GLOSSARY

Words you meet

Each word is listed in the chapter where it is first explained.

.inkproject: A file of one or more projects with the sounds, kits, recordings and wavetables they use, a name and an author. First seen in Projects
.inksounds: INK's sounds file: a pack of sounds with the kits, recordings and wavetables they need, its pack name and author. First seen in Save and share sounds
2nd Tap: The DELAY control that sets the right side's time as a share of Time, 0.0 to 100.0. Classic, Octave and Ping-Pong use it. First seen in Delay
All page: The All tab: the mixer for all three engines and one keyboard band per engine. First seen in Mixer and All page
amount: A cell's signed value, −100 to +100: how far its source moves its destination, as a share of the destination's scale. First seen in Modulation matrix
amp envelope: INK's per-voice ADSR. It follows the note's pressure and drives the low-pass gate, so it sets level and brightness together. ENVELOPE on the Sound tab, AMP ENV in the Matrix. First seen in Amp envelope
Any channel: An engine's MIDI In setting that hears every channel outside the MPE zones other engines use. First seen in MIDI in
App settings: What INK keeps for every project: the theme, touch response, Slide control, each engine's keyboard, MIDI device, MPE and clock settings, and what the Library auditions with. In a host, each INK instance keeps its own keyboards and MIDI settings. First seen in The three engines
Arm: Record mode that waits: the take starts when the input, after Gain, reaches the threshold. First seen in Import and record
armed: Waiting for the next bar's first beat before it starts. The engine's tab carries a dashed ring. First seen in Clock and sync
arp: Plays the notes an engine holds one at a time, in the order set by Mode, one per Division step at the engine's tempo. First seen in Arp
asterisk: The * after a sound's name on the card and in the Library: the sound that plays differs from its saved version. First seen in Save and share sounds
Audio out: The engine sheet's AUDIO OUT row: Main, or Multibus for the engine's own bus in a host. First seen in INK in a host
audition: To play a Library sound without loading it; the engine keeps its current sound. First seen in First sound
Audition with: The Settings row that chooses what the Library's play button plays: a built-in phrase per sound type, or a copy of one of your patterns. First seen in Sound library
AUv3: Apple's Audio Unit v3 plug-in format. INK Synth is an AUv3 instrument, INK MIDI an AUv3 MIDI processor. First seen in INK in a host
background audio: The standalone app on iPhone and iPad playing on while hidden, mixed with other apps' audio, until nothing keeps it awake. First seen in Settings and background audio
Band-pass: A switch in FILTER that replaces the Mode sweep with the filter's band-pass response. Saved with the sound; it has no Matrix row. First seen in Filter
bank: One of a project's four sets of 24 pattern slots, A to D. First seen in Edit and save patterns
base value: The value a knob sets and shows. Modulation adds to it; the knob does not move. First seen in The three engines
bipolar: A source that swings from −1 to +1: A, B, X and Y. It moves its destination both ways around the base value. First seen in Modulation matrix
card: The box above the keyboard: waveform display, level meter, voice dashes, sound name, Save and the previous and next arrows. First seen in Find your way
category: One of Pad, Lead, Bass, Pluck, Keys or FX, set when a sound is saved. The Library's Type filter and sort use it. First seen in Save and share sounds
cell: One source-destination pair in the Matrix, holding one amount. First seen in Modulation matrix
chord piano: Three octaves of piano keys in place of the waveform display on a Chords engine, with a dot on each note pressed and the chord's root ringed. First seen in Play Chords
Chords: The keyboard that plays a whole chord from one touch: one column per scale degree, four rows of increasing colour. First seen in Play Chords
Chorus: The Chorus type of the CHORUS / PHASER insert: a two-line stereo chorus after the Roland Juno-60's. First seen in Chorus and phaser
column: One vertical run of eight pads on the Grid, rising in scale steps from the bottom. Stride sets the interval between neighbouring columns. First seen in Play the Grid
Cutoff: The SEM-style Filter's cutoff frequency, 20 Hz to 21.0 kHz. First seen in Filter
DCW: The Phase generator's bend amount: at 0% the bent waves play a sine, at 100% the full wave. It acts on the spectrum the way a low-pass cutoff does. First seen in Phase
destination: A control that modulation can reach; one row of the Matrix. First seen in Modulation matrix
Detune: The Supersaw's tone control: how far the outer saws sit from the note, 0.0 to 50.0 ct. First seen in Oscillators
dice: The die at the top left of the Matrix header. A tap replaces the sound's Matrix with a random set of cells; the face it lands on sets how many. First seen in Macros and dice
Direction: The Seq control that sets the order the playhead takes through the loop: Pause, Forward, Reverse, Pingpong, PingPong Rep or Random. First seen in Pattern playback
Discard: Returns the playing pattern to its saved version: notes and settings. On a pattern never saved it reads Clear pattern and empties it. First seen in Edit and save patterns
Distort: Bipolar gain into the low-pass gate, −100.0 to +100.0: above 0.0 more level and drive, below 0.0 less level, silent at −100.0. First seen in Oscillators
Division: The arp's step length: synced from 1/32 to 256/32 on the right half of the knob, free from 0.0 to 100.0 on the left half. First seen in Arp
edit bar: The strip under the Seq lanes. It shows what is selected and the buttons that edit it. First seen in Edit and save patterns
engine: One of INK's three instruments, Engine 1, 2 and 3. Each has its own sound, keyboard, key, pattern, effects, and MIDI input and output. First seen in The three engines
engine sheet: The sheet that opens from the key: the engine's keyboard, key, Play mode, Follow and Audio out. First seen in Find your way
engine strip: The first row of an engine's Sound tab: that engine's level fader, level in dB, Mute and Solo. First seen in Mixer and All page
Env Level: Envelope 2's output level. It scales every Env cell of the sound; at 50.0 the envelope's peak is full output. First seen in Envelope 2 and Random
Envelope 2: INK's per-voice modulation envelope. ENVELOPE 2 on the Sound tab, ENV 2 in the Matrix; its output is the