AUTO/PILOT
User Guide
Every mode, control and setting in the AutoPilot public beta: from importing music and preparing tracks to performing, arranging and mapping hardware.
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Conventions
| Convention | Meaning |
|---|---|
| BOLD CAPS | An on-screen button or label, written as the UI shows it (for example SET CUE). |
| Menu → Item | A path through the native menu bar or a settings page. |
| Command | The macOS modifier. On Windows and Linux, read it as Ctrl unless a section says otherwise. |
| Option | Alt on Windows and Linux. |
| Deck 1–4 | The four performance decks. Single-deck mode shows Deck 1; two-deck layouts show Decks 1–2. |
File types you will see
| Extension | What it is |
|---|---|
.apd |
Track data file. Holds the grid, cues, tempo markers and attached MIDI/OSC data for one audio file. |
.apc |
MIDI clip document. Wraps a Standard MIDI File with its routing, loop, cues and metadata. |
.aps |
Sampler document. Holds eight sample lanes and their sequences. |
.apa |
Arrangement document. Holds a timeline project. |
.apmidimap |
Saved input-mapping profile (MIDI, OSC and keyboard). |
Getting started
1.1Installation
- macOS: run the installer package. It installs AutoPilot.app to /Applications and can optionally install the AutoPilot VST3 instrument. On first launch, grant Input Monitoring (needed for keyboard mappings), Local Network (needed for OSC and PilotNET) and Bluetooth (BLE MIDI only).
- Windows: run the installer, allow AutoPilot through the firewall on private networks, and install any vendor controller drivers first. Use the Windows installer supplied for your release.
- Support folder:
~/Library/Application Support/AutoPiloton macOS,%APPDATA%\AutoPiloton Windows. It holds the library database, settings, track data files, VST3 states and activation data. Keep it when reinstalling.
1.2Sign in and activation
On first launch, AutoPilot shows the sign-in screen (AUTOPILOT PUBLIC BETA). Sign in with your autopilot.audio email and password to activate the computer. The signed license is then verified locally, so the app runs offline until the cached token expires (60 days by default). Activation slots are managed from the website dashboard. Deleting local files does not free a slot.
1.3First-session checklist
- Open AutoPilot → Settings… → AUDIO. Choose the driver, device, sample rate and buffer size, enable output pairs, then assign MASTER OUTPUT. For headphone cueing, turn on ENABLE CUE OUTPUT and assign CUE OUTPUT. Press TEST OUTPUT at a safe level.
- Open ALL TRACKS in the Browser and import five to ten familiar files, with KEY DETECTION, GRID DETECTION and AUTO-CUE on.
- Load one track into Edit. Confirm its BPM, Grid Start and cues.
- Switch to Perform. Load two tracks and test Play, Cue, Sync, Quantize, loops and mixer routing.
- Map your controller in Mapping mode (section 13).
- Save a State once the rig is set up the way you want.
1.4The five modes
Switch modes from the Mode menu in the menu bar. F1–F4 and Command+1–4 reach the first four modes; Mapping is menu-only.
| Mode | Shortcut | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Perform | F2 / Command+2 | Play tracks, MIDI clips, samplers and arrangements on up to four decks; mix them live. Includes Perform Loop (section 11). |
| Edit | F1 / Command+1 | Prepare tracks and MIDI clips: grids, cues, tempo markers, metadata, attached MIDI and OSC (sections 8–9). |
| Tag Editor | F3 / Command+3 | Build tag groups and apply tags and metadata to selected tracks (section 3). |
| Arrange | F4 / Command+4 | Build timelines of audio, MIDI, VST, OSC and macro automation; play them or render them (section 10). |
| Mapping | Mode menu only | Learn and edit MIDI and keyboard mappings (section 13), and open the OSC API window (section 14.2). |
1.5Interface tour
The window is a stack of four parts. The header is always visible. The workspace changes with the mode. The Browser can be embedded, hidden or detached. The footer runs along the bottom.
Menu bar
| Menu | Items |
|---|---|
| AutoPilot (the app menu on macOS) | Settings…, PilotNET Manager…, Library manager…, Show User Guide |
| Mode | Perform, Edit, Tag Editor, Arrange, Mapping |
| View | Scale (50–125%), Performance View (Decks Only / Stacked–Synced Decks / Compact Paired Mixer), Browser (Hidden / Embedded / Detached Window), Decks (1 / 2 / 3 / 4), Crossfader, Vector Mixer |
- 1Wordmark and build. Click it for the About window.
- 2Metronome on/off and its volume.
- 3Clock ownership: MASTER (the header owns the clock) and the wallclock lock icon (shown as W in this screenshot). See section 11.4.
- 4Master tempo: −, readout, +. Drag or double-click the readout; Command-hold −/+ to bend. Greyed out here because a deck owns the clock.
- 5Global quantize: Q on/off and the value.
- 6Master and Cue levels with stereo meters, and MIX (Cue blended toward Master).
- 7PERFORM: switch between Perform and Perform Loop.
- 8Sync panel: clock role, Ableton Link peers, Link bar progress and RAMP (playback catch-up correction).
- 9Beat display (display only).
- 10Effective tempo, and MIDI / OSC activity (left dot in, right dot out).
- 11MIDI / OSC learn: click it, click a control, then move a hardware control or send OSC.
Header (left to right)
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| AUTO/PILOT wordmark | Click to open the About window (version, credits, partners). The build number is underneath. |
| Metronome + volume | Turns the Perform metronome on and sets its level. |
| MASTER / lock icon | Clock ownership. MASTER means the header owns the clock. The lock turns on wallclock mode, where only the header can own the clock. Both are explained in section 11.4. |
| − / BPM / + | Master tempo. Drag the readout (Command-drag for 0.01 BPM) or double-click to type. Command-hold −/+ for a temporary −2/+2 BPM bend. Greyed out while a deck or another machine owns the clock. |
| Q + value | Global quantize on/off, and its value: None, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32 bars. |
| Master / Cue / Mix | Master level and meter. With ENABLE CUE OUTPUT on (Settings > AUDIO), also the Cue (headphone) level and meter and the Cue-to-Master blend. |
| PERFORM (loop icon) | Switches between Perform and Perform Loop. Hidden in Arrange mode. |
| Sync panel | Shows clock role (for example MASTER), the number of Ableton Link peers, Link bar progress and RAMP, the playback catch-up correction. |
| Beat display | Shows the current beat of the master clock. Display only. |
| Tempo readout + MIDI / OSC activity | The effective tempo, including any bend. For MIDI and OSC, the left dot shows input and the right dot shows output. |
| Learn (MIDI plug icon) | Quick learn for MIDI and keyboard mappings (section 13.2). Blue while on. |
Footer: the left side shows a description of whatever is under the mouse. The right side shows the PilotNET status and tempo (click it for the network panel) and the track count.
Scale and window: the interface scales with the window from a 1400 × 840 baseline. Set a fixed scale from View → Scale. Window size, Browser sections and selected playlists are restored at relaunch.
Skins: Standard, Midnight, Ember, Moss, Orchid and Steel, plus Light Mode (Settings → GENERAL → APPEARANCE).
Importing music
AutoPilot keeps its own library. It never modifies, moves or otherwise alters your music files, which stay exactly where they are on disk. Analysis, cues, tempo data, artwork and automation are stored in the database and in a managed .apd file for each track.
2.1Supported formats
- Audio:
.wav,.wave,.aif,.aiff(recommended), plus.flacand.mp3 - MIDI:
.mid,.midi(imported as MIDI clips, section 9) - Sampler sources: any supported audio file up to 15 seconds long
2.2Importing audio
There are three ways to bring music in. Each one opens the same IMPORT TRACKS options.
| Method | How |
|---|---|
| Drag files | Drag one file, or select several in Finder and drag them together, onto the track list. |
| Drag folders | Drag one or more folders onto the track list. AutoPilot searches each folder and every subfolder inside it, at any depth, and imports every supported audio file it finds. Other files are ignored. |
| IMPORT button | Opens the system file chooser, where you can pick files or folders. |
To import straight into an existing playlist, select that playlist first, then drag or press IMPORT.
Steps
- Open ALL TRACKS, or select the playlist to import into.
- Drag files or folders onto the track list, or press IMPORT.
- In IMPORT TRACKS (Choose the analysis to run for these files), set the options below.
- Confirm. Progress shows as PREPARING IMPORT → COLLECTING SUPPORTED AUDIO FILES… → IMPORTING TRACKS. You can cancel.
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| KEY DETECTION | Estimates the musical key. Shown in Camelot or standard notation (section 12, CAMELOT KEY). |
| GRID DETECTION | Detects BPM and the first downbeat. Tracks that start on a kick or with silence get onset-based first-beat alignment. |
| AUTO-CUE | Creates suggested cue regions at musical boundaries. |
| BPM / grid detection preset | Narrows the BPM search range: None (80–180, catch-all), House / Techno (120–150), Drum and Bass (160–180), Wubstep (135–150), Downtempo (below 115). The choice is remembered. |
| CREATE NEW PLAYLIST + PLAYLIST NAME | Puts the imported tracks into new playlists. When you drop a single folder, the name defaults to that folder's name. |
Folders become playlists
When CREATE NEW PLAYLIST is on and the import includes folders, AutoPilot builds playlists from your folder structure:
- Every folder or subfolder that directly contains audio gets its own playlist, named after that folder.
- The playlist for the top folder you dropped takes the name in PLAYLIST NAME.
- Folders with the same name in different places stay as separate playlists.
- The new playlists are added at the top level of the playlist tree. Arrange them into folders afterwards if you like (section 5.1).
For example, dropping a folder called Summer Set that contains Openers and Peak Time subfolders creates an Openers playlist and a Peak Time playlist. If Summer Set also holds tracks of its own, outside the subfolders, they go into a third playlist called Summer Set.
With CREATE NEW PLAYLIST off, everything is added to ALL TRACKS only.
Waveform and artwork preparation always run, in a single pass (ONE-PASS AUDIO ANALYSIS). Wait for analysis to finish before judging previews.
2.3Re-analyzing existing tracks
In Edit mode, select tracks in the Browser and right-click a selected track → ANALYZE... (ANALYZE LIBRARY TRACKS). Right-clicking an unselected track targets only that track. The same options and presets apply; choose ENTIRE LIBRARY in the dialog to analyze all tracks. AutoPilot decides how many tracks to analyze in parallel. Locked tracks keep their prepared data.
2.4Importing from Rekordbox
Rekordbox import has moved to Settings → DATABASE → REKORDBOX → IMPORT REKORDBOX XML.
- In Rekordbox, export the collection as XML, then close Rekordbox.
- Choose the XML file and pick what to merge: IMPORT GRIDS, IMPORT CUES, IMPORT CUE NAMES, IMPORT PLAYLISTS and CUE SOURCE (which Rekordbox cue set to use).
- AutoPilot merges the data into its own database. It never writes to the Rekordbox library.
2.5Importing MIDI clips
Open the CLIPS collection, then use either method:
| Method | How |
|---|---|
| Drag files | Select one or more .mid or .midi files in Finder and drag them onto the clip list. They import straight away, with no options dialog. The drop is only accepted when every dragged item is a MIDI file. |
| IMPORT button | Opens the file chooser (Import MIDI clips). You can pick MIDI files, or a folder to import every MIDI file inside it and its subfolders. |
To import into a particular clip folder, select that folder first. Each file is wrapped in an .apc document, and the original is not modified. On import, AutoPilot detects the key from the notes and sets the loop end to the nearest beat after the last note.
2.6Importing a render
Rendering an arrangement can add the result to the library automatically (ADD TO TRACK LIBRARY, section 10.7).
Library management
Use the Library Manager to check the library, find moved files and keep backups. Use the Tag Editor to classify tracks. Use the Browser's context menus for edits to individual items.
3.1Library Manager
Open it from AutoPilot → Library manager…. It has three tabs.
STATUS lists what has been checked, the result of the last scan, and the folders your tracks live in.
| Check | What it looks at |
|---|---|
| DATABASE | SQLite integrity check. |
| TRACK FILES | Whether each audio file exists at its saved location. |
| TRACK DATA | Whether each track's data file is readable. |
| PLAYLISTS | Entries that point at removed tracks. |
| MIDI CLIPS / SAMPLERS / ARRANGEMENTS | That every clip has its .apc, every sampler its .aps, and every arrangement its .apa. |
| LOCATIONS | Each source folder, marked ONLINE or DRIVE / FOLDER OFFLINE. |
Press SCAN LIBRARY to run every check. CANCEL SCAN stops it. EXPORT REPORT saves AutoPilot Library Report.txt.
PROBLEMS (the tab shows a count) groups each issue with its fix.
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| MISSING tracks | LOCATE… / RELINK TRACK for one file. SEARCH FOLDER… / RELINK FOLDER to search a folder. REMOVE TRACKS FROM LIBRARY to drop them. |
| FOUND ELSEWHERE | Files located in a searched folder. RELINK ALL FOUND reconnects all of them. |
| UNSUPPORTED | Files AutoPilot can no longer decode. Remove them. |
| UNREADABLE DATA | Track data that cannot be read. REWRITE TRACK DATA rebuilds it. |
| Broken playlist entries | FIX PLAYLISTS removes entries that point at removed tracks. |
| ORPHANED FILES | Track data files no longer linked to any item. CLEAN UP UNLINKED FILES removes them. |
BACKUPS handles database backups and restores.
- BACK UP NOW makes a backup immediately.
- AUTOMATIC BACKUPS runs DAILY or WEEKLY, with a setting for how many automatic backups to keep. Turn it off to make backups manually.
- BACK UP BEFORE REPAIRS, CLEAN-UPS AND RESTORES takes a safety copy before bulk relinking, orphan cleanup and restores.
- BACKUP FOLDER → CHOOSE… sets where backups go.
- RESTORE BACKUP replaces the current library with a chosen backup. DELETE BACKUP removes one.
3.2Tag Editor
The Tag Editor (F3) classifies the tracks selected in the Browser below it. It shows SELECT AN ITEM IN THE BROWSER BELOW when nothing is selected.
- Tag groups: CREATE TAG GROUP, then rename or delete it from its context menu. Tags that are not in a group appear under UNGROUPED.
- Tags: CREATE TAG in the selected group. New tags take the next of ten colors in turn. Change a tag's color from its COLOR submenu, and rename or delete it from the right-click menu (RIGHT-CLICK TO EDIT).
- ASSIGN TAGS: toggle a tag to add it to, or remove it from, every selected track.
- Metadata: edit shared fields and the rating for the selection. Leave mixed fields blank unless you mean to overwrite every selected track.
A good vocabulary uses one group per dimension, such as Energy (Low / Building / Peak / Release), Role (Opener / Bridge / Closer) or Texture.
3.3Filtering by tag
The TAG SHELF slides out from the Browser and filters the current collection by tag. Selecting several tags shows only tracks that have all of them (MULTIPLE TAGS USE AND FILTERING). Clear the shelf before you assume a track is missing.
3.4Per-item management
| Action | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LOCK / UNLOCK | Track or clip context menu, or Edit toolbar | Protects the grid, cues and markers from accidental edits. |
| SET COLOR | Row context menu | Track color, shown in the COLOR column. |
| Rating | RATING column, Edit metadata, or Tag Editor | 0–5 stars. |
| REMOVE FROM LIBRARY | Track context menu | Deletes the database entry and its managed track data file. The audio file is never deleted. |
| SHOW IN FINDER / SHOW IN EXPLORER | Row context menu | Reveals the source file. |
3.5Play history and counts
With Settings → GENERAL → TRACK HISTORY on, played rows are dimmed for the session and each session is logged under HISTORY. RESET PLAY STATUS clears the dimming. RESET PLAY COUNTS clears the persistent counts for tracks, clips and arrangements.
3.6Database maintenance (Settings → DATABASE)
- DATABASE FILE: reveals the database location.
- CLEAR DATABASE: empties the library after confirmation. Audio files are untouched.
- FULL RESET / FULL FACTORY RESET: returns settings and data to factory defaults. Activation and device identity are preserved.
Make a backup in the Library Manager before any of these.
