XT Generator — user guide & recipes

A player's guide to the generative tools. No theory required — every recipe is "press this, hear that." Pad numbers follow the 4×8 grid, 1 to 32, same as the web cheatsheet.

The 20-second version

1. Pick a track. Shift + Preset opens the tools. Velocity = Generator, Note = Chord, Gate = Arp.
2. On Generator page 1, tap one of the 25 styles. Cyan pad 32 (or Down) opens page 2 (mode, role, density, span, Section); cyan pad 32 (or Up) returns to the styles. The Generator always reopens on the style page. Duplicate prints the audible preview.
3. Don't like it? On page 2 tap yellow pad 24 (reseed) for a fresh roll of the same settings. Clear (or Shift + Preset) cancels and restores what was there.

The generator writes ordinary editable notes — anything it makes, you can tweak by hand afterwards.

Generator page map

Use cyan pad 32 (or Up / Down) while Generator is open to switch between its two grid pages — pad 32 is the page-turn corner on both pages. The Generator always opens on the style page. Chord and Arp remain single-page overlays. On every page the current choice lights white.

Page 1 — styles by family

Page 2 — what to make

Recipes

A beat in ten seconds

Drum track → Shift+Preset → Velocity → tap House (1) → Duplicate. Reseed (page 2 pad 24) until it grooves. Density left of centre for classic, right for busy. Try Hip-Hop (17) for swing and ghost notes.

A whole kit in one press

Load your samples so drum track 1 = kick, 2 = snare/clap, 3 = hat, 4 = percussion (the generator assumes this order). Select any drum track → Generator page 2 → Kit (14) → pick a style → Duplicate. All four tracks get one coherent kit from the same seed — kick, backbeat, hats, and perc that agree with each other. Kit only works from a drum track.

A four-pattern story instead of a loop

On page 2 set Span 4 (pad 20), then generate anything. You get establish → develop → variation → fill-into-the-loop across four chained patterns, instead of one bar repeated. Chain the patterns in the pattern view and let it run. Span 2 (page 2 pad 18) is the quick version. Every pattern in the span takes the source pattern's length. On an XT lane there are no chains yet: the span is written to the next XT slots and you switch them by hand while stopped.

Jungle chops that stay musical

Drum track → Breaks (9) → density well right of centre → Duplicate. Breaks style runs the breakbeat engine: it chops a break skeleton, keeps the backbone, and goes harder in later bars (use span!). DnB (11) is the cleaner cousin — solid two-step with jungle fills only at phrase ends. Reseed rerolls the entire chop.

A bassline that answers your lead

Generate (or play in) a Melody first and commit it. Then on another track pick Bass and generate: it automatically plays in your melody's gaps and locks to its harmony — call and response without doing anything. Want a stronger conversation? Use Follow (page 2 pad 9) instead of Bass.

Chords first, everything follows

Synth track → Chords (page 2 pad 12) role (or Progression mode) → Duplicate for a voice-led progression in the style's flavour. Any Bass or Melody you generate afterwards, on any track, targets those chords on the chord changes. Generate chords → bass → melody in that order for the most "written, not random" result.

Acid line, self-driving filter

Synth track → Acid (14) → Duplicate. Short notes, octave jumps, and filter automation written straight into the macro lane — accented steps get opened filter. Warm patch + resonance up. Reseed until the squelch lands.

An ambient bed

Ambient (15), density low, span 2+. Long overlapping notes and a slow macro sweep across the phrase. Nice under a Chord-role pad progression on a second track.

Turning a good pattern into fills

Duplicate your pattern to the next slot first (hold Duplicate in the pattern matrix). Then Generator page 2 → Variation (2) mode → Duplicate. It reshuffles ornaments but never touches the anchor hits, so the groove's identity survives. Generate variation into the last pattern of a chain for a natural fill.

