Multiverse is a looper that grows new layers from one sound. Each layer plays back the one before it through the same rules, so the deeper you go, the further the loop moves from where it started.
Five steps from opening Multiverse to a stack of layers you can listen through. It runs in Chrome, Edge and Safari, on a computer or an iPad.
Controls on the left, the portal and its rings on the right. Everything on screen, numbered:
In a window taller than it is wide (an iPad held upright, say), the tabs move to the bottom and the drawer slides up from there, under the portal. In a window narrower than 900 px, load, seeds and the random die move into ⋯.
On a phone the header takes two rows and the readout is hidden. The action bar keeps five buttons, so new and mutate are only in ⋯, as new universe and mutate.
Every layer plays back the one before it. You start with one loop, the origin. Each time you descend, Multiverse adds a layer that keeps playing back the layer before it: grain by grain, through a set of rules called the warp. Layer I plays back the origin, layer II plays back layer I, and so on, up to eight layers. The rules are on the warp tab: time, pitch, grain size, colour, shuffle, wear, echo and formant.
The changes build up. Because each layer applies the same rules to something that has already been through them, the effect grows with every step. If time is ½, layer I plays the first half of the origin across the whole loop, layer II the first quarter, layer III the first eighth: you zoom further into the first moment. Every layer is still one loop long, so they all stay in time with each other. The layers tab sets how strongly the rules apply, how much they vary from layer to layer, and how fast each layer keeps rewriting itself.
The layers never stop changing. Each layer keeps reading the one before it on every pass, so a change in one layer works its way out through the layers after it. Flux sets how much of a layer gets rewritten each time round; freeze holds them all.
You choose where to listen. All the layers play at once, but the focus decides which ones you hear: one layer, a few around it, the newest with the origin underneath, or all of them stacked. Drag across the rings, or use the lens tab. The faders on the mix tab have the last word on each layer's level.
A universe is a starting number. The small differences between one layer's rules and the next are random, but they come from a universe, shown as a code like U·1A47. The same universe with the same settings always gives the layers the same rules. new picks another universe and keeps the warp; mutate nudges the warp and keeps the universe.
You play Multiverse by choosing what goes into the portal, how deep you go, and where you listen. There's no keyboard to play notes on.
Whatever you put in becomes the origin, and the loop is as long as the sound. A new sound starts again at the origin only: the old layers go, and nothing grows back until you descend (or bloom is on). Your settings stay.
Three built-in sounds. glass is a glassy arpeggio in D with clear attacks, 5.7 s long. pulse is a drum loop (kick, clap, hats and bass), 4.6 s. hymn is two slow chords and a line, 8 s, good for drones and long descents. Before you've chosen a sound, they're under the portal too.
Records from the microphone. Tap again (it reads stop) to finish; it stops on its own at 16 s. The readout counts the time. Silence at either end is trimmed and the ends are blended so the loop doesn't click. A take under about half a second, or too quiet, is thrown away.
The browser asks for the microphone the first time. Multiverse opens it only while you record.Opens an audio file. You can also drag a file onto the window and drop it anywhere (let it fall in). Multiverse uses the first 16 s, trims silence at the ends and blends the join. Very short files (under 0.3 s) and very large ones are refused.
| Do | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tap the portal | Descend: add the next layer. With no sound yet, it opens the seeds. |
| Long-press the portal (about half a second) | Collapse: remove the deepest layer. |
| Drag across the rings | Move the focus: towards the portal for the origin, outwards for deeper layers. |
| Scroll over the portal side of the screen | Widen or narrow breadth. |
Multiverse can carry on without you. bloom descends every few loops on its own, drift moves your focus through the layers, and the mods move other controls slowly. Turn on all three, then hide the ui, and the loop keeps growing and changing.
Multiverse doesn't use MIDI: there are no notes to play, and nothing to sync. Its timing comes from the loop itself. The keys on your computer keyboard are shortcuts.
The right-hand side of the screen: the portal, its rings and the buttons below them.
Fades the sound out and stops the loop, everywhere at once. It then reads ▶ play, and play picks up where it stopped.
Adds the next layer: it starts playing back the deepest layer you have. If you were listening at the deepest layer, your focus glides on to the new one. A ring flares out from the portal as it arrives.
When all eight layers are there, descending again moves the stack along: layer I leaves, the others each move in one place (so the old layer II now plays back the origin), and a new VIII arrives. The origin always stays.
Removes the deepest layer. If your focus was on it, it glides back to the new deepest one. Also a long-press on the portal.
Holds every layer as it is: they stop rewriting themselves and the rings stop turning, but the loop keeps playing. The readout says frozen. Tap again to let them change.
