What is psikat?

Psikat is a tracker-like sequencer DAW for the browser.

Projects are saved and loaded in the .psikat binary format. Use Cmd/Ctrl+S to save, or Load Project from the command palette to open a file.

Interface Overview

The interface is divided into four main sections:

Top

A horizontal bar showing the project name, BPM, bar count, and toggle buttons for PLAY/STOP, LOOP, MIXER, and INSTRUMENT.

Command Palette

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P to open the command palette. The palette is the central hub for every action in psikat and very soon will replace almost all mouse interactions.

• Type to search for any command
• Up/Down to navigate, Enter to execute
• Right Arrow to drill into a category, Left Arrow to go back
• The palette is context-aware and shows commands relevant to what you're doing

Cmd/Ctrl+S saves the project. The first save prompts for a name.

Below the header is the zoom bar, a thin strip with buttons for all zoom levels. Click a zoom button to change the resolution at the cursor row. Select a region first to change multiple rows at once.

Center

A vertical grid where notes and FX commands are entered. See Pattern Editor for details.

Right

A right-side panel toggled with Cmd/Ctrl+I. Shows settings for the selected track: voice count, instrument mode, presets, synth or sample parameters, and per-track effects.

Bottom

• Input Panel - shows transpose, octave, skip, scale, chord, and arpeggiator. Use the command palette to change these.
• Mixer - toggled with Cmd/Ctrl+M

Pattern Editor

The central area of psikat. A vertical grid where each column is a voice within a track, and each row is a step in time.

Entering Notes

Notes are entered using the computer keyboard. See Notes for the key layout. The active scale filters available pitches.

• Press a note key to insert a note at the cursor and advance by the skip amount
• Press . to insert a note-off
• Press Shift+. to insert a note-off on all voices of the current row
• Press - to insert a skip marker (displayed as SKP)
• Press Delete or Backspace to clear the note at the cursor
• Entered notes play back as a preview

Skip Markers

A skip marker (SKP) defines a region that is skipped during playback. A single skip marker skips from that row to the end. Two skip markers define a range: all rows between them are skipped.

Polyphonic Input

Pressing multiple note keys within a short window enters them across adjacent voices on the same row.

Cursor and Navigation

• Arrow keys - move the cursor up/down/left/right
• Navigation wraps around at boundaries
• Click any cell to move the cursor there

Zoom

Psikat's grid supports multiple note resolutions within the same pattern. A hi-hat pattern at 32nd-note resolution and a bass line at 8th notes coexist seamlessly.

The zoom bar below the header shows all resolutions: 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128. Select a range in the grid, then click a zoom button to permanently change that region's resolution. The grid splits to show each region at its native detail level.

• Select the rows you want to zoom, then click a resolution button
• If no selection is active, the zoom applies to the entire pattern
• Buttons are disabled when the selected range cannot cleanly adopt that resolution (e.g. non-empty sub-rows would be lost)

Selection

• Shift + Arrow keys - begin or extend a selection

• Cmd/Ctrl+A - progressive selection:

  • From a note column:
    1. Select all notes in the current track
    2. Extend to include FX columns
    3. Select all tracks
  • From an FX column:
    1. Select current FX column
    2. Select all FX columns on current track
    3. Extend to include note columns
    4. Select all tracks

• Escape - clear the selection

FX Columns

Every track has three FX columns to the right of its note voices.

PITCH

Each command is a letter followed by four digits: [L][XX][YY].

Type the command letter, then four digits. Press . to insert ··OFF and reset all pitch effects.

Pitch commands can also be entered from the command palette when the cursor is on a note cell. Open the Cell category, select the command, then enter each parameter when prompted.

Notes with a pitch command on the same row are displayed in orange.

Examples: S1208 = scoop from 12 semitones below over 8 rows. V0820 = subtle vibrato. B0204 = bend up 2 semitones over 4 rows.

VOL - Volume

Sets the track volume. FF = full, 00 = silent. Persists until overwritten.

PAN - Pan

Sets the stereo position. 00 = left, 80 = centre, FF = right. Persists until overwritten.

Master Columns

The left-most columns in the pattern editor. They provide row-by-row automation for the master bus:

Type five decimal digits for BPM — for example, 12000 = 120.00 BPM. Type two hex digits for VOL. Press . to insert OFF, which resets to the project default. Press Delete to clear.

Right-click an effect slider to add or remove an automation column for that parameter.

Bordered Mode

Toggle Bordered Mode via the Command Palette

• ON - cursor and editing are constrained to the focused pattern slot. Unfocused patterns are dimmed
• OFF - the entire song is treated as one continuous grid. Cursor, selection, and operations work freely across pattern boundaries

Pattern Settings

Each pattern has three structural properties visible in the zoom bar: BARS, STEPS, and SUBDIVISION.

• BARS — number of bars in the pattern (1–128). Set via Pattern → Bars in the command palette. Can be changed at any time; rows are added or removed from the end.
• STEPS — number of steps per bar (1–128). Set at creation time.
• SUBDIVISION — the base note value. Set at creation time. If parts of the pattern are zoomed to different resolutions, the zoom bar shows a range (e.g. 1/16–1/48).

