GroovixBox cheat sheet

Every mode, the buttons that open it, and what the 8 × 8 grid does once you are there.

The grid’s eight buttons · R1–R8

R1Note

Opens Note mode, and returns from Scale. SHIFT + the four rows of steps picks any of the 32 pages.

SHIFT + R1 → Scenes, from any mode

R2Params

Opens Step parameters for the selected track. SHIFT + the four rows of steps picks its step page.

SHIFT + R2 → the Song. In Preset mode, holding R2 picks the preset page

R3Probability

Opens Probability mode: the same step grid as Note and Step parameters, with the chance and micro-timing lanes below it. R1, R2 and R3 are the three modes that draw that grid, side by side.

SHIFT + R3 → Project

R4Pattern

Opens Pattern mode, and returns to it from Scenes and the settings.

SHIFT + R4 → Global settings

R5Preset

Opens Preset mode — the voice the selected track’s gear plays. Holding R2 there picks the preset page, so the mode has a button and a modifier of its own.

SHIFT + R5 → nothing. This is the only way in from the grid: no layer hides Preset

R6Scale

Opens Scale mode — the root, the scale, and whether the keyboard is keys, chords, drums or a piano roll.

SHIFT + R6 → nothing. The only way in from the grid, as with R5

R7Clear

Hold and tap a pad to clear that step, pattern, project, scene or song step. Orange while held. There is no undo, and the built-in pattern bank is read-only.

SHIFT + R7 → nothing: a modifier, which Shift leaves alone

R8Duplicate

Hold, tap the source pad (it turns white), then tap one or more destinations. You can change page — or track — in between.

SHIFT + R8 → nothing, for the same reason as R7

The page panel · the other surface

Its eight pad rows

One row a kind of page, one pad a page, every kind shown at once with nothing held. Green is the page on screen, blue one holding something, grey empty, dark one this build hasn’t got.

  • rows 1–4The 32 step pages — eight pages, 256 steps, a row. The whole pattern at once, the playing page blinking across it.
  • row 5Track pages, which B1–B8 then select.
  • row 6Project pages.
  • row 7Preset voice windows — all eight blocks of 512 voices.
  • row 8Preset pages of the window above it: a tab strip over what the open tab shows.

Its buttons

An APC mini mk2 is this panel in hardware once a Launchpad X takes the grid; a Launchpad Mini mk3 can play it instead, at the cost of the rig’s nine faders.

  • 1–6SCENE · SONG · PROJECT · SETTINGS · SCALE · PRESET — every mode the grid keeps behind SHIFT, one press each. Lit on the mode that is open.
  • 7–8REC and PLAY: the transport, which is only here — eight buttons beside the grid are exactly its eight functions. The same press and the same two LEDs either way.
  • arrowsButtons 1–4 under the pads: up, down, left, right, scrolling a piano roll 1 at a time with no SHIFT. Dark when no roll is on screen. 5–8 are spare.
  • SHIFTThe rig's modifier, in the corner — a Launchpad X has no button to spare for it. On a Mini panel it is the USER button on the top edge.
  • fadersAn APC panel's nine are FADERS 1–8 and MASTER; a Mini panel has none at all.

Modes · what the pads do

Note

R1
  • 1–4 32 steps of the selected track
  • 5–8 the keyboard, rising from the root at bottom left
  • tap stepSwitches an empty step on. Tapping never switches one off — CLEAR + step does.
  • hold + keysHold a step and tap keys to give it that chord, up to 4 notes. Or hold keys and tap steps.
  • R1 + stepHold R1, tap a step: it becomes the pattern's last. Turns red, the steps after go dark.
  • SHIFT + keyTop-left key up an octave, bottom-left key down — the way the notes run. Both light white while SHIFT is held.
  • SHIFT + rows 1–4Any of the 32 pages of 32 steps in one press, and those pads show which page you are on while SHIFT is held — green there, dim blue for a page with steps, grey for empty, dark past the last page. The map is where the steps were. The keyboard below it is untouched.

Piano roll

Scale row 8, pad 1
  • all 8 steps across, 8 notes of the track's scale up
  • SHIFT four pads at the bottom right become the arrows
  • tap padAdds that note to the step, or takes it out. Hold to hear it without changing anything.
  • SHIFT + arrowsLeft (8,6), down (8,7), right (8,8), up (7,7) — an inverted T. Up and down move the notes, left and right the steps, 1 at a time. Dark where there's nowhere to go.
  • panel arrowsThe four buttons under a page panel's pads do the same, by the same amount, with no SHIFT. Dark when no roll is on screen.
  • R1 + padMakes its step the pattern's last. SHIFT does nothing to any pad but the four arrows.
  • noteOne of three ways to use the grid — it replaces chords, and pairs with Drums or Own scale.

Scale

R6
  • 1–2 the root note: black keys above white
  • 5–7 the 24 scales, Major first, in reading order
  • 8 what the keyboard is
  • row 8, 1PIANO ROLL — sits alone at the left end, because it changes the grid rather than the keys.
  • row 8, 5–6TRIAD and 7TH: one key then plays a whole chord, built from the scale.
  • row 8, 7–8DRUMS (two 4×4 blocks) and OWN SCALE (this track in another key).
  • noteRoot and scale belong to the project. Chords, Drums and the roll replace each other.