The Browser
The Browser is where every piece of content starts. Use it to find, preview and organize items and load them onto decks. It works with the mouse, the keyboard, mapped hardware and drag and drop.
4.1Source rail
The buttons down the left edge switch between collections. The selected collection is restored at relaunch.
- 1Source rail: ALL, PLIST, CLIPS, STATES, ARR, SEQ and HIST collections.
- 2SEARCH filters the current collection. CLEAR empties the search.
- 3Column headers: click to sort, drag to reorder or resize, right-click to show or hide columns.
- 4IMPORT tracks (or MIDI clips in CLIPS). In Edit mode, right-click tracks to ANALYZE (section 2).
- 5ZOOM sets row height and preview size.
- 6TAG SHELF: slide it out to filter by tag (section 3.3).
- 7SPLIT opens a second, independent Browser pane.
- 8COLOR: the track color, set from the row's right-click menu.
- 9PREVIEW: the waveform colored by cue region. Click it to audition the track.
- 10STATUS: OK, MISSING or NETWORK.
- 11LOCK: the track is protected from grid, cue and marker edits.
- 12DATA: MIDI, OSC or MIDI / OSC attached to the track ("--" for none).
| Rail button | Collection | Holds | Main actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| ALL | All Tracks | Every imported audio track | Import, analyze, preview, load, edit |
| PLIST | Playlists | Playlist folders and playlists | Organize tracks without duplicating them (section 5) |
| CLIPS | MIDI Clips | .apc clips in clip folders |
Import, edit, load to a deck |
| STATES | States | Saved performance snapshots | SAVE STATE, LOAD STATE |
| ARR | Arrangements | .apa timeline projects |
Open in Arrange, load to a deck |
| SEQ | Samplers | .aps sampler instruments |
NEW SAMPLER, load to a deck |
| HIST | History | Past sessions and what was played | Review and reload |
When PilotNET is on and you are browsing a host library, rows from that library show NETWORK status (section 11.5).
4.2Toolbar
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| SEARCH | Filters the current collection as you type. Clear empties the search. |
| ZOOM | Changes row height and thumbnail size. Split panes share the zoom. |
| IMPORT | Imports into the current collection (section 2). |
| SPLIT | At the bottom of the source rail. Splits the Browser into two independent panes. |
| TAG SHELF | The tab on the right edge of the table. Slides out the tag filter (section 3.3). |
| L1–L4 | Loads the selected item onto Deck 1–4. Shown in Control Mode. |
4.3Track table columns
Right-click the header to show or hide columns. Drag to reorder or resize, and click a header to sort. The layout is saved separately for tracks, clips, samplers and arrangements.
- Identity: TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM, LABEL, GENRE, YEAR, ARTWORK, COLOR
- Musical: BPM, KEY (with color coding, Camelot or standard notation, and alternatives for uncertain estimates), DURATION
- File: SAMPLE RATE, BITRATE, FILE LOCATION, SIZE, DATE ADDED, STATUS (OK, MISSING or NETWORK)
- Use: RATING, PLAY COUNT, LOCK, ORDER (within a playlist), DATA (MIDI, OSC, MIDI / OSC or --, showing attached automation)
- Preview: PREVIEW waveform thumbnail, colored by cue region. Grey waveforms are an option.
- Clip extras: CLIP FOLDER, CLIP ID, VST (the instrument assigned to the clip), MIDI PREVIEW
4.4Previewing
Click a preview waveform to audition a track on the Cue bus. In Perform mode, previews lock to the master clock: they match the master tempo and beat phase, starting on the global quantize boundary. With quantization set to NONE, they start immediately and still align to the master beat phase. Settings → GENERAL → DISABLE PREVIEW IN PERFORM MODE turns previews off during a set. In Edit mode, Space stops an active preview.
4.5Loading content
You can load an item in any of these ways:
- Drag a row onto a deck, the mixer area (for States), the Edit workspace or an arrangement lane.
- Press L1–L4, or a mapped Load Deck 1–4 control.
- Double-click or use the context menu, for example EDIT CLIP to open a clip in Edit.
Opening a clip switches to Edit. Opening an arrangement switches to Arrange. Loading a State switches to Perform.
4.6App Mode and Control Mode
Set this in Settings → GENERAL → BROWSER MODE.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| APP MODE | Standard mouse layout: source rail, folder tree and table. Split is available. |
| CONTROL MODE | Focus-based navigation for hardware. Mapped Up / Down move the selection, Left / Right switch between the tree and the list, Enter opens or expands, Back goes up a level, and L1–L4 load decks. Split is disabled. |
4.7Layout
- View → Browser: Hidden, Embedded (drag the top edge to resize it) or Detached Window (the AutoPilot Browser window, useful on a second display; closing it hides the Browser).
- Mapping mode always hides the Browser.
4.8Context menus
In Perform mode, right-click a track, MIDI clip, arrangement or sampler and choose LOAD → DECK 1–4 to load that item into a deck. Destinations outside the current one-, two-, three- or four-deck layout are disabled. This works in either Browser pane, including playlist and history rows.
Right-click a row or empty space for type-specific actions:
- Tracks: ADD TO PLAYLIST, REMOVE FROM PLAYLIST, LOCK / UNLOCK, SET COLOR, SHOW IN FINDER, REMOVE FROM LIBRARY
- Clips: EDIT CLIP, LOCK CLIP / UNLOCK CLIP, NEW CLIP FOLDER, RENAME CLIP FOLDER, DELETE CLIP FOLDER, DELETE MIDI CLIP
- States: LOAD STATE, RENAME STATE, DELETE STATE
- Arrangements: CREATE NEW ARRANGEMENT, RENAME ARRANGEMENT, DUPLICATE, DELETE ARRANGEMENT
- Samplers: NEW SAMPLER, RENAME SAMPLER, DELETE SAMPLER
Playlists and collections
Playlists are references to library tracks, so adding a track to ten playlists stores the audio once. Playlists sit in a tree of folders that you build and reorder by dragging.
5.1Building the tree
Right-click the playlist tree, or empty space in it, to create items.
| Menu item | Where | Result |
|---|---|---|
| NEW PLAYLIST | Root or a playlist | Creates a playlist alongside. |
| NEW FOLDER | Root or a playlist | Creates a folder alongside. |
| NEW PLAYLIST IN FOLDER | A folder | Creates a playlist inside it. |
| NEW SUBFOLDER | A folder | Creates a nested folder. |
| RENAME PLAYLIST | Any node | Renames it. |
| SET COLOR | One or more nodes | Colours the icon left of the name using the 8 cue colours. NONE returns playlists to grey and folders to orange. Duplicates keep the colour. |
| DELETE PLAYLISTS | One or more nodes | Deletes them after confirmation. The tracks stay in the library. |
To reorder, drag folders and playlists. An insertion marker shows where they will land, and dropping on empty space moves an item to the root. A single click opens any folder or playlist.
5.2Filling playlists
- Drag tracks from ALL onto a playlist in the tree.
- Right-click tracks and choose ADD TO PLAYLIST, then a destination.
- Select a playlist before you IMPORT to import straight into it.
- Drag in a folder with CREATE NEW PLAYLIST on to get one playlist per folder (section 2.2).
- Import Rekordbox playlists with IMPORT PLAYLISTS (section 2.4).
5.3Inside a playlist
- The ORDER column holds the running order. Drag rows to reorder them.
- REMOVE FROM PLAYLIST takes tracks out of the playlist only. They stay in the library.
- Search, the Tag Shelf and column sorting all work inside a playlist.
5.4Other collections
| Collection | Organizing |
|---|---|
| MIDI Clips | Clip folders: NEW CLIP FOLDER, RENAME CLIP FOLDER, DELETE CLIP FOLDER. Drag clips between folders. |
| States | A flat list. SAVE STATE captures the current Perform setup (section 6.10). Rename or delete from the context menu. |
| Arrangements | A flat list. Create, rename, duplicate or delete from the context menu, including on empty space. |
| Samplers | A flat list. Create, rename or delete from the context menu. |
| History | One entry per session, created automatically when Track History is on. |
Decks
Perform mode offers one, two, three or four decks. Choose View → Decks → 1 Deck / 2 Decks / 3 Decks / 4 Decks; the current choice is checked and saved. The header’s deck-count control cycles 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 1. Single-deck mode gives Deck 1 the available deck area, with its mixer channel beside it when the mixer is shown. Reducing the count unloads the hidden decks. The header keeps the same layout at every deck count. Each deck adapts to what is loaded on it (track, MIDI clip, sampler or arrangement) and feeds its own mixer channel. This section covers the controls shared by all deck types and then the full track deck. MIDI clip decks are covered in section 9.
- 1Deck number in the deck color. It pulses during the last 30 seconds.
- 2P (key lock), then − / 0 / + to transpose by semitones. Command-click for formant.
- 3Title, artist and duration.
- 4EARLY / LATE: nudge the phase. On the master deck this row shows < BEND / BEND >.
- 5REMAIN, ORIGINAL BPM, CURRENT BPM and KEY (shown in its key color).
- 6/2 and X2: half or double speed, on a quantized boundary.
- 7SLIP: the track keeps running underneath cues, loops, speed changes and tape stops.
- 8This deck's MIDI and OSC output activity.
- 9QUANTIZE: deck quantize. Click it to choose Use Global, None or a value.
- 10Reverse (the arrow points the playing direction). Command-hold for a backspin.
- 11Cue markers on the scrolling waveform, numbered and in their cue colors.
- 12Scrolling waveform (3 BAND, colored by cue region), with beat grid lines and the white playhead.
- 13Overview of the whole track, with cue regions. The played part is dimmed. Drag to scrub.
- 14Hot cues 1–8 with their cue colors.
- 15LOOP, then I (in) and O (out).
- 16Skip back and forward by the skip amount. Right-click to change it.
- 17Slip loops from 1/32 to 1/2 bar, with D (dotted) and T (triplet).
- 18SYNC: follow the shared clock.
- 19FOLLOW / MASTER: reads MASTER while this deck owns the clock. Click to take it, click again to give it back.
- 20Tempo fader. Command-drag snaps to whole BPM.
- 21PLAY / PAUSE.
6.1Deck content types
| Content | Deck shows |
|---|---|
| Track | Scrolling and overview waveforms, 8 hot cues, loops, slip loops, pitch and phase controls, and attached MIDI/OSC output. |
| MIDI clip | A note preview, cues, loop, transpose, swing and note length, and routing to a MIDI device or VST instrument. |
| Sampler | Eight sample lanes, a 16-step sequencer, per-lane envelope, pitch and volume (section 6.8). |
| Arrangement | Marker pages, four track trims and routes, and track-style loops (section 6.9). |
| Empty | OPEN BROWSER TO LOAD A PLAYER / DROP TRACK OR ARRANGEMENT ON … |
6.2Deck header
The Eject button at the top right, after the quantize setting, unloads the deck. It is learnable as Deck 1–4 / eject for MIDI, OSC and keyboard mappings; the same mapping works in Perform and Perform Loop, where it also cancels queued section launches.
The header shows a deck badge, the title, and the artist and duration on a second line. It also shows REMAIN, ORIGINAL BPM, CURRENT BPM, KEY (in its key color), the deck's QUANTIZE setting, and MIDI / OSC output activity for anything attached to the track. The badge pulses during the last 30 seconds of a track.
6.3Tempo rail and clock
| Control | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Tempo fader | Changes deck speed. The range is ±12 semitones (half to double speed). The lower half reaches a full stop with WIDE PITCH (Settings → DECKS). Command-drag snaps to whole BPM. The handle lights at native tempo. |
| FOLLOW / MASTER | Reads FOLLOW while the deck follows the clock. Click it to make this deck the tempo master; it then reads MASTER. Click again to hand the clock back to the header. |
| SYNC | Follows the master tempo and phase. Switch it off for independent playback. |
| EARLY / LATE | Nudges phase back or forward. Shift makes the nudge four times finer. PHASE CORRECTION sets whether it acts as TRIGGER or HOLD. |
| < BEND / BEND > | On the master deck: bends the shared tempo by −2/+2 BPM while held. |
| /2 / ×2 | Half or double speed, applied on a quantized boundary. BPM MULTIPLIER RETAINS CLOCK decides whether the clock follows the multiplier. |
When all decks are empty, the first deck you load becomes master. When a master deck stops or is ejected, master passes to the lowest-numbered playing synced deck. If there is none, it returns to the header.
6.4Transport
| Control | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Header and overview | The header shows the arrangement's name, clip count, length, REMAIN, ORIGINAL BPM and CURRENT BPM. Below it, an overview shows all four tracks with their clips, markers and the playhead. |
| PLAY / PAUSE | At the bottom of the tempo rail. Starts or pauses playback, quantized if quantize is on. Pausing uses a tape stop: 25 ms by default, set per deck with optional jitter. |
| Reverse (arrow) | The → button at the end of the second row. It points the way the track is playing; click for reverse. Command-hold for a backspin. |
| SLIP | Keeps the underlying playhead running through hot cues, speed changes and tape stops. On release, playback returns to where the track would have been. |
| QUANTIZE | The readout in the deck header. Click it to choose USE GLOBAL, NONE or a value for this deck. |
| Fader start | The round F key under the channel's volume dial on the mixer (section 7.1). |
Cue (hold to preview) and Grid Start jump have no on-screen buttons in this build. They are available as mapped MIDI or keyboard (section 13), and controlled over OSC (section 14). Use the Eject button at the top right to unload a deck.
6.5Hot cues
Pads 1–8 trigger the track's cue slots in the cue palette colors.
- Click an empty pad to set a cue. If a loop is active, the cue captures that loop exactly.
- Control-click for a momentary cue that plays only while held.
- Command-click deletes a cue, if the track is unlocked.
- Command-Shift-click a cue to loop its region: the cue launches (quantized like a hot cue) with LOOP on from that cue to the next cue in time, or to the end of the track. OSC:
/Deck/N/SetCueLoopwith the cue number.
Saving cues set in Perform
Whether a new cue is kept depends on whether the track is locked:
| Track | Cue set on an empty pad | Command-click delete |
|---|---|---|
| Unlocked | Saved to the track straight away, the same as a cue added in Edit. It is still there next time you load the track, and on every deck. | Deletes the saved cue. |
| Locked | Used for this load only. The pad works normally, but nothing is written to the track, and the cue is gone when you eject or reload. | Does nothing. |
Lock prepared tracks (LOCK in the Browser context menu or the Edit toolbar) when you want to drop cues freely during a set without changing your preparation. This applies to track decks. Arrangement decks don't take new cues in Perform.
- A track with LOAD FIRST CUE set (in Edit metadata) loads at its first cue.
6.6Loops and navigation
| Control | Behavior |
|---|---|
| LOOP | Toggles a loop of the DEFAULT LOOP length (8 bars down to 1/4 bar). |
| IN / OUT | Set the loop start and end. While looping, IN halves the loop and OUT doubles it. |
| Free loop knob | For very short loops: sets the length at millisecond scale. |
| Skip − / + | Jumps back or forward by the skip amount, which is shown on the buttons. Right-click either button to choose the amount: 1, 2, 4 (1 bar), 8 (2 bars), 16 (4 bars) or 32 (8 bars) beats. The choice applies to every deck and is remembered. While a loop is active, skipping moves the loop and its playhead together. Skips preserve the current fractional beat position; rapid presses accumulate before the next audio block. |
| Slip loops | Hold to repeat that bar fraction, then return to the slipped position. D gives dotted lengths and T gives triplet lengths. |
In Perform Loop, click a deck’s waveform area to choose the destination for double-clicking a cue section in the right-hand shelf. The waveform area does not show a selection highlight. Double-clicking uses the same quantized launch as dragging a section onto a deck. Switching from Perform retains the playing position and captures loop timing at the audio boundary so later repeats preserve its beat phase. The loop timeline uses the master clock directly; new shelf sections follow that clock rather than inheriting the previously playing deck’s timing offset.
6.7Pitch, key and waveforms
- P turns on pitch preservation (Elastique time-stretching). Switching it on or off during track playback uses a short 4 ms blend to reduce clicks without shifting the playback position. PITCH LOCK ON LOAD turns it on for each new track.
- Pitch − / 0 / + transpose in semitones. Command-click adjusts or resets the formant when Formant Mode is Manual.
