Miditrax Support
Miditrax Guide

Get up and running

Everything you need to start building beats, from your first pattern to mapping your kit and syncing clock, in four short sections.

1

Welcome to Miditrax

When you first open Miditrax you'll see three main areas: the sidebar on the left, the main Beats grid in the centre, and the top header. Start by selecting your MIDI device in the MIDI Out list in the top header. Make sure your drum machine or synth is connected by USB or a MIDI to USB adapter.

The three main areas: sidebar, Beats grid, and top header
2

Select a Preset and Play

Select a preset and hit Play (or the space bar) in the top header to start and stop. Try a few more presets, and check that the BPM trigger is active (coloured). This trigger means the BPM saved in the preset is used rather than the global BPM measure in the top header.

Tips

  • Press the + icon at the top of the Beats preset list to create a blank beat and grid.
  • The standard mapping is set to GM (General MIDI). Select the Map button if you need to change it.
Pick a preset and press Play to hear it
3

Modify the Beat

Click in the grid to add or delete beats. Switch from Notes to any other variation, such as Velocity or Chance, in the top header, then drag up and down on a grid square to apply it. Depending on the variation it might change the shade, add a number, or slice off the front edge (for Timing).

Tips

  • Press and hold the matching letter to jump straight to a variation, for example V, T or C.
  • Press Option to toggle through the variation menu.
Drag on a cell to apply the selected variation
4

Add Patterns

A beat can have up to 8 patterns, A to H. Click the + or - button to add a new pattern. When you add one it copies the beat from the previous pattern, which you can then modify. To clear a pattern, or to copy and paste a pattern, use the three dot menu beside the +/- button.

Build up to 8 patterns, A to H
5

Playing Patterns

When a beat is playing there are three pattern modes: Follow Off, Follow On and Trigger. Follow Off plays the patterns through consecutively while you keep viewing the pattern you selected. Follow On plays the patterns through and the grid view changes to show each pattern as it plays. Trigger plays a single pattern repeatedly until you select another pattern, or trigger the change from a connected MIDI controller.

Follow Off, Follow On, and Trigger pattern modes
6

Fill

Fill notes in a pattern show in grey, which means they won't play. To play them, press and hold the Fill button and they turn yellow and play, or trigger Fill from a mapped MIDI controller. Great for adding fills in a live performance.

Grey fill notes turn yellow and play while Fill is held
7

Adding and Removing Lanes

If you just need a kick and a snare, you can remove unused lanes to keep the view simple. Hover on the right edge of a lane until the +/- box appears, then delete (or add) lanes.

Tip

Use the drag icon (the 6 dot icon) to drag and reorder the lanes however you want.

Trim the grid to just the lanes you need
8

Global Feel

Select the Global Feel button to intelligently change the Swing, Accents and Micro Timing for the whole beat. It adjusts all patterns for consistency, then you can tweak single cells if you wish.

Global Feel shapes Swing, Accents, and Micro Timing across the beat
9

Edit a Lane

Select a lane's icon to show the lane information at the bottom of the screen. You can adjust the pattern length, pattern direction, and the feel (Swing and Accent) for just that lane. You can also roll the dice to generate a new pattern for that lane alone.

Tip

Remember Undo and Redo when rolling the dice.

Per-lane length, direction, and feel controls
10

Save Your New Beat

Pro

The Lite version can't save. With the Miditrax Pro licence you can click Save to store your own beats. They appear in the list, or click the User icon (the person icon) to see just your saved beats.

Pro users save beats and recall them from the User list