Settings
The Settings modal is part of BeatBax Desktop. Open it with:
Ctrl+,(Windows / Linux) /Cmd+,(macOS)- View → Settings…
- The gear icon in the Copilot panel header (opens the AI tab)
- Toolbar
…→ Settings
The BeatBax web-lite client has no Settings modal — use the toolbar for theme (
Alt+Shift+L) and word wrap.
Tabs
| Tab | What it controls |
|---|---|
| General | Theme (dark / light / system), toolbar style, panel visibility, compact mixer |
| Editor | Auto-save, word wrap, CodeLens (master toggle plus per-category toggles for pat, seq, inst, and effect previews), beat decorations, default BPM, font size, MIDI step entry |
| Playback | Audio backend, sample rate, default loop, offline render buffer size |
| Features | Pattern Grid, Hot Reload, AI Copilot, Channel Mixer, Instrument Editor, Song Visualizer |
| Plugins | Sound Chip Plugins and Export Plugins — built-in plus optional backends |
| AI | Provider, endpoint, API key, model, interaction mode, Ask song excerpt, model token window, and an Advanced section with Edit / Ask reply budgets and reasoning effort — see BeatBax Copilot |
| Advanced | Log level, debug overlay, debug player exposure, remote host allowlist, reset-all |
Most changes apply immediately. Exceptions (noted inline): Auto-save and Audio backend / Sample rate need a reload. Each tab has Reset section to defaults. Advanced → Reset all settings clears BeatBax preference keys after confirmation.
Feature flags
| Feature | Badge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern Grid | Experimental | Arrangement timeline with section focus, Pos-ruler seek/loop, and zoom — Pattern Grid |
| Hot Reload | Experimental | Auto-replay on editor changes (debounced) |
| AI Copilot | Beta | Configure provider on the AI tab; see BeatBax Copilot |
| Channel Mixer | — | Channel strips and meters when enabled — Channel Mixer |
| Instrument Editor | Experimental | Graphical inst editing in the right pane (off by default) — Instrument Editor |
| Song Visualizer | — | Per-channel waveforms in the right pane — Song Visualizer |
Remote host allowlist
Desktop downloads remote assets, such as NES DMC samples, only from approved hosts. raw.githubusercontent.com is always allowed, which covers github: references. To use another host, add its hostname (one per line, no scheme, path, or wildcard) under Advanced → Remote host allowlist and click Save allowlist. Reset allowlist returns to the built-in default.
A sample on a host that is not in the list does not play. During playback the Output panel shows a [playback] warning naming the sample and the host, with a pointer back to this setting.