MIDI CONNECTED · name, and SYNTH's header shows a small MIDI mark.
3. Play. The keyboard plays the focused lane.

A MIDI keyboard plays every note at its own pitch, so the screen's octave doesn't apply. It brings velocity, pitch bend (as far as the sound's BEND on SHAPE) and the sustain pedal. The keys on screen light as you play. On SEQ it writes into the selected cell, records live and step-records, as the screen keys do. The arpeggiator, GROOVE, LOCK, CHORDS and the chord pad all hear it.

9.2Pair a Bluetooth keyboard

1. Open Settings: hold SHIFT, press HELP / SETTINGS, and tap the SETTINGS cell (on iPad, press SETTINGS).
2. Press the MIDI page key. The cursor lands on the Bluetooth row.
3. Press BLUETOOTH, the band's fourth place. Apple's Bluetooth MIDI list opens over the panel.
4. Tap your keyboard in the list, then close it with Done.

If the press says ALLOW BLUETOOTH IN THE SETTINGS APP, give Tonaut Bluetooth in the iPhone's own Settings app first. Bluetooth adds a little delay; a cable is tighter.

9.3Which lane it plays: channels

On the same MIDI page of Settings, move to a row with your finger or the CURSOR slider and change it with VALUE.

• MIDI in on LANE, as Tonaut comes: every note plays the focused lane. Channel picks one MIDI channel to listen on, or OMNI, every channel.
• MIDI in on BY CHANNEL: each lane listens on its own channel, lanes 1 to 8 on channels 1 to 8 to begin with, each changeable on the Lane 1 to Lane 8 rows. Use it for a keyboard split into zones, or another app or sequencer playing several parts at once.

Both belong to the device, not the project.

9.4The mod wheel and pedals

The mod wheel, aftertouch, breath and expression pedal do nothing until a sound listens for them:

1. On SYNTH, press MOVE, then MOVE again for the modulator list.
2. Choose Expression, and press MOVE to go back to the page.
3. Set SOURCE to WHEEL (or PRESSURE, BREATH or EXPRESSION), then aim it with DEST, SLOT and AMOUNT (3.5).

A sound has one modulator, so this replaces the one it had. The X/Y pad's Y moves the same wheel. DIVINER sounds have a wheel of their own in EDIT.

9.5Play your own gear: EXTERNAL

Any lane can play a hardware synth or drum machine instead of a Tonaut sound. Connect it with a USB cable (class compliant, as most are), through a USB MIDI interface for gear with round 5-pin sockets, or over Bluetooth.

1. Tap the lane's button twice to open its list: PATCHES for a synth. For a drum machine, open KITS (SHIFT + KITS).
2. In the engine column, tap EXTERNAL. The list shows the sixteen channels, CH 01 to CH 16.
3. Tap your gear's channel. The lane button now reads MIDI CH and the number.
4. On the gear, set the channel it receives on to the same number. A drum machine usually listens on 10.

Now everything that would play the lane plays your gear: the keys, its patterns, a MIDI keyboard, the arpeggiator, a groove, LOCK, CHORDS and the chord pad. In KITS, tap the channel row the lane is on and it plays two bars of a groove through your drum machine, a quick check of the cable and channel. A drum lane sends the standard General MIDI drum notes: pad 1 is 36 (kick), pad 2 is 38 (snare), pad 3 is 42 (closed hat).

• MIX: the lane's fader sends volume and its balance sends pan, but only as you move them. Its mute stops the notes.
• A stuck note: press STOP while everything is stopped: MIDI · ALL NOTES OFF.
• The tape: a MIDI lane isn't recorded to tape, because its sound is in your gear. To get it on tape, bring the gear's audio back in through a USB audio interface and the recorder.
• Back to a Tonaut sound: load any patch or kit on the lane. Its patterns stay.

