lodo

4 core concepts

4.1components

The sequenced operations that reshape a track, instrument, or pattern as it plays.

Components are where a Lodo pattern starts to behave like an instrument. A note gives you a sound at a point in the phrase; a component can alter the sound, change the track's pace, or send its playhead somewhere unexpected. Put several together and they become a small, readable score for how the phrase should unfold.

The key is to distinguish commands from parameter changes. A command such as JUMP changes what the track does next. A parameter component such as CUTOFF changes a sound control. Parameter changes can remain active after the step that introduced them, so choosing how they end is part of the arrangement.

Where components live

In the Track Grid, each playback track has three component lanes alongside its note lane. A component sits on a step in one lane. Its name cell selects the operation; the value cells hold that operation's settings. Many components use X and Y. P is component-specific: it often controls playback probability, while OFFSET uses P as its third pitch offset. X and Y do not have universal meanings: the component selector's inspector names each field, shows its default and range, and describes what it controls.

When a step contains more than one component, Lodo processes them in lane order. That order is musical: RANDOMISE and RAMP can address components to their left, and SLEW can shape the timing of eligible automation components to its left on the same step.

The master track has its own three component lanes. Those lanes can direct operations at selected playback tracks or affect the master output. A separate master data lane holds pattern-wide values and transformations such as BPM, root, scale, mapping, groove, and humanisation. See Master Track for the difference between these two layers.

Commands that reshape a track

These sequencing components change when or how a track moves through its steps.

Component What it does
REVERSE Reverses the track playhead, including changes made by RATE.
RATE Sets the track's LPB, or adjusts its current LPB.
RETRIG Retriggers the current or last played note at an interval. Its second value can change velocity on each retrigger.
EXPONENTIAL Sets the curve used to space retriggers into an exponential rhythm.
REPEAT Repeats the current step a chosen number of times.
HOLD Keeps the playhead on the current step for a chosen number of steps.
JUMP Moves the track playhead to the step in X; set X to -1 for a random destination. The selector also labels Y as a relative offset, but playback currently ignores Y.
CYCLE Plays only on, or skips, every Nth pass through the track.
IMMUNITY Turns protection from track-targeting master components on or off for this track.
PITCHBEND Bends the active instrument by a chosen number of semitones over a chosen time.

RETRIG, REPEAT, HOLD, and JUMP are different kinds of motion. Retriggering repeats a note without turning the pattern into more note rows. Repeating or holding changes how long the current step is revisited. Jumping changes which step the track visits next. Combine them when you want a phrase to stutter, stretch, or take a different route while the rest of the pattern continues.

Components that read other components

Some operations use the order of the lanes on the same step as an input.

Component Relationship to the lanes on its left
RANDOMISE Randomises the X and Y values of eligible components to its left. X and Y set the amount of randomisation for those values.
RAMP Adds a value on each previous play to note data or to the X or Y value of a component to its left. Its X field chooses the target: note, velocity, delay, instrument, left X, or left Y.
SLEW Interpolates eligible automation or MIDI CC components to its left over a chosen number of pattern steps. Put SLEW to the right of the value it should smooth, on the same step.

This positional relationship is useful for making a parameter move rather than jump. For example, set a filter target in one lane and place SLEW in a lane to its right. The target still changes on that step, but the filter approaches it across the requested duration. Components outside SLEW's supported automation scope keep their normal behavior.

Instrument and sound components

The component selector changes with the selected track's instrument. The names below describe the main families; each component's inspector shows the controls available for the current instrument.

Family Examples Use
Instrument state STATE Selects a stored instrument state at a step.
MIDI CC, AFTERTOUCH, STRUM, ECHO Sends controller or note-shaping data to an external MIDI destination. See MIDI Instruments.
Sampler LOOP, SAMPLE REVERSE, START, END Changes looping, playback direction, or the region of the sample used. See Sampler Instruments.
Internal synth MODEL, TIMBRE / HARMONICS, COLOR / MORPH, MOD, FM Sequences a model or synthesis control on Braids or Plaits.
Instrument mix and effects Volume, pan, sends, filter and effect controls Automates supported instrument parameters, including the shared internal-instrument effects and sends.
Hosted plugin Bound parameter slots and plugin-state controls Automates controls exposed by the hosted plugin. See Plugins and Synths.

An instrument component is a sequenced override; it does not rewrite the instrument's saved state. A new note restores the resolved state baseline before applying the components on that note. A blank step is not a reset, so a parameter change can continue through the rests in a phrase.

Voicings and arpeggiation

CHORD and OFFSET turn one note into a voicing: a set of pitches that can be played together or handed to the arpeggiator. The note on the step is the root. CHORD chooses a chord quality with X and an inversion with Y. Its quality labels are maj, min, dim, aug, sus2, sus4, maj7, min7, 7, dim7, m7b5, add9, madd9, 6, m6, maj9, m9, 9, 6/9, m6/9, and 5. Y ranges from 0 to 3; each inversion moves the lowest chord tone up an octave. OFFSET keeps the root and adds three pitches at the semitone offsets in X, Y, and P. Each offset ranges from -96 to +96 semitones.

