Key lights
Every key has a single-colour light that tells you what the key can do right now. There are only three states, plus blinking:
| off | nothing there | |
| half lit | something there, not chosen | |
| fully lit | chosen, or happening | |
| blinking | waiting |
Off, half lit, fully lit, blinking
- 1Selected step
- 2Empty step: off
- 3Has notes: half lit
- 4Selected: fully lit
- 5This step's note: fully lit
- 6Can sound: half lit
| State | Means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| off | nothing there | an empty step, a key that cannot sound (a piano gap, a locked note outside the scale), a function this screen does not have, a send that is off |
| half lit | something there, not chosen | a step with notes, a key that sounds, an option, a parameter, an action you can run, an existing pattern |
| fully lit | chosen, or happening | the selected step, the focused parameter, the current page / scene / track / pattern, a held or sounding key, the playhead, a switch that is on (mute, solo, sequencer on) |
| blinking | waiting | a queued pattern, a cued song row, OK in a confirmation, PLAY while recording is armed, the STEP view's write cursor |
STEP view: the write cursor blinks.
A queued pattern: waits for the loop to finish.
Record armed: PLAY blinks.
Each key has 16 real brightness levels (driven by the device's hardware layer, CardenzaHAL). The eye does not see brightness linearly, so the firmware gamma-corrects every level first; the KEY LED setting dims them all together. The interface uses three: "half lit" is the dimmest glow a key has (1/15 of the time), "fully lit" is 100 %. No in-between levels, and no animation ever lights a key that should be off. The 8 edge keys never glow brighter than half lit: their full state shows on the screen's edge strips (see Screen edges follow the key lights).
Lights on each screen
SEQ note page: empty steps off, steps with notes half lit, selected ones fully lit, the playhead runs across fully lit.
PATTERN: existing patterns half lit, the one in use fully lit, a queued one blinking.
INSTR parameter pages: parameters half lit, the focused parameter fully lit, empty cells off.
SESSION: each track's current pattern fully lit, the others half lit, queued ones blinking.
MIX: the selected track fully lit; mute / solo / sequencer fully lit when on, half lit when off.
Holding ESC / TAB / CTRL: the current item fully lit, the others half lit; the pads all off.
Holding FN: the menu items on the GRID, the letters of the items and the quick controls half lit; everything else off.
SETUP settings pages: settings half lit, the focused one fully lit.
| Screen | GRID lights |
|---|---|
| SEQ note page | the page on screen: empty steps off, steps with notes half lit, selected ones fully lit, the playhead runs across fully lit, steps beyond the pattern's length off; in the STEP view the write cursor blinks |
| SEQ DRUMS | the chosen drum's hits fully lit, steps with only other drums half lit, empty steps off |
| SEQ PATTERN | existing patterns half lit, the one in use fully lit, a queued one blinks; NEW and empty slots off |
| SEQ TRACK | the four settings half lit, the focused one fully lit |
| RECORD panel | settings half lit, REC and SNAP fully lit when on, the focus fully lit; takes half lit |
| INSTR parameter pages (CHORD and ARP too) | parameters and actions half lit, the focused parameter fully lit (HOLD fully lit while on), empty cells off |
| TAPE SESSION | each track's current pattern fully lit, the others half lit, queued ones blink |
| TAPE SONG | cells with a pattern half lit, -- off, the selected cell and the playing row fully lit, a cued row blinks |
| TAPE MIX | the selected track fully lit; mute / solo / sequencer fully lit when on, half lit when off |
| TAPE SENDS · FX | sends that are on half lit, off ones off, the focus fully lit; FX: parameters half lit, the focus fully lit |
| SETUP PROJECT | actions half lit, the focused BPM / SWING fully lit, PLAY fully lit in SONG |
| SETUP FILES | off (choose with ADD / SUB) |
| SETUP KEYS · SYSTEM | settings half lit, the focus fully lit (with KEY LED focused the pads are the brightness ramp) |
| holding ESC | four columns, one per scene: the current scene fully lit, the other three half lit (column 1 is SETUP); the pads all off |
| holding TAB / CTRL | the keys the map accepts: the current one fully lit, the others half lit; the pads all off |
| holding FN / the FN menu | menu items half lit, a switch that is on fully lit, unavailable items and empty cells off |
| a parameter cell held | the pads are its values: one key per value half lit, the current value fully lit |
| text entry | character keys half lit; erase, OK and space half lit |
- The pads are always the current track's keyboard: keys that sound half lit, held and sounding keys fully lit (with the other notes of a chord, the arpeggiator's note and the notes the sequencer plays on this track), keys that cannot sound off (see Keyboard layouts). In SEQ the notes of the selected step, or while playing those of the playing step, are fully lit.
- Drum tracks are the one exception to the three levels: at rest the pad columns glow a little brighter towards the top row (harder), and a hit lights its column from the bottom up to its row.
- The four left keys: ESC, TAB and FN half lit, CTRL half lit when the screen has pages; a held key fully lit; FN fully lit while its menu is kept open (TAB and CTRL are off then, as in every pop-up). Just after a track change only the key of that track's row lights for a moment (T1 = ESC row … T4 = CTRL row).
- Right side: ADD / SUB half lit when there is something to change, OK half lit when it has an action (fully lit in the SEQ STEP view), PLAY half lit when stopped, fully lit when playing, blinking while recording is armed.
While FN is held the whole keyboard shows what FN can do on this screen:
| Keys | While FN is held |
|---|---|
| GRID | the menu: available items half lit, a switch that is on fully lit, unavailable items and empty cells off |
| PADS | the letters of the available items (C V X Q D, S T) and the quick controls 6 7 8 Y U I half lit; every other pad off |
| ESC TAB CTRL | ESC and TAB half lit; CTRL half lit when the scene has more than one page |
| ↑← ↓SUB ↵OK ▶PLAY | ADD / SUB half lit; OK half lit where the screen has an FN+↵OK; PLAY half lit, fully lit while recording is armed |
Screen edges follow the key lights
The 4 + 4 strips on the screen's left and right edges are the lights of the 8 edge keys: each strip reads its key's light at that moment. The edge keys themselves glow at most half lit, so fully lit shows only on the strip.
- 1ESC strip
- 2T2 row: fully lit = solid
- 3FN strip
- 4CTRL strip
- 5ADD
- 6PLAY
- 7The new track's row
- 8Off
| Key light | Screen strip |
|---|---|
| off | very faint |
| half lit | 30 % dither |
| fully lit | solid (the right-hand glyph turns black) |
Holds, the track hint, maps and blinking always match between screen and keys. The right strips also say more: the ADD / SUB glyphs show what they do here (+ −, arrows, erase), and the PLAY strip is green while playing and red while recording is armed.
When nobody plays (no key for 4 seconds), every 10 seconds a light runs down both edges: each row's left and right key lights and screen strips rise and fall together, so you see at a glance that the screen's edge strips are the keys beside them.
Brightness and the light test
KEY LED (0–15) on SETUP's SYSTEM page is the overall brightness of all key lights.
- 1KEY LED brightness
- 2Master volume
- 3Screen brightness
- 4Off
- 5Half lit: the dimmest glow
- 6Each brighter than the last
- 7Fully lit
Hold ESC and press a key of GRID column 1: 0 SETUP.
Hold CTRL and press G4: the SYSTEM page.
Tap KEY LED: the pads become a brightness ramp. ↑← / ↓SUB set the overall brightness.
If every column of the ramp looks equally bright, the light dimming is not working.