Skip to main content

Pattern Grid (Experimental)

The Pattern Grid is a desktop-only timeline of the resolved song: one row per chip channel, with pattern blocks laid out in time and a playhead that follows playback.

The Pattern Grid is marked Experimental in Settings.

The BeatBax web-lite client has no pattern grid. Use BeatBax Desktop.

Enabling the grid​

  1. Open BeatBax Desktop.
  2. Press Ctrl+, / Cmd+, (or View → Settings…) to open Settings.
  3. On the Features tab, enable Pattern Grid.
  4. Close Settings. The grid appears above the editor.

Show or hide it from the status bar panel menu or the View menu. The transport bar stays in sync with the grid playhead.

Reading the timeline​

Each row is a channel from the song. Blocks are the patterns (and sequence items) that channel plays, sized by musical length so you can see how parts line up across voices.

Use it to:

  • See the arrangement without scanning every seq line
  • Watch the playhead during Play / Live
  • Mute or solo a channel from the row (same state as the mixer)
  • Spot channels that run shorter or longer than the others

The grid is an overview of the compiled song, not a tracker piano-roll editor. Change notes and structure in the .bax source; Apply or Live updates the blocks.