KanLabSequencer
How the Sequencer in KanLab plays sounds from your library on lanes of steps, what each step and lane setting does, and how to record and export a sequence.
Basics
Sequences
A sequence is a run of bars played by a set of lanes, with its own tempo and swing. Each bar is 16 steps in 4/4, and a sequence holds up to 64 bars and 16 lanes. A new sequence starts with one bar and four empty lanes.
Lanes
Each lane plays one sound from your library. Drag a sound onto a lane, or tap an empty lane on a phone, to choose it. Dropping a sound below the last lane adds a lane. Edits to a sound in Wave reach every lane that plays it.
Arming a lane
Tap a lane's name to arm it. The armed lane plays from the keyboard under the lanes and from your MIDI controller, and recording goes into it.
Bars
The strip above the lanes shows every bar as a small map of its steps. Tap a bar to show it. The plus at the end adds a copy of the last bar, and holding it adds an empty bar. Hold a bar to duplicate, clear, move or delete it.
Play loops the whole sequence. The loop button loops the bar on screen instead. While it is on, the looped bar is outlined and the other bars fade.
Steps
Turning steps on
Tap a step to turn it on or off. Drag along a lane to turn every step you cross on or off, the same way as the first one. A step you turn off keeps its settings for the next time you turn it on. Hold a step to open its settings.
Velocity
How hard the step hits, from 1 to 127, 100 unless you change it. A brighter fill means a harder hit.
Note
How far the step plays above or below the lane's note, up to 24 semitones either way. A lane plays one note at a time, so a chord takes two lanes.
Length
How many steps the note holds for. Length has no effect on a split step.
Chance
How often the step plays, 100% unless you change it. A step at 50% plays about every other time round.
Split
A split cuts the step into 2, 3 or 4 slots that play left to right inside it. Tap a slot to choose whether it hits. Splits play rolls and triplets.
Lane settings
Note
The pitch the lane plays its sound at. Step notes count from here.
Gain and pan
The lane's level and where it sits between left and right.
Choke
Lanes in the same choke group cut each other off, the way a closed hi-hat stops an open one. There are four groups, or OFF.
Mute and solo
Hold a lane's name for Mute and Solo, or double-tap it to solo. M and S badges show on the lane. While any lane is soloed, only soloed lanes play.
Color
The lane's color on its steps. The first swatch follows the sound's category.
Playing
Tempo, swing and metronome
Tempo, metronome and swing sit above the lanes on a phone and in PLAYBACK on a tablet. Swing delays every second step by up to half a step, and split slots move with their step.
Keyboard
The keyboard under the lanes plays the armed lane. Its C4 plays the lane's own note, and the other keys play above and below it. With no lane armed, the keys stay dim.
MIDI
Lanes start unbound, so your controller plays the armed lane, pitched from the lane's note. To give a lane its own key, hold its name, tap Learn MIDI note and play the key. That key and channel then play that lane, whichever lane is armed.
Recording
Record loops the sequence, or the bar on screen when the loop button is on, and adds what you play on the armed lane. Each pass is one undo. Hits land on the nearest step. Two or more hits in one step make a 4-slot split. Each hit keeps its velocity and key. How long you hold a key sets the length, in whole steps.
Lanes from a session
Add lanes from a session, in the sequence menu, turns each pad with a sound into a lane with the same sound and settings, up to 16 lanes. After that the kit and the sequence are separate.