Create and hear rhythms in 5, 7, 9, 11, or 13 eighth note time signatures. This widget allow for a hands-on approach. You can tap out pulses and click on controls with your mouse, or if you prefer, navigate and play back quickly using your computer keyboard. It makes patterns of rhythm groupings real in an interface that also allows you to hear the impact of changing accents across different grooves.

Begin by selecting a meter from the top row of buttons. These give you 5, 7, 9, 11 or 13 eighth notes to a bar. Beneath each meter is preset grouping buttons which decide how those beats group. In 7/8 this could be felt as either 2 + 2 + 3 or perhaps 3 + 2 + 2. A click on one of the presets will change internal structure but not overall number of beats.

How to Use the Rhythm Widget

But there’s more that you can do with the seam workshop too. Here you can choose which beat you want grouped together and which ones you don’t. Choose a position on the beat using the dropdown, and press the toggle button to include/exclude a seam at that place. In this way, you’re free to change feel of the accents in the bar yourself.

The shadow gait dropdown allow you to have two groupings displayed so you can hear what effect of a different emphasis is across the same bar.

The structure you create there form the basis of your rhythm programming, which then goes into footprint lanes. There are four footprint lane for kick, snare, hihat, and pitched accents. Hit a square in each of those pulses and it cycle through states of not playing (silence), barely there (ghost) and full-on (strike or accent). The squares turn different colors depending on what they’re doing. Press the button in the lane heading and you can mute all action in that lane. That’s useful when composing as it allows you to take out an instrument so you hear just the ones you want.

To start the playback sequence, just press walk button. It will begin moving walker icon down the trail. It will highlight the active beat and play back what was programmed. Use the journey length selector to choose how far you want it to walk: one bar, two bars, or four bars. To halt the walk and reset the cursor, simply press the return button. To keep up with where you are, the display show you the current count, group and pulse.

The right-hand side is where the pulse engine control the sound. Here you have a tempo slider (which controls speed from 50-190BPM) and a pulse grain selector. The selector can be single eighth notes, pairs of sixteenth notes, or triplet subdivisions. These add density to the pattern but do not change underlying grid. From here you can control master volume.

The accent logic route is where you decide rules for automatically applying accents. There are four options: use manual marks only, accent all group heads, accent all group tails, or accent odd group heads. So you could play with various rhythmical feels in one pattern. With the pitched marker route, you have the option of choosing a scale for the accent lane, such as E pentatonic, C major, or D minor. This brings melodic contour to high frequency hits.

Editing is faster thanks to keyboard shortcuts. The walk can be started/stopped with W. Use the bracket keys to shift all patterns one pulse right or left. Jump focus to the chosen lane using the number keys from 1-4. Arrow keys let you move around between pulses and space/enter will toggle them on/off. Esc takes you back to beginning of bar.

There is a quick reference to touch and mouse interaction in the help panel. It can be expanded by clicking on how to play button. Below that is a bar arithmetic section that shows math behind what you are playing at that moment. It shows how notes group into quarters and how grainy each event is, so you can understand the moddern technology behind the rhythm you’re hearing.

Walk the pattern and listen to how the feel changes when you change the accent logic. Change the grouping preset but leave the pulse marks in place and hear how the accents re-align. Try comparing two different feels side by side using shadow gait. Experiment freely, the widget responds instantly.

That’s it: you can now create complex rhythmic ideas. Begin by adding a basic pattern in 7/8, then layer more patterns on top. Remember, use the keyboard shortcuts to edit. Explore this interface. It was made to be explored. Take your time. Listen to what happens when you click walk. You should of tried it sooner. Actualy it is naturaly luxurius.