Stacks

Start here

Five steps to a pattern of your own. Stacks runs in Chrome, Edge and Safari, on a computer or an iPad.

1. Open Stacks and tap begin. The first time, a short intro shows you around; you can skip it. Begin starts the stack playing. Browsers only allow sound after a tap or a key press, so nothing plays until you do.
2. Listen to the top brick. In the starting stack, first stack, the top brick plays the lead, a brick in the second row plays the bass and a bottom-row brick plays the hat. Each brick that sounds has a small tag on it.
3. Tap the top brick and pick another kind under swap for in the brick tab. The lead changes at once, because the top brick now combines the two bricks under it another way.
4. Press shake (or S) in the header. The bottom-row bricks that can re-roll get new patterns, and everything above them follows.
5. Try another stack. ‹ › at the top step through the presets, and ⚄ (R) grows a whole new one. While it plays, the new stack comes in at the next bar.

The screen

Controls on the left, the stack on the right, and play and shake in the header. Everything on screen, numbered:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1. Tabs. Four tabs, each in its own colour: play, brick, voices and song. Tap one to open its drawer; tap it again to close it.
2. The drawer holds the open tab's controls. Its i shows a few short lines about each tab; ✕ closes it.
3. play and shake. More.
4. Undo and redo. Every change to the stack, its settings or the song is a step (⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z).
5. Presets. ‹ › step through them, the name opens the list. More.
6. ⚄ grows a whole new random stack: new bricks, voices and settings (R).
7. vol, the volume of the built-in sounds. It isn't saved in presets.
8. ⋯ has init: a blank stack, back up stacks and restore stacks…, back up songs and restore songs…, hide ui, how to play (the keys), this guide, the intro and what's new. While a MIDI output is chosen, a panic button sits next to it. More.
9. A brick: what kind it is, its length, its next 16 steps and the voices that play it. More.
10. The bottom row: the bricks that make patterns. Every row above combines the row below.
11. The chord row, when chords are on: the progression, with the chord playing now lit. Tap one to change it.
12. The hint line: what you can do, or what the control under the pointer does.
13. The step readout: the step playing now (and the loop length), the chord, and how long the first voice takes to repeat.

On a narrow window

On a phone or a narrow window play and shake stay in the header, the presets move onto a row of their own under it (play drops its word), the hint line and step readout are hidden, and the bricks get smaller: a small brick drops its name and keeps its glyph, and a tiny one drops its step count and tags too. Everything else is the same. Stacks is made for an iPad or a computer first.

How Stacks works

The bottom row makes patterns. Each bottom-row brick is a generator: it plays a short run of steps, some sounding and some silent, each with a pitch. A sequence is a fixed random run, an arp walks a chord, a euclid spreads hits evenly, a steps brick is one you draw. There are eight kinds (the generators).

Every brick above combines the two below it. A brick above the bottom row is an operator. It reads the two bricks under it: the left one is the source and the right one changes it. mask lets the left brick play only where the right one plays; transpose moves the left brick's notes by the right brick's pitch. ⇄ flip swaps which side is the source. There are nine kinds (the operators). Operators stack on operators, so the top brick hears everything below it.

Different lengths make long cycles. Each brick loops at its own length. A 5-step brick under a 7-step brick only lines up again after 35 steps, and a few rows of that can run for thousands of steps before the top brick repeats. The number on each brick is that count. A loop restarts every brick together, when you want it to repeat sooner.

Pitches are scale steps. Bricks count in steps of the scale, not in semitones, so every note lands in the key and scale you pick. Chords move every pitched note through a progression on top of that.

Voices make bricks heard. A brick makes no sound of its own. A voice plays one brick, with a built-in sound and a MIDI channel. Any brick can have voices, in any row, up to eight in all (voices). A brick with no voice still shapes the bricks above it.

Playing it

Stacks plays itself. You build the stack, choose what sounds, and change it while it runs. play in the header (or space) starts and stops it.

The built-in sounds

Each voice plays one of five sounds: lead (a bright, plucked synth), bass, kick, hat and silent (MIDI only). They're simple on purpose: enough to hear what the stack is doing. One shared echo sits on top, and each voice sets how much it sends to it. For other sounds, send MIDI to a synth.