Freeze a moment you like before you try new or mutate: the layers keep what they have until you release it.Glides your focus back to the origin over about a second and a half. The layers keep playing; you hear the sound you started with.
A new universe: the same warp with new small differences between the layers. The layers move into it as they rewrite themselves, so the change takes a few loops, and none while frozen. Each new universe is kept in the history.
On a phone it isn't in the action bar: it's new universe in ⋯.
Nudges the warp: pitch, grain, colour and shuffle move a little, time sometimes moves a step, pitch sometimes gets new intervals, and wear, echo and formant move if they're already on. Controls you've locked stay put. It keeps the universe, and goes in the history too.
On a phone it isn't in the action bar: it's mutate in ⋯.
Under the action bar, the hint line says what the portal does. While you touch or hover over a control, it explains that control instead. The readout at the top right gives the sound's name, the loop length, layers 5 of 8, the focus (focus III.6 means between layers III and IV) and frozen. While you record it shows ● recording and the time.
In ⋯. The controls fade and the portal glides to the middle of the screen. It still plays: tap to descend, long-press to collapse, drag the rings. Two fingers, i or esc bring the controls back.
The rules each layer uses to play back the one before it. Every rule builds up layer by layer. Depth, on the layers tab, sets how strongly they apply, except time, which always applies as set.
How fast each layer moves through the one before it. ×1 follows along. Below ×1 it stretches: ½ plays the first half of the layer before across the whole loop, so you zoom into the start. Above ×1 it repeats: ×2 plays it twice per loop. It compounds: ½, then ¼, then ⅛.
3:2 and 4:3 turn one loop into polyrhythms that grow with each layer.The chance that a grain is transposed by one of the intervals on the chip beside it. At 0 nothing moves; higher, more grains jump. The intervals add up layer by layer, so a fifth becomes two fifths, and every layer stays in key.
The set of intervals pitch uses. Tap it for the next set (shift-tap for the one before). unison doesn't transpose at all; cluster moves by one and two semitones for a smeared, close sound.
The size of the grains each layer is made from. Low: long, faithful grains that keep the shape of the sound. High: fine, scattered dust.
Each layer darkens (−) or thins (+) the one before it, so the deep layers end up muffled or glassy. 0 leaves the tone alone.
The chance that grains play backwards or swap slices of the loop. A little roughs up the rhythm; a lot cuts it up.
Each layer is a worn copy of the one before: fewer bits, a lower sample rate, a little hiss and wow. It builds up like tape copied from tape. At 0 it's off.
Each layer echoes itself a rhythmic fraction of the loop later, so repeats of repeats multiply further out. Each layer picks its own echo time. At 0 it's off.
Each layer adds a resonant peak of its own that sweeps with the loop. Across the layers they stack into vowel-like colour. At 0 it's off.
Every warp control can be locked: tap its name. mutate then leaves it alone. Locking pitch keeps its intervals too. Locks stay when you change preset.
Lock time and pitch, then mutate a few times: the rhythm and harmony hold while the texture changes.How each new layer differs from the one before, how fast they change, and whether they grow on their own.
How far each layer moves from the one before. At 0 the layers are near-copies of the origin (time still applies); at 100 the warp applies at full strength. Depth also spreads the deeper layers wider in the stereo field.
Turn depth down to hear the warp gently; most of the factory ambient presets sit between 25 and 40.How much each layer's own rule varies from the last. At 0 every layer applies exactly the same warp. Higher, each layer's grain size, pitch, colour and timing wander further, and the loop's start point can shift. The variation comes from the universe, so it comes back the same.
How fast every layer keeps rewriting itself from the one before. At 0 a layer stays as it was first written; at 100 it's rebuilt on every pass. This is how changes travel down the layers.
Descends on its own: ÷16 adds a layer every 16 loops, ÷1 every loop. When all eight layers are there it keeps going: layer I leaves, the rest move in one, and a new VIII arrives.
Bloom at ÷16 with drift on is a loop you can leave running for an hour.The tab's i also mentions freeze, which lives in the action bar.
Where you listen across the layers: one, a few, or all of them.
Jumps to a listening shape in one tap: focus, breadth, linger, anchor and drift glide there together over about a second. The button shows the profile you're in, or custom once you move one of those controls yourself. The shapes are listed below.
Which layer you listen to. Its range grows as you descend, and it can sit between two layers (III.6) to hear a blend. Dragging across the rings does the same thing. Presets don't change it.
While drift is on, the slider and its number stay where you set the focus. A small ring on the slider, the arm on the portal and the readout show where drift has taken it.
