Turn the final snare of your first pattern into a short roll, then make a control move across the bar. Keep a copy of the original beat so you can compare the changes.
8.1Add a snare roll
An FX command is a grid instruction. A rack effect processes audio in DEVICES. RET starts the note again; a Delay device repeats audio after the instrument plays it.
The starter screenshot places the final snare on T02 at 012. Its T03 tone is separate from the drum exercise.
- Open your 16-row kick and snare pattern. Stop playback, select FULL and turn the pencil button on.
- On the snare track at row
012, tap an empty FX slot after the velocity value. Choose RET from TIME. - The editor opens with HITS 4 and GAP 30. Close it and press Play. The final snare now starts four times, 30 ticks apart.
- Reopen
RET4/30and change HITS to2. Compare the shorter roll. REMOVE clears the command and restores the single hit.
The first hit counts in HITS. All four starts fit within one row at four rows per beat. A step can hold eight different commands; their slot order does not set processing order. The command reference explains their ranges and scope.
8.2Change one step's timing
- Remove RET for a clear comparison. On the same snare step, choose DLY in an empty FX slot.
- Set OFFSET to
+30ticks and play. Only this snare arrives later, by a quarter of a row at four rows per beat. - Set OFFSET to
0, then remove DLY when finished.
DLY replaces swing and groove displacement on its row, so a zero DLY makes that row straight. For pattern-wide swing, open the tracker header's ... > GROOVE and start Swing at 50%. Increase it while listening to evenly spaced hats. A project groove can supply a repeating timing pattern instead.
A shorter track length can make one phrase loop against another. In ZOOM, the control beside the track name is LEN (or LENGTH with more room). It changes that track's length, separately from the pattern's LEN in the header. INHERIT returns the track to the pattern length. Leave HOP for the reference: it changes the route through one track's rows.
8.3Map a control before automating it
A macro moves one or more parameters. Automation records how its value changes during a pattern. For a filter sweep, select a sampler playing a bright, sustained sound. Open DEVICES, then the sampler's Filter page. Choose Low pass 12 from Model and select Filter On.
- Select that track. Open the tracker header's ... > MACROS and choose Macro 1.
- Tap Add parameter. Choose the sampler's FILTER CUTOFF parameter.
- Set the mapping's At 0% and At 100% values to a low and a high cutoff. Move the macro while the pattern plays. Choose endpoints that make an audible sweep without silencing the whole phrase.
- Tap Automate. The automation editor opens on this macro's lane.
- Select Add and place a low point near row
000, then a high point near the pattern end. Select Select to move an existing point: drag vertically for value and horizontally for time. - Play the pattern. The filter opens between the two points. Use the selected point's Row and value controls for exact placement; Delete removes that point.
Check If the sweep does nothing, check that the filter is enabled and the chosen macro has a cutoff mapping. Mappings in the automation editor returns to its assignments.
8.4Write or record movement
Automation also offers Volume, Pan and send lanes. It interpolates between points and holds the first or last value outside them.
In ZOOM, AUTOMATION > LANE, VALUE, then WRITE stores one point on the selected row. This WRITE button belongs to automation; it does not toggle note-entry WRITE in the tracker header.
For a performed movement, open the automation editor and tap Record movement, then drag its live control while the pattern plays. Tap Stop recording when finished. This arms the same recording mode as the transport, so playing Keys can record notes too. If SONG is active, tap Use pattern first: Song playback reads saved automation but does not record control movements.
8.5Shape each voice
The instrument's Modulation editor adds sources such as LFOs, envelopes, and key or velocity values. Open it and tap a source card to add that source, then choose the sound parameter and amount. This shapes the sound as notes play; it is different from drawing a pattern's automation curve.
A table is a short command sequence associated with notes. Use it for repeated pitch or level changes within a sound; use pattern automation for a bar-wide sweep. Row FX locks can take priority over automation, so check the grid when a control seems to jump unexpectedly.
Save the variation with the roll or sweep you want to keep. Leave recording off before returning to ordinary playback.