- Waveforms: click a paused waveform to seek (snapped when Q is on) and drag the overview to scrub. Zoom with the wheel or − / +, up to the full track. The overview dims what has already played.
- WAVEFORM MODE (Settings → GENERAL): SIMPLE, RGB (low, mid and high as red, green and blue) or 3 BAND (layered bands, colored by Deck Color, Cue Colors or Custom).
6.8Sampler decks
A sampler (.aps) is an eight-lane drum machine that plays in time with the clock. Each lane has its own sample, 16-step pattern, step velocities, pattern length (1–16 steps), direction, rate, pitch, volume, an A/H/R envelope with a release curve, and MONO or POLY voicing. The controls always show the selected lane.
- 1Deck number and sampler name.
- 2Global pitch: − / 0 / + transposes the whole sampler.
- 3EARLY / LATE: nudge the sampler's phase.
- 4/2 and X2: half or double speed.
- 5SAVE writes the sampler file.
- 6QUANTIZE: launch timing for this deck.
- 7The selected lane's sample. Click the name to load a file (Command-click clears it); the arrows step to the previous or next file in the folder.
- 8VEL: swap the knobs for step velocity faders (see the second figure).
- 9Pattern length for the selected lane, 1–16 steps.
- 10SYNC: follow the shared clock.
- 11FOLLOW / MASTER: take or release the clock.
- 12Tempo fader.
- 13PLAY / PAUSE (green while playing).
- 14Sample waveform with the lane's envelope drawn over it.
- 15MONO / POLY: MONO cuts off the previous hit; POLY lets tails overlap.
- 16Step direction: → forward, ← reverse, ↔ ping-pong, ? random.
- 17Step rate: N normal, D dotted or T triplet sixteenths.
- 18Lanes 1–8 in their colors. Click to select, Command-click to mute, right-click to rename.
- 19Sixteen steps. Click or drag to turn steps on or off. The bar above each step lights as the pattern plays.
- 20SWING.
- 21A, H, R and C: attack, hold, release and release curve for the selected lane.
- 22Pitch in semitones (ST). Command-drag for fine, linear pitch.
- 23VOLUME for the selected lane.
VEL switches the lower half between two views: the knobs (above), or step velocities (below).
- 1VEL lit: the knob row is replaced by step velocities.
- 2The selected lane is outlined, and the waveform and envelope take its color.
- 3The current step lights as the pattern plays.
- 4Velocity faders, one per step. Drag across them to paint.
- 5Step on/off buttons move below the faders.
Getting started
- In the SEQ collection, right-click and choose NEW SAMPLER, then load it onto a deck.
- Select a lane, then click the sample name to choose a file, or drop an audio file on the waveform. Samples can be up to 15 seconds long.
- Click or drag across the steps to build a pattern, and press Play.
- Press SAVE when you're done. Unsaved changes are lost when the deck is unloaded.
Lane settings
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sample name + ← / → | Click the name to load a sample, or Command-click it to clear the sample (the pattern stays). The arrows step to the previous or next file in the same folder. |
| MONO / POLY | MONO cuts off the previous hit when the lane retriggers. POLY lets sample tails overlap. |
| Direction (→ ← ↔ ?) | Forward, reverse, ping-pong or random step order. |
| Rate (N / D / T) | Normal, dotted or triplet sixteenth notes. |
| Steps | Pattern length, 1–16. Lanes with different lengths cycle against each other for polyrhythms. |
| A / H / R / C | Attack, hold, release and release curve. |
| ST (pitch) | Lane pitch in semitones. Command-drag for fine, linear pitch. |
| VOLUME | Lane level. Double-click resets it to 75%. |
| SWING | Shared swing for the whole pattern. |
Tips
- Command-click a lane button to mute that lane's triggers. Sounds already playing finish naturally, and the lane keeps its place in the pattern.
- Right-click a lane button to rename it.
- Command-drag A, H, R, C or VOLUME to change that setting on all eight lanes at once.
- Global pitch (− / 0 / + in the top row), EARLY / LATE, /2 / X2 and QUANTIZE act on the whole sampler.
- VEL, /2, X2, and the previous/next arrows beside the sample filename can be learned in MIDI/OSC mapping mode. Find them under Deck → Sampler. VEL and speed are switches; the arrows trigger one file change in the selected lane per press.
6.9Arrangement decks
An arrangement built in Arrange mode (section 10) can be loaded onto any deck and performed as a single object. All of its tracks play together in time with the master clock: audio, MIDI/VST with saved patches and macro automation, OSC lanes, fades and automation. A whole intro, transition or live edit then sits on one deck while the other decks stay free.
Save the arrangement first. Then drag it from the ARR collection onto a deck, or select it and press L1–L4.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| PLAY / PAUSE | Starts the arrangement on the next quantize boundary, and pauses it. The key is green while playing. |
| Header | The arrangement's name, ARRANGEMENT with its clip count and total length, REMAIN, ORIGINAL BPM, CURRENT BPM, QUANTIZE and MIDI / OSC, as on a track deck. |
| Display | One row per track that holds clips, with each clip in its color and its title, marker lines with their names, and the playhead fixed in the middle. It scrolls as the arrangement plays and stays in view in both the marker and ROUTING views. |
| Marker buttons | The arrangement's markers, five per page, on the same keys as hot cues, each with a round LED in its marker color beside its number and name. Press one to jump there, quantized by the deck's Q setting. The current marker has a colored outline and brighter text. NO MARKERS appears if the arrangement has none. |
| < / > page arrows | Step through marker pages when there are more than five markers. These can be mapped to hardware. |
| ROUTING | In the second header row, where track decks have /2 / X2. It appears only on arrangements with two or more tracks. Press it to swap the sunken frame under the display between the marker strip and tools, and the track trims and routing keys. The frame keeps its size and the scrolling display stays in view. Press it again to return to the markers. It can be mapped (Deck → Arrangement routing view). |
| Track trims | With ROUTING on, one LED level dial per arrangement track, centred in the sunken frame and labelled with the track's name. Only tracks that hold clips get one. The ring shows the track's level and the pointer its trim. Drag up or down to turn it. It runs from silent up to the level set in the arrangement. Double-click resets it to full (0 dB). Use it to pull a stem down live without editing the arrangement. |
| Track routing keys 1 2 3 4 | The 2 × 2 grid of keys beside each dial, under the track name (1 2 on top, 3 4 below), chooses which visible mixer channel that track plays through. Outputs beyond the current deck count are greyed out and unavailable. By default track 1 goes to channel 1, track 2 to channel 2, and so on. The dial pointer and the track name take that channel's deck color. |
| Loops, slip loops, skip, EARLY / LATE, SYNC | Work on the arrangement's output the same way they do on a track deck (section 6.6). Half and double speed have no keys on an arrangement deck, but their mapped controls still work. |
- 1Arrangement name, clip count and total length.
- 2REMAIN: time left in the arrangement.
- 3ORIGINAL BPM and CURRENT BPM: the tempo it was built at and the tempo it is playing at.
- 4QUANTIZE: launch and jump timing for this deck.
- 5MIDI / OSC learn.
- 6Eject.
- 7ROUTING: swap the marker strip and tools for the track trims and routing keys (second figure).
- 8Page arrows: step through marker pages, five markers per page.
- 9LOOP, then I (in) and O (out).
- 10Skip back and forward by the skip amount.
- 11Slip loops from 1/32 to 1/2 bar.
- 12D (dotted) and T (triplet).
- 13SYNC.
- 14FOLLOW / MASTER.
- 15Tempo fader.
- 16PLAY / PAUSE (green while playing).
- 17EARLY / LATE: nudge the phase.
- 18Markers are drawn across the display with their names.
- 19One row per track that holds clips, with each clip in its color. Empty tracks are left out.
- 20Playhead.
- 21Marker keys: a round LED in the marker color, then its number and name. Press one to jump there, quantized. The current marker is outlined.
- 1ROUTING lit.
- 2Track trim: an LED level dial. The ring shows the track's level and the pointer its trim. Drag up or down; double-click for full level.
- 3Routing keys: 1 2 on top, 3 4 below. The lit key is the mixer channel this track plays through.
- 4BASS is trimmed down a little, so its pointer sits back from full.
- 5VOX is silent at this point in the arrangement, so its ring is dark.
- 6Track name, in the color of the channel it is routed to.
Spreading an arrangement across the mixer
The routing keys let one arrangement deck feed several mixer channels at once. For example, route the drums track to channel 1 and the music track to channel 2, then EQ, filter and fade each one separately on the mixer. A track routed to a channel mixes in with whatever deck already feeds that channel. Leave a channel free, or keep that deck quiet, if you want the arrangement track on its own there.
Reduced-deck mode consolidates all four arrangement tracks into the visible mixer channels:
| Deck count | Arrangement track routing |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tracks 1–4 → mixer 1 |
| 2 | Tracks 1–2 → mixer 1; tracks 3–4 → mixer 2 |
| 3 | Tracks 1–2 → mixer 1; track 3 → mixer 2; track 4 → mixer 3 |
These are the initial routings; you can select any available output using the routing keys or mapped controls. Each deck-count mode retains its own routing selections while the arrangement stays loaded. Unavailable output commands are ignored.
The player shows only the tracks that hold clips. An arrangement that uses two tracks shows two display rows and, with ROUTING on, two trims with their routing keys, and so on. Empty tracks are left out, and the remaining ones keep their order.
An arrangement with a single track plays like an ordinary track: one full-height scrolling display, no ROUTING key, trim or routing keys, and the audio goes straight to this deck's own mixer channel.
Track trims, routing keys and the ROUTING view can all be mapped to MIDI or keyboard (section 13), and controlled over OSC (section 14). Markers can't be added from the deck. Edit them in Arrange mode and save again.
6.10Saved States
A State captures deck content, mixer settings and routing. Save it with SAVE STATE in the STATES collection. Recall it by loading the State or dragging it onto the deck or mixer area. After recalling, check that the referenced media and outputs exist on this computer.
6.11Performance views
Set from View → Performance View and View → Decks (checked choices for 1, 2, 3 or 4 decks).
| View | Layout |
|---|---|
| Compact Paired Mixer (default) | Decks either side of a compact mixer. |
| Decks Only | For use with an external mixer. |
| Stacked / Synced Decks | Full-width decks with synchronized phrase zoom. |
| 1 Deck | Shows Deck 1 and its mixer channel. Decks 2–4 are unloaded. |
| 3 Decks | Deck 1 spans the top; Decks 2 and 3 sit side by side below. When shown, each mixer channel sits immediately to the right of its deck. Deck 4 is unloaded. |
| 2 Decks | Shows Decks 1–2 and enables the crossfader. Decks 3–4 are unloaded. |
SIMPLE MODE (Settings → DECKS) hides the advanced track-deck controls.
Mixer and effects
Each deck feeds one mixer channel. A channel goes trim, then EQ, then filter, then volume, before routing to Master, a hardware output pair, or nowhere. The Cue send is taken before the volume control, so headphone monitoring works with the channel closed.
7.1Channel strip
- 1Channel number. Each deck feeds its own channel.
- 2Dotted VU meter, lit while the channel plays.
- 3Volume dial.
- 4F lit: raising the volume starts the deck, closing it pauses.
- 5EQ view: LOW, MID and HIGH.
- 6FX (under development).
- 7Inner ring: trim. Command-drag the volume dial to change it.
- 8F (fader start), off.
- 9Filter view: CUTOFF and RES.
- 10CUE, MUTE and SOLO.
- 11Output: MASTER, NONE or a hardware pair.
- 12Click the FILTER or EQ title to switch the knob row.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Trim | Input gain from −6 to +6 dB. There is no separate trim knob: Command-drag the volume dial up or down to adjust trim (Shift for fine steps), and Command-double-click it to reset trim to 0 dB. The setting shows as the inner ring around the volume dial. |
| FILTER / EQ title | Click the section title to switch the knob row between filter view (CUTOFF and RES) and EQ view (LOW, MID and HI). Both keep their settings when hidden. |
| CUTOFF + RES | In LP/HP RES mode, Cytomic bipolar DJ filter: low-pass to the left, neutral at center, high-pass to the right. RES adjusts resonance. |
| LOW / MID / HI | Cytomic three-band full-kill EQ: full cut at minimum, 0 dB at center, and +6 dB at maximum. Double-click resets a band to center. Click its LOW / MID / HI label to cut the band fully; click again to restore the centered default. A dim label indicates full cut. This also works in Perform Loop and the arrangement editor. Show EQ in Mixer settings hides the EQ view. Arrangement editor playback, arrangement players, and offline renders use the same Cytomic range. Older saved EQ settings and automation point values are converted to the new scale when loaded. |
| Volume dial + VU | Channel level, following the FADER CURVE. Dotted VU meter. |
| Fader-start key (F) | The round key under the volume dial. When it's on, raising the volume starts the deck on its quantize boundary and closing it fully pauses. |
| CUE | Sends the channel to the Cue bus before the volume control. |
| MUTE | Mutes the channel. When another channel is soloed, MUTE lights to show it is suppressed. Clicking it then clears solo and unmutes this channel. |
| SOLO | Solos the channel. |
| Output | MASTER, NONE or any enabled hardware pair. |
| FX | Opens the channel's VST3 insert window (section 7.4). Lit when the channel has inserts; the underline shows one segment per slot. |
7.2Master and Cue
The Master level and stereo LED meter are in the header. When ENABLE CUE OUTPUT is on, the Cue level, its meter and MIX (which blends Cue toward Master) sit beside them. The master bus applies only smoothed volume. Master soft clipping and limiting were removed in 0.1.832, so leave headroom with trim and channel levels.
On every dotted VU meter, the final dot lights bright red as a clipping warning when the meter reaches its top segment. Reduce the level to leave headroom.
7.3Crossfader and vector mixer
Crossfader mode must be on for the crossfader to control channel levels. Turning it off disables mouse, MIDI and OSC crossfader input; channel levels stay where you left them. Turning it back on picks up the current channel balance. The crossfader is inactive outside 2-deck Perform mode.
| Tool | Available when | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Crossfader | 2-deck Perform (View → Crossfader) | Equal-power crossfade between Decks 1 and 2. It is linked to the channel volume dials and fader curve, so each channel keeps its own level. |
| Delta Mixer | 3-deck Perform, Compact Paired Mixer view (View → Delta Mixer) | Three channel strips sit side by side above a triangular pad. The pad blends Deck 1 at the top vertex, Deck 2 at the bottom left and Deck 3 at the bottom right. Each vertex isolates one deck; the centre balances all three. Dragging beyond an edge stays inside the triangle. |
| Vector Mixer | 4-deck Perform, Compact Paired Mixer view (View → Vector Mixer) | An XY pad blends all four decks with equal power. Each corner channel keeps volume, trim and filter around the pad. EQ settings are kept but hidden. |
Vector mixing controls channel levels only while its mode is on and its 3- or 4-deck view is available. Delta mixing uses the selected fader curve; CONSTANT POWER maintains equal total power throughout the triangle. Turning it off leaves the channel levels in place and disconnects the pad from the faders. Re-enabling it picks up their current balance.
7.4FX: VST3 inserts
Each mixer channel holds up to four VST3 effects. Click FX on a channel to open its insert window; click it again, or close the window, to hide it. FX lights when the channel has inserts, and its underline has one segment per slot: lit for running, dim for bypassed, red for a missing or failed effect.
- + ADD INSERT opens the effect list: effects enabled in Settings → VST, grouped by maker, with search and category filters. Choose PRE or POST before picking one.
- PRE runs after the channel EQ and filter and before the fader, so headphone cue hears it. POST runs after the fader. PRE effects always come before POST effects; the flow line at the top of the window shows the order.
- Drag a slot by its dotted handle to reorder it. ON bypasses an effect, EDIT shows or hides its editor, and ⋯ replaces, moves or removes it. BYPASS ALL bypasses the whole chain.
- CH n MACROS: eight macros per channel, each pointing at a parameter in any of the channel's inserts. Click an unassigned macro (or right-click any macro) to pick a parameter or learn one, then drag it. In an effect's editor, the sidebar shows all eight with MAP (move a control in any insert to assign it) and ▾. The small number beside a macro shows which insert it controls.