Step parameters

R2
  • 1–4 the steps; brightness is velocity
  • 5–6 velocity, 16 levels from 8 to 127
  • 7–8 gate, one ramp of 16 lengths
  • tap stepSelects it. Hold several to edit them together. Steps never switch on or off here.
  • gate ramp1–5 a sixth … five sixths · 6 one step · 7–11 two to six · 12–15 8, 10, 12, 16 steps · 16 INF, which holds until the track's next step. Sixths of the track's step, so it stretches with the track's speed.
  • SHIFT + 7–8The same two rows become ratchets: pad n fires the step n+1 times, evenly.
  • CLEAR + stepPuts velocity, gate and ratchet back.

Probability

R3
  • 1–4 the steps; brightness is the chance
  • 5–6 6% … 94%, and 100% on the last pad
  • 7–8 micro-timing, in ticks of a 24th of a step
  • straightThe 9th pad of the lane — the first of row 8. Left is early, right is late.
  • the rungs±1 to ±4 is feel · ±6 and ±8 · ±10, ±12 is half a step, for flams.
  • tripletsA beat is 96 ticks, so every triplet position sits exactly 8 ticks off a step: use ±8.
  • CLEAR + stepBack to 100%. The grid itself never moves — only when the notes play.

Pattern

R4
  • 1–4 patterns 1–32 of the selected track
  • 5–8 patterns 33–64: on tracks 1–5 the built-in bank, read-only; on tracks 6–64 yours
  • green the one pattern that track plays
  • tap padThe track plays that pattern at once, keeping the playhead. Pad 1 is pattern 1, the last pad pattern 64 — all 64 at once, so nothing pages the patterns.
  • B1–B8Pick the track, staying in the mode — as in Note mode. SHIFT + B1–B8 is the track page.
  • SHIFTTakes no pad row here — every pad is still a pattern. With a pattern library on the stick it turns the pads into the packs: pad n is pack n, tap to open it over rows 5–8, tap it again to close. With no library, nothing. On the buttons it means what it means everywhere else.
  • libraryA folder of MIDI files is a pack; an open one takes rows 5–8 in violet. Tap a pattern to play it, DUPLICATE + pack pad + one of yours to keep it. Read once at start-up — the stick is never touched again. Which pack is open belongs to the track.
  • rows 5–8The built-in bank, lit amber: drums on track 1, bass 2, chords 3, arp 4, fills 5, and nowhere else. 32 patterns a role, all slots full, one page a family — row 5 is the eight that were always there. Read-only — DUPLICATE copies one up to rows 1–4 to edit. On tracks 6–64 these rows are patterns of your own, so those tracks hold 64 against a banked track's 32.
  • turning one offCLEAR cannot empty the bank and a track always plays one pattern, so tap a grey pad in rows 1–4 instead — an empty pattern of your own, saved with the project. Or mute the track from the mixer's MUTE row, which dims the whole grid.
  • DUPLICATECopies a pattern. Press B1–B8 between the two taps to copy it to another track.

Scenes

SHIFT + R1
  • 1–4 32 scenes: grey empty, blue held, green playing
  • 8 the 8 tracks of the track page — tap to mute
  • tap sceneLaunches it at the top of the next bar. It blinks until it lands; tap again to change your mind.
  • REC + padCaptures what you are hearing into that pad — REC is on the panel. The scene pads turn red while it is held.
  • holdsWhich tracks are silent, and which pattern each track plays. Saved with the project.
  • R1 / R4R1 is lit here, since the scenes are its Shift layer; R4 goes to Pattern mode. Mutes stay put as you flip between them.

Song

SHIFT + R2
  • 1–4 the 32 scenes again — the palette to build from
  • 5–8 the 32 song steps, four bars each, in its scene's colour
  • hold + sceneHold a song step and tap a scene to put it there. The step's current scene lights while you hold.
  • PLAYPlays the song from the marker. Empty steps are skipped and it loops at the end.
  • tap stepGoes there at once. Tapping a scene takes over and the song stops advancing.
  • noteA scene has to hold something before it can go in the song.

Project

SHIFT + R3
  • all 64 slots of a page, 8 pages, 512 projects
  • green the open project — slots read page.slot, so 3.08
  • tap slotOpens that project, saving the open one first. An empty slot starts a new project there.
  • pagesSHIFT + B1–B8, inside the mode. No R button opens this mode, so there is none to hold for pages.
  • CLEAR + slotClears it. The file is not deleted — it moves to trash/<date>_<time>/ in the data folder.
  • DUPLICATECopies a project, across pages too. Copying the open one includes unsaved changes.