STEPS and SUBDIVISION are configured when creating a new slot via Pattern → New Slot Before… or Pattern → New Slot After…. These commands open a three-step wizard: Bars, then Steps, then Subdivision. Defaults are inherited from the current pattern.

The quick commands Add Slot Before and Add Slot After skip the wizard and inherit all settings from the current pattern.

Fill Commands

With the cursor on a VOL, PAN, BPM, or parameter cell that contains a value:

• Fill Ascending — interpolates values up to the next filled cell, or increments by 1 per row to the end of the pattern.
• Fill Descending — interpolates values down to the next filled cell, or decrements by 1 per row.

Moving Notes

• Alt + Arrow keys - move the note or selection in any direction
• Press Enter to confirm, or any other key to cancel

Chord Mode

When Chord is not "Off", each key press inserts a chord. Intervals follow the active scale, so the same key produces different qualities on different scale degrees.

Playback

• Enter - start/stop from the beginning
• Space - start/stop from the cursor position
• The grid highlights the current row and auto-scrolls during playback
• Editing is disabled during playback

Arranger

Press Tab to toggle the arranger view. This replaces the pattern editor with a grid of colored blocks.

Click a block to select it. Double-click to jump to that pattern in the pattern editor. Clicking any zoom level button also returns to the pattern editor.

Navigation

• Arrow Up / Down - move to the previous or next pattern slot
• Arrow Left / Right - move to the previous or next track
• Enter - start or stop playback from the beginning of the arrangement
• Space - start or stop playback from the selected pattern
• Delete / Backspace - progressive delete. First press clears the pattern data from the selected cell. Second press on an empty cell removes the entire slot. On the last remaining empty slot, deletes the track if more than one track exists.
• Tab - return to the pattern editor

Note keys preview audio without writing to the pattern. During playback, the cursor highlights the currently playing slot.

Commands

The following commands are available in the command palette:

Synthesizer

When a track uses a standard waveform the built-in dual-oscillator synthesizer is active.

When OSC 1 is set to SAMPLE, the track becomes a sample instrument.

Presets

A PRESET dropdown provides built-in patches. The ◀ and ▶ arrows step through presets.

RANDOM randomizes all synth parameters. SIMILAR enters an exploration mode that generates small variations. Three buttons appear: COLD varies from the original starting point, HOT varies from the current direction, and YES! keeps the sound and exits.

Double-click any slider to reset it.

Pitch & Glide

OSC 1

Sample Mode

When OSC 1 WAVE is set to SAMPLE, the panel switches to sample mode.

Right-click the waveform display to load a .wav file. Maximum file size is 10 MB.

Trim Modal

After selecting a file, a trim modal opens. Drag the selection edges to choose which portion to load.

Press Load to commit the processed selection. Press Cancel or Escape to discard. While the modal is open, press keyboard note keys to preview the edited sample.

Below the waveform:

Multi-Sample

Multi-sample mode lets each voice column in a track use a different sample with independent settings.

Press the MULTI-SAMPLE button in the sample instrument view to enable it. Voice tabs appear, each controlling its own sample and settings.

The first voice inherits the track's current sample when multi-sample is enabled. Other voices start empty. Click a voice tab and load a sample via the waveform right-click menu.

Track-level effects are shared across all voices.

Disabling multi-sample keeps only voice 1's sample. Selecting a synth waveform also exits multi-sample mode.

OSC 2

The second oscillator. Can be detuned relative to OSC 1 or used as an FM source.

Mix

Filter

Amp

ENV

LFO

Chorus

Tone

Four-band tonal shaper with LOW, LO-MID, HI-MID, and HI sliders. Each ranges from −24 to +24 dB. At 0 dB, a band is bypassed.

Comp

Single slider (0–100%). Higher values apply more compression. At 0% the compressor is bypassed.

Mixer

Shows a channel strip for each track and a master strip.

Channel Strip

Each strip contains:

| Pan slider | Drag to pan. Double-click to reset | | M | Mute | | S | Solo | | Volume fader | Drag to adjust. Double-click to reset | | dB readout | Current volume in dB. Can also be dragged |

In multi-sample mode, each voice has its own panning in the instrument panel. The channel strip panning positions the entire track output.

Master Strip

Labeled MASTER, at the right end of the mixer:

Master EQ

8-band EQ shown next to the master strip. Bypassed by default. Click ON/OFF to toggle.

Each band has frequency, gain (±24 dB), and Q parameters. High-pass and low-pass bands use a slope setting instead of gain.

All interaction is on the frequency response graph:

• Drag a point to change frequency and gain.
• Shift + drag to adjust Q.
• Single click a point to toggle it on or off.
• Double-click a point to reset it.
• Cmd/Ctrl + click a high-pass or low-pass point to cycle through slopes: 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48 dB/Oct, and ∞.

Bands 1 and 8 are disabled by default. Click to enable.

Master Compressor

Bypassed by default. Click ON/OFF to toggle.

For limiter behavior, set a high ratio with a fast attack.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Global

Instrument Panel

Press Escape from the pattern editor to focus the instrument panel. Press Escape again to return.

For discrete options like waveform or filter mode, ← → cycles through the choices.

Arranger

Edit

Notes

The 27 note keys span the active scale. Pitches depend on the selected scale, octave, and transpose settings.

FX Columns

On a filled PITCH cell, typing digits edits the existing command without re-entering the letter.