Kosmische is a motorik rhythm engine: drums, bass and a synth sequence for Krautrock jams. Pick a scene and a key, press start, and make your changes on the bar.
Five steps from opening Kosmische to a groove you're changing as it plays. It runs in a browser on a computer, a tablet or a phone.
One panel, no tabs: the scene, display and transport along the top, three columns in the middle, then the tone sliders and the position strip along the bottom.
The line along the very bottom of the panel is a reminder: "Pick a scene and a key, then press start. Queued changes play from the next bar."
Three parts in one key. Kosmische plays drums, a bass line and a synth sequence together, from built-in patterns. The bass and the sequence play in the key and mode you pick; the drums have no notes, so key changes leave them alone. Nothing is recorded or sampled: every sound is made as it plays.
A scene is a whole groove. Each of the five scenes has its own drum pattern, bass line, sequence, fill and tempo, and two versions of all of them, pattern A and pattern B. You choose A or B with the slots, which also hold a sequence character and a set of mutations: changes to the order, octave, density and pitch of the sequence. Sequence
Changes wait for the bar. A new scene, slot, energy, mutation, fill or break doesn't start the moment you tap it. It waits, outlined in orange, and plays from the first step of the next bar, so it's always in time. Key, mode, the chain, the mixer and the tone act at once. On the bar has the full list.
Energy is how much is going on. Four levels, from I SKELETON (little more than the downbeats) to IV ESCAPE (open hats and extra bass notes). It isn't only the number of notes: each level also changes how bright the bass and sequence are, how much echo and drive there is, and how hard the hats hit. Energy and performance
The chain moves the harmony. Up to eight chain steps, each a chord degree (I to VII) and a length in bars, play in a loop. On each step the bass and the sequence move up the scale to that degree and stay in the key. With only one step on, the groove stays on that step's degree: the key's root, while it's I. Key and chain
Kosmische is played by changing things while it runs, so most changes are lined up with the bar for you.
| Waits for the next bar | Acts at once |
|---|---|
| Scene (and its tempo) | Key and Mode |
| Slots: recalling A to D | Chain steps |
| Energy | Octave |
| Mutate: ROT, REV, OCT, THIN, SHIFT, DICE and RESET | Sequence character |
| FILL and BREAK | Mixer, Tone and Tempo |
Kosmische plays itself; you play it by changing it. Every control is a tap, a hold or a slider, and the main ones have keys.
Tap buttons, drag sliders and faders. Two controls do more than tap: a slot stores when you hold it, and tempo − + repeat when you hold them.
space starts and stops, 1 to 5 pick scenes, and f, b, r, d and a cover fill, break, ROT, DICE and slot A. The full list is in Shortcuts. Nothing on the panel shows these keys.
Kosmische has no MIDI in or out and no clock sync. It runs at its own tempo, from the tempo buttons and the scenes.
The panel becomes one column that scrolls: the header, then key and chain, then the sequence, energy and performance, the mixer, and the tone sliders. The name, scene, display, tempo and START stay pinned at the top as you scroll. To make room, the display drops its Chain and Queued columns, so watch the orange outlines on the buttons to see what's waiting.
The scene button, tempo and start, along the top of the panel.
Opens the list of five scenes, each with its number, name, tempo and mode. While it's playing, the scene you pick waits for the next bar and brings its tempo with it; the key you're in stays. While it's stopped, the scene loads at once with its tempo, and also its key and mode, until you change the key or mode yourself.
Once you've picked a key or mode, scenes stop setting their own. Reload the page to get that back.Starts the groove at bar 1, on the first chain step, with nothing waiting. It turns orange and reads STOP while it plays; pressing it again stops at once and clears anything queued.
− and + change the tempo by 1 BPM a tap; hold one to keep going. The echoes from Space follow the tempo.
Picking a scene sets the tempo to the scene's own, so change scene first, then the tempo.| Scene | Tempo and key | The groove |
|---|---|---|
| 01 AUTOBAHN | 122 BPM, C minor | The motorik beat: kicks pushing on the eighths, snare on 2 and 4, hats on every eighth. The bass locks to the kick. The sequence is eight eighth notes, one bar long. Snare fill. |
| 02 NIGHT DRIVE | 112 BPM, A Dorian | The push stays, but the hats move to the offbeats and the kick clears out of the middle of the bar. The sequence is twelve eighths, so it lines up with the bar only every three bars. Snare fill. |
| 03 INDUSTRIAL MARCH | 102 BPM, E Phrygian | Four on the floor, with the snare landing on the kick on 2 and 4 for a stomp. Tom fill. |
| 04 COSMIC DRIFT | 96 BPM, D minor | Half time: kick on 1, snare on 3, long bass notes. The sequence is fifteen eighths, so it slides against the bar and comes round differently each time. Tom fill. |
| 05 FAST MOTOR | 148 BPM, G Mixolydian | The motorik kick driven harder, with sixteenth-note hats and a sequence in sixteenths. Snare fill. |
The dark window at the top shows what you're hearing, and what's waiting to come in.
