The Studio

The Studio is where you make things. It has a copy of the PO-32’s faceplate that works like the hardware, step rows for writing patterns and an editor with every parameter of each drum sound.

The Studio starts on the House Kit, a built-in 909-style kit with demo patterns. It keeps one working copy when you close the app, and each change overwrites it, so save anything you want to keep to the Library with Save to Library. Restore Demo Kit in Settings brings the House Kit back.

The Faceplate

The faceplate mirrors the PO-32 key for key. It works in two modes, like the hardware:

sound: the 16 pads pick a sound and play it. The step rows and the sound editor follow the sound you pick.
pattern: the pads switch between the 16 patterns. A pad with notes on it shows as filled.

The other keys:

bpm cycles the tempo through 80, 120 and 140.
write turns the pads into the 16 steps of the picked sound, so you can tap a beat in the way you would on the device. Press write again, or switch to sound or pattern mode, to leave write mode.
acc works in write mode: arm it, then tap steps to accent them.
play starts and stops the pattern.
FX is greyed out: live effects are performed on the PO-32 itself.

The two pots work like the hardware knobs. The pitch pot (knob A) sets the picked sound’s oscillator frequency, and the morph pot (knob B) moves between the sound’s A and B ends. The pad lights follow the playhead while a pattern plays.

The PO-32 plays four voices at once, one per column of pads. Sounds in the same column share a lane, so only one of them can play on any step. If you turn on a step that a lane-mate already uses, the picked sound plays on top and the other waits under it. Clear the top one and the waiting one plays again. A send sends the one that plays.

To play the faceplate on its own, select Play Full Screen above it. On a phone you can also long-press a pad: see On Your Phone.

The Step Rows

Next to the faceplate, the step rows edit the picked sound across the 16 steps:

steps: turn the sound on or off on each step. A number in a cell means another sound in the same lane has that step. An outlined cell means the picked sound waits under another one there.
accent: accents apply to the whole pattern, as on the device.
fill: how many times the sound retriggers on a step, from 1 to 15. Click to switch between 1 and 2, then drag up or down, or use + and -, to change it.
morph: a per-step A/B position. Click to lock it at the current morph position, then drag or use + and - to adjust. Unlock Morph puts the step back on knob B.

Under them, the all lanes strip shows the whole pattern. Press any cell to jump to the sound that plays it. Arrow keys move around the rows, and Enter turns a step on or off.

Above the rows:

M and S mute and solo the picked sound.
Duplicate copies the current pattern into the next pattern number and switches to it. If that pattern already has steps, it asks first: Copy to Pattern and the next empty one, Overwrite Pattern and the next number, or Cancel.
Copy To copies the current pattern to any of the 16 patterns.
Clear Pattern empties the current pattern. An Undo button appears straight after.

Chain Patterns

The Chain row builds a longer sequence from your patterns. Select + Pattern and the number to add the current pattern to the end of the chain, up to 16 entries. Each entry’s menu can view, move or remove it. You can also drag entries to reorder them, and Clear Chain starts again.

While the chain has entries, Play runs it in order. With an empty chain, Play loops the current pattern.

Design a Sound

Each of the 16 sounds has two ends, A and B. The Morph slider moves between them, and the side it’s on is the one you’re editing: left of centre edits A, right of centre edits B.

The editor has four groups, 21 parameters in all:

Group	Parameters
Oscillator	Wave (sine, triangle, saw), Freq, Pitch Mod, Mod Amount, Mod Rate, Attack, Decay
Noise	Filter (low-pass, band-pass, high-pass), Cutoff, Reso, Env, Attack, Decay
Mixing	Mix (oscillator against noise), Distortion, EQ Freq, EQ Gain, Level
Velocity	Osc Vel, Noise Vel, Mod Vel

Drag a knob or fader to change it. Hold Shift for fine control, or scroll over a selected knob.
Click a readout to type an exact value, such as 180 Hz. Press Enter to keep it or Escape to cancel.
Cmd-click (or Ctrl-click) a control to reset it to its neutral value.
Select the sound’s name to rename it. An unnamed sound shows Add a Name.

The Randomise menu changes the side you’re editing. Randomise A (or B) rolls a new side, Randomise A and B rolls a whole new sound and Mutate A Slightly (or B) nudges it a little. Tick groups under Keep These Groups to leave them alone.

The A/B Tools menu has Copy A to B, Copy B to A and Swap A and B.

Play, Preview and Bounce

Play (or Space) starts and stops the pattern, or the chain when it has entries.
Preview (or P) plays the sound you’re editing, at the current morph position and vel. P and Space work straight after you pick a Wave, Filter or Env option, without clicking anywhere else first.
Loop Preview repeats the sound you’re editing on every beat while you shape it, so you hear a knob turn without holding Preview. Turn it on next to Preview in the Synth tab on a phone, or in the Full Screen drawer. Play stops it, and it stops Play.
bpm sets the tempo (60 to 240), and swing adds swing (0 to 12). vel is the velocity for Preview and auditions.
Bounce saves the pattern, played twice, as a WAV. When the chain has entries, it bounces the whole chain. Mute and solo apply.
Undo and Redo (Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z, or Ctrl on Windows and Linux) cover the last 50 changes to the kit, patterns, chain, tempo and swing.

On desktop, WAVs and other exports save straight to your Downloads folder.

Press ? (or F1) to see every keyboard shortcut.