MIDI out

Pick a MIDI output under midi out in the voices tab and every voice plays on its own MIDI channel too: lead on 1, bass on 2, drums on 10 by default. Each voice's level sets its velocity, and notes on the beat are a little louder. Ratchets, chords and gate lengths all go out over MIDI. The echo doesn't: MIDI is dry.

Stacks remembers the output and reconnects to it next time. While an output is chosen, a panic button appears at the top right: it stops playback and sends all notes off on every channel. esc does the same when no menu is open and the controls are showing.

Changing it while it plays

• Swap, drag and pull bricks: every change is heard on the next step.
• shake re-rolls the generators, and drift changes the stack by itself at bar lines.
• A preset you pick comes in at the end of the loop or the next bar (cueing), and a song plays labelled sections in turn.

The stack

The right-hand side of the screen: the bricks on their green slab, the chord row, and play and shake underneath.

Reading a brick

Tap, drag and pull

Empty slots

A pulled brick leaves a dashed slot with a +. Tap it to pick a brick for it in the brick tab, or drag one there from the tray. An operator with an empty slot under it reads rests from that side. init: a blank stack (N) starts from a stack that's all empty slots, three wide, with the default play settings, no echo and one lead voice waiting: the first brick you place gets it, so it sounds straight away.

The chord row

When chords are on, a row of tiles under the slab shows the progression, one tile per chord, with the one playing now in green. Tap a tile to pick another chord for that place, or remove it. Changing a chord turns the progression into your own (custom).

Play, shake and the hints

hide ui

⋯ › hide ui (or I) fades the header, tabs, drawer and dock away and leaves the stack. The bricks still work: tap, drag and double-tap as usual. Two fingers, I, esc or the ⋯ button in the corner bring the controls back.

The bricks

Eight kinds make patterns on the bottom row and nine combine them above. Each has its own controls in the brick tab. Pitches below are scale steps above the key's root (0 is the root); a voice folds them into its own range.

Generators: the bottom row

Operators: the bricks above

Left is the source, right changes it, and flip swaps them.

play tab 1

How the whole stack plays: its speed, key and bar, a loop, chords, drift and how wide it is.

tempo50 to 200 bpm

The speed. Each step is a sixteenth note at this tempo.

keyC to B

The note the scale starts on. Every brick's 0 is this note.

scaledorian · minor · major · phrygian · lydian · pent. minor · pent. major

The notes every brick lands on. Bricks count in scale steps, so changing the scale changes every melody but keeps its shape. In a pentatonic scale an octave is five steps, not seven.

time4/4 · 3/4 · 5/4 · 6/8 · 7/8

The time signature: how long a bar is and where its beats fall. Cues, chords, drift and the roll follow it, drums and MIDI notes on the beats are a little louder, and the drum patterns of a steps brick fall on its beats. Bricks don't change length with it, so a 16-step brick in 7/8 drifts across the bar line.

loop & chords

loopoff, or 8 to 128 steps

Restarts every brick together after 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 steps, so the stack repeats exactly (turing bricks go back to their starting pattern too). Off lets the long cycles run. A cued preset comes in at the end of the loop.

chordsoff · I vi IV V · I V vi IV · vi IV I V · I IV · ii V I I · i VII VI VII · i iv v i · custom

Moves every pitched note through a chord progression, a scale step at a time: on the IV chord, every note is three scale steps higher. Drums don't move. The chords keep moving through a loop, so a short loop sounds over the whole progression. custom plays your own.

each chord1 bar · 2 bars · 4 bars

How long each chord lasts.

edit · your chordsup to 8 chords, I to VII

Shown when chords are on: one button per chord. Tap one to pick another chord (I to VII) or remove it; + adds one. Editing a progression copies it into your own and switches chords to custom, and the row then reads your chords. Your chords are saved with the stack.

drift

driftoff, 1 to 100

The stack changes itself while it plays, at bar lines. Low, it changes something every 16 bars or so; at 100, every bar. Each change picks one brick and re-rolls it, nudges one of its controls, or (more often as drift rises) swaps an operator for another kind.

