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ARC-24 Documentation

Grid editor

The grid editor shows every recorded hit on the selected track laid out on a bar/beat grid — like a piano roll. Drag notes to new positions, stretch or shorten them, or delete them, without re-recording anything.

It works on all track types: synth notes, chords, drum hits, and sampler hits.

Opening the grid editor

Tap the grid button in the Extras row (below the pad grid). The button only appears when the selected track has recorded content — an empty track has nothing to edit.

The editor opens full-screen on iPhone and as a centered sheet on iPad.

Screenshot grid-editor-open.webp

Extras row with the grid button highlighted; grid editor open showing a few note blocks.

The button is unavailable while:

  • an arrangement is playing
  • an export is running
  • the selected track is armed and the transport is recording (finish the take first)

What you see

  • Ruler — bar numbers across the top
  • Lanes — one row per pitch (synth), per chord degree (chords), or per pad (drums / sampler), labeled on the left with note names, roman numerals, or pad/sample names. Sampler lanes show the pad's sample name (Keys recordings show the interval + source sample instead)
  • Blocks — one per recorded hit. Synth and chord blocks show their length; drum and sampler hits are short one-shot markers. Brighter blocks were played harder
  • Playhead — a moving line while the loop plays

A play/stop button in the header runs the loop transport without leaving the editor, so you can audition timing changes on the spot.

Pinch to zoom in or out; scroll to move around the loop.

Chords appear as a single block per stroke (labeled with the chord name, e.g. Fmaj7) — the whole chord moves, resizes, and deletes as one unit.

Editing

Action How
Select Tap a block (tap again to deselect) — tapping also plays the sound: the note, the whole chord, or the drum/sampler hit
Move Hold a block briefly, then drag left or right — it snaps to the snap grid
Resize Select a synth or chord block, then drag the handle on its right edge
Delete Select a block, then tap Delete in the header
Undo Tap Undo in the header

The short hold before dragging is deliberate — plain swipes scroll the grid instead of grabbing notes.

Notes can be dragged (or resized) across the loop boundary; a note that extends past the end simply wraps around to bar 1.

Snap

The Snap row picks the grid your edits land on: Off, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16T, or 1/32. It defaults to the track's own quantize grid (or 1/16 when quantize is off). Off places notes exactly where you drop them.

Snap only affects edits in this editor — it doesn't change the track's quantize setting.

Editing while the loop plays

You can edit while the transport runs — changes take effect immediately, so you can nudge a hit and hear the result on the next pass.

The grid edits the raw recorded timing (the same positions Erase works on). If the track has quantize or humanize enabled, they are re-applied on top of your edit, exactly as they are for freshly recorded notes.

Undo

The editor's Undo steps back grid edits (and playhead erases) one at a time. It never undoes a recording pass — that stays on the transport's Undo button, so you can't accidentally lose a take while cleaning up timing.