Pad modes

Every pad works in one of four modes. Pick the mode with the Shape / One-shot / Load / Utility switch at the top of the pad inspector. The inspector then shows only the settings that apply, grouped into SOURCE, PLAY and SOUND sections.

Mode	What a press does	Face badge
Shape	Scratches a shape on a deck, using the pad’s own sample or the deck’s.	SMP with its own sample, none otherwise
One-shot	Plays a sample straight from Start to End, like a drum pad.	ONE
Load	Puts the pad’s sample on a deck, for quick sample switching.	LOAD
Utility	Runs up to four deck and mixer actions.	UTIL

All modes except Load have the PLAY settings described in Play modes and Timing, velocity and choke.

Shape pads

A Shape pad plays its shape on the target deck. Choose the shape in the Shape box, or drag one from the shapes list onto the pad. Its settings:

Shape: the shape it plays.
Sample: optional. Click the sample name to pick one from the sample library. With its own sample, the pad scratches that sample from its Start marker, set on the inspector’s waveform. Without one, it scratches the deck’s sample.
Deck: A or B.
Pitch, Level, Vel Lvl, Vel Spd and Rate in the SOUND section. See Timing, velocity and choke.

Start at

When a Shape pad plays the deck’s own sample, Start at decides where the shape begins:

Choice	Where the shape starts
Cue (default)	The deck’s cue point.
Point	A point of its own on the deck’s sample. Click or drag on the inspector waveform to set it.
Needle	Wherever the needle is when the pad fires.

Move

For Cue and Point, Move says how the needle gets to the start:

Jump: it goes straight there.
Rewind: the platter spins over to the start before the shape begins, so the shape still starts on time. With quantize, the move ends on the grid line; without it, the start is delayed by the move’s length. The rewind is silent unless you turn on the speaker lamp beside it (Audible).
Glide: the shape starts on time where the needle is, and eases over to its start point.

Rewind and Glide have a length: 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2. If a Rewind can’t finish, for example because a hand is holding the record, it falls back to a Glide.

One-shot pads

A One-shot pad plays a sample straight, with the fader open: the pad’s own sample between its Start and End, or the deck’s between its cue and end. Dropping an audio file on a Shape pad loads it and switches the pad to One-shot, so drop-and-play needs no setup.

One-shots have their own options for where they play, reversing, pan, filter, speed, pitch and an envelope. See One-shots.

Load pads

A Load pad loads its sample onto the target deck when you press it, with the pad’s Start and End becoming the deck’s cue and end. Use it to switch samples quickly during a set. The pad glows while its sample is on the deck.

Setting	What it does
Sample	The sample to load. Drop audio on the pad, pick one from the library, or record one with Capture.
Deck	A or B.
Quant	When the load happens. See Timing, velocity and choke.
Start motor	The deck starts playing at once and its Motor switches on.
Keep position	The needle lands at the same distance from the new cue as it was from the old one, instead of jumping to the cue.

Load pads have no play mode and are never part of a choke group.

Utility pads

A Utility pad runs up to four actions in order when it fires: starting and stopping motors, braking, switching Sync Loop, crossfader cuts, captures, stopping pads, effects and more. In Gate and Latch, most actions are undone when the pad stops. See Utility actions.

Capturing into a pad

One-shot and Load pads have a Capture button beside the sample name. It records the current capture length (the same number of bars the deck strips’ Capture uses) of sidechain audio into the pad, starting on the next bar. The button shows Armed…, then the recording progress, and the pad face shows ARMED and then REC. Click again to cancel. See Capture.