Preset

R5
  • all 64 voices a page, 8 pages a window, 8 windows
  • green the one in use — a preset is a voice in the gear, so no pad is full or empty
  • tap padSends that voice: Bank Select CC 0, then CC 32, then the Program Change that latches them.
  • resentOn a channel, port or instrument change; for every track when a project opens; and for every track when play starts from stopped. Never mid-run.
  • orderPick the track with B1–B8 first, then R5 — the only way in from the grid. A tap of R2 here goes on to Step parameters; holding it pages.
  • B1–B8Moves the selection without leaving, as in Pattern mode, and the grid follows the track to its own window and page. A track past the eighth needs a page panel's track row.
  • pagesHold SHIFT or R2 and press B1–B8 — 64 voices each.
  • SHIFT + row 8Picks the window: 512 voices each, 8 of them. Green is the window on screen, blue holds voices, grey is past the end of the list.
  • panel windowsA page panel's window row picks any of the eight in one press, on the row above its preset pages. Dark and deaf past the end of the list, so General MIDI lights only the first.
  • the listvoices.conf names a CSV per device — the maker's own list. Slot 1.01 is its first voice. No list means General MIDI, 128 voices.
  • noteCLEAR and DUPLICATE do nothing here. A patch lives in the synth, not in the sequencer.

Global settings

SHIFT + R4
  • 1 pick a setting: 1 tempo · 2 MIDI · 3 swing · 4 devices · 5 arp · 6 speed
  • 3–7 the picked setting's value
  • 8 pad 5 +1 · pad 6 −1 · pad 8 sends every CC again
  • no faderThe tempo and the swing are set with the four stepper pads. Fader 1 sends its CC here as it does everywhere else, so no fader ever quietly means something different.
  • MIDIRows 3–4 channels 1–16 · row 5 ports P1–P8 · rows 6–7 instruments I1–I16. A track uses one or the other.
  • devicesRow 3 the gear · row 5 the ports that found something · row 7 INT / AUTO / EXT · row 8 pad 1 REFRESH.
  • arpRow 3 the mode · row 5 the rate, down to 1/64T · row 7 how many octaves.
  • speedRow 3, how fast the track runs: /8 /4 /3 /2 x1 x2 x3 x4, x1 in the middle. The tempo does not move — only this track. With its own length, that is polyrhythm.
  • B1–B8Move the selection without leaving, as in Pattern mode, so you can set each track in turn.

Paging · reaching the rest

GestureWhereChanges
SHIFT + B1–B8Note, Pattern, Scale, Params, Probability, Scenes, GlobalTrack page — which tracks B1–B8 select. Your position is kept: track 4 becomes track 12. Eight pages of eight is all 64 tracks.
nothingPatternPatterns do not page. A track has 64 and the grid is 64 pads, so the whole of its choice is on screen at once.
SHIFT + rows 1–4Note, Params, ProbabilityStep page — any of 32 in one press, and while SHIFT is held those pads are the map: green for the page on screen, blue for one holding something, grey for empty, the playing page blinking, dark past the last page.
hold R1 + B1–B8Note, on a piano roll trackJumps along the pattern. Every pad of the roll is a note, so there is no map to lay over it: the eight buttons take a stride of pages each — four at 1024 steps — and the arrows cover what falls between.
SHIFT + the roll's arrowsNote, on a piano roll trackScrolls rather than pages: left (8,6), down (8,7), right (8,8), up (7,7), 1 at a time.
the panel's arrowsNote, on a piano roll trackScrolls the same roll by the same amount, with no modifier. Dark when no roll is on screen.
SHIFT + BProjectProject page. The only paging gesture there — no R button opens the mode, so none holds for pages.
hold R2 or SHIFT + BPresetPreset page.
the panel's padsany modeEvery kind at once, one row each — the 32 step pages on the top four rows, then tracks, projects, the preset windows and the preset pages — shown the whole time with nothing held, one pad a page to switch, and the playing step page blinking.

The mixer, the tracks, the limits

Mixer panel

Eight strips to the right of the grid. Strip n is track n of the current track page. An Akai MIDI Mix is this panel in hardware and is picked up on its own.

  • K1–K3Knob rows: Cutoff (74), Resonance (71) and Pan (10, centred) by default.
  • faderVolume (CC 7), on the strip's track channel and port.
  • with REC onAny knob or fader moved while REC is on and the transport is running is recorded into the pattern and played back every pass. Eight controllers a pattern; nothing to arm.
  • MUTEMutes the track at once. Mixer SHIFT + MUTE solos instead; several tracks can be soloed.
  • A2REC ARM on a MIDI Mix. Nothing yet: it lights while held and nothing acts on it.
  • M1–M3Nothing yet.

Track colours

Eight colours, repeated on every track page: tracks 9–16 look like 1–8, and so on to 64. No track is red, so the markers that are — the last step, Record, the recording playhead — can never be mistaken for one.

  • 1 peach
  • 2 orange
  • 3 yellow
  • 4 green
  • 5 cyan
  • 6 blue
  • 7 purple
  • 8 pink
  • 64 tracks
  • 64 patterns each
  • 1024 steps
  • 4 notes a step
  • 32 scenes
  • 512 projects
  • 512 presets
  • 20–300 BPM