Chord Circuit›Guides›Groove

Groove: your band

Drums, strumming, arpeggios and bass that follow every chord you play. This guide goes through every setting on the Groove page, with ready-made grooves to try at the end.

See the band in action in video 3 · Your first sequence.

The Groove page with tempo, drums, auto chord strum, arpeggiator and bass
The clock

Tempo & latch sync

Everything on the Groove page plays to one shared clock, so drums, strums, arp and bass always stay together.

Tempo

Drag the Tempo slider (40–220 BPM), or tap the BPM number to type an exact tempo.

BPM means beats per minute. Around 70–90 feels relaxed, 100–120 is pop and dance, and 125+ is energetic.

Latch sync

With Latch on, this decides when your next chord starts:

  • Off: the moment you tap.
  • ⅛ note / ¼ note: on the next eighth note or beat.
  • ½ note: on beat 1 or beat 3.
  • Whole note: on the next bar, the "1".
Tap a little early. With latch sync on, the pad gets a dashed outline while it waits, then the chord changes exactly on the beat. Changed your mind? Tap the chord that is still playing to cancel. It only waits when something rhythmic is playing: drums, the arp, auto strum or a bass pattern.

↺ Reset arp, bass & FX puts those settings back to how the app starts, if you get lost.

Beats

Drums

Turn on Drums and pick a beat. You can also control drums from the main screen: ▲ ▼ next to the drum number changes the beat, tapping the number turns drums on and off, and holding it opens the drum editor.

There are ten beats, covering four kinds of music:

80s & rockBig snares and steady hats, from neon synthwave to a straight rock kit.
DanceFour on the floor: house and disco, with claps and open hats.
Hip-hop & lo-fiBoom bap, chilled lo-fi and a half-time trap beat with rolling hats.
Something differentA funky breakbeat, a reggaeton bounce and an 8-bit chiptune march.

Every beat works at any tempo. Slow, relaxed beats sit well around 70–95 BPM, and dance beats around 110–126.

Rhythm guitar

Auto chord strum

Turn on Auto chord strum and Chord Circuit strums your chord in a rhythm while you hold or latch it. The patterns are modelled on how real guitarists and pianists play: some hit the bass note first, some only use the upper strings.

Steady strumsThe everyday guitar: even strums, down strums and the classic down-up.
Rhythmic accentsPatterns with punch for pop, rock, funk and reggae: pushes, gallops, backbeat stabs and offbeats.
Picking & gentleBass notes and single strings for folk and ballads, including fingerpicking and a piano-style broken chord.
  • The rate menu (1/8 note, 1/4 note, triplets…) sets how fast the pattern steps.
  • Auto strum uses the chord strum speed and strum order from the Chords section below it, so a slower strum sounds more like a real guitar.
  • The line under the menus shows the pattern, for example D - - - - - D - - - - - D - - -. Swing comes from the arpeggiator's Swing slider.
One note at a time

The arpeggiator

Turn on Arp at the top of the screen, and ◀ ▶ next to it picks one of 50 patterns, from simple up and down runs to 16-step phrases across three octaves. The arpeggiator plays your chord one note at a time instead of all at once. The settings live on the Groove page.

SettingWhat it does
RateHow fast the notes come: from ¼ notes to ⅟₁₆ and ⅟₃₂ notes, triplets and dotted eighths. 1/64 · chip flutter gives a fast 8-bit shimmer.
Octaves · modes1, 2 or 3 octaves. More octaves means the pattern climbs higher before it repeats.
RhythmStraight plays every step. With rests · 8 steps leaves gaps for a bouncier rhythm.
GateHow long each note lasts. Low is short and plucky, high is smooth and legato.
SwingPushes every second note later for a shuffle feel. It also swings the auto strum.
Dotted eighths (1/8.) at around 100–120 BPM give the famous echoing, rolling arpeggio of 80s and synthwave tracks.
The low end

Bass

The bass follows every chord change by itself. Choose a sound, a rhythm and a bass line.

  • Bass on switches the bass on and off.
  • Chords on: turn it off to hear only bass and drums, with no synth chords. Great for practising or for a stripped-down part.
  • Sound: eight basses, from a deep, soft sub and a booming 808 to 80s analog, acid and 8-bit.
  • Bass length sets how long each note rings, and Bass attack how softly it starts.
  • Set the bass volume in Mix on the main screen.
The bass section of the Groove page

Rhythm

Held · whole chord plays one long note per chord. Whole, half, quarter, eighth and 16th notes repeat it in time. Offbeat 8ths plays between the beats, as in house music, and Follow arp plays along with the arpeggiator.

Bass lines: chord tones

These repeat a short pattern of notes from the chord, using the rhythm you picked above. The numbers are the notes of the chord:

A bit of theory1 is the root, the note the chord is named after. 3 is the third and 5 the fifth, the other two notes of a basic chord. 1↑ is the root an octave higher. So in a C chord, 1–5–1–5 plays C–G–C–G, and 1–3–5–3 plays C–E–G–E.

The patterns range from simple root and fifth, or octave jumps, to longer lines that walk up and down the whole chord.

Bass lines: grooves

Grooves are complete one-bar bass parts with their own rhythm and note lengths. They lock to the bar, so they ignore the Rhythm menu and always land the same way against the drums.