9.6Clock, start and stop, and timing

Hold the tempo key to open the tempo page, then press SYNC:

• Clock out (ON as Tonaut comes) sends Tonaut's tempo while the transport runs, so a drum machine set to follow MIDI clock plays at Tonaut's tempo.
• Transport: OUT (as Tonaut comes) lets PLAY and STOP start and stop your gear; IN lets your gear's start and stop play Tonaut; BOTH does both; OFF neither.
• MIDI delay, −50 to +50 ms, lines your gear up with Tonaut's own sounds. Play a pattern where both hit together and drag VALUE until they land as one.

Tonaut always keeps its own tempo; it doesn't follow an incoming clock. To take your patterns to a computer as MIDI files, see 10.8.

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 3 (section 3.8, MIDI keyboards and controllers), chapter 14 (section 14.3, the MIDI settings) and chapter 16 (MIDI out).

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Projects, sharing and export

A project is your whole session, and it saves itself. Mark a version to come back to, keep copies, send a song to a friend, post your tape as a video, and export audio and MIDI.

10.1A project saves itself

A project holds everything: every lane's sound with every change, the patterns, the arpeggiators and grooves, the mix, the tempo, each lane's key and chords, and the tape with every take. Tonaut saves the open project about a second after each change, and when you leave the app. Nothing ever asks about unsaved changes, and the next launch opens the project you had open.

What a project doesn't hold: your quick slots, USER sounds and favorites (they belong to the device and every project shares them), Settings, and PERFORM's faders.

10.2PROJECTS

Hold SHIFT and press PROJ in the strip (on iPad, press PROJ). Projects run A to Z; the open one is outlined, and the right-hand column shows how much of each one's tape is recorded. Moving the cursor opens nothing: it only points, and the right window shows that project's lanes.

SAVE

Marks the open project, as it is now, as the version to go back to (10.3). Lit only when something has changed.

SAVE AS

Keeps the project as it is and carries you on in a copy. A pop-up suggests the name with (2) after it.

NEW

Makes a fresh project of eight lanes and opens it.

OPEN

Opens the project at the cursor. The music stops.

RENAME

Renames the project at the cursor, up to 24 characters.

DELETE

Pressed twice, deletes the project at the cursor. There's no undo, and the open project can't be deleted.

In PROJECTS a tap on SHIFT means BACK, so hold SHIFT for REVERT and SHARE in the strip.

10.3SAVE and REVERT: a version to go back to

Before you try something drastic, such as a big tape edit or erasing the sequencer, mark a save point:

1. On PROJECTS, press SAVE: SAVED · NIGHT DRIVE. SAVE goes dark.
2. Play, record and change whatever you like.
3. To go back, hold SHIFT and press REVERT, first in the strip. The line says what will go.
4. Press REVERT again within eight seconds: REVERTED TO YOUR LAST SAVE. Everything since the SAVE is gone, takes included, and a take you erased is back.

The save point stays, so you can go back to it as often as you like until you press SAVE again. A new project's save point is the moment NEW made it.

10.4Copies, names and the shape

• SAVE AS is how you keep a version under its own name. Press it, keep or change the suggested name, and press SAVE. The project you were in stays exactly as it was; you carry on in the new one.
• RENAME and DELETE are buttons at the foot of the right window. They act on the project at the cursor.

10.5Eight tracks or six: SHAPE

Every project has up to 30 minutes of tape, in one of two shapes: 8 × 20 (eight lanes, eight tracks of 20 minutes, as every new project starts) or 6 × 30 (six lanes, six tracks of 30 minutes). Choose six for long recordings such as a whole set, eight for more parts.

1. Press STOP. A project switches only while stopped.
2. Open PROJECTS. The cursor is on the open project.
3. Drag the second slider, SHAPE, to the other end: NOW 6 LANES · 30 MIN TAPE.

A switch never throws anything away. If it would, it's refused and the line says why, such as LANE 7 ISN'T EMPTY.

10.6Send a song

SHARE sends a whole project as one song file, so a friend, or your other iPhone or iPad, hears exactly what you hear and can carry on with it in Tonaut.