Drift leaves locked and frozen bricks alone, and never touches the brick open in the brick tab. Its changes aren't undo steps, and drift isn't saved in presets: it's a way of playing, like the volume.

Lock the bricks that carry the groove, then let drift wander through the rest.

base

bricks3 bricks · 4 bricks · 5 bricks

How many bricks sit along the bottom, and so how tall the stack is (three, four or five rows). Growing it keeps every brick and fills the new slots with default bricks; shrinking it drops the bricks on the right and the top row.

brick tab 2

The brick you tapped: what it reads, its controls, which voices play it, and what to swap it for. Its own controls are in The bricks.

the heading

The brick's name, whether it's a generator or an operator, its row, and how many steps it plays before it repeats. A line under it says what it does.

inputs

source · changed by

For an operator: the brick it takes its notes from (the source) and the brick that changes them. Empty means a pulled slot.

⇄ flipon / off

Swaps which brick is the source. A mask flipped plays the right brick's notes in the left brick's rhythm.

controls

controls

The brick's own sliders and choices. A frozen brick's are greyed out until you unfreeze it.

re-roll

A new random pattern for this brick, keeping its controls. Shown on sequence, turing, walk, motif and chance.

copy to steps

Turns a bottom-row brick into a steps brick holding the phrase under the playhead (up to 16 steps), so you can edit it note by note. Its voices and lock stay. Undo brings the original back. A phrase with ratchets can't be copied.

freezeF

Holds the next 16 steps it would play and loops them, while the bricks around it keep moving. The button reads frozen; tap again to let go.

Freeze a turing brick when its register says something you like.

lockL

Keeps drift and shake away from it. Reads locked while on. You can still change it by hand.

pull⌫

Takes it out, leaving an empty slot. So does a double-tap on the brick.

plays

plays

One button per voice, with its MIDI channel. A dark one plays this brick. Tap a voice to move it onto this brick; tap it again to stop it playing anything. A voice plays one brick at a time.

+ voicelead · bass · kick · hat · silent

Adds a voice on this brick with the sound you pick. Up to eight voices.

swap for

swap for

Every kind of brick for this row. Tap one to swap it in, with its default controls; the brick keeps its voices and lock. Or drag one from here onto any slot in the same tier (on a touch screen, hold it first so the drawer can still scroll). On an empty slot this reads choose.

voices tab 3

What you hear. Each voice plays one brick, with a built-in sound and a MIDI channel. The overview lists them all; tap a name to open one.

next four bars

Every note the voices will play over the next four bars, one colour per voice, drums along the bottom. Bar lines follow the time. It stays at the top in both views.

+ add voicelead · bass · kick · hat · silent

Adds a voice on the selected brick, with the sound you pick, and opens it.

each voice

its name

The sound, numbered when there are two of the same (lead 2). Tap it to open the voice. Under it: the brick it plays and its row, note, chord or drum, and its channel.

mute

Silences the voice, over MIDI too. Its tag on the brick gets a dot.

level0 to 100

How loud it is. Over MIDI, its velocity.

MIDI output and echo

midi outoff, or a MIDI output

Where the MIDI goes. Off plays only the built-in sounds. See MIDI out.

echo0 to 100

The level of the shared echo: a dotted-eighth delay that follows the tempo. Each voice sets how much it sends with its own echo.

One voice

Tap a voice's name to open it. ‹ › step through the voices, and ‹ voices at the top goes back to the overview. The controls a voice doesn't use are left out: drums have no output, gate or range, a silent voice has no tone or echo, and the harmony group shows only with chord output.

mix

level0 to 100

As in the overview. mute is beside it.

bright · length0 to 100

On a lead or bass, bright opens its filter. On a kick or hat, length sets how long it rings.

echo0 to 100

How much of it goes to the echo. A new lead starts at 100, everything else at 0. Built-in sounds only.

playback

soundlead · bass · hat · silent · kick

The built-in sound. A kick or hat plays one fixed drum note on every step its brick plays, and ignores the brick's pitch. silent plays only over MIDI.

plays

The brick it plays and its row. show selects that brick. To change it, select another brick and tap this voice under plays in the brick tab. A voice from a stack saved with a fixed drum pattern shows a list here instead: pick a brick to move it onto one.

outputnote · chord

One note per step, or a chord built on it from the scale. Chord shows the harmony controls below.

gate5% step to 1 step, then 2 steps, 1 beat, 2 beats, 1 bar, 2 bars

How long each note lasts. The left half of the slider slides smoothly up to a whole step (a share of each ratchet hit); the right half clicks through the longer lengths. Beats follow the time signature. Longer gates let the built-in sounds ring on and hold MIDI notes.

