The Audio & MIDI pane

The Audio & MIDI pane gathers everything that comes into a song and goes out of it: the audio input that records and tunes, the MIDI devices you play, the destinations tracks play to, the controls you’ve learnt, and the recordings the song plays. Its settings are this device’s, apart from the Recordings tab, which is the song’s.

The Audio & MIDI pane

Available on every platform.

Opening it

Choose Audio & MIDI (⌃⌘I)Audio & MIDI from the Window menu, or make any pane an Audio & MIDI pane from the view picker on its bar.Make any pane an Audio & MIDI pane from the view picker on its bar (Panes).The built-in Audio & MIDI workspace shows it beside the tracks, with the Transport pane (Workspaces).

Six tabs run along the top: Audio, MIDI In, MIDI Out, Mapping, Monitor and Recordings. While recording is on, the Audio and MIDI In tabs start with what Record will take, such as “● Record takes MIDI: Keystation → Lead”.

Audio

The web app doesn’t record audio, so this tab has nothing to set there.

Input: the device that records and feeds the tuner (System Default or one you pick under Device), with On, ● Armed, the channel it listens to (All Channels, Mixed, one channel, or a stereo pair such as Stereo 1+2), its latency, and Calibrate. Under it, a level bar for each channel, the one listened to lit. See The audio input.
Output: what every song plays through, and the latency it adds, which Stab allows for so what you hear and what’s drawn agree.

MIDI In

A card for each MIDI device Stab has seen, with its status (“Playing into this song”, “Another song takes it”, “Not connected”) and a light that flashes as it sends:

On, ● Armed (recorded when you press Record; a controller has none), its kind (Keyboard, Drum Kit, MIDI Guitar, Controller) and its latency.
Calibrate while it’s plugged in, Forget while it isn’t.
A drum kit’s module map; a MIDI guitar’s first channel, string order, bend range and Legato: see MIDI guitars and e-kits.

Before the browser lets Stab use MIDI, the tab shows Turn On MIDI: see MIDI on the web.

What each setting means is in MIDI devices.

MIDI Out

Destinations out: each MIDI destination plugged in, with Send Clock, its latency, and how many tracks play to it.
Tracks played out: every track, with the destination it plays to (Not Out by default), its channel, A Channel per String for a fretted track, and Instead of Its Sound.

See MIDI out and clock.

Mapping

Learn MIDI Control, Learn for a Command, Footswitch Presets and Presets across the top, then everything learnt, a row each, with Relative, Learn Again and Forget. See MIDI control and mapping.

Monitor

Every message that comes in, the latest first: how long ago, the device, the channel and the message (“Note On C4 · 100”, “CC 64 · 127”, “Pitch Bend +1024”). A message that drove something says what (“→ Record”). Click a control’s line to use it for a command or a control, or to forget what it drives. Clear empties the list. It’s the quickest way to see what a pedal or a pad really sends.

Recordings

The recordings the song plays, with how many there are and the memory they take, and Import Recording…:

On audio tracks: the recordings audio clips play (takes, imported files), the tracks they’re on, their length and file.
Reference recordings: those on recording lanes, with where they start, Muted, and Remove.

A recording whose file can’t be found says “Missing: …” and its Relink… is lit: see Relinking recordings. A recording just made says “not saved to a file yet” until the song saves.