- MIDI and OSC: map Mixer n / FX to turn the chain on or bypass it, and Mixer n / FX Macro 1–8 to the macros (
/AutoPilot/Mixer/CH{n}/FXand/FX/Macro/{1-8}). With a chain window open, quick learn also shades its BYPASS ALL key and its eight macro dials: click one, then move a controller. - Inserts, their settings and macro assignments are saved automatically and restored at launch. If an effect is no longer installed, its slot keeps its settings and shows it as missing; replace or remove it.
- FX presets: the save, save-as and load keys in the window header store a channel's whole chain as an encrypted
.apfxpreset in the Database/FX folder: plugin order, PRE/POST, ON, each plugin's settings, BYPASS ALL and the eight macro assignments. The header shows the preset's name. Save overwrites that preset (or asks for a name the first time), Save As asks for a new name, and Load lists your presets for this channel and can show the FX folder. Loading replaces the channel's current chain. - Saved states (browser STATES) include each channel's insert chain. Recalling a state reloads those chains with their settings and macros; states saved before insert effects existed leave the current chains alone.
- Effects that report latency are compensated so every channel stays in time, up to the instrument alignment budget. The window shows the chain's latency and, in orange, any part that arrives late.
- Effects run inside AutoPilot for lowest latency, so a misbehaving effect can stop the app; an effect that reports an error is bypassed and marked red. Intel-only effects can't be used as inserts on Apple Silicon yet.
- Effects need ENABLE VST / VSTi SUPPORT. Turning it off saves and unloads all inserts; turning it back on reloads them. The built-in native FX are no longer processed.
7.5Response curves
Settings → MIXER → FADER CURVE sets the shape: LINEAR (dB), CONSTANT POWER, DIPPED or FAST CUT. Keep the same curve for rehearsal and the show.
7.6Output routing
Enable and name stereo pairs in Settings → AUDIO → OUTPUT PAIRS. Each channel can then go to its own pair, for an external console, stem recording or outboard processing. Selecting an external output sets channel volume to maximum (0 dB) and locks it, including MIDI/OSC and crossfader or Delta/vector changes. Input trim also resets to 0 dB and is locked, including the volume knob’s inner ring and MIDI/OSC trim controls. Selecting MASTER again unlocks both volume and trim at 0 dB. MIDI clips playing VST instruments go to the mixer through the deck's channel.
7.7Gain staging
- Set EQ and filter to neutral.
- Command-drag each volume dial to set trim so normal peaks leave headroom on the channel VU.
- Balance with the volume dials.
- Watch the Master meter as you bring channels in.
Perform modes, clock and network
There are three ways to perform. All of them share one musical clock, which can also be shared with Ableton Link and with other AutoPilot machines over PilotNET.
| Mode | How to enter | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Perform | Mode → Perform (F2) | Full deck and mixer control (sections 6–7). |
| Perform Loop | Header PERFORM button (loop icon) | Building live loops from cue sections across four lanes. |
| Controller Perform Mode | Settings → GENERAL → CONTROLLER PERFORM MODE | Mostly hardware control, with a display-first layout. |
11.1Perform workflow
- Check the Master and Cue outputs and set the BPM and global Quantize.
- Load prepared content. Pre-listen with mixer CUE.
- Turn on deck Q and launch on musical boundaries.
- Shape the sound with trim, EQ, filter, volume and routing.
- Save a State when the rig reaches a reusable setup.
AUTOPLAY ON LOAD starts loaded content on the next quantized boundary. Fader start (F) starts a deck when you raise its volume. Fader start is switched off in Perform Loop.
11.2Perform Loop
Perform Loop turns each deck into a loop lane that repeats on the shared clock. Switching between Perform and Perform Loop keeps the loaded players and their audible positions. Arrangement players show all four arrangement tracks stacked inside their loop lane, including audio waveforms and MIDI notes. Their overview and marker previews show the same four tracks. Arrangement players use arrangement markers as region boundaries, never cues from their source tracks. Each region extends to the next marker, with the last ending at the arrangement end. A START region covers the opening if no marker exists at zero. Select an arrangement in the Browser to show its marker regions, then drag a region into a lane or double-click it to launch on the selected lane. The shelf scrolls for arrangements with more than eight markers; the lane’s eight region keys launch its first eight markers.
- Lanes: four lanes (two in 2-deck view). Each holds a LIVE TRACK, a MIDI CLIP or a SAMPLER, and shows a repeating waveform with a compact overview underneath.
- Loop length: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 bars. Changing it keeps the track position.
- Cue-section shelf: drag cue sections into a lane (DRAG CUE SECTIONS INTO A LANE). Each lane has eight cue buttons and source-page stepping. Launches follow the lane's quantize setting (USE GLOBAL or its own).
- A (auto-advance) moves through cues within the current cue. FULL traverses the whole track. The next cue's color and label show inside the loop window.
- Per lane: IN / OUT, HOLD / TOGGLE, REV (reverse with a ghost return playhead), Early / Late phase, pitch and formant, MUTE / SOLO, and EQ / FILTER / FX.
- Slip loops and their dotted (D) and triplet (T) timing have no keys in Perform Loop, but the deck's mapped slip-loop, dotted and triplet controls still work on each lane.
- Eject, to the right of the lane’s quantize setting, unloads its player and cancels pending section launches.
- Volume and trim match the Perform mixer, including VU and curve.
- During a lane loop or slip loop, the orange playhead stays within the highlighted loop range, including when the range crosses the end of the window. The ghost return playhead shows where playback will resume after slip.
- Loop wraps, section restarts and slip releases get short crossfades to avoid clicks.
11.3Controller Perform Mode
This mode replaces the decks with display-focused versions for track, arrangement, MIDI clip and sampler content. They show compact metadata and preview waveforms beside four stacked track lanes. Use it when a controller does the work and the screen is mostly for reading.
11.4Master tempo and wallclock
AutoPilot runs one shared musical clock. Every deck with SYNC on follows it, and so do quantized launches, the metronome, MIDI clips, samplers, arrangements and Ableton Link. The clock always has exactly one owner, and the owner sets the tempo.
Who can own the clock
| Owner | How you can tell | What sets the tempo |
|---|---|---|
| The header | Header MASTER is lit. This is the starting state when nothing is loaded. | The header BPM: drag it, double-click to type, press − / +, or Command-hold − / + for a temporary −2 / +2 BPM bend. |
| A deck | That deck's MASTER is lit and header MASTER is dark. | The deck's tempo fader, or < BEND / BEND > on that deck. The header BPM shows the tempo but can't be edited. |
| Another machine (PilotNET) | Header MASTER is dark and the sync panel says FOLLOW. | Whichever AutoPilot machine holds the network clock. Local tempo controls are locked until you take the clock back. |
The sync panel next to the header MASTER button shows this machine's role: MASTER, FOLLOW, NO MASTER (no machine currently holds the clock), or OFFLINE (PilotNET is off).
The header MASTER button
- When it's lit (the header owns the clock): pressing it hands the clock to a playing deck that has SYNC on. With PilotNET on, that deck can be on another machine. If no deck qualifies, nothing changes.
- When it's dark (a deck or another machine owns the clock): pressing it takes the clock back to the header at the current tempo, so nothing jumps. If another machine owns the clock, AutoPilot asks for network ownership first.
The deck MASTER button
- Pressing a deck's MASTER makes that deck lead. Its SYNC turns off, because a master doesn't follow, and the tempo carries on from the current clock.
- Pressing it again gives the clock back to the header at the current tempo, and turns the deck's SYNC back on if it was on before.
- AutoPilot also moves the clock on its own. When all decks are empty, the first deck you load becomes master, and its pitch resets so the header shows the track's native BPM. When the master deck stops or is ejected, the clock passes to the lowest-numbered deck that is playing with SYNC on, or back to the header if there isn't one.
Wallclock mode (lock icon)
The lock icon sits next to the header MASTER button. It uses the Browser padlock shape: grey when off, black on a light button when on. Turning it on makes the header the only possible clock owner on this machine:
- Deck MASTER buttons are hidden. If a deck was master when you pressed the lock, the clock returns to the header at the same tempo and that deck goes back to SYNC.
- Automatic handoffs stop. Loading, stopping or ejecting decks never moves the clock.
- SYNC still works on every deck. Synced decks follow the header, and unsynced decks play at their own tempo.
- With PilotNET: pressing header MASTER asks the network for ownership on behalf of the header. Other machines never hand the clock to this machine's decks.
- At startup: if no other PilotNET machine is found, a wallclock machine claims the network clock automatically. It never takes the clock from a machine that already holds it.
- The setting is saved and restored at launch. The lock is hidden while Perform Loop is active.
Use the lock when the tempo should stay put whatever the decks are doing: playing to a click or a live band, driving external MIDI gear, lighting or visuals, long arrangement-based sets, or a multi-machine rig where one machine keeps time. Leave it off for DJ-style mixing, where the tempo should follow the track you're riding.
Ableton Link
At startup, AutoPilot's clock keeps Link's beat phase so the Perform metronome targets the shared beat boundaries. Master-deck cues and header clock resets can establish a separate AutoPilot beat origin without resetting other Link apps.
Link is always on, and AutoPilot joins any Link session on your network. The clock's tempo is shared with the session, and only the machine that owns the clock sends tempo changes to Link. Link carries tempo only; start and stop are not synced. The sync panel shows the number of Link peers, progress through the four-beat Link bar, and RAMP, the catch-up correction AutoPilot applies while settling onto Link.
Typical setups
| Situation | Setup |
|---|---|
| Mixing tracks on one machine | Lock off. Let the first deck you load take master, or press MASTER on the deck you're riding. |
| Fixed tempo with a click, live players or MIDI gear | Lock on. Set the BPM in the header. |
| Several AutoPilot machines | PilotNET on. Turn the lock on for the machine that keeps time; the others show FOLLOW. Use header MASTER or MAKE MASTER to take over. |
| Alongside Ableton Live or another Link app | Nothing to set up. Both apps share the tempo, and the AutoPilot machine that owns the clock leads it. |
Related details
- LIMIT MINIMUM BPM TO 20 (Settings → DECKS): see Why 20 BPM is the floor below.
- Reverse and backspin don't move the clock backward. A backspin lands on the nearest clock phase.
- In the VST3 plugin, the DAW's transport owns the clock, so MASTER and the wallclock lock are unavailable.
Why 20 BPM is the floor
The shared clock always runs between 20 and 999 BPM, whatever your settings. This range comes from Ableton Link: the Link library clamps every session tempo to 20–999 BPM, and AutoPilot's clock is built on Link's timeline.
If AutoPilot's clock went below 20 BPM, Link would quietly hold the session at 20 BPM while AutoPilot ran slower. The two timelines would disagree about where the beat is and drift apart every bar. Other Link apps and PilotNET machines would lock to the wrong tempo, and quantized launches, the metronome and synced decks would land off the beat. Keeping the clock inside Link's range keeps every peer on the same beat grid.
Decks with SYNC off aren't tied to the clock, so they can play slower. With WIDE PITCH, their tempo fader goes all the way down to a stop. LIMIT MINIMUM BPM TO 20 applies the clock's floor to those independent decks as well:
| Setting | Independent (unsynced) decks | Synced decks and the master clock |
|---|---|---|
| On | Never play slower than 20 BPM. The tempo fader stops at the speed that gives 20 BPM for that track. | 20–999 BPM |
| Off | Can slow below 20 BPM, down to a stop with WIDE PITCH. | 20–999 BPM (unchanged) |
Turn it on if you hand the clock between decks often. A deck slowed to, say, 12 BPM that then becomes MASTER or is synced would have to jump to 20 BPM, which you'd hear as a sudden tempo change. With the limit on, every deck stays inside the range the clock and Link can follow, so handoffs are seamless. Leave it off if you use very slow tempos or deep slowdowns as an effect on a free-running deck.
11.5PilotNET and Ableton Link
PilotNET connects AutoPilot machines on the local network.
- ENABLE PILOTNET is off by default. When it is off, AutoPilot uses only the local library and local clock, and stops any decks streaming from the network.
- PilotNET Manager (AutoPilot menu) lists connected clients with their role, interface and last-seen time. The master can DISCONNECT clients. It also shows Link status and a library source selector. SHARE LIBRARY (READ ONLY) enables sharing on the host. Right-click a client → Sync Library copies this host’s library into that client’s storage; clock master ownership is not required. The client row shows progress, and the menu offers Cancel Library Sync while running. Both apps must support library sync and be visible in PilotNET. On a Player launched with a direct connection, choose LIBRARY: DIRECT to use that host without multicast discovery.
- Saved library: sync copies tracks, playlists/folders, cues, grids, tempo markers, waveforms, artwork, MIDI/OSC data, MIDI clips, samplers and arrangements with their audio dependencies. Repeating sync refreshes metadata and reuses verified media. Files are checksum-verified before committing; cancellation or failure preserves the last completed catalogue. It does not delete client media or copy activation, application settings, proprietary SDKs, or installed VST instruments. Choose LIBRARY: SYNCED (LOCAL) to browse the saved snapshot offline. AUTOMATIC prefers an existing physical local library, then the saved snapshot, then a discovered host. A network-selected host also loads verified synced items locally first, with network fallback for unavailable files.
- Library access: local content takes priority; otherwise Player discovers a sharing host. Use the normal browser to view library content. Remote tracks stream into memory in verified chunks. Device pairing and network encryption are currently disabled; use a trusted local network.
- Deck numbering: each machine's decks get their own numbers across the network, and the numbers update automatically as machines join or leave.
- Handoff: MAKE MASTER claims the network clock. When the master quits cleanly, it passes the clock to another live app, preferring one with synced decks playing.
- Ableton Link: AutoPilot shares tempo and its bar reference without resetting Link sessions.
11.6AutoPilot VST3 plugin
The optional AutoPilot VST3 runs inside a DAW and follows the host's transport. It has four stereo mixer outputs and automatable deck and mixer parameters. It does not include Elastique pitch, VST hosting, or Ableton Link. The VST settings category and Link status panel are hidden, and the host handles audio settings.
With the plugin focused, press F11, or Control–Command–F on macOS, to move its interface into a fullscreen window. Press the same shortcut or Escape to return to the DAW's plugin window. Closing the fullscreen window also returns the interface; audio processing continues in the DAW.
For MIDI clips in the clip player, enable MIDI output and choose DAW MIDI OUT (VST3) as the destination. AutoPilot sends the clip's notes through the plugin's MIDI output, using the selected MIDI channel and clip transpose, swing and note-length settings. Route that output to another MIDI/instrument track in your DAW. Events follow the rendered clip timeline, including loops and fractional-beat restarts; stopping playback, unloading a clip or changing its destination releases its held notes. This destination is available only in the VST3 build. Hardware MIDI destinations remain available.
The VST3 editor’s DAW MIDI strip selects Single Output or Separate Outputs. Single Output combines all decks on MIDI Out 1 for compatibility. Separate Outputs sends Decks 1–4 to MIDI Out 1–4, respectively. Each output supports all 16 MIDI channels. Use each deck’s CH selector in this strip to force channel 1–16, or leave Clip Channel selected to follow the clip player’s channel setting. These choices are saved in the DAW session and available as plugin parameters. Older sessions restore Single Output and Clip Channel. Changing a deck’s channel releases its held notes on the previous channel before playing on the new one.
Separate MIDI bus routing depends on the DAW; some hosts expose only the first bus. Use Single Output in those hosts. Channel filtering also depends on the host: Ableton Live merges MIDI channels when routing internally between tracks, so Single Output does not provide independent deck routing there. The standalone app and Player do not expose these plugin-only controls.
When the DAW resumes or jumps to another position, playing synced decks keep their track position and move only to the nearest matching beat phase. This includes starts between beats; moving the DAW playhead does not seek the track to the DAW's song position. Active loops wrap the adjustment within their bounds. Freewheeling decks keep their position without phase adjustment.
11.7Before doors
- Turn off sleep and aggressive power saving.
- Test every output and every mapped control.
- Use the exact sample rate and buffer size you will play with.
- Check grids and emergency loops on tonight's tracks.