2 beats with chord output turns a busy brick into held chords.

pitch

octave−3 to +3

Moves it up or down in octaves.

range1 to 3 oct

How many octaves its notes spread over before they fold back down to the bottom.

harmony

rootfollow brick · follow progression

Follow brick builds each chord on the brick's note (moved by the progression). Follow progression keeps the brick's rhythm but builds every chord on the progression's chord, ignoring the brick's pitch.

shapetriad · seventh · sus · fifths

The chord, in scale steps: 1 3 5, 1 3 5 7, 1 4 5 or 1 5. Pentatonic scales use their own five steps.

inversion0 to 3

Moves the lowest notes of the chord up an octave, one per click. It goes up to one less than the number of notes in the shape.

MIDI

channelch 1 to ch 16

The MIDI channel it plays on. Drums start on 10, the General MIDI drum channel; the kick plays MIDI note 36 and the hat 42.

remove voice

Takes the voice away. Undo brings it back.

song tab 4

Sections in the order they play, each with a label like verse or chorus, playing a stack for a number of loops (or bars, if it has no loop).

play song

Plays the list from the top, starting playback if it's stopped. While it runs, the section playing is outlined in green and fills as it goes, and the button reads stop song: that ends the song and leaves the stack on screen playing. Stopping playback stops the song too. The step readout starts with the section's label and place, like chorus 2/4.

repeaton / off

On, the song goes back to the top after the last section. Off, it stops there and the last stack plays on.

keep tempo & keyon / off

Holds the tempo, key and scale as sections switch, so each stack plays at yours instead of its own. The same setting is in the preset list.

songsreads the song's name

The pill shows the name of the song on screen, untitled song until you save it. Tap it for the songs you've saved, with how many sections each has. Tap one to open it; ✕ deletes it, after asking. Opening a song replaces the one on screen in a single undo step, so undo brings the old one back. If a song is playing it stops, and the stack on screen keeps playing.

save song…

Asks for a name (up to 40 characters) and keeps the song, with every stack in it, in this browser. Saving under the same name replaces it. Songs are kept apart from your saved stacks, so the preset list never shows them. The name stays on the song, and undo takes it back.

share

Opens four choices.

copy code copies the song as a line of text starting stacks-song1.. A song with many stacks makes a long code, and some apps cut a long line short when you paste it, so send a file instead if a code won't open. paste code… opens a box: paste a code and press open. export file writes the song as night-drive-song.json, named after the song. import file… opens a song file, or a songs backup, which it restores.

A song replaces the one on screen however it arrives, in one undo step. A code over 512 KB or a song file over 1 MB is refused, and so is a song with a stack Stacks can't read, a section with no stack, no sections or more than 32. Nothing changes when a song is refused. A song from a newer Stacks is refused with a message saying so.

Stack codes and song codes don't mix: paste a song code here, in the song tab, and a stack code in the preset menu. Each says where the other goes.

+ section

Adds the stack on screen as a new section at the end, for 4 bars or loops. The first section is labelled intro, the rest verse. Up to 32 sections.

each section

⋮⋮

Drag the grip to move the section. Or focus it and use ↑ ↓.

▶

Plays the song from this section.

labelintro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro, your own

Names the section. Pick one of the five, or your own… for up to 24 characters of your own words. Undo takes a label back.

stack

The stack this section plays. When other sections play the same stack, a small number shows how many: they're linked. Tap it to choose any stack in the song for this section; a stack no section plays any more is dropped from the song. unlink is in that menu on a linked section: it gives this section its own copy of the stack, named with a 2, and edits to it no longer reach the others.