Live chords and arps (Note / Gate pages)

Open with Shift + Preset then Note (Chord) or Gate (Arp), or hold Shift + Scales, set the pads, and let go of Scales to arm. Note page: pick voices (1–4 = 3–6 notes), inversion (9–12), and shape (17–22: triad, 7th, sus2, sus4, power, 6th) — then Duplicate to enable live chord pads: one finger plays full chords (not on drum tracks). Gate page: arp pattern (1–5: up, down, up-down, random, as-played), rate (9–16), Latch (17), Chord (18), gate length (25–31). Arp auditions even while the transport is stopped. Clear disables either. Red pad 32 on these pages turns the mode off.

Chord/Arp only take over the pads in Note view. Every other screen, including all Shift screens such as Sidechain, gets the pads back; the 1–16 / 17–32 step-page button keeps them running. Settings are saved with the Project.

A latched arp you can walk away from

Gate page → Up/Down (3), rate 1/16 (12), Latch (17) white → Duplicate → Play. Hold three pads and let go: the arp keeps going. Tap new pads to replace the notes. Stop clears it.

One-finger chord arpeggio

1. Note page: 4 voices (2) and Seventh (18).
2. Gate page: Up/Down (3), rate 1/16 (12), Latch (17) and Chord (18) both white.
3. Duplicate, Play, tap one pad and let go: a running in-key chord arp.
4. Tap a different pad on the next bar to change chord.

Chord+Arp is ignored on drum tracks.

Generating onto an XT lane

Shift + track 1–8 picks X1–X8 → Shift+Preset → Velocity → style → Duplicate. The notes land in that lane's current Pattern, using the length set in its Pattern Settings (up to 32 steps).

Good to know

• Fill, Variation, and Progression commit to the current pattern (and forward when Span > 1). Duplicate first if you love it. Section is the exception: it reads the current pattern but writes only the next 1–4 slots, preserving the source.
• Preview is live: while the overlay is open you're hearing exactly what Duplicate will keep. Every pad press re-rolls the preview.
• Span fills forward from the pattern you're viewing; your source pattern is the first of the phrase, and every pattern takes its length.
• Bars follow the pattern length: a 24-step pattern counts as 2 bars, and melodic answer bars fill all the way to beat 4.
• Settings stick per Project: style, density, span, Chord and Arp choices are saved when you press Stop.
• The generator respects the notes already on the track when picking a key — play or program a few notes first to steer it, or generate onto an empty track for the style's default.

Building a song around the generator

The order you generate in matters, because later tracks listen to earlier ones. The golden path:

1. Chords first. Synth track, Chords role (or Progression mode), Duplicate. This sets the harmony every later generate will follow.
2. Bass second. It locks to the chord roots automatically.
3. Melody third. It walks the same scale; if you played the lead in by hand instead, even better — generate Bass after it and the bass answers your lead's phrasing.
4. Drums last, as a Kit. One press, four coherent tracks.
5. Stretch it with Span. Regenerate the parts you like at Span 2–4 so they become phrases instead of loops.
6. Arrange by performing. Chain patterns (stock tracks; XT lanes can't chain yet), ride the mutes, drop the kick out by muting D1 for a breakdown, bring it back on the one. Variation printed into a chain's last pattern is your fill.

You can also work drums-first — generate a Kit, then chords against it — but chords-first gives the most "written, not random" results because everything else inherits the harmony.

Style playbook

Worked setups: what to load where, what to set in the generator, and the order to build. Sound names are categories, not specific patches — pick the warm one you like. All styles named below are available on Generator page 1.

Melodic house / Anjunadeep — the flagship example

Tempo 118–122. The DSP sidechain is doing real work here — enable it on pads and bass against the kick.

Generator: style Melodic House, density just left of centre, Span 4.

Build order: ① Synth 1, Chords role → a voice-led progression; keep reseeding until one makes you feel something — this choice matters most. ② Synth 2, Melody role, density right of centre → busy pluck line (this becomes the frozen ostinato that the chords recolor — the Anjuna trick). Alternatively: play a 1-bar pluck riff by hand and leave it looping while the chords move under it. That trick works today. ③ Bass — auto-locks to the chord roots; keep it, it knows what it's doing. ④ Kit, density low. ⑤ Perform: breakdown = mute kick + bass, let pad and pluck carry two patterns, bring drums back together.