How many neighbouring layers you hear around the focus. Narrow is one voice; wide is a smear of several. Scrolling over the portal side of the screen sets it too.
Whether the layers behind your focus stay. At 0 they all stay under it and stack up; at 100 they fade as you go deeper, so you hear only where you are. In between, each step back is a little quieter.
Linger low and the focus on the newest layer turns a descent into a slowly thickening stack.Keeps a thread of the origin under everything, however deep you go. It's the least the origin can be; the lens can make it louder.
Moves the focus through the layers on its own. 0 is still; higher swings further either side of where you set the focus. Its shape and speed are directly below it. A line on the lens tab and a dot by focus show it's on.
The focus slider doesn't move while drift does: watch the small ring on it, or the arm on the portal.How the focus moves: smoothly back and forth (∿ sine, ⋀ tri), flipping between two places (⊓ square), a ramp outwards (⟋ saw ↑), a jump to a new layer each cycle (⁘ s&h, which always lands on a whole layer), or a glide between random places (〰 wander).
Locks drift to the loop, so it lands in time. Then drift every replaces drift rate.
How fast the focus drifts: one cycle every so many seconds, or several a second at the top.
With sync on: one drift cycle every this many loops.
| Profile | What you hear |
|---|---|
| origin | Only the origin, the loop you started with. |
| newest | Only the newest layer. It follows each descent. |
| recent | The newest two or three layers; older ones drop away. |
| ends | The origin and the newest together, nothing in between. |
| all | Every layer at the same level. |
| newest → origin | Newest loudest, tapering back to about a quarter at the origin. |
| origin → newest | Origin loudest, tapering towards the newest. |
| drift | The focus wanders slowly through the layers on its own. |
| sweep | The focus glides from the origin to the newest and back, once every 8 loops. |
| hop | The focus jumps to a random layer on every loop. |
The last three also set drift's shape and timing. The mix faders still apply on top of any profile.
Slow modulators: three to start, up to six. Point one at a control and it moves it for you.
Each row is one mod. When it's on, the control it moves shows a ring where its value is right now, and the tab that control lives on gets a line. All three start off.
Off keeps its settings, so you can hear a sound with and without it.
The same six shapes as drift: ∿ sine, ⋀ tri, ⊓ square, ⟋ saw ↑, ⁘ s&h (a new random value each cycle) and 〰 wander (glides between random values, so it never repeats).
What it moves, grouped by tab. warp: pitch, grain, colour, shuffle, wear, echo, formant. layers: depth, mutation, flux. lens: focus, breadth, linger, anchor. mix: space. Time, bloom and the pitch chip can't be moved by a mod.
Locks the mod to the loop; rate becomes every.
How fast it cycles when it isn't synced. Slow rates, from ten seconds to a few minutes, suit Multiverse best. A mod on a warp control reaches the layers as they rewrite themselves, so flux sets how soon you hear it.
With sync on: one cycle every this many loops.
How far it moves the control, either way round: left of centre moves it the other way. 0 in the middle does nothing.
Removes the mod; the ones below it move up. There's always at least one.
Adds a mod under the others, already on and pointed at a control no other mod is moving. At six it greys out.
Sends every mod somewhere new: a new shape, rate (or every), depth and destination for each, most of them on and no two on the same control. It keeps the number of mods.
The random universe (r) leaves the mods alone, so you can keep a set of mods you like while you try universes.Each mod starts with a suggestion you can change: mod 1 is ∿ sine → grain, mod 2 ⋀ tri → colour and mod 3 〰 wander → breadth. Presets hold the mods as they are, how many there are included, and the factory presets have three, all off.
One fader per layer, and the room around them all.
Each layer's level, from the origin (0) out to VIII. They have the last word: a layer at zero is silent, whatever the lens says. Layers you haven't grown yet are dimmed.
The bright line inside each fader shows how much of that layer you're hearing now, from the lens. Drag up or down; double-tap to put a fader back to full.
Pull the origin's fader down to hear only what grew from it.A room around all the layers. At 0 it's dry; turned up, more of the sound goes into a soft reverb.
The output level. It's in the header, not the tab, and presets leave it alone.
Twenty factory universes in four banks, from gentle to wild: ambient loops, drifting, rhythmic and scattered. Your own go in yours, and every universe you've visited is in history.
The universe, every control on warp, layers, lens, mod and mix (including the faders), and drift's shape and speed. It doesn't hold your sound, the focus, vol or your locks.
The top of the list shows the universe you're in (U·1A47). The history bank keeps the last 24 universes you've been in: each new, mutate, random roll and preset load adds one, marked with a colour and what made it. Tap one to go back to its universe and settings. universe history in ⋯ opens the same list.