1. On PROJECTS, put the cursor on the project to send.
2. To send its tape too, drag the third slider, TAPE, to WITH. Without the tape, the file is small.
3. Hold SHIFT. The foot of the right window gives the size, such as SHARE · 732 KB. Still holding it, press SHARE in the strip.
4. The share sheet opens: AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Files or another app.

The song carries every sound with every edit, the patterns, the mix and your own recordings. A song someone sends you arrives as a new project, such as Night Drive (shared), without touching the one you have open: tap the .tonaut file, then press OPEN in PROJECTS to play it. A song that uses something newer than the Tonaut it lands on, such as chord mode or the newest effects, asks for an update first.

10.7Post your tape as a video

SHARE on TAPE turns what the tape plays into a tall video for Instagram, TikTok or Messages, or an audio file.

1. On TAPE, loop the part you want and turn LOOP on (7.6). With LOOP off, it takes the tape from the playhead to the end of the last take.
2. Hold SHIFT and press SHARE, after CATCH on the keyboard's bottom row (on iPad, SHARE in the TAPE row). A pop-up names what goes and how long it is.
3. Choose VIDEO or AUDIO ONLY. A line counts the file as it's made, and the music keeps playing.
4. The share sheet opens. Choose where it goes.

The video is a tall 1080 by 1920 film with your project's name and your music moving in a window like Tonaut's screens; the audio is an M4A file. Files are up to 90 seconds, the longest an Instagram Reel takes. Only what's on the tape goes, so record your patterns first with REC SEQ (7.3).

10.8Export WAV, stems and MIDI

An audio export writes what's on the tape, not your patterns, so put them on tape first with REC SEQ. To take the patterns themselves to another app, export MIDI.

1. Open PROJECTS. EXPORT always writes the open project, wherever the cursor is.
2. Set the fourth slider, EXPORT, to MIX DOWN (one stereo WAV file of the tape as you hear it), STEMS (a WAV file for each track with a take, all the same length, so they line up in another app) or MIDI (a MIDI file for each lane's pattern, as it plays).
3. Press REC. STOP cancels.

When it's done, the screen says where, such as SAVED IN FILES · TONAUT / EXPORTS. MIDI files open the share sheet first. In the Files app, look in On My iPhone › Tonaut › Exports (On My iPad on an iPad). A mix down goes through TAPE MIX and the master section; stems leave the master section out.

10.9iCloud, and moving between iPhone and iPad

An iPhone and an iPad play the same projects. Two ways to move one across:

• SHARE it as a song (10.6), by AirDrop for example.
• iCloud sync: in Settings, move to the SYNC section and set iCloud to ON on both devices, signed in to the same Apple Account. A project you open on one can then be opened on the other. Tape audio decides whether the open project's tape goes too.

If you change one project on both devices, nothing is overwritten: you get both, the other one named such as Night Drive (other). Keep Tonaut up to date on both devices. Settings, quick slots and USER sounds stay on each device; send sounds with SHARE in USER (3.8).

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 13 (PROJECTS, SAVE and REVERT, sharing songs, iCloud), chapter 14 (exporting and iCloud sync) and chapter 11 (sharing the tape as a video).

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Settings and getting help

Change the panel's look and the audio buffer, find your version, fix what trips people up, and know where to read more.

11.1Open Settings

1. On iPhone, hold SHIFT and press HELP / SETTINGS, last in the strip. The help panel opens in the left window.
2. Tap the SETTINGS cell, the last in its row. Settings opens over the screen you were on.

On iPad, press SETTINGS on the strip above the keys: one press, no SHIFT.

The left window lists every setting with its value; the right window shows the section you're in. Move to a row with your finger or the CURSOR slider, and change it with VALUE. The page keys THEME, MIDI, AUDIO and INFO jump to their sections, and SECTION reaches the rest: CHORD PAD, EXPORT and SYNC. The keyboard keeps playing while Settings is open. Press a mode key to leave.