The tempo, in big digits.
The key and mode, such as C MINOR. Underneath, the bar count since you pressed start (BAR 001 on), which reads FILL BAR or BREAK BAR while one plays.
The slot and energy you're hearing (A · II DRIVE), and underneath, the sequence character and pattern (ARP · PAT A).
With two or more chain steps on: the chord now and the next one (C ▸ F). Underneath, how many bars are left on this step while it plays, or how many steps are on while it's stopped. With one step, it reads OFF.
Everything waiting for the next bar, such as III LIFT · FILL, lit up with AT NEXT BAR; NONE when nothing is. A long list is cut short with an ellipsis.
The strip of lamps along the bottom of the panel: one per sixteenth note, with the beats numbered. The lit lamp is where the bar is now.
On a phone or a tall window, the display shows only BPM, Key and Slot / Energy.
Where the bass and the sequence sit: the root note, the chords they move through, the scale and the octave. All of it acts at once.
Tap a key on the one-octave keyboard to set the root note. The bass and the sequence move to it straight away; the drums don't change. The legend beside Key shows the full key, such as C MINOR.
A loop of up to eight chords. Each step has two buttons: the degree on top and the length underneath. Steps with a length play in order, left to right, and the chain goes round again; steps set to – are skipped.
On each step the bass and the sequence move up the scale to that degree, so a IV in C minor plays from F, still in C minor. While it plays, the step you're on is orange and the next one is outlined.
Tap to step through the degrees in that order, then back to I. The button shows the numeral and the note it starts on in your key.
How long the step lasts. – turns the step off. One step always stays on: if it's the last, it goes to 1 BAR instead of off.
The chain starts as one step, I for 4 bars, which keeps the groove on the root. Turn on a second step to hear it move.The scale the bass, the sequence and the chain use: minor, Dorian, Phrygian, major or Mixolydian. Each scene starts in its own mode; change it here and the same patterns play in the new scale.
DORIAN is minor with a brighter sixth, MIXO is major with a flat seventh, and PHRYG is the darkest, with a half step above the root.Moves the bass or the sequence up or down by octaves with − and +.
The slots, and the synth line over the drums and bass: which instrument plays it and how it's reworked.
Tap a slot to recall it. While playing, it waits for the next bar. A slot holds three things: the pattern (A or B of the scene, for the drums, bass and sequence), the sequence character and the mutations.
Hold a slot for about half a second to store what you have now in it. It doesn't wait for the bar.
Slots aren't tied to a scene: slot B is pattern B of whichever scene is playing.Four different synths for the sequence. Changing it acts at once.
Five ways to rework the sequence; it stays in key whatever you do. Each tap steps a mutation to its next setting, shown under its name and lit while it's on. They only change the sequence; the bass and drums are left alone.
Rotates the sequence by one note each tap, so it starts from a later note. It goes round as many steps as the sequence is long (8, 12, 15 or 16 notes, by scene).
Plays the sequence backwards.
Moves some notes by an octave. 1: one note in every four goes up. 2: the offbeat notes go up. 3: the downbeat notes go down.
Below zero it drops notes and keeps the downbeats: −1 drops the last of every four, −2 every other note, −3 all but the first of every four. Above zero it fills the rests by repeating the note before: +1 fills short gaps, +2 fills every rest.
Moves every sequence note along the scale by that many degrees, so the line keeps its shape on different notes and stays in key.
Sets all five mutations at once to one of six combinations, picked at random. One of the six is no mutations at all.
Sets all five mutations back to zero, on the next bar while playing.
| Slot | Holds |
|---|---|
| A | pattern A, ARP, no mutations |
| B | pattern B, ARP, no mutations |
| C | pattern A, PULSE, ROT +2, OCT 1 |
| D | pattern B, ARP, REV on, THIN −1, SHIFT +2 |
Whatever you store stays until you reload the page. Nothing is saved between visits.
How much is playing, and one-bar moves for the end of a phrase. All of these wait for the next bar.
Four levels for the whole groove. Each one adds parts and also changes the sound: higher energy is brighter, with more echo on the sequence, more drive on the drums and harder hats. The level playing has an orange line under it.