Type a name (up to 32 characters) under save this preset and press save. Saving with the same name again overwrites it. Factory names are taken. Your presets are in yours.
Copies the current preset as a line of text starting multiverse1.. Paste it into a message, a note, anywhere. Someone who loads it hears your rules on their own sound.
Paste a code and press load code to hear it. Anything missing falls back to the default, and anything out of range is brought back into range.
Saves all your presets as multiverse-presets.json. With none saved yet, it exports the current one.
Adds the presets from a file. Ones with the same name are replaced; ones named like a factory preset are skipped.
In ⋯. Saves every preset you've made to one file, multiverse-presets-backup-YYYY-MM-DD.json, and says backed up 4 presets when it's done. Its number is how many you have. With none saved it says nothing saved yet. Unlike export file, it only holds yours, and it's the one to keep or send.
In ⋯. Opens a file picker for a backup. Presets already saved are left alone and counted as skipped. One with a name you already use but different settings comes in as name 2, and a factory name is skipped. A file that isn't a Multiverse backup changes nothing. Import file reads a backup the same way.
Starting points. Most start from a seed so you can follow along; try them on your own sounds after.
You hear the chords in near-copies laid over each other, slightly darker and blurred, with the origin clear underneath. For more movement, set flux to 60 on the layers tab.
Each layer stretches the first half of the one before, so going out you hear the opening notes slow to a smear. Set time to ⅓ for a faster zoom.
You hear the beat at 3:2, then 9:4, then 27:8 against the origin, all inside one loop. Try time at 4:3 for a different lattice.
Each layer is a more worn copy: grittier, duller and wobbling. Add echo 40 for repeats that wear out as they go.
Your focus sweeps out through the layers and back once every 8 loops, while breadth slowly widens and narrows. A new layer arrives every 16 loops, and once all eight are there, the oldest gives way to a new one. For something busier, try bloom ÷4 and the profile hop.
The locked rules hold while the rest shifts, and every step is in the history to go back to. Save the ones worth keeping.
Also in ⋯ › how to play. On sliders: drag (hold shift for fine), double-tap to reset, scroll, or use the arrow keys.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| space | stop or play |
| d or enter | descend |
| c | collapse |
| h | freeze, on or off |
| 0 | glide the focus back to the origin |
| n | new universe |
| m | mutate |
| 1 to 6 | mod 1–6 on or off |
| ⇧ r | record, or stop recording |
| r | random universe |
| [ ] | previous, next preset |
| z | open or close the drawer |
| i | hide ui, show it again |
| esc | close a menu, or show the ui again |
In this guide, / jumps to find.
An iPad version of Multiverse is planned. Until it's out, the web version runs in Safari on an iPad, with touch throughout: everything in this guide applies, and Tips and limits says what's different in a browser.
Tap begin: browsers stay silent until you do. Then check there's a sound in the portal (tap a seed), that the loop isn't stopped (space), vol at the top, and your device's volume. On an iPad, check the silent switch and Control Centre's mute.
If the loop plays but a layer is silent, look at its fader on the mix tab, and at the lens: with linger at 100 and breadth low, only the layer at the focus sounds.
With no sound in the portal yet, a tap opens the seeds instead. While you're recording, descend waits until you stop. A press that lasts more than about half a second collapses instead of descending.
Allow the microphone when the browser asks; if you said no, allow it in the site settings and reload. The page needs a secure (https) address. A take that's too short or too quiet is thrown away, with a message saying so; record for at least a second.
Multiverse uses the first 16 s of a file. It refuses files shorter than about a third of a second, and very large ones (over 25 MB, or 150 MB for WAV and AIFF). If it can't read the format, it says so; try a WAV.
That's the layers rewriting themselves (flux), drift moving the focus, bloom adding layers, or a mod. Press freeze to hold the layers; set drift to 0 to keep the focus still.
Descending again moves the stack along: layer I leaves, every other layer moves in one place, and a new layer VIII arrives. The origin always stays.
No. A preset holds the rules and settings, and plays on whatever sound is in the portal. That's why a shared code sounds different on someone else's recording.
They're stored in the browser you made them in, so they won't appear in another browser, a private window or another device, and clearing site data removes them. Use back up presets (in ⋯) to keep a copy, and restore presets to bring them back.
Not inside the web version. Record your computer's output with an audio app.
Once it has loaded, it doesn't need the internet: nothing is sent anywhere, and it makes no network requests.
Something missing or wrong? Email support@tinkerhaus.xyz, or see support.
Multiverse is inspired by the fractal sequencing of Qu-Bit's Bloom, applied to a looper, and by SOMA's Cosmos.