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ARC-24 Documentation

Interface overview

ARC-24 centers on a performance screen where you play and record. Mixer, Sound Design, and Setup live in the other tabs (bottom bar on iPhone: Playback → Mixer → Sound Design → Setup; right side on iPad in the same order minus Playback).

Header bar

At the top of the performance screen:

Element Purpose
ARC-24 App name
Song name Your project; tap to rename when saved
Loop pill Appears when saved — switch, duplicate, or manage loops
Song list Open, save, and manage songs
Close crop of header: ARC-24, song name with pencil icon, loop pill showing loop name (e.g. "Loop 1"), song list icon on the right.
Close crop of header: ARC-24, song name with pencil icon, loop pill showing loop name (e.g. "Loop 1"), song list icon on the right.

Bottom navigation (iPhone)

Tab What you'll find
Playback Pads, transport, extras tools, recording controls
Mixer Levels, pan, EQ, insert FX, live loop switching — plus the control bar (play, record, arm, BPM) at the bottom
Sound Design The selected track's instrument (synth, drums, or sampler)
Setup Key, scale, loop length, labels, help

Tab order is Playback → Mixer → Sound Design → Setup. Swipe left from Playback lands on Mixer first.

Swipe left or right on the main area to jump between tabs.

Bottom of iPhone screen showing four tab icons; Playback tab active (orange accent).
Bottom of iPhone screen showing four tab icons; Playback tab active (orange accent).

Playback screen (top to bottom)

  1. Header — song and loop controls
  2. Timeline — where you are in the loop; shows recording and count-in
  3. Mode selector — Notes · Chords · Drums · Sampler
  4. Pad grid — where you play (in Drums mode: kit pill + Pads pill above the grid)
  5. Extras row — Left: Hold (Notes) · Pulse (Notes/Drums — rate picker) · Grid editor (when the selected track has recordings). Right: FX (selected track's FX sheet) · Chop (Sampler, Pads layout — scissors) · Clear pad (Sampler, dashed-square) · Erase
  6. Control bar — tracks, play, record, undo, metronome, tempo, and more
Full playback screen with optional callout labels: Header, Timeline, Modes, Pads, Extras, Control bar.
Full playback screen with optional callout labels: Header, Timeline, Modes, Pads, Extras, Control bar.

Control bar

Control What it does
T1–T8 Select which track you're working on (any mode)
Play / Stop Start or stop the loop
Arm Turn recording on for the selected track
Undo Undo erases, then undo last recording
Metronome Click on each beat while playing
Preroll Four-beat count-in before recording
Clear Erase all recordings on the armed track (asks to confirm)
BPM Change tempo (default 88)

The arm button always records the selected track, whatever the mode — Notes, Chords, Drums, or Sampler. Tapping a track that already holds recordings switches the performance screen to that track's instrument automatically, so the pads always match the track you're on.

Tight crop of control bar: all buttons visible, T1 selected, BPM showing 88.
Tight crop of control bar: all buttons visible, T1 selected, BPM showing 88.

Sound Design

Sound Design is Track-only. The pane follows the selected track's instrument:

  • Synth Settings — recipes, oscillators (up to 2 per voice), envelope, filter, LFO, plus a Preview keyboard that doesn't record. All channel effects (tone reverb, Atmosphere, Character, Motion, delay, inserts) are in Mixer → FX.
  • Drum Settings — kit picker + per-pad volume/pan/pitch (the Pads pill on the performance screen opens the same pane)
  • Sampler Settings — just the Recording section. Sample pads, Keys mapping, and the Keys source are all edited on the Sampler performance screen, not here.

Every Track pane ends with a Recording section: quantize (grid, strength, swing) and humanize for that track.

Mixer

The Mixer tab shows a Mixer title in the header (left), with Export on the right.

On iPhone, the control bar (play, record, arm, undo, metronome, BPM) sits at the bottom of the Mixer tab so you can mix and drive transport without switching back to Playback.

  • Eight track strips (T1–T8) — volume, pan, M / S (mute/solo side by side), EQ / FX (side by side). FX is the only place to edit tone reverb, Atmosphere (Space Send, Chorus, Tape Wow), Motion/Bloom, Character, delay, and the insert rack. Drum tracks are ordinary strips with the same full chain.
  • Loop pads — when your song has two or more loops, switch scenes here during performance
  • Export in the header

On iPhone, channel strips paginate by width (typically T1–T4, then T5–T8). Strips use a compact layout on the Mixer tab to make room for the control bar.

Setup

  • Music — key, scale, loop length (quantize and humanize now live in each track's settings pane)
  • Pads — show or hide note names on pads
  • MIDI — enable external MIDI input, channel filter, drum pad base note, connected devices, Bluetooth pairing — see MIDI input
  • Help & About — link to this documentation

Colors and feedback

  • Orange — selected and active controls; Chop armed pad (dashed ring)
  • Red — recording armed, erase mode
  • Note pad colors — hint at how "safe" each note is in the current scale