Canvas & Connections

Node patching · Follow the signal

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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

Connections can also be made without dragging: right-click a node and choose Connect. A node with several output ports - a multi-output plugin, a plugin with a MIDI out - lists each port as its own submenu, named the way its tooltip names it ("Out 3/4", "MIDI out"). Disconnect lists each cable separately, so one of several can be removed on its own. This is also the way to reach every port on iPad.

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

Deleting an effect leaves the instrument behind it without a path to the mixer, so that instrument goes silent rather than playing dry around your effect chain. Reconnect it - to the Mixer, to another effect, or into a group - and it comes right back.

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
Click the zoom readout (bottom-right) for presets (50-200%) and Zoom to Fit

Saving a project saves the view with it, so reopening a file frames what you were looking at when you saved. The view is stored as the point at the centre of the canvas rather than a scroll position, so it survives a different window size or a different set of panels being open. Projects saved before Noemi 1.0.7 carry no view and open fitted around their modules.

Timeline editors (piano roll, drum grid, automation lane, Arrangement View, Waveform, Slicer) have their own scrollbars with -/+ zoom buttons; Cmd+wheel zooms and trackpad horizontal swipes pan.

RESETTING PARAMETERS

Double-click or Cmd-click any knob or slider to reset it to its default value.
The same gestures reset a modulation route's depth arc to 0%.

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