Variations on the theme: Organic house — swap the pluck for a kalimma/marimba voice, foley-heavy D4, density down one notch. Progressive — same setup at Span 4 everywhere, tempo 120, and let each regenerate keep more (Variation mode instead of Fill after the first pass) so the track evolves rather than switches. After-hours — minor progression, tempo 116, mute D2 entirely, hats only; the emptier it is, the deeper it reads.

Classic house

Tempo 122–126.

Generator: House, density centre. Build order: Chords on Synth 1 (sus4 or 7th shape from the Note page gives instant rave-stab flavour) → Bass → Kit. The off-beat energy comes free from the hat masks.

Variations: French filter house — loop a 2-bar chord stab pattern and perform the filter macro in sweeps; the generator's job is only the stabs. Deep house — density down two notches, 7th shapes, sub bass instead of M1, tempo 120. Piano anthem — major progression, octave bass by hand on Synth 2 (root/root+12 on 8ths — cheap to program, instantly 1990). Garage lean — Hip-Hop style on the drum tracks instead of House at 132: wrong on paper, shuffled-house right in practice.

Techno

Tempo 128–135.

Generator: Techno, density high on drums, low on synths, Span 4 so the phrase develops. Build order: Kit → one sparse Melody or Chords stab → Bass only if the kick tail leaves room. Techno lives on subtraction: generate busy, then mute and hand-delete until it's hypnotic. Print Variation into a chained pattern every 8 bars.

Variations: Dub techno — Chords role at minimum density, then hand-delete to one stab every bar or two; drown it in the DSP delay/reverb sends, tempo 122; the silence is the instrument. Melodic techno — run the whole Anjunadeep build order with this sound palette at 126; darker patches, same harmony machinery. Hypnotic minimal — generate each drum track separately (not Kit) with different seeds so the lanes phase against each other rather than agreeing. Peak-time — density max, Span 2, reseed until violent; ride the master filter.

Acid

Tempo 125–140.

Generator: Acid on Synth 1, density high (it forces it anyway), reseed until the line rolls. The filter automation is printed into the macro lane — grab the macro knob live and your movements replace the printed sweep. Build order: drums first here (Kit, House style), acid line second so you audition it against the groove.

Variations: Acid house — 122, claps and swing, line density pulled back so it bounces instead of rolls. Acid techno — 138, rumble kick, both synths running Acid lines — generate Synth 2's after Synth 1's and it answers in the gaps (the call-and-response engine treats the first line as the lead). Two 303s talking is the whole genre. Ambient acid — Ambient style everywhere else, then thin one Acid line by hand so it floats over it at tempo 100.

DnB / jungle

Tempo 170–175.

Generator: DnB for the clean two-step, Breaks for the full chop; Span 4 — the last bar goes off by design; density = chop depth. Build order: Kit (DnB) → Bass → pads. Then the layer trick: Breaks style on D4 alone over the clean spine — chopped chaos on top, solid two-step underneath.

Variations: Liquid — Anjunadeep's chords + pluck recipe on the synths over a low-density DnB kit; lush and rolling. Jungle — Breaks everywhere, density high, Span 4, and let the last-bar madness happen; one-shot vocal chops on D4. Halftime — mute D2's off-hits so only the mid-bar snare survives (the Trap style automates this when it lands); suddenly it's 85 BPM heavy. Darkside — minor progression, no pad, sub only, techno perc palette on D3/D4.

Hip-hop / trip-hop

Tempo 85–95 (trip-hop 75–85).

Generator: Hip-Hop, density low-centre. The swing and ghost notes are the point — listen for them before reseeding. Build order: Chords (7th shape, two chords is plenty) → Kit → Bass. Leave space; the genre is the space.

