Drawing

• The draw board is your song laid out in time, just like the timeline below it: left to right is the loop, with a play marker and bar ruler on top. Click the ruler to jump there.
• Each stroke adds a note. Where it starts is when it plays, its width is how long it lasts, and its height is its pitch. Notes snap to the Snap setting; hold Alt for free timing.
• Color is tone: bright colors sound bright, deep blues and violets sound soft and mellow. Drive adds grit.
• The rows always follow the key and scale you pick, so nothing you draw can be out of tune. Change Key or Scale later and the whole song re-harmonizes.
• Select tool (V): click a note to hear it, drag it to move it in time or pitch, and drag the gold handles at its ends to lengthen, shorten or tilt it. Drag across empty space to select several. Everything you change shows up in the timeline too.
• Eraser (E) removes the notes you drag over. Ctrl+Z brings them back.

Sounds and layers

• Each layer holds one of 40+ sounds: keys, pads, strings, leads, plucks, guitars, bass, drums and textures. Pick a layer with its number key, then change its sound with Sound, Browse (B), or the dropdown on its row.
• Swapping a sound re-voices every note already on that layer, so you can try a tune on piano, then bells, then harp.
• Add layers with + Layer, up to 16. To remove one, clear its notes with x, then press x again on the empty row.
• The Layers panel on the left works like an image editor's: click a layer to draw with it, double-click to change its sound. The eye hides a layer from view, the lock protects its notes from edits, the speaker mutes it, and S solos it. The same buttons are on each row of the timeline.
• Hide or lock the other layers to focus on one: hidden layers still play but stay out of the way, locked layers cannot be drawn on, erased or edited.

Looping

• Press R and draw while the loop plays to record live: each stroke lands where the play marker is. Notes glow as the marker passes them.
• Loops can be 1 to 32 bars. Turn on Click and Snap 1/16 for tight drums, or Snap off for loose, floating melodies.
• Build a 1-bar beat, set a longer loop, select everything and press Duplicate (Ctrl+D) to fill it.

Editing

• In Layers, click a note to hear it, drag it to move it, and drag its right edge to change its length. Arrow keys nudge and change pitch; hold Alt while dragging to ignore snap.
• Shift-click or drag a box to select several notes. Cut, copy and paste work like a text editor, and Paste into layer puts a rhythm onto a different sound.
• For long loops, zoom with the Zoom buttons or Ctrl + scroll wheel, on the board or the timeline; both show the same stretch of time and follow the play marker.
• Undo (Ctrl+Z) covers every change, so experiment freely.

Let it write for you

• Generate (G) composes a whole song from a style and a few sliders: mood, energy, complexity, drums and swing. Ten styles, from ambient and lo-fi to trap, rock, country and synthwave.
• Move a slider and the same song reshapes itself. New melody and New beat reroll just that part. Once you edit by hand, the song is yours and the sliders leave it alone.
• Eleven demo tracks in Library are there to listen to and take apart.

Producers

• Export MIDI (Library, File and code) saves a .mid with one track per layer, General MIDI instruments and drums, ready for any DAW.
• Open MIDI file, or drop a .mid anywhere on the page, to bring a melody, chords, bass and drums in from your DAW. The Loom finds the key and gives each track a matching sound.

Saving and sharing

• Your work saves automatically. Give it a title and press Save (Ctrl+S) to keep it in My songs; Save song file makes a .loom file you can keep or send.
• Share makes a link that shows a preview card with your song's name, artist and a picture of your strokes. Demos have their own share links too.
• Publish to the Community feed with author notes. The feed is for your own work: unchanged copies of demos or other people's songs are refused, and remixes are credited to the original.

Performing and your workspace

• Performance mode (P) hides the controls. Hold F and move the mouse, or put two fingers down on a touchscreen, to sweep a filter over the whole mix. Draw with several fingers for chords.
• Right-click any toolbar section to pop it out as a floating panel, collapse it, or pin it back. The layout is remembered.
• If audio stutters on a phone, set Quality to Smooth (Auto usually picks it for you).
• Tired of the start screen? Tick "Skip this screen next time"; the first tap or key press then starts the sound.