Settings belong to the device, not to a project, and stay when you close Tonaut.

11.2THEME: the panel's look

• Housing is the look of the whole instrument: AUTO (as Tonaut comes: light or dark with your device's appearance), LIGHT, DARK, and three hardware looks. TN-1 is ivory with raised buttons and orange for what's lit; TN-1 DARK is the same in charcoal; TN-XY is black and greys. In the TN looks each key has a small LED that lights while its note sounds. The panel repaints as you drag, and the music doesn't stop.
• Scan lines draws faint lines over the black screens, like an old display (not in TN-1 and TN-1 DARK).
• Haptics turns the small taps you feel, such as when a quick slot saves, on or off.

11.3AUDIO: crackles and lag

Press AUDIO. Buffer is the one row you can change. 256, as Tonaut comes, gives your device room to keep the sound clean when it's busy. 128 halves the delay between your finger and the sound, for playing with the least lag, but leaves the device less room. If you hear crackles, go back to 256. Latency counts the blocks of sound that came out late since you last pressed PLAY: each one is a click.

Bluetooth headphones and speakers add a delay of their own. Wired headphones and the built-in speaker are quickest.

11.4SYNC, EXPORT and ABOUT

• SYNC turns iCloud sync on and off, and whether the open project's tape goes too (10.9).
• EXPORT names the folder your exports go to: Files › On My iPhone › Tonaut › Exports.
• ABOUT (the INFO key) shows your Version: quote it when you write to us. Press TIPS, the band's fourth place there, to see the five first-launch tips again.
• CHORD PAD holds how chords play (5.7).

11.5Quick fixes

No sound. Turn up the volume, and check in Control Center where the sound is going: it may be on Bluetooth headphones. Then check the mutes, which add up: a lit MUTE in the strip on MIX, TAPE or TAPE MIX, a lit pill on SEQ's MUTE page, red pad numbers on DRUM (8.2). A lane on EXTERNAL plays your MIDI gear, not the phone.

A sound went quiet or strange after some drags. Double-tap each slider you moved: it goes back to where the sound was when you loaded or saved it. A slider reading -- can't be heard right now; tap it and the screen says why.

The keys play another lane. They play the filled lane button. A lit arrow at the end of the lane row means that lane is on the other page.

Controls answer with a line instead of acting. HELP is on (SHIFT reads HELP). Hold SHIFT and press HELP / SETTINGS to turn it off.

REC does nothing. It records on SEQ and TAPE, and exports in PATCHES, KITS and PROJECTS. Elsewhere it's drawn flat.

The tape recorded again when I pressed PLAY. STOP leaves REC armed. Turn REC off before you listen back, or take the pass back with UNDO.

A pattern recorded when I only wanted to play. SEQ stays armed after STOP too. Press REC on SEQ to turn it off.

An arpeggio or groove won't stop. HOLD is on. STOP doesn't stop them: set HOLD, ARP or GROOVE to OFF.

The left window shows four small plots instead of the 3D engine. That's the CLASSIC screen. Tap the window, or change lanes, for the 3D picture.

− and + do nothing. The lane holds a kit, and a kit has no octave.

A held note bends when you tilt the phone. That's LEAN. Turn it off with the LEAN cell in the help panel (3.10).

A note keeps sounding on my MIDI gear. Press STOP while stopped: MIDI · ALL NOTES OFF.

11.6Where to read more

Three guides cover Tonaut, all on the Support page. The Quick Start gets you playing in 20 pages. This guide is the middle step. The Reference Manual covers every control in detail, with an index. Here's where to find things in it:

11.7Write to us

We're Coast Creative, and we make Tonaut. Questions, problems and ideas all go to hello@coastcreative.studio. If something isn't working, tell us what you were doing, what the screen said, and which iPhone or iPad you have, with Tonaut's version from Settings › ABOUT (11.4).

Go deeper: Reference Manual, chapter 14 (every setting, and troubleshooting by topic).

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