Variations: Lo-fi — detune the keys patch slightly, crackle running constantly on D4, density down, tempo 80; imperfection is the aesthetic so keep the take with the "wrong" ghost note. Boom bap — snare louder than taste says, hats straighter (Generic style on D3 only), 92 BPM. Trip-hop — density pulled left, then hand-delete one hit the groove expects — instant Portishead unease (the style automates this when it lands). Halftime bounce — 140 BPM project, Hip-Hop style: reads as trap without the trap style.

Ambient

Tempo 60–90, or just slow the project down.

Generator: Ambient, density minimum (32), Span 4, Chords + Melody roles. The long overlapping gates and slow macro sweep are printed for you. No kick is a valid kick.

Variations: Generative endless — leave the overlay open and treat reseed as the performance: every press is a new sky over the same chords. Berlin school — put a live Arp (Gate page, up-down, rate pad 12 = 1/16) on Synth 2 over the ambient bed; sequence-music instantly. Ambient dub — add one deep kick hit per bar by hand on D1, delay sends high, tempo 75. Dark — minor progression, Melody role muted, just chords and crackle.

One-drop / dub

Tempo 70–80. Round kick, rim/side-stick snare, tight hat, spring-verb perc. Organ or clav "bubble" on Synth 1 for the off-beat skank (the style generates it), deep simple bass on Synth 2. The defining silence on beat one is generated — resist filling it. Dub is a mixing performance: ride mutes and the DSP delay sends harder than you think.

Amapiano

Tempo 110–115. The log-drum bass patch is the genre — a pitched, woody percussive bass on Synth 2 (from the patch packs, or any short punchy pitched perc). Airy pad Synth 1, sparse kick, big shaker bed D3. The generated bass lives in the second half of each bar and loves silence; whole kickless bars are correct, not a bug.

UK garage

Tempo 130–135. Clean tight kick, bright snare AND a rim for the skips, crisp hats. Chopped-vocal or keys stabs on Synth 1, warm sub Synth 2. Swing is built into the style; the shuffled hats + skipping kick do the work. Two-step means the kick pattern breathes — don't quantize it back to 4×4 by hand.

Psytrance / psydub

Psytrance 140–145: rolling bass is generated as a mask (kick–bass-bass- bass), so you just need one tight sub patch and a click-punch kick. Psydub 75–90: dub drum palette + the psytrance percussion, Eastern scale override built in; long delay on everything, glide bass patch.

Happy hardcore

Tempo 165–175. Pumping kick, piano stabs on Synth 1 (Chords, major), hoover or supersaw lead Synth 2, offbeat bass generated for you. Kit puts the chopped break on D4 automatically. Maximum cheese is the correct setting.

Section tools — performing tension

Step by step (build 4620 and later):

1. Make a groove you like in Pattern 1 (generate it or play it). Stay on Pattern 1.
2. Shift + Preset → Velocity (Generator) → cyan pad 32 for page 2.
3. Tap an amber section pad: 5 Build · 6 Drop · 7 Breakdown · 8 Lift. It turns white and you hear the transformed groove as a preview on Pattern 1.
4. Pick how many Patterns to write with Span (pads 17–20) — Build sounds best over 2.
5. Press Duplicate. The result is written into the next Pattern slot(s) (P2, P3…) and Pattern 1 is restored untouched. Shift + Preset instead cancels.
6. Chain the Patterns in Patterns view (hold the first, tap the last) and press Play. XT lanes can't chain yet — switch their Patterns by hand while stopped.

Do this per track (drums, bass, synths) so every part builds and drops together. What each type does —

• BUILD (span 2): kick thins, snare rolls accelerate, filter rises, last beat goes silent. Print into P2–P3.
• DROP: your groove at full strength with the harmonic resolution — print into P4.
• BREAKDOWN: kickless, melodic, ends with a mini-build — print anywhere you need air.
• LIFT: gentle 2-bar riser for mid-song motion.

A whole performable track in five slots: P1 groove → P5 breakdown → P2–P3 build → P4 drop → back to P1. You choose when — the pattern chain is the song. Section preview is heard on the current pattern, but Duplicate writes the result forward and restores the source.