User Interface

Track8 follows a simple and consistent interaction model. This page explains the core concepts — for the exhaustive, per-screen list of every control see the Controls & Shortcuts Reference.

Core Principles

🎛 Track Encoders

Control the parameters shown at the top of the screen
Press an encoder to switch its parameter mode
A ^ symbol marks encoders that have a secondary push function (since v1.1.3)
Hold SHIFT while turning for fine-grained steps (since v1.1.4)
Hold SHIFT while pressing to switch encoder modes without the mode overlay interruption (since v1.1.2)
Hold an encoder for 2 seconds to open MIDI Learn — see MIDI Remote Control (since v1.1.4)

🔘 Track Buttons

Select tracks
Trigger the actions shown at the bottom of the screen
Shift = alternate function (e.g. SHIFT + Track Button = mute)

⇧ Shift Button

Enables secondary actions
Context-dependent

🎯 Visual Feedback

Active elements = bright
Inactive = dimmed
A red border around the screen edges means record is armed (faded) or a take is rolling (solid). It is visible on every screen (new in v1.2.1)
While a take is rolling, actions that would break the recording (changing BPM, switching the record domain, opening heavy screens) are refused with an on-screen error instead of silently stopping the take (new in v1.2.1)
The status bar at the bottom of the Overview screens shows the active recording mode, the overdub state and the current time/beat position. Bars and beats are counted from 1, so the start of the tape reads 01:01 (changed in v1.2.1 — it used to read 00:01):

Transport bar of the Audio Overview with labeled indicators

👆 Touch

Screens that accept touch input show a small [TOUCH] indicator (new in v1.2.1)
Quick Settings: touch and hold the track area of the Audio or MIDI Overview for about a second to open a panel of the everyday toggles that otherwise live on the Utility screen (since v1.2.2):
- VIEW: MKR LEG, MOD HI, BIG TIME, SHIFT HOLD — NAVIGATION: SHIFT NAV, TIMED JUMP, SHIFT PLAY, PASTE JMP — SOUND & RECORD: SCROLL SND, TAPE SND, OVERDUB, FREE BAR
- Touch a tile to switch it (TIMED JUMP, SHIFT PLAY and TAPE SND cycle through their values); lit tiles are on. TIMED JUMP is greyed out while SHIFT NAV is set to BEATS
- FREE BAR is the one tile that acts instead of switching: it closes the panel and moves the playhead to the next empty bar on the tape — the next place to paste or record without erasing anything. See FREE BAR. Greyed out while recording
- Touch anywhere outside the tiles to close the panel. Any button or encoder closes it as well and still does its normal job — Play plays, the screen keys switch screens
- A short tap on the tracks still does what it always did (e.g. touching a marker edits its label), and the panel is a shortcut only: every setting stays on the Utility screen
A USB mouse scroll wheel or a jog wheel behaves like the SCROLL encoder in the Audio/MIDI Overview and Edit views (since v1.1.1)

Buttons and Shortcuts

Screens

Audio Overview
Midi Overview
Master FX
Settings (before v1.1.3 this opened the USB Browser)
Audio Edit
Midi Edit
Track FX
USB Browser (before v1.1.3 this opened Settings)

Screen Button Cycles

Pressing a screen button again while already on its screen cycles through a family of related views:

Audio → Audio Overview ↔ Track Mixer (new in v1.2.1)
Settings → Settings ↔ Utility (new in v1.2.1) — the classic route via the UTILITY track button still works
Master FX → Master FX → Mastering → External Inputs (External Inputs only with an external soundcard) (new in v1.2.1)
SHIFT + Master FX → Track FX ↔ Track Sends (Track Sends only with an external soundcard) (new in v1.2.1)

Hold Shortcuts

Hold Audio + Track Button — solo/unsolo an audio track on the Audio Overview (since v1.1.2)
Hold Midi + Track Button — solo/unsolo a MIDI track on the Midi Overview (since v1.1.2)
Hold Audio + Midi, then press a Track Button — select the same track for both Audio and MIDI (since v1.1.3)
Hold Settings, then press Audio — open the Soundcard settings
Hold Settings, then press Midi — open the MIDI settings
Hold Loop + Cut/Copy/Paste — arrange the current loop region: all unmuted tracks (a soloed track counts as the only unmuted one), Audio + MIDI, with the Markers inside the loop instead of marker bounds (Audio Overview since v1.2.1, MIDI Overview since v1.2.2)
Press Loop In + Loop Out together — set the loop region to the surrounding marker bounds; with SHIFT the punch region (since v1.2.0)

Edit

Set Marker / remove the Marker at the playhead (locked markers are kept)
Cut Area
Copy Area
Paste at playhead
Clear all (non locked) Markers
Cut all unmuted Tracks (a soloed Track counts as the only unmuted one)
Copy all unmuted Tracks (a soloed Track counts as the only unmuted one)
Bounce Clipboard into selected Track (audio)
/ / Cut / Copy / Paste Audio and MIDI together — with the Markers inside the Loop region — for arranging the whole song at once; see Arrange Audio, MIDI and Markers together with LOOP (since v1.2.2)

After a paste the playhead can jump to the end of the pasted region to chain pastes into a repeating pattern — enable PASTE JMP in Utility (since v1.2.0). Pasted/modified areas can be highlighted in orange via MOD HI in Utility (since v1.1.4).

Playback Control

Toggle Loop
Set Loop In
Set Loop Out
Arm Record
Toggle Punch
Set Punch In
Set Punch Out
Undo
Undo during a take: SHIFT + Record stops playback, undoes the take and moves the playhead back to where recording started (new in v1.2.1)
Redo: hold SHIFT and push Encoder 8 — one redo step after an undo, separate for Audio and MIDI (since v1.1.2)

Shift
Play / Pause
Jump one Bar to the Left
Jump one Bar to the Right
Jump to Tape Start — or to the first Marker, configurable via SHIFT PLAY in Utility (since v1.1.5) — or to the start marker whenever one is flagged (new in v1.2.2)
Jump one Beat or one Marker to the Left (SHIFT NAV in Utility)
Jump one Beat or one Marker to the Right (SHIFT NAV in Utility)