Canvas & Connections

THE NODE CANVAS

The canvas is your workspace for building compositions. Nodes appear as colored blocks that you can arrange freely.

CREATING NODES

Use the toolbar buttons at the top of the window:

• Modules — Add Pattern, Generator, Rhythm, Waveform, Slicer, Granular, LiveCode, and more
• Instruments — Add Chirusa, Leeroy, Cantia, SimSim, Ostion, or external AU/VST3/CLAP/LV2 plugins
• Effects — Add internal or external audio effect plugins

You can also right-click the canvas background to open a context menu with all node types, including the preset clip libraries for Pattern, Rhythm, and Waveform.

SELECTING AND MOVING NODES

• Click a node to select it (highlighted border appears)
• Drag a node to reposition it on the canvas
• Click-drag on empty canvas to rubber-band select multiple nodes
• Cmd+click a node to add/remove it from the selection
• Drag any selected node to move all selected nodes together
• Click the canvas background to deselect

RENAMING NODES

• Double-click a node's editor panel header to set a custom display name.
• The custom name appears on the canvas and in mixer strips.
• Clear the name to revert to the default auto-generated name.

CREATING CONNECTIONS

• Drag from a node's output port (right side) to another node's input port (left side)
• A cable appears connecting the two nodes
• MIDI connections carry note data; audio connections carry sound

COPY, CUT, AND PASTE

• Cmd+C copies the selected node(s)
• Cmd+X cuts the selected node(s)
• Cmd+V pastes -- creates new nodes with unique IDs and reconnected internal wiring

Multi-node copy/paste preserves connections between the copied nodes.

DELETING

• Select a node and press Delete or Backspace to remove it
• Multi-select and delete removes all selected nodes at once
• Right-click a connection cable to delete it

NODE GROUPING

• Select 2 or more nodes and press Cmd+G to group them into a single macro node
• Double-click a group to enter group view and edit the subgraph inside
• Press Escape to exit group view
• Select a group node and press Cmd+Shift+G to ungroup (dissolves back to individual nodes)

Groups have I/O nodes that define signal routing in and out of the group. Internal connections are preserved.

ZOOM AND PAN

• Cmd+= or mouse wheel up to zoom in
• Cmd+- or mouse wheel down to zoom out
• Cmd+F to fit all nodes in view
• Home to reset zoom to 1.0 and pan to origin
• Middle-mouse drag or Space+drag to pan the canvas

MINIMAP

• A small overview in the top-left corner shows all nodes as colored rectangles
• The cyan rectangle shows the current viewport
• Click or drag on the minimap to quickly pan to any location
• Press Tab to toggle minimap visibility

DRAG AND DROP

• Drag a MIDI file (.mid) onto the canvas to create a Pattern with those notes
• Drag an audio file onto the canvas to create a Waveform
• Drag an audio file onto an existing Waveform node to replace its audio