The bones: the kick on its main beats plus one push, quarter-note hats, no snare, the bass holding the root, and one sequence note in four. Darker and drier.
The scene's groove as written. Each scene starts here.
Adds in-between hats and quiet snare notes, and a couple more bass notes. The bass and the sequence get brighter.
Everything: open hats join (and toms, in some scenes), the bass adds more notes, and one sequence note in every eight jumps up an octave. The brightest, with the most echo and drive.
The next bar is a drum fill, then the groove carries on. AUTOBAHN, NIGHT DRIVE and FAST MOTOR play a snare roll; INDUSTRIAL MARCH and COSMIC DRIFT play falling toms. The bass keeps going, and the sequence rests for the last beat.
The next bar drops to the kick and the bass root on beats 1 and 3, with no hats, snare or sequence. Then everything comes back.
The level of each part, and five sliders that colour the whole sound. They all act at once and work while it's stopped too.
A fader for each part's level, with its number underneath. They start at 75.
Mutes or unmutes the part. The fader keeps its place, so the level comes back as it was.
Mute the drums and bass to hear what the mutations are doing to the sequence.Saturates the drums, from clean to crunchy. Higher energy pushes it harder. Starts at 30.
Towards Room, the drums ring longer, lose some top end and go into the room. Starts at 34.
Opens the bass up from round and dark to bright and buzzy. Higher energy opens it further. Starts at 42.
The same for the sequence. The sequence's filter also moves slowly by itself, so the line opens and closes over time. Starts at 58.
Echoes on the sequence that bounce left and right in time with the tempo, plus room around it. Turn it up for more echo, more repeats and a little wobble. Above about two thirds, the drums and the bass go into the room too. Starts at 38.
Energy changes how much echo you hear, so Space at 50 is wetter at IV ESCAPE than at I SKELETON.Starting points. Each begins from a fresh page (reload to get one) unless it says otherwise.
The bass and the sequence walk C, G#, F and G (as the chain buttons show them) over eight bars while the drums hold steady. For a lighter mood, set Mode to DORIAN.
It grows from a pulse to the full groove, with a fill into the top, then a one-bar drop and back to II. Raise Space to 60 to hear the echoes grow with it.
Long, overlapping sequence notes and a roomy half-time beat. The fifteen-note sequence never sits the same way on the bar twice. Try GLASS instead of PAD for a brighter ring.
You switch between the plain groove and your variation, each on the bar. a brings back slot A from the keyboard.
A sixteenth-note synth line on its own, reworked by DICE on each bar you roll it. Turn the drums back on at energy IV for the full drive.
Nothing on the panel shows these. They don't work while a slider has focus: tap an empty part of the panel first.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| space | START or STOP |
| 1 … 5 | pick scene 01 to 05 (on the next bar while playing) |
| f | FILL |
| b | BREAK |
| r | ROT |
| d | DICE |
| a | recall slot A (the only slot with a key) |
| esc | close the scene list |
On a focused slider, the arrow keys move it one step. In this guide, / jumps to find.
An iPad version of Kosmische is planned. Until then, the web version runs in the iPad's browser: open the page, tap START, and everything in this guide works by touch. This section will say what's different when the app is ready.
Press START: browsers stay silent until you tap or press a key, and Kosmische doesn't play until you start it. Check the mixer (an ON button reading MUTED, or a fader at 0), your device's volume and, on an iPhone or iPad, the silent switch and Control Centre's mute. If it stops after a call or an app switch, press STOP and START.
If it has an orange outline, it's waiting for the next bar; the display's Queued column says so too. At slow tempos a bar is a couple of seconds. FILL and BREAK do nothing while it's stopped. See On the bar.
A scene picked while it's playing keeps the key you're in. Picked while stopped, it brings its own key and mode, but only until you change the key or mode yourself; after that, scenes leave the key alone until you reload the page.
Each scene brings its own tempo. Set the tempo after you pick the scene.
Kosmische doesn't save anything, so reloading the page or opening it again starts fresh. Note down the settings you like, or keep the tab open.
A slider probably has focus (the last one you touched). Tap an empty part of the panel, then try again.
Not in this version: it has no MIDI and no clock sync.
Once it has loaded, it doesn't need the internet: it makes no network requests and nothing is sent anywhere.
Something missing or wrong? Email support@tinkerhaus.xyz, or see support.
Kosmische is inspired by Krautrock. Its first scene, AUTOBAHN, is the motorik beat associated with Neu!'s Klaus Dinger.