DrivingGallops, pushes and bouncing root–fifth–octave lines for rock and pop.
Dance & funkDisco and funk octaves, a house offbeat bass and long trap 808 notes.
Classic stylesWalking jazz, boogie, Motown soul, two-beat country, Latin tumbao, reggae and dub.
Bass follows (in the Chord+ & inversions section) decides which note the bass treats as "1": the chord root, or the lowest note of an inverted chord. Use the second one with Auto · smooth bass movement for bass lines that step smoothly instead of jumping.
Pedal note New in 1.4

Bass hold

Keep the bass on one chord while the chords above it change. Musicians call this a pedal note. It builds tension and is perfect for intros and build-ups.

  1. In Groove → Bass, turn on Bass hold button. A Bass hold button appears on the main screen under Mix.
  2. Play a chord with bass on.
  3. Hold Bass hold with one finger. It lights up.
  4. Play other chords with your other hand. Synth, keys and strums follow the new chords, but the bass stays where it was.
  5. Let go, and the bass moves to the current chord on its next note.

The button is hidden in piano view.

The main screen with the BASS HOLD button lit up in the bottom-right corner

In the sequencer

The sequencer gets its own Bass hold button at the end of the bottom row. Hold it while you drag a chord onto the timeline, and that chord gets an amber BASS HOLD tag. When the sequence plays, a tagged chord keeps the bass of the chord before it, until the next untagged chord.

  • Several tagged chords in a row all keep the same bass.
  • Moving or resizing a tagged chord keeps its tag. To remove it, drag the chord in again without holding the button.
  • The tags are saved with your sequence.
A sequence of C, F and G with BASS HOLD tags on F and G, then C
Why it worksIn the sequence above, the bass plays C under all of C → F → G → C. The F and G chords now rub against the low C and want to resolve, so when everything lands back on C it sounds like coming home. Writers notate this as F/C and G/C: "F over C".
Make your own

Beat, bass and strum editors

Each part has its own editor: ✎ Edit beats, ✎ Edit bass and ✎ Edit strum. They all work the same way, and the round ? in each editor shows a quick how-to.

Drum loop maker

Drums

Tap a step: off → normal → accent. Drag along a row to paint hats fast. Grids go from straight 16ths to triplets and 1/32 rolls.

Bass line maker

Bass

Rows are chord notes (Root, 3rd, 5th…), so your line follows any chord. Drag a note sideways to set its length.

Strum maker with note rows

Strums

Pick exactly which notes of the chord to strum on each step (bottom, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or top), and set the feel: ↓ down, ↑ up, accent or short. Every built-in strum opens here too, so pick one that is close and make it yours.

Saving: Save updates the one you're editing (it asks first), and Save new makes a copy. The built-in beats, bass lines and strums are never changed, so editing one makes your own copy under My beats, My bass lines or My strums.
Try this

Ready-made grooves

Set these up, turn on Latch and play the chords. They're starting points: change one thing at a time and listen to what it does.

Night drive

80s synthwave, neon and empty roads.

Key
A · Natural minor, 104 BPM
Drums
01 · Synthwave
Bass
05 · 80s Analog, Eighth notes, Off · single note
Arp
On, 1/8. dotted eighths, 2 octaves
FX
FX preset Synthwave
Chords
Am → F → C → G

Disco floor

Octave bass and choppy guitar.

Key
A · Natural minor, 118 BPM
Drums
03 · Disco
Bass
07 · Digital Slap, groove Disco octaves
Strum
Auto strum on, Funk 16ths
Chords
Am → Dm → G → C

Study beats

Warm, slow lo-fi with jazzy chords.

Key
C · Major, 78 BPM
Drums
05 · Lo-fi chill
Bass
01 · Sine sub, groove Walking · 1 2 3 5
Strum
Auto strum on, Half-time ballad, Swing 20%
FX
FX preset Lo-fi tape
Chords
With Chord+: Fmaj7 → Em7 → Dm7 → Cmaj7

Campfire

Strummed folk with a country bass.

Key
G · Major, 96 BPM
Drums
Off, or 09 · Rock for a full band
Bass
01 · Sine sub, groove Two-beat country
Strum
Auto strum on, Folk · bass, D DU UDU
Chords
G → D → Em → C

The build-up 1.4

A pedal note that pulls back home.

Key
C · Major, 120 BPM
Drums
02 · House
Bass
04 · 808, Eighth notes
Hold
Play C, hold Bass hold, then F → G
Release
Let go as you land back on C
Help

Groove questions

The arp or auto strum doesn't start

They play while a chord is held or latched. Check that they are switched on, and that Chords on is on in the bass section.

My chord changes come late

That's Latch sync waiting for the beat. Tap a little earlier, choose a shorter value like ⅛ note, or set it to Off.

The bass line ignores the Rhythm menu

That's right for grooves: they have their own rhythm locked to the bar. The Rhythm menu works with the chord-tone patterns and with Off · single note.

The bass is too loud or too quiet

Open Mix on the main screen and move the Bass fader. A softer sound like 01 · Sine sub also sits lower in the mix.

I can't find the Bass hold button

Turn on Bass hold button in Groove → Bass. It needs version 1.4 or newer, and it isn't shown in piano view. The version number is at the bottom of the Groove page.