- Leave headroom on the master, since there is no master limiter.
11.8OSCpilot controllers in PilotNet Manager
With AutoPilot enabled in OSCpilot Player, each connected USB-C iPad appears as its own CONTROLLER row in PilotNet Manager. The row uses the iPad's system name, set in iPad Settings → General → About → Name (for example AP01 and AP02). If that name cannot be read, AutoPilot uses the name supplied by OSCpilot. Devices with equal names still have separate rows; their USB serial suffixes distinguish them. DISCONNECT drops only that controller and REFRESH permits it to reconnect.
Settings
Open Settings from AutoPilot → Settings…. It has nine pages. There are no CANCEL or SAVE buttons: when you close the window (its close button or Escape) after changing something, AutoPilot asks Changes have been made, save these settings? YES saves and closes, NO discards the changes and closes, and CANCEL keeps Settings open. Audio routing applies and saves immediately. Color previews apply live and are reverted if you answer NO.
12.1GENERAL
| Setting | Choices / purpose |
|---|---|
| SKIN | STANDARD, MIDNIGHT, EMBER, MOSS, ORCHID, STEEL |
| HIGHLIGHT COLOR | DEFAULT (the skin's accent: orange in STANDARD) or COLOR 1–8 from the cue palette. Every orange highlight in the app (lit keys, playheads, loop regions, accent text, learn states) takes this colour. A palette slot follows later palette edits. |
| LIGHT MODE | Light theme. |
| CONTROLLER PERFORM MODE | The display-first deck layout (section 11.3). |
| WAVEFORM MODE | SIMPLE, RGB, 3 BAND. With 3 BAND, BAND COLORS can be DECK COLOR, CUE COLORS or CUSTOM, and CUSTOM has three swatches. |
| BROWSER MODE | APP MODE or CONTROL MODE (section 4.6). |
| GREY BROWSER PREVIEW WAVEFORMS | Grey thumbnails in the Browser. |
| CUE COLORS → PRESET + 8 swatches | The cue palette (factory: BAUHAUS). Drag swatches to reorder, right-click to choose a color. Deck colors come from slots 1, 3, 5 and 7. |
| TRACK HISTORY | Dims played rows and logs sessions. |
| DISABLE PREVIEW IN PERFORM MODE | Blocks Browser previews during a set. |
| PLAY STATUS → RESET / PLAY COUNTS → RESET COUNTS | Clears dimming / persistent counts. |
12.2AUDIO
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| DEVICE: AUDIO DRIVER, OUTPUT, SAMPLE RATE, BUFFER SIZE | The audio interface and timing. Raise the buffer first if you hear crackles. |
| TEST OUTPUT | Sends a test signal. |
| MAIN / CUE: MASTER OUTPUT, ENABLE CUE OUTPUT, CUE OUTPUT | Stereo pairs for the main and headphone buses. ENABLE CUE OUTPUT is off by default; off hides CUE OUTPUT here and the header's cue controls, silences the cue bus, and plays the metronome and Perform-mode previews on Master. Saved. |
| OUTPUT PAIRS | Enable and name the stereo pairs that channels can route to. |
In the VST3 plugin this page is disabled, because the host owns the audio device.
The status below OUTPUT PAIRS shows the callback buffer duration, the driver-reported output latency, and audio underruns when the driver reports them. Buffer duration is only one part of output latency. Standalone playback accounts for the driver-reported output delay when scheduling Link/PilotNet audio. Full AutoPilot also accounts for its internal instrument-alignment delay; Player has no such delay. On iOS, Player uses the audio buffer’s hardware presentation timestamp plus reported output latency when that timestamp is available. Device measurements and listening tests may still reveal residual offsets. Failed device, sample-rate, or buffer changes display an error.
AutoPilotPlayer saves its audio device, sample rate, buffer size, and output
routing in AutoPilotPlayer.audio.settings inside the AutoPilot application
support directory. Synced host libraries persist separately in Synced Libraries, with a SQLite metadata snapshot per host and media files named by checksum. Received library edits and other Player preferences remain temporary; syncing refreshes the host’s read-only snapshot.
For the Raspberry Pi DAC Pro, use its Direct hardware device without any
conversions output. The Pi test configuration uses 44100 Hz / 64 samples;
increase to 128 samples if playback produces underruns. The direct hardware path
bypasses the desktop sound-server volume; start with your amplifier turned down.
On Raspberry Pi hardware, Player starts fullscreen with controls scaled up to 150%. The mixer receives more width and the waveform uses the remaining space. F11 toggles fullscreen; Escape leaves fullscreen. Other desktop Player platforms retain their existing window and scaling behavior. On the Pi, Audio and PilotNet dialogs stay attached to the Player window and fit within the display. Hover tooltips are disabled in the Pi Player. Animation follows the display refresh rate; a 60 Hz panel cannot show more than 60 distinct frames per second.
The experimental iPhone Player runs fullscreen in landscape and fits its controls inside the screen's safe area. Join the same Wi-Fi network as the AutoPilot library host and allow Local Network access. PilotNet/Link discovery requires a build signed with Apple's multicast networking entitlement. For private testing, a developer can launch Player with a direct library host address and key: ordinary TCP library browsing and track transfers need only Local Network permission, without TestFlight or multicast approval. Link sync still requires its network discovery. Development installation also requires Developer Mode on the phone. Desktop VST instruments and the desktop Elastique SDK are unavailable in this initial iOS build.
Player’s top bar shows the master beat alongside CLICK and its volume knob. CLICK toggles the metronome on the configured Cue output; the knob adjusts its level. These controls remain available in the Browser.
Player starts with PilotNet enabled each session. Beneath its volume/filter section, the clock panel shows the master/follower role, LINK peer count, Link bar phase and playback correction (RAMP). LINK 0 means no other Link peers are connected. MASTER, SYNC and W use the existing header ownership, player tempo-sync and wallclock controls. The BPM spinner and minus/plus controls are editable when the local header owns tempo; Command-hold minus/plus bends it. OUTPUT BPM is the main header's effective master tempo including bend; the separate PLAYER BPM readout shows the loaded player's current tempo. Tempo SYNC preserves an existing track phase offset; use the deck's phase-reset control to clear that offset when aligning beats. PHASE beneath Player BPM shows the current offset from the nearest beat in playback milliseconds, to two decimal places: positive is LATE, negative is EARLY. This readout reports the track’s phase adjustment, not a measurement of network or hardware latency.
12.3DECKS
| Group | Settings |
|---|---|
| PLAYBACK | DEFAULT LOOP (8 bars – 1/4 bar), AUTOPLAY ON LOAD, SIMPLE MODE, PITCH LOCK ON LOAD, CLICK CUE REGIONS FROM PREVIEW (clicking the overview waveform fires the hot cue whose region you clicked, like pressing its pad, instead of jumping to the nearest quantized position; clicks before the first cue still seek) |
| TAPE STOP | Per-deck duration in ms (default 25) with JITTER (±100 ms random), and PITCH MODE (pitch drops during the stop) |
| PITCH | WIDE PITCH, CAMELOT KEY, LIMIT MINIMUM BPM TO 20 (keeps unsynced decks at 20 BPM or above, matching Ableton Link's range; see section 11.4) |
| SYNC | BPM MULTIPLIER RETAINS CLOCK, PHASE CORRECTION (TRIGGER or HOLD), RESYNC RATE (%) |
| ELASTIQUE | ALGORITHM (EFFICIENT, PRO, MOBILE), STARTUP QUALITY (FAST, BALANCED, BEST), FORMANT MODE (OFF, PRESERVE, MANUAL), FORMANT DETAIL (NORMAL, LOW, HIGH), STEREO INPUT (L/R, MID-SIDE). Factory: PRO, BEST, MANUAL, NORMAL, L/R. |
12.4MIXER
PROCESS EQ/FILTER FOR DIRECT OUT defaults to on. Direct hardware output channels include the mixer EQ and filter when on; turning it off bypasses that channel tone stage, including its pre-fader Cue tap. Trim, volume, mute/solo, and effects still apply. Master-routed channels and VST3 host outputs always retain mixer EQ/filter processing. Arrangement lane EQ/filter remains part of the source mix. Changes crossfade over 5 ms.
FILTER / EQ in Mixer settings applies across the mixer, Perform Loop, arrangement editor/player and offline rendering:
- LP/HP RES: bipolar cutoff plus resonance, as before.
- ONE KNOB: FILTER sweeps the cutoff and WIDTH adjusts the gap between the LP and HP cutoffs. Width defaults to 1 when starting or switching into ONE KNOB mode; 1 restores the original full-width response and 0 is narrowest. Resonance starts at 0.3 and increases toward 0.85 near the center of the sweep as Width narrows. Double-click WIDTH to restore full width. Width uses the second filter control (the same saved parameter slot used for resonance in LP/HP RES mode). Leaving ONE KNOB resets that shared control to 0 for resonance; explicitly saved values are restored when loading a project.
- LP/HP: independent LP and HP knobs, with zero resonance. Both knobs are neutral fully left; turn clockwise to increase filtering. Double-click restores each neutral position. Their values are saved separately. Switching into LP/HP mode resets both knobs to bypass.
- LOW / MID (Hz) defaults to 250 Hz and MID / HI (Hz) to 2500 Hz. LOW covers below the first crossover, MID the range between them, and HI above the second. The upper crossover must be higher than the lower. Frequency changes are smoothed during playback.
The updated Cytomic cutoff ranges are 100 Hz–16 kHz for LP and 50 Hz–8 kHz for HP (scaled down at sample rates below 44.1 kHz). Filter labels light up when their controls are away from neutral. Click a lit label to reset its control; in the arrangement editor this also disables automation for that control so the reset holds.
The DEFAULTS button below the EQ split fields restores 250 Hz and 2500 Hz; save when you close Settings to apply. Filter changes use Cytomic’s coefficient interpolation across each audio processing block. Separate LP/HP controls support MIDI mapping and OSC Filter/LowPass / Filter/HighPass, normalized 0–1.
FADER CURVE: LINEAR (dB), CONSTANT POWER, DIPPED, FAST CUT. EQ visibility is controlled here too.
12.5MIDI
- INPUTS: turn on the controllers you want to map (section 13). Only enabled inputs can be learned or used.
- OUTPUTS: enable the devices that clips and attached MIDI can play to. Mappings never send to them.
- DEVICES: REFRESH rescans, and the line beside it shows how many inputs and outputs were found.
- DECK ROUTING: the default MIDI OUT device and CH for each of Decks 1–4.
12.6OSC
OSC INPUT ENABLED, the LISTEN PORT (default 9090), STATUS, and the five SENDERS for the OSC lanes in tracks, clips and arrangements. See section 14.1.
12.7OSC FEEDBACK
The DEST IP and PORT for state feedback (default 9096), RESEND STATE, and the SUBSCRIPTIONS that choose which header, deck and mixer values are sent. See section 14.10.
12.8DATABASE
- LIBRARY → DATABASE FILE: reveals the database.
- IMPORT → REKORDBOX: XML import (section 2.4).
- RESET → CLEAR DATABASE / FULL RESET: maintenance (section 3.6).
- Library checks and repairs have moved to the Library Manager.
12.9VST
- ENABLE VST / VSTi SUPPORT is the global switch at the top, on by default. It applies and saves immediately, briefly restarting audio. Turning it off saves patches, unloads all hosted instruments and their helper processes, prevents plugin loading and scanning, and bypasses all VST-related audio and MIDI alignment delays, including the fixed instrument buffer used when no instrument is loaded. Turning it back on restores the suspended instruments from their saved patches. If a patch cannot be saved, the switch stays on and reports the error. While support is off, only the switch is shown; the scanner and plugin information return when support is enabled.
- Device output-latency compensation, Link timing correction, user MIDI timing offsets, and native mixer EQ/effects remain active. Cancel a running scan before switching support off.
- VST3 LOCATIONS shows the folders that are scanned: folders listed in the
VST3_PATHenvironment variable, your user VST3 folder (~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3on macOS,%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3on Windows), the system VST3 folder, and any folders you add. FOLDERS lists them and has Add Folder…; click one of your own folders in that menu to remove it. - SCAN VST3 scans new and changed plugin files, up to four at a time, each in a separate helper process. Unchanged files reuse their saved results, so rescans are quick. CANCEL SCAN stops at once and keeps the previous results.
- A plugin that takes longer than 10 seconds is often waiting for a licence or activation window. Finish that window, or press SKIP to move on. A plugin is skipped automatically after 90 seconds.
- ISSUES lists plugins that could not be scanned with the reason (crashed, timed out, skipped, wrong processor type, no plugins found). Click one to retry it, or choose Retry All Skipped, Rescan Everything or Show Scan Log. Skipped plugins are not retried on later scans until the file changes or you retry them.
- Right-click a plugin in either list to choose Use as Instrument, Use as Effect or Automatic, for plugins that describe themselves incorrectly.
- The INSTRUMENTS and FX lists have checkmarks. Unchecked plugins are hidden from choices and new instances, while existing playback carries on. Checkmarks persist across rescans.
MIDI and keyboard mapping
Mapping lets a MIDI controller or your computer keyboard play AutoPilot. You can assign any control in the mapping catalogue (more than a thousand of them, across the decks, mixer, header, Browser, Arrange editor and Loop Perform) to a MIDI note, a MIDI CC, the pitch wheel or a key. One control can have several inputs, and one input can drive several controls at once.
Mapping covers MIDI and the keyboard only. OSC doesn't need mapping: AutoPilot has a fixed OSC address for every control, described in chapter 14.
13.1Before you start
- Connect the controller and open Settings → MIDI (section 12.5). Under INPUTS, turn the controller on. Use REFRESH if it isn't listed. The change applies when you close Settings and choose to save.
- Only enabled inputs can be learned or used. AutoPilot rereads the list about once a second, so a controller you enable while the Mapping page is open turns from red to green without a restart.
- Mappings never send anything back to the controller. There is no LED or motor-fader feedback over MIDI. If a surface needs to show AutoPilot's state, use OSC feedback (section 14.10).
13.2Quick learn (MAP)
Quick learn assigns a control without leaving Perform.
- Press the learn key at the right end of the header (the MIDI plug icon). It turns blue. It's available in Perform, Perform Loop and Arrange; in Arrange, only header, Browser and insert-window controls can be learned.
- Every mappable control gets a blue tint and a pointing-hand cursor. Mapped inputs don't fire while learn is on.
- Click a control. A dialog titled MIDI / KEYBOARD LEARN –
waits for input. - Move a knob or fader, press a pad or note, or press a key. The dialog closes as soon as AutoPilot hears it.
- Click the next control, or press the learn key again to finish.
Quick learn adds an input. It never removes the control's existing inputs, and it lets an input you already use drive this control too. The only thing it refuses is the exact pairing that already exists ("That input already controls …"). Press Escape or CANCEL to stop without learning.
A few controls can only be learned this way, such as a mixer channel's FX key and the BYPASS ALL key in the insert window.
Outside learn mode, a mapped key on screen is drawn pressed while its input is held (or flashes briefly for a single press), so you can see what your controller is doing.
13.3The Mapping page
Choose MAPPING from the Mode menu to manage every assignment. The header stays at the top, and the page fills the rest of the window. While it's open AutoPilot only listens: inputs are shown and logged, but no control fires.
- 1The selected assignment: control, device and message.
- 2SHARED: other controls on this input. Click to jump to them.
- 3LEARN (reads CANCEL LEARN while waiting).
- 4ASSIGNMENT ENABLED, TOGGLE ON EACH PRESS (button controls only) and INVERT.
- 5MINIMUM and MAXIMUM: the part of the range the input covers.
- 6RESPONSE: orange is this assignment, blue is MIXER 2 / FILTER1 on the same knob (inverted). The vertical line is the last value received.
- 7DELETE the assignment.
- 8RECENT INPUT: each message and the controls it drove.
- 9STATUS: the last message heard.
- 10CLEAR ALL MAPPINGS (no confirmation).
- 11NAME: the profile; * means unsaved changes.
- 12FILE: NEW, then load, save and save as.
- 13OSC API window (section 14.2).
- 14AREA.
- 15Deck, channel or lane 1-4.
- 16FILTER by function.
- 17SEARCH this area.