Build a voicing

For a named chord, put a note on a step, choose CHORD, then use the component selector to choose its quality and inversion. For an explicitly spaced set of notes, choose OFFSET and enter the three semitone offsets. For example, with MIDI note 60 as the root, set X to 12, Y to -5, and P to 3. The four pitches are 60, 72, 55, and 63: root, first offset, second offset, third offset.

With MIDI note 60 and CHORD quality maj at inversion 0, the voicing is 60, 64, and 67. Raising the inversion to 1 moves the lowest chord tone up an octave, giving 64, 67, and 72.

With the arpeggiator off, CHORD and OFFSET expand into simultaneous note events for MIDI instruments and hosted plugins. A native sampler or internal synth plays one main pitch per playback track. For a sustained native chord, put each pitch on a separate track and assign their note events to the same native instrument slot. When a sampler retriggers, its outgoing sample remains audible only as a short transition fade. See Instrument Types and Plugins and Synths for the track and voice model.

Let ARP play the voicing

Enable On in the instrument Rack's ARP controls, or place ARP ON with X set to 1 on the note step. Put CHORD or OFFSET on that step as well to give ARP several pitches to cycle through. When several components share the step, put CHORD or OFFSET to the left of ARP ON so the voicing reads before its playback rule. Set ARP ON to 0 to stop a running ARP. The instrument state's ARP controls provide the starting settings; ARP RATE, ARP PATTERN, ARP GATE, ARP RANGE, ARP PITCH, and ARP RHYTHM components can override them in the pattern. A new ARP state starts off with Rate 1/16, Pattern Up, Gate 100%, Range 1 octave, Pitch 0, and Rhythm Straight.

ARP setting What it changes
Rate Time between note triggers. Choose from 1/128, 1/64, 1/32, 1/16T, 1/16, 1/8T, 1/16D, 1/8, 1/8D, or 1/4. The default is 1/16.
Pattern Order of pitches: Up, Down, Up Down, Down Up, Outside In, Inside Out, As Played, or Random.
Gate Note length as a percentage of the interval.
Range Repeats each source pitch across 1 to 8 octaves.
Pitch Semitone transposition of the generated sequence, from -36 to +36.
Rhythm Rhythm pattern: Straight, Shuffle, Dotted, Gallop, Skip, Repeat, or Syncop.

With CHORD, Up orders the pitches from low to high. The maj example therefore plays 60 → 64 → 67. OFFSET preserves the deliberate root/X/Y/P order for Up and Down patterns. With the note-60 offset example above, ARP ON and an Up pattern with Range 1 plays 60 → 72 → 55 → 63, then starts the same four-note cycle again. A note without CHORD or OFFSET gives ARP one source pitch; increase Range to add octave choices. Use As Played when you want the voicing's generated order to define the sequence explicitly.

A component-only CHORD or OFFSET step can replace the source pitches of an ARP that is already running; the next arpeggiated notes use the new voicing. On an idle track, CHORD or OFFSET alone does not trigger notes. Start the voicing with a note event; after ARP is running, a later component-only step can change its source pitches.

Give a change a clear ending

Parameter components can coexist across steps. A filter change does not cancel a sample-rate change, even when both were placed at different steps in the same lane. A later value for the same parameter replaces that parameter's active value; a value for a different parameter stays active. Each lane owns its own changes.

Use KILL when you want a lane's active parameter automation to return to the instrument baseline:

  1. On a note step, put CUTOFF in component lane 1.
  2. On a later blank step, put SAMPLE RATE in lane 1. Both changes are now active because they address different parameters.
  3. On a further step, put KILL in lane 1. When playback reaches it, both parameters return to their baselines.
  4. If lane 2 owns another active parameter change, lane 1's KILL leaves that other lane's value alone.

KILL is a parameter reset, not a note-off or a pattern-wide reset. It clears active parameter components owned by its lane and leaves other lanes alone. If its P value skips that step, the reset is skipped too. Lodo offers KILL for samplers, internal synths, and hosted plugins. MIDI tracks do not expose it: MIDI CC data has no instrument-parameter baseline for KILL to restore.

Master-track components

Master components let one sequenced line reach beyond a single instrument track. A master SELECTOR can narrow the tracks addressed by later commands on that master step; JUMP, RETRIG, RATE, and TRANSPOSE then shape those tracks' playback. Master-bus effects shape the combined output, while PATTERN JUMP changes the arrangement position. The master selector also lists MUTE, SOLO, and RANDOMISE, but those entries currently have no playback effect; use the Track Grid toolbar's track controls to mute or solo. See Master Track for targeting, timing, and the full active-operation list.

The master data lane has a different job. Its BPM, ROOT, and SCALE entries set values for the pattern; mapping, groove, humanisation, and other data components define how the pattern's notes are interpreted. They are not another set of per-instrument parameter lanes. See Master Track for the targeting and timing model.