− +1 to 64 loops or bars

How long this section plays before the next comes in: loops if the stack has a loop, bars if not.

⋯

Opens duplicate and replace.

duplicate

Adds another section right after this one, playing the same stack, so the two are linked. It's how you repeat a chorus: edit one and the other has it.

replace

Puts the stack on screen in place of this section's stack. Every section linked to it changes too, and a note says how many.

✕

Takes the section out.

• The strip under the stack shows this song: tap a section there to jump to it, and hold (H) stays on the one playing. See the song strip.
• Linked sections share a stack. Anything you change while a section plays goes into its stack, so every section on that stack plays it when it next comes in. Undo takes it out of all of them. Drift's changes aren't kept.
• Picking a preset by hand while a song plays cues it: the song carries on until the preset comes in at the end of the loop or bar, then stops.
• Saved songs live in this browser, on this device, apart from your stacks. back up songs (in ⋯) writes them to a file of their own, and restore songs… reads it back.
• The song is saved in this browser with your session, and undo covers it. It isn't part of a preset or a stack's share code: save song… and share are how it travels. A chain saved before this opens as a song, one section for each stack, none linked.

Presets and sharing

Four banks of built-in stacks, a stack grown from any word, and your own. A preset holds the whole stack: every brick, its controls and seed, the voices, your chords, the play tab's settings and the echo level. It doesn't hold the volume or drift.

• ‹ › ([ ]) step through the bank the stack on screen comes from, and go round to the start at its end. A stack from no bank (init, a random one, a pasted code) steps through factory.
• The name opens the list: pick a bank, then a stack.
• ⚄ (R) grows a whole new random stack, three to five bricks wide, with its own voices, tempo, key and scale. It's named random and a short code.

The banks

The list opens on the bank of the stack on screen. Every built-in stack in basics, operators and patterns is a small working example: open its bricks to see how it's made, then change it and save it as your own.

While playing: cueing

While Stacks plays, a preset you pick (from the list, ‹ ›, ⚄, a seed or a pasted code) doesn't switch at once. It's cued: it comes in at the end of the loop if there's a loop, or at the next bar if not, and starts from its own first step. The preset button shows → night bus with a line filling up to the switch. In the list the cued stack is marked, with now to switch straight away and ✕ to drop it; picking it again also switches now. Stopping with a cue waiting switches to it. When stopped, a preset loads at once.

Start again

Saving

Type a name under save this stack and press save (up to 40 characters). Saving with the same name again overwrites it. The names of built-in stacks are taken.

Sharing

Recipes

Starting points, each a few minutes' work.

Shortcuts

Also in ⋯ › how to play. On sliders: drag (hold shift for fine), double-tap to reset, scroll, or use the arrow keys.

In this guide, / jumps to find.

On iPad planned

An iPad version of Stacks is planned. Until it's out, open Stacks in Safari on the iPad: everything in this guide works there except MIDI out (see Tips and limits).

Tips and limits

In a browser

• MIDI out needs Chrome or Edge, so not Safari or an iPad's browser. Your stacks and your song live in that browser on that device.
• If the tab goes to the background, Stacks skips the steps it missed rather than playing them all at once when it comes back.

What it does and doesn't do

• Stacks sends MIDI but doesn't receive it: no MIDI keyboard input and no MIDI clock in or out. Set the tempo by hand to match other gear.
• It can't record or export audio or a MIDI file. Record its MIDI in another app, or its sound with an audio recorder.
• Up to eight voices, three to five bricks wide, eight of your own chords, 32 sections in a song. A song code can be up to 512 KB and a song file up to 1 MB.
• Every step is a sixteenth note, and every note in a brick has the same length (set per voice by gate).
• The volume and drift stay as you set them when you change stack.

Tips

• A brick without a voice still counts: it shapes everything above it. Pull it and listen to what changes.
• Short loops and long cycles both have their place: no loop for something that wanders, a loop for something to play over.

Questions

Something missing or wrong? Email support@tinkerhaus.xyz, or see support.

Credits

The chance brick is inspired by the SIG's weighted musical choices and meloDICER's separate dice for rhythm and melody.