- 18Controls in the area. MAPPED marks mapped ones; the selected control has an orange bar.
- 19ADD ASSIGNMENT for the selected control.
- 20Every assignment in every area: the control, then device, channel and message. The LED is green for MIDI, aqua for keyboard, grey when off or not learned, red when the device is unavailable.
- 21x2: this knob drives two controls.
- 22A keyboard assignment (the Q key).
- 23NOT LEARNED: an assignment waiting for an input.
The page has three columns.
PROFILE and APPLICATION CONTROLS (left)
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| NAME | The profile's file name, or UNTITLED MAPPING. A * means unsaved changes. |
| FILE | NEW, then three icon keys: load, save and save as (section 13.7). |
| OSC API | Opens the OSC API window (section 14.2). |
| AREA | DECKS, MIXER, HEADER, BROWSER, ARRANGEMENT (the Arrange editor) or LOOP PERFORM. |
| DECK / CHANNEL / LANE | Picks deck 1–4, mixer channel 1–4 or lane 1–4 for areas that have them. The selected function stays selected when you switch. |
| FILTER | Narrows Decks and Mixer by function (section 13.6). |
| SEARCH | Finds a control in this area by name. CLEAR empties it. |
| Controls list | Every control in the area. A mapped control shows ● MAPPED (green for MIDI, aqua for keyboard), or ● 2 INPUTS when it has more than one. |
| ADD ASSIGNMENT · | Adds an assignment for the selected control and selects it, ready to learn. Press again to give the control another input. |
ASSIGNMENTS (middle)
Every assignment in every area, in the order you made them. Each row shows the control, then the input: device, channel and message (for example CH 1 · NOTE 11), KEYBOARD Q, or NOT LEARNED.
| LED | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | A MIDI assignment that's working |
| Aqua | A keyboard assignment |
| Grey, dimmed text | Turned off, or no input learned yet |
| Red, UNAVAILABLE | The MIDI device isn't connected or isn't enabled in Settings → MIDI |
An amber ×N badge means this input drives N controls. CLEAR ALL MAPPINGS removes every assignment straight away, without asking, so save your profile first.
LEARN & CONFIGURE (right)
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| CONTROL / DEVICE / MESSAGE | The selected assignment, its device and its message. |
| SHARED | ALSO CONTROLS … lists the other controls on the same input. Click it to jump to the next one. |
| LEARN | Waits for the next MIDI message or key and assigns it, replacing this assignment's input. It reads CANCEL LEARN while waiting; Escape also cancels. |
| ASSIGNMENT ENABLED | Turns this one assignment off without deleting it. |
| TOGGLE ON EACH PRESS | Button controls only: on flips the control on each press; off holds it on only while pressed. |
| INVERT | Reverses the travel of a knob or fader, picks options from the other end, or makes a step or bend go the other way. |
| MINIMUM / MAXIMUM | The part of the control's range the input covers, from 0% to 100%. For a list control they show option names instead. Maximum can't go below minimum. |
| RESPONSE | A chart of the control's value across the input's travel (orange), with any other controls on the same input in other colors. A vertical line marks the last value received. |
| DELETE | Removes the assignment. |
| RECENT INPUT | The latest MIDI messages and keys, newest first, with the controls each one drives, or NOT MAPPED. |
| STATUS | The last message heard, or the result of the last action. |
13.4Making a mapping
- Choose an AREA and, if it has one, the deck, channel or lane.
- Select the control in the list. Use FILTER or SEARCH to find it.
- Press ADD ASSIGNMENT, then LEARN.
- Move the hardware control or press the key.
- Adjust INVERT, MINIMUM / MAXIMUM or TOGGLE ON EACH PRESS if you need to, and check the RESPONSE chart.
- Save the profile.
- Switch back to Perform or Edit to play with it.
To move to a different controller, select each assignment and press LEARN on the new device. A mapping belongs to one device and one MIDI channel.
13.5Control types
Every control has a fixed type, which decides how inputs drive it. The type isn't something you choose; the options in BEHAVIOUR adapt to it.
| Type | Examples | How an input drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Value | Volume, trim, EQ, filters, tempo slider, BPM, quantize | A knob, fader or the pitch wheel maps its travel across MINIMUM–MAXIMUM. A note sets the value from its velocity and returns to minimum on release. A key jumps to maximum while held and back to minimum on release. |
| Button | Mute, solo, cue, sync on/off, reverse, slip | With TOGGLE ON EACH PRESS (the default for buttons) each press flips it. With it off, the button is on only while held. |
| Trigger | Play/pause, loop, loop in/out, skip, Browser keys | Fires once per press. |
| Momentary | Hot cues, deck CUE, slip loops, Early/Late, tempo bend − / + | On while held. |
| Selection | Mode, Browser view, performance view, deck speed, sampler lane | A knob or fader spreads the options across MINIMUM–MAXIMUM and changes the option only when it crosses into a new one. A note or key selects the option at MAXIMUM (MINIMUM when inverted). |
| Step | Beat skip, bar skip, loop move, pitch step, waveform zoom, BPM step | One step forward per press. INVERT steps back. |
| Bend | Phase bend, tempo bend | Bends while held and releases on let-go. INVERT bends the other way. |
For every type except Value and Selection, any MIDI value above 0 counts as pressed and 0 as released, whether it comes from a note, a CC or the pitch wheel.
Step and Bend are what you need for jog-style or encoder buttons. For example, map the controller's "beat back" pad to BEAT SKIP with INVERT on, and its "beat forward" pad to the same control without it. The control then shows 2 INPUTS.
13.6Areas and controls
| Area | Instances | What you can map |
|---|---|---|
| DECKS | Deck 1–4 | About 230 controls per deck. FILTER: PLAYBACK & SPEED, CUES, LOOPS & SKIPPING, PITCH & PHASE, WAVEFORM, plus SAMPLER, ARRANGEMENT PLAYER and CLIP PLAYER for those deck types. |
| MIXER | Channel 1–4 | Volume, trim, output, EQ high/mid/low, FILTER1 / FILTER2, mute, solo, cue, FX macros 1–8, and the crossfader. FILTER: LEVELS, EQ, FILTER, BUTTONS. |
| HEADER | — | Master, cue, cue-mix and metronome levels, BPM (value, ±1, step and bend), tempo bend, quantize, metronome, crossfader, vector mixer, Loop Perform, and the mode, Browser, performance-view, master-section and deck-layout choices. |
| BROWSER | — | Up, down, left, right, enter, back, and load onto deck 1–4. |
| ARRANGEMENT | Lane 1–4 | The Arrange editor's track volume and VST macros 1–8 (not an arrangement deck; those controls are under DECKS → ARRANGEMENT PLAYER). |
| LOOP PERFORM | Lane 1–4 | The lane's previous/next, auto-advance, full, EQ mode and reverse; its deck's loop, pitch, phase, slip-loop and hot-cue controls; and its mixer channel. |
FILTER1 and FILTER2 follow whatever the channel's filter is set to (section 7.1), so a mapping keeps working when you change filter type. The sampler's controls include every lane (SAMPLER LANE 1–8 / …) as well as the selected lane.
13.7Profiles
Your assignments are saved automatically with the app and come back at the next launch, together with the profile name and whether it has unsaved changes. To keep a set for a particular controller or gig, save it as an .apmidimap profile.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| NEW | Starts an empty profile. Asks first if there are unsaved changes. |
| Load (folder icon) | Opens an .apmidimap file. Asks first if there are unsaved changes. |
| Save (disk icon) | Saves to the current file, or asks where if it has none. |
| Save as | Always asks for a new file name. |
A profile can hold up to 512 assignments and 1 MB. If a file can't be read, you see an error and the assignments you had stay loaded.
Profiles from older versions still open:
- OSC assignments are skipped, because OSC now uses the fixed API.
- Assignments made with the former DDJ-FLX4 preset load as ordinary MIDI assignments.
- Retired mixer filter targets (cutoff, resonance, low pass and high pass as separate controls) are skipped. Map FILTER1 and FILTER2 instead.
13.8Keyboard mappings
- Learn a key the same way as a MIDI control. Shift, Control, Option and Command combinations count as separate keys, so Q and Shift+Q can do different things.
- Mapped keys work in Perform and Perform Loop, while the main window is in front.
- They don't fire while you're typing in a text field, while a dialog is open, or while quick learn is on.
- A mapped key takes priority over the app's own shortcut for that key in Perform.
- Autorepeat is ignored. If the window loses focus while you hold a key, the control is released, and you need to press the key again.
- Escape can't be mapped. It always cancels learning.
13.9What's supported
| Supported | Not supported |
|---|---|
| Absolute MIDI CC 0–119 | CC 120–127 (channel mode messages) |
| Note on / off with velocity (note on with velocity 0 counts as off) | Channel pressure, poly aftertouch, program change |
| Pitch wheel (14-bit) | 14-bit CC pairs, NRPN, relative or encoder CC |
| Computer keyboard keys and modifier combinations | Soft takeover (pickup), MIDI shift layers or banks |
| Several inputs per control, and several controls per input | Controller presets, and LED or motor feedback over MIDI |
If MIDI arrives faster than AutoPilot can handle it, every held control is released and the status line reports that messages were dropped. Your mappings stay on.
OSC control
Any OSC app, control surface, show controller or script can drive AutoPilot over the network, and AutoPilot can send its state back so a surface stays in step. OSC uses a fixed set of addresses, one for each control, so there's nothing to learn or map. The same addresses work on every AutoPilot computer.
14.1Setting up
Open Settings → OSC.
- 1SENDER A-E: destinations for the OSC lanes in tracks, clips and arrangements.
- 2OSC INPUT ENABLED. Off stops all OSC, in and out.
- 3LISTEN PORT (default 9090).
- 4STATUS.
- 5Settings, CONTROL, OSC.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| OSC INPUT ENABLED | Turns OSC on. When it's off, AutoPilot neither receives nor sends any OSC: control, feedback and the SENDERS all stop. |
| LISTEN PORT | The UDP port AutoPilot listens on (default 9090). |
| STATUS | LISTENING ON PORT …, OSC INPUT OFF, or an error in red if the port is already in use. |
| SENDER A–E | DEST IP and PORT for the OSC lanes you author in tracks, clips and arrangements (section 14.11). Defaults are 127.0.0.1, ports 8001–8005. |
Changes apply when you close Settings and choose to save them. Send your messages over UDP to the listen port on the AutoPilot computer's IP address. Where to send state back is set separately, in Settings → OSC FEEDBACK (section 14.10).
14.2The OSC API window
The OSC API window lists every address AutoPilot accepts, explains each one, and shows the messages arriving, which makes it the quickest way to set up and test a surface. Open it from the Mapping page: Mode → MAPPING, then OSC API in the PROFILE column.
- 1How many of the 594 addresses are listed.
- 2The values it expects. A value just received shows in pink.
- 3The listen port and the address root.
- 4ADDRESS ROOT, with APPLY and DEFAULT.
- 5Area filter.
- 6Kind: VALUE, INDEX, SWITCH, TRIGGER, HOLD, STEP or BEND.
- 7DETAILS: a plain-language explanation and an example.
- 8Where to send: the port and this computer's IP addresses.
- 9Search addresses, controls or values.
- 10Click an address to copy it.
- 11The control it drives.
- 12The last five messages received: time, sender, address and arguments.
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Intro line | The listen port and the address root currently in use. |
| ADDRESS ROOT | The prefix of every address, /AutoPilot/ by default. Type a new one (letters, digits, -, _ and . between slashes, up to 48 characters) and press APPLY, or DEFAULT to go back. The new root takes effect at once for control and feedback, and the old one stops working. Use it to give each AutoPilot computer its own prefix, for example /Stage/Left/. |
| Area and search | Narrow the list to ALL AREAS, HEADER, BROWSER, DECK 1–4, MIXER, ARRANGEMENT or FEEDBACK, and search addresses, control names or values. All the words you type must match. The count shows how many of the 594 addresses are listed. |
| Address list | Each row has a colored kind (section 14.3), the address, the control it drives and the values it expects. Click an address to copy it with the current root. When a matching message arrives, its value appears in pink for a few seconds. |
| DETAILS | The selected address explained in plain language, with an example message. |
| INCOMING OSC | Where to send (the port and this computer's IP addresses), then the last five messages received: time, sender, address and arguments. Malformed packets are shown in red. |
14.3Message rules
- Addresses start with the address root,
/AutoPilot/by default. - Matching ignores case, so
/autopilot/deck/1/playpauseworks. Wildcards (*,?,[…]) aren't supported; send each address in full. Addresses must be shorter than 128 bytes. - Most messages carry one argument, an int32 or a float32. A message with no argument, a single string, or a non-finite number is ignored, and so is a message with extra arguments for a one-argument address.
- Three addresses take several arguments:
Deck/{n}/HotCue,Deck/{n}/SetCueLoopandDeck/{n}/Sampler/LaneSet. - Bundles are accepted. Their messages are applied in order as soon as the bundle arrives; time tags are ignored.
- A route does nothing if its control isn't available. For example, a track-deck route is ignored while that deck holds a sampler, and
Header/BPMis ignored while the header doesn't own the clock.
The kind of each address is shown in the OSC API window and in the tables below.
| Kind | Send | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Value | A number | 0.0–1.0 for knobs, faders and positions, or the control's own units where a range is given, such as BPM 20–999 or semitones −24–24. Values outside the range are clamped. |
| Switch | 1 on, 0 off |
Sets the state directly; anything at or above 0.5 counts as on. Sending the same value again doesn't toggle it. |
| Trigger | Any non-zero value | Fires once. 0 is ignored, and the trigger re-arms by itself. |
| Hold | 1 on press, 0 on release |
Stays active until you send 0. Always send the release. |
| Step | A whole number, positive or negative | The sign gives the direction and the number the amount (beats, bars, BPM or semitones). 0 does nothing. |
| Bend | 1 or −1, then 0 |
Bends in the direction of the sign while held; 0 releases. Only the sign matters. |
| Index | A whole number from 0 | Picks from a list, as shown in each table. Out-of-range values are clamped to the nearest end. |
Examples:
/AutoPilot/Header/BPM float 126.0
/AutoPilot/Header/Quantize int 4 (1/4)
/AutoPilot/Deck/1/PlayPause int 1
/AutoPilot/Deck/2/BeatSkip int -8 (back 8 beats)
/AutoPilot/Deck/1/HotCue int 3, int 1 … int 3, int 0 (hold cue 3)
/AutoPilot/Deck/1/PhaseBend int 1 … int 0
/AutoPilot/Mixer/CH3/Volume float 0.75
14.4Header
Addresses: /AutoPilot/Header/…
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Mode |
Index | 0 Perform, 1 Edit, 2 Tag Editor, 3 Arrange |
Browser |
Index | 0 hidden, 1 embedded, 2 detached window |
PerformanceView |
Index | 0 decks only, 1 stacked / synced decks, 2 compact paired mixer |
MasterSection |
Index | Mixer layout: 0 hidden, 1 standard, 2 compact |
Decks |
Index | Deck layout: 0 hidden (mixer only), 1 standard, 2 stacked |
Metronome |
Switch | Metronome on or off |
LoopPerform |
Switch | 1 switches Perform to Loop Perform, 0 back to Perform (only while one of them is showing) |
MetronomeVolume |
Value 0–1 | Metronome level |
BPM |
Value 20–999 | Sets the master tempo. Works only while the header owns the clock. |
BPMDecrement / BPMIncrement |
Trigger | −1 / +1 BPM |
BPMStep |
Step | Changes the tempo by that many BPM, for example -2 |
TempoBendMinus / TempoBendPlus |
Hold | Temporary −2 / +2 BPM bend while held |
TempoBend |
Bend | Negative bends down, positive bends up, 0 releases |
Quantize |
Index | 0 None, 1 = 2 bars, 2 = 1 bar, 3 = 1/2, 4 = 1/4, 5 = 1/8, 6 = 1/16, 7 = 1/32 |
MasterVolume / CueVolume / CueMix |
Value 0–1 | Master level, Cue level, and the Cue-to-Master blend |
14.5Browser
Addresses: /AutoPilot/Browser/…
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Up / Down |
Trigger | Moves the selection |
Left / Right |
Trigger | Switches between the folder tree and the item list |
Enter |
Trigger | Opens, expands or collapses the selected item |
Back |
Trigger | Goes up one level |
L1 … L4 |
Trigger | Loads the selected track, clip, sampler or arrangement onto Deck 1–4 |
Longer aliases also work: Navigation/Up … Navigation/Back, LoadDeck1 … LoadDeck4, and Load/Deck1 … Load/Deck4.
14.6Track and arrangement decks
Addresses: /AutoPilot/Deck/{1-4}/…
Transport and clock
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
PlayPause |
Trigger | Toggles play and pause |
Playing |
Switch | 1 plays, 0 pauses. Sets the state directly. |
Cue |
Hold | Same as holding the deck's CUE button |
GridStart |
Trigger | Jumps to Grid Start |
Cue1 … Cue8 |
Trigger | Hot cues 1–8 (marker keys on an arrangement deck). Each message is a quick press and release, so momentary and slip cues act as a tap. Use HotCue for press-and-hold. |
HotCue |
1 or 2 ints | i cue 1–8 taps the cue, like Cue1…Cue8. Add a second argument, i 1 on press and i 0 on release, to hold it: momentary and slip cues then play only while held. |
SetCueLoop |
1 int | i cue 1–8. Launches that cue (quantized) with LOOP on, looping from the cue to the next cue in time, or to the end of the track. Track decks only; an empty cue does nothing. |
CueMomentary |
Switch | Makes hot cues momentary (play only while held) |
CueSlip |
Switch | SLIP on or off |
TempoSync |
Trigger | Toggles SYNC |
TempoMaster |
Trigger | Toggles deck MASTER |
TempoSlider |
Value −1 to +1 | Tempo fader position; 0 is native tempo. Ignored while the slider is disabled (a synced follower) or the deck is empty. |
FaderStart |
Switch | Fader start (F) |
Speed |
Index | 0 half, 1 normal, 2 double |
SpeedHalf / SpeedDouble |
Switch | Half or double speed |
Reverse |
Switch | Reverse playback |
Quantize |
Index | 0 Use Global, 1 None, 2 = 2 bars, 3 = 1 bar, 4 = 1/2, 5 = 1/4, 6 = 1/8, 7 = 1/16, 8 = 1/32 |
Loops and skipping
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Loop |
Trigger | Toggles the default loop |
LoopIn / LoopOut |
Trigger | Same as IN / OUT (set points, or halve and double while looping) |
FreeLoop |
Value 0–1 | Free-loop length knob, for very short loops only |
SlipLoop/ThirtySecond · Sixteenth · Eighth · Quarter · Half · One · Two · Four |
Hold | Slip loops of that bar fraction (1/32 bar up to 4 bars) |
SlipDotted / SlipTriplet |
Switch | Dotted or triplet timing for slip loops |
SkipBeatBack / SkipBeatForward |
Trigger | Skips by the deck's current skip amount (right-click Skip to change it) |
SkipBarBack / SkipBarForward |
Trigger | Skips exactly one bar (4 beats), independent of the current skip amount |
BeatSkip |
Step | Skips exactly that many beats, for example -8 |
BarSkip |
Step | Skips that many bars (4 beats each) |
LoopMoveBeat / LoopMoveBar |
Step | Moves the active loop by beats or by bars |
Pitch, phase and waveform
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
PitchPreserve |
Switch | P (key lock) on or off |
PitchDown / PitchReset / PitchUp |
Trigger | Transposes by a semitone, or resets. Needs P on. |
PitchStep |
Step | Transposes by that many semitones |
FormantDown / FormantReset / FormantUp |
Trigger | Formant shift (Formant Mode set to Manual) |
FormantStep |
Step | Formant shift by that many steps |
PhaseMinus / PhasePlus |
Hold | EARLY / LATE while held |
PhaseBend |
Bend | Negative is early, positive is late, 0 releases |
PhaseReset |
Trigger | Clears the phase offset |
WaveformZoomIn / WaveformZoomOut |
Trigger | Zooms the scrolling waveform |
WaveformZoom |
Step | Positive zooms in, negative zooms out |
WaveformSeek |
Value 0–1 | Seeks to that point in the track, quantized when Q is on |
ControlPagePrevious / ControlPageNext |
Trigger | Steps through marker pages on an arrangement deck |
14.7MIDI clip decks
Addresses: /AutoPilot/Deck/{1-4}/Clip/…
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
PlayPause |
Trigger | Toggles play and pause |
Cue |
Hold | Clip CUE button |
GridStart |
Trigger | Jumps to the clip's Grid Start |
Cue1 … Cue8 |
Trigger | Jumps to clip cue 1–8 |
Loop |
Switch | Restart-at-end (beat-aligned restart when the clip reaches its end) |
MidiOutDevice |
Index | Chooses an output from the deck's device list, starting at 0 |
PitchDown / PitchReset / PitchUp |
Trigger | Transposes outgoing notes |
PitchStep |
Step | Transposes by that many semitones (limited to ±12) |
PhaseMinus / PhasePlus |
Hold | Early / late while held |
PhaseBend |
Bend | Negative is early, positive is late, 0 releases |
PhaseReset |
Trigger | Clears the phase offset |
14.8Sampler decks
Addresses: /AutoPilot/Deck/{1-4}/Sampler/…
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
PlayPause |
Trigger | Starts or pauses the pattern |
Save / Eject |
Trigger | Saves the sampler, or unloads it |
Load / Previous / Next |
Trigger | Loads a sample into the selected lane, or steps to the previous or next sample |
Lane |
Index | Selects lane 0–7 (lanes 1–8) |
Attack / Hold / Release / Volume |
Value 0–1 | Envelope and level for the selected lane |
Pitch |
Value −24 to 24 | Selected lane pitch in semitones |
PitchLinear |
Switch | Fine (linear) pitch instead of semitone steps |
Steps |
Value 1–16 | Selected lane pattern length |
Swing |
Value 0–1 | Pattern swing |
GlobalPitch |
Value −12 to 12 | Transposes the whole sampler |
Speed |
Index | 0 half, 1 normal, 2 double |
SpeedHalf / SpeedDouble |
Switch | Sets /2 or ×2 on/off; enabling one clears the other |
VelocityMode |
Switch | Shows step velocities (VEL) when on, sample controls when off |
Quantize |
Index | Same list as track decks (0 Use Global … 8 = 1/32) |
FaderStart |
Switch | Fader start |
PhaseBend |
Bend | Early / late while held, 0 releases |
PhaseReset |
Trigger | Clears the phase offset |
LaneSet |
3 arguments | i lane 1–8, s control, f value. Sets one lane's control without changing the selected lane. Controls: Attack, Hold, Release, Curve, Volume (0–1), Pitch (−24 to 24), Steps (1–16), Mute, Mono (non-zero is on), Direction, Rhythm (any non-zero value steps to the next mode). Example: /AutoPilot/Deck/1/Sampler/LaneSet i 3 s Volume f 0.8 |
14.9Mixer and Arrange editor
Mixer — /AutoPilot/Mixer/CH{1-4}/…
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Volume |
Value 0–1 | Channel volume, spread evenly over the fader's −60 to 0 dB travel (0.5 is −30 dB). Ignored while the fader is locked. |
Trim |
Value 0–1 | Trim, where 0 = −6 dB, 0.5 = 0 dB and 1 = +6 dB |
EQ/High / EQ/Mid / EQ/Low |
Value 0–1 | EQ, with 0.5 neutral |
Filter1 |
Value 0–1 | First filter knob: Cutoff/Filter (0.5 neutral), or LP (0 neutral) |
Filter2 |
Value 0–1 | Second filter knob: Resonance or HP (0 neutral), or Width in ONE KNOB mode (1 full width) |
Filter1Enabled / Filter2Enabled |
Feedback only, integer 0/1 | Knob availability; both filter controls are available in all three modes |
Mute / Solo / Cue |
Switch | Channel mute, solo and headphone cue |
Output |
Index | 0 Master, then 1, 2 and so on for the enabled output pairs, in the order listed in Settings → AUDIO |
FX |
Switch | 1 runs the channel's VST3 inserts, 0 bypasses them all |
FX/Macro/{1-8} |
Value 0–1 | Channel insert macro 1–8 |
MIDI mappings and OSC feedback use the same Filter1/Filter2 pair across filter types, including Loop Perform. Subscribe to the enabled flags to update controller availability when the filter type changes. The former parameter-specific filter mapping targets and OSC addresses are no longer supported; use Filter1 and Filter2.
The former native FX routes (/AutoPilot/Mixer/CH{n}/Reverb/… and so on) are still accepted but do nothing; use FX and FX/Macro/{1-8} for VST3 inserts.
Arrange editor — /AutoPilot/Arrangement/…
These control the arrangement open in Arrange mode, not an arrangement deck.
| Address | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Lane{1-4}/Volume |
Value 0–1 | Track volume |
Lane{1-4}/Macro/{1-8} |
Value 0–1 | VST macro 1–8 on that track. Takes effect when the macro's READ is off. |
14.10Feedback: what AutoPilot sends back
AutoPilot can send its state to a control surface, lighting desk or visuals app, so faders, buttons and displays stay in step with what's happening.
- 1TOGGLE ALL / TOGGLE NONE.
- 2DEST IP and PORT: where feedback is sent.
- 3Folders show how many items inside are ticked.
- 4RESEND STATE: send every subscribed value again.
- 5CLEAR: untick everything.
- 6Item Info sends Loaded and TrackInfo.
- Open Settings → OSC FEEDBACK and enter the DEST IP (an IPv4 address) and PORT (default 9096).
- Under SUBSCRIPTIONS, tick the values you want. Each item covers all four decks or mixer channels; a folder shows how many items inside it are ticked. TOGGLE ALL / TOGGLE NONE select everything or nothing, and CLEAR is the same as TOGGLE NONE.
- Ticking and unticking takes effect immediately. The destination applies when you close Settings and save.
There's no update rate to set. A value is sent as soon as it changes, and only when it changes. Time is the exception: it's sent at most once a second. Beat messages (Header/Clock and both Transport messages) are sent on every beat, in order, and cue events are sent the moment they happen, so you can drive lighting or visuals from them.
Press RESEND STATE, or send /AutoPilot/Feedback/Resend with any non-zero value, to receive every subscribed value again, which is useful when a surface reconnects. Changing the settings or the address root also resends everything. A value that doesn't apply (for example a sampler value while the deck holds a track, or anything for an empty deck) isn't sent, and is sent again once it applies.
Feedback addresses use the current address root. {n} is deck or channel 1–4.
Header and palette
| Address | Value |
|---|---|
Header/BPM |
Master tempo (f) |
Header/Clock |
Beat in the bar, 1–4 (i), on every master beat |
Header/MasterVolume · CueVolume |
0–1 (f) |
Header/Metronome |
0 / 1 (i) |
ColorPalette |
The eight cue colors, as eight messages [i slot 1–8, i R, i G, i B]. Always sent with a resend, on reconnect and when the palette changes; it isn't a subscription. |
Every deck (Deck/{n}/…)
| Address | Subscription | Value |
|---|---|---|
Playing · PlayPending |
Playing, PlayPending | 0 / 1. Playing is 0 while a quantized start is still pending. |
Loaded and TrackInfo |
Item Info | Loaded is 0 / 1. TrackInfo is s title, s artist, s key, f BPM, f duration, i bars, i beats, s type, sent on load and whenever any of it changes. |
Position · Progress · Time |
Position, Progress, Time | Seconds, 0–1 through the item, and seconds (at most once a second) |
BarRamp |
BarRamp | A ramp from 0 to 1 across each bar while the deck moves (not for samplers) |
PlayerType |
PlayerType | track, clip, sampler, arrangement or empty (s) |
PhaseOffset |
PhaseOffset | Phase offset in beats (f) |
TempoSlider · TempoSliderEnabled |
TempoSlider, TempoSliderEnabled | The slider from −1 to +1 (0 is native tempo; the ends follow the slider range, including Wide Pitch), and 1 when the slider accepts control (the deck is the tempo master or SYNC is off), 0 when it doesn't or the deck is empty |
Cues (Deck/{n}/…)
| Address | Value |
|---|---|
Cues |
The deck's eight hot cues as 16 arguments: i color 1–8 (0 = empty), s name for each. Track decks only. |
CuePress |
i cue 1–8, i 1/0 whenever a hot cue is pressed or released, from the screen, MIDI, keyboard or OSC |
CueFire |
i cue when a quantized cue actually launches |
CuePass |
s name, i cue 0–8, i color 0–8 when the audible playback passes a hot cue or jumps past one ("", 0, 0 before the first cue). Track decks only. |
Track decks (Deck/{n}/…)
| Address | Value |
|---|---|
BPM · Sync |
Current BPM (f), SYNC 0 / 1 |
Loop · Pitch |
Loop 0 / 1, transpose in semitones |
LoopStart · LoopEnd · LoopInfo |
Loop points in seconds, and i on, f start, f end together |
Transport |
i bar, i beat 1–4 on every beat. Bar 1 beat 1 is Grid Start, so bars before it are 0 or negative. |
MIDI clip, arrangement and sampler decks
| Address | Value |
|---|---|
Deck/{n}/Clip/Loop · Pitch · MidiOut · MidiOutDevice · MidiChannel |
Restart-at-end 0 / 1, transpose, 1 when an output is set, the output device, and its channel |
Deck/{n}/Arrangement/Transport |
i bar, i beat on every beat |
Deck/{n}/Arrangement/Lane{1-4}/Volume · Meter · Route |
Track trim, level, and mixer channel 1–4 |
Deck/{n}/Sampler/… |
Lane (1–8), LaneTitle, Swing, GlobalPitch, Pitch, Attack, Hold, Release, Volume, Steps, CurrentStep (0 when stopped), SampleProgress (−1 when idle), Speed (0.5, 1 or 2), SpeedHalf, SpeedDouble, VelocityMode, FaderStart |
Mixer (Mixer/CH{n}/…)
| Address | Value |
|---|---|
Volume · Trim · EQ/Low · EQ/Mid · EQ/High · Filter1 · Filter2 |
0–1, on the same scales as the input routes |
Filter1Enabled · Filter2Enabled |
Whether each filter knob is available (currently always 1) |
Mute · Solo · Cue |
0 / 1 |
Meter |
Channel level, 0–1 |
Integers are sent as i, decimals as f and text as s. Messages with several values are sent as one message with several arguments.
14.11Outgoing OSC from tracks, clips and arrangements
OSC lanes you author in Edit (section 8.5) and Arrange (section 10) are sent to the five SENDERS in Settings → OSC, separately from feedback. Each lane chooses which senders it goes to. Envelope lanes send a float (or an integer, if the lane is set to send integers) scaled between the lane's minimum and maximum, and only when the value changes; message lanes send their text. These messages go out in Perform, and while you play in the Edit and Arrange editors.
Keyboard shortcuts and mouse modifiers
15.1Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Context | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Command+, | Global (standalone app) | Open Settings |
| F1 / Command+1 | Global | Edit |
| F2 / Command+2 | Global | Perform |
| F3 / Command+3 | Global | Tag Editor |
| F4 / Command+4 | Global | Arrange |
| Space | Edit, Arrange | Play / pause (also stops a Browser preview in Edit) |
| Left / Right | Track editor | Nudge the grid finely |
| Command+Left / Right | Track editor | Shift the grid by one beat |
| E | Grid / Cues | Set the emergency loop start at the playhead and turn it on |
| , / . | Track editor | Previous / next track |
| Hotcue preset keys | Track editor | Drop a named cue (section 8.2) |
| Delete / Backspace | Edit, Arrange | Delete the selected points, messages or clips |
| Escape | Global | Cancel a selection, gesture or learn |
| Mapped keys | Perform, Perform Loop | Any learned control (section 13.8). A mapped key takes priority over the shortcut above for that key. Autorepeat is ignored, and held keys release if the window loses focus. |
15.2Mouse modifiers
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Command-drag BPM display | 0.01 BPM steps |
| Double-click a BPM display | Type an exact value |
| Command-hold header − / + | Temporary −2 / +2 BPM bend |
| Shift + Early / Late | Four times finer phase nudge |
| Control-click a hot cue | Momentary cue |
| Command-click a hot cue | Delete the cue (unlocked tracks) |
| Command-hold R | Backspin |
| Command-click pitch − / 0 / + | Formant down, reset or up |
| Command + skip | Move the active loop |
| Command-drag in Arrange | Copy clips |
| Shift-drag in Arrange / OSC | Range selection |
| Command-wheel / Option-swipe in Arrange | Zoom at the cursor / pan |
| Command-drag a mixer volume dial | Adjust trim. Command-double-click resets it. |
| Command-drag sampler knobs | Adjust all eight lanes. Option-drag for fine adjustment. |
| Command-click sampler lane / sample loader | Mute the lane's triggers / clear the sample |
On Windows and Linux, Command gestures use Ctrl.
Troubleshooting
Most timing problems come from the grid, and most silence comes from routing. Check those two first.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Crackles or dropouts | Buffer too small, or power saving | Raise BUFFER SIZE, turn off power saving, and test at the show sample rate. |
| No sound | Wrong Master pair, channel output set to NONE, or channel muted | Check MASTER OUTPUT, the channel output, mute/solo and TEST OUTPUT. |
| No headphone cue | ENABLE CUE OUTPUT is off, CUE OUTPUT is not assigned, or the Cue knob is down | Assign the Cue pair. Remember that the CUE send is taken before the volume control. |
| Sync drifts or launches land off-beat | Wrong BPM or Grid Start, or tempo changes with no markers | Fix it in Edit → GRID / CUES or TEMPO MARKERS. |
| A track won't load, or shows MISSING | The file moved or the drive is offline | Library Manager → PROBLEMS → RELINK (section 3.1). |
| No MIDI devices appear | OS permission or driver | macOS: grant Input Monitoring and restart. Windows: install the vendor driver and close other apps that hold the port. Then REFRESH in Settings → MIDI. |
| A mapping does nothing | The input is off, the MIDI channel differs, or the control isn't on screen | Enable the input, relearn on the right channel, and check the deck holds the right content type. |
| OSC never arrives | Firewall, port or subnet | Allow AutoPilot on private networks, match the ports, and use the same subnet. STATUS should show LISTENING ON PORT …. |
| Stuck notes on a synth | The device's sustain, latch or arpeggiator | Map an all-notes-off control on the device. |
| A VST3 plugin is missing after a scan | It crashed, timed out, was skipped, or is built for another processor | Check Settings → VST → ISSUES for the reason, complete any licence window, then retry it. Add its folder with FOLDERS if it is installed elsewhere. |
| No PilotNET peers | ENABLE PILOTNET is off, or a firewall blocks it | Turn PilotNET on, allow Local Network access, and check the PilotNET Manager. |
| No preview in Perform | DISABLE PREVIEW IN PERFORM MODE is on | Turn it off in Settings → GENERAL. |
| TRACK EDITS NOT SAVED | The track data file or database couldn't be written | RETRY SAVE. Check disk space and permissions, and run a Library Manager scan. |
| All device activations are in use | License slots are full | Deactivate a machine from the website dashboard. |
| The app stops working after a long time offline | The cached license token expired (60 days) | Connect to the internet once to refresh it. |
Reporting a problem
Include:
- your OS and version
- the AutoPilot version (shown in the About window, opened from the AUTO/PILOT wordmark)
- the exact error text
- the steps that reproduce it
- a Library Manager report (EXPORT REPORT), if the problem involves the library
Join the AutoPilot Discord
The AutoPilot Discord is worth joining. Ask questions, share what you're building, compare setups and connect with other AutoPilot users. It's also a good place to check whether someone else has already run into the same problem, and to post a report.
Recent changes
What changed in the last 10 builds, newest first. This chapter is rebuilt from the AutoPilot change log each time the guide is published.
Version 0.1.904
OCT 17, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Open Settings inside the main window over a dimmed backdrop, scaled up to 15% larger for readability. Keep SAVE AND CLOSE and CANCEL, prompt to save from the corner close key or Escape, and move the fader-curve preview below its choice.
- Confirm before ejecting or replacing a playing deck, leaving Perform while a deck plays, or leaving Arrange with unsaved changes. Offer SAVE AND EXIT for arrangements; General > SUPPRESS WARNING DIALOGS skips these confirmations.
- Open track import options and progress inside the main window over a dimmed backdrop.
- Add a Mixer OUTPUT ROUTING diagram with separate TRIM, EQ, FILTER and VOLUME controls for hardware outputs. Bypassed trim and volume use unity gain; bypassed EQ and filter use neutral controls. Dim bypassed channel controls and ignore their gestures and mappings, preserve the previous EQ/filter preference, and keep full processing for Master and VST3 host outputs.
- Automatically fit the arrangement render range from timeline start to the last clip when the clip extent or clip/track count changes. Preserve saved ranges on load and manual edits until those content changes, with undo/redo restoring the range.
Version 0.1.903
OCT 17, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Rebrand the app as Syndicate with Untitled Audio Syndicate marks, a new app icon, and updated window titles, menus, dialogs, splash and About screen. Preserve existing bundle IDs, binary names and data folders.
- Move Loop Perform to View > Loop Perform while retaining its header mapping, and add View > Clock Status to show or hide the sync panel.
- Replace the header tempo buttons with a draggable readout: 0.01 BPM per pixel, or 0.1 with Shift; double-click to enter 20–999 BPM. Header tempo controls adjust the master deck's tempo fader when a deck owns the clock outside wallclock mode.
- Refresh the header layout with master and wallclock keys, tempo, global quantize and activity LEDs; place the metronome controls in the sync panel and give the Q key an active highlight.
- Show HISTORY sessions beside the track list with date, time, track count and a live-session indicator; number tracks in play order. Fix session track logging and apply TRACK HISTORY changes when Settings are saved.
- Add SAVE AND CLOSE and CANCEL buttons to Settings while retaining the save prompt when closing the window.
- Make /Syndicate/ the default OSC root for control and feedback, retain /AutoPilot/ compatibility while using the default root, and migrate a stored /AutoPilot/ root to the new default.
- Replace arrangement-deck /2 and X2 keys with ROUTING for arrangements with multiple tracks. Show LED track-trim dials and 2 × 2 mixer routing keys in the control frame, give tracks the full display width, and style marker keys with round colour LEDs. Existing half/double-speed mappings remain available.
- Prefetch arrangement beat-skip targets before jumping and keep playback time advancing on a late stream page to prevent sync drift.
Version 0.1.902
OCT 16, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Add General > HIGHLIGHT COLOR: keep the skin accent or choose a cue-palette colour for buttons, text, playheads, loop regions, knobs and VST learn states.
- Refresh browser controls with a folder-plus icon, highlighted source/action keys, consistent search fields and CLEAR keys, and import dialogs centred on the app.
- Add Audio > ENABLE CUE OUTPUT, off by default. When disabled, hide Cue routing, knobs and meter, silence the cue bus, and send the metronome and Perform browser previews to Master.
- Ask whether to save, discard or cancel when closing changed settings; audio routing changes still apply immediately.
- Improve clip-editor navigation with a play-start marker, playhead-following pan, pointer-centred zoom and draggable cue handles; expose the instrument’s eight assigned VST macros in the metadata area.
- Refresh an arrangement lane’s instrument and patch when dropping a MIDI clip whose saved instrument changed.
- Add quantized hot-cue region loops with Command-Shift-click and OSC SetCueLoop, plus an optional overview-click setting to launch the cue region you click.
- Simplify Perform Loop lanes by removing slip-loop and dotted/triplet keys while retaining mapped controls; REV now shows reversing and return playheads without lighting LOOP or filling the clip as a loop.
- Add OSC CuePass events aligned to the heard position, BarRamp feedback, and total bars/beats in TrackInfo. Combine Bar/Beat counters into Transport messages; remove Grid, Title and Duration messages, and make Time a position-only message sent at most once a second.
- Send changed subscribed OSC values on each timer pass instead of using a MAX-rate setting; refine Progress/Position precision and report live deck BPM to 0.01 BPM. Deck OSC OUT lights now represent item automation only, with feedback activity shown in the header.
Version 0.1.901
OCT 15, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Expand MIDI and keyboard mapping coverage, allow multiple inputs per control and shared inputs across controls, and add percentage ranges, response charts, shared-input badges and a recent-input display.
- Make MIDI and keyboard mappings always active; input overflow releases held controls without disabling mappings. OSC uses the fixed API instead of profile assignments; older profiles load without their OSC assignments.
- Add a searchable OSC API window with copyable addresses, argument examples, incoming-message diagnostics and a configurable address root shared by control and feedback.
- Add multi-argument hot-cue and sampler-lane commands, grouped track/time/loop/grid feedback, hot-cue press and launch feedback, cue names and palette indexes, and cue-colour palette feedback for controllers.
- Remove per-step sampler sequencer OSC/mapping controls, the DDJ-FLX4 preset and dedicated controller feedback/jog integration, and the Resync command. Existing FLX4 profiles retain ordinary MIDI assignments; SYNC phase correction and RESYNC RATE remain available.
- Match arrangement-player clip drawing to the Arrange editor, including cue-coloured waveforms, labels, fades, loops and MIDI regions, and display each clip’s own lane audio.
- Fix drawing artifacts around mixer channel strips at scaled UI sizes.
Version 0.1.900
OCT 14, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Reduce CPU use with selective UI repainting, cached theme colours, panel surfaces and track overviews, and lighter meter updates.
- Speed up library browsing, cue and beatgrid saves, track analysis and imports with cached sidecar reads, prepared database queries and targeted track refreshes.
- Optimise sampler voice processing, arrangement rendering, mixer filters and gain ramps, and VST instrument timing and delay buffers.
- Fix dim and flickering track overview waveforms while preserving played-section dimming.
- Improve audio safety with stronger track-swap protection and denormal handling throughout the standalone audio callback.
- Add CLEAR ALL to the mixer insert window to remove a channel’s inserts and associated macro assignments, bypass state and preset name after confirmation.
- Add a startup splash with activation and database-integrity checks; activated users go directly to the workspace without a flashing sign-in screen, and database problems offer a shortcut to the Library manager.
- Expand automated regression coverage and streamline shared UI helpers, engine code and application builds.
Version 0.1.852
OCT 14, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
Add mixer FX presets and saved-state chains, playlist colours, overlaid arrangement automation with beat/bar nudging and curve editing, compact arrangement player controls, and OSC/MIDI timing alignment.
Version 0.1.851
OCT 13, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Add VST3 insert effects to the four Perform mixer channels: up to four per channel in a pop-up chain window opened from FX, with drag reordering, PRE (after EQ, before cue and fader) or POST (after the fader) per slot, ON/bypass, editor show/hide, replace/remove and BYPASS ALL.
- Add eight macros per channel that can control parameters in any of the channel's inserts, assigned from the chain window or with MAP in each effect editor; map them and FX on/off to MIDI and OSC (/AutoPilot/Mixer/CH{n}/FX, /FX/Macro/{1-8}).
- Save insert chains, settings and macros automatically, keep missing effects with their settings, and compensate reported effect latency across channels within the instrument alignment budget.
- Stop processing the retired native FX rack; the FX key now opens the VST3 insert window.
- Quick-learn MIDI/OSC mappings for an open insert window's BYPASS ALL key and macro dials.
- Map the header PERFORM / Loop Perform switch to MIDI, keyboard and OSC (/AutoPilot/Header/LoopPerform, 0/1).
- Scan each VST3 plugin in its own helper process again, up to four at a time, so plugins that crash or hang during scanning no longer take AutoPilot down. Skipped plugins are remembered with the reason and retried on request or when the file changes; unchanged files reuse saved results; CANCEL SCAN stops immediately.
- Scan VST3_PATH and the per-user VST3 folders as well as the system folder, and add your own folders with FOLDERS.
- Show skipped plugins and their reasons under ISSUES, with retry, Rescan Everything and a scan log; add SKIP for plugins waiting on licence or activation windows.
- Scan Intel-only VST3 plugins and play Intel-only instruments on Apple Silicon through Rosetta; mixer insert effects require a native plugin build. Report unsupported processor architectures instead of failing silently.
- Recognise instruments from their sub-category when the plugin omits "Instrument", and choose Use as Instrument or Use as Effect by right-clicking a plugin.
- Replace MIDI clip player zoom buttons with scrollwheel zoom; minimum zoom shows the complete MIDI file even when its playback loop is shorter.
Version 0.1.850
OCT 13, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
- Connect several OSCpilot controllers at once, with separate PilotNet Manager rows and disconnect controls, and send browser and waveform replies only to the requesting device.
- Show USB iPads under their system names, such as AP01 and AP02, with OSCpilot names as a fallback and separate identities even when names match.
- Send OSCpilot deck phase, colour, SYNC and MASTER feedback; stop HOLD phase correction when its momentary control is released.
- Remove Arrange and Edit OSC FOLLOW buttons; add automatic follow, independent panning, center-crossing resume, and anchored wheel/pinch zoom in Edit MIDI and OSC.
- Expand Arrange navigation with trackpad and hand panning, ruler drag zoom, Z to fit the selection, Shift+Z to fit the timeline, Home/End navigation, and arrow-key bar stepping.
- Add Edit cue navigation with Left/Right and audio energy-change navigation with Command/Control+Left/Right; move grid nudging to Shift+Left/Right and grid beat-shift shortcuts to Command/Control+Shift+Left/Right.
- Give Edit MIDI an independent playback-start marker and navigation scrollbar; clicking during playback sets the next start without interrupting playback.
- Restore arrangement waveforms for MP3 sources whose decoder cache keys include a version suffix.
Version 0.1.849
OCT 12, 2026 · MACOS · WINDOWS · BETA
Replace the CTRL companion with the OSCpilot link: OSCpilot Player on an iPad (USB-C) or the OSCpilot editor on the same computer controls the decks and shows their cues, waveforms, positions and the library browser. List the connected OSCpilot in PilotNet Manager as a CONTROLLER row, with DISCONNECT (until REFRESH) and its connection in the details. Publish each deck's original and current BPM to OSCpilot. Send OSCpilot the waveform colour source with its 3-band waveform tiles, and each deck's playback rate and timing with its position (now every 20 ms), so OSCpilot's waveforms look and scroll like AutoPilot's. Serve the browser's SEQ (sampler) source to OSCpilot and load sequencers from it. Deliver OSCpilot's 3-band waveform detail as soon as it's ready: tell OSCpilot when a deck's waveform is still being built instead of leaving it to time out, and send replies immediately rather than on the link's next 25 ms tick. Add PilotNet library sync with progress and cancellation, verified incremental media downloads, and a persistent SYNCED (LOCAL) library for offline use. Keep synchronized browser previews aligned to the master beat phase, including immediate and sub-beat launches. Preserve the live playback position when skipping beats and accumulate rapid beat-skip presses. Show wallclock mode with a lock icon.
Version 0.1.848
OCT 10, 2026
- Add multiple independently resizable automation rows per arrangement track, with saved row selections and TRACK 1 AUTOMATION-style headers.
- Add per-track arrangement filter types and Filter1/Filter2 automation for Cutoff/Resonance, Filter/Width, and LP/HP, consistently applied during playback and rendering.
- Delete selected automation points with Shift-drag and Delete/Backspace or Delete Selection, including selections without clips; preserve hidden rows and support undo.
- Reduce clicks when toggling Elastique pitch preservation with a short 4 ms blend, and smooth Cytomic parameter changes in both directions.
- Lock channel volume and input trim at 0 dB for external outputs, including controller and crossfader/Delta/vector changes; unlock both when returning to MASTER.
- Add a triangular Delta Mixer for three-deck Perform layouts, with deck isolation at each vertex and the selected fader curve.
- Correct encoding delay and trailing padding for newly imported MP3s with validated LAME metadata while preserving existing prepared tracks' grid and cue timing.
- Add single or separate per-deck VST3 MIDI outputs and channel overrides saved with the DAW session; restore MIDI clip displays when reopening the plugin editor without restarting playback.
- Keep Perform Loop playheads aligned with highlighted loop and slip-loop ranges, including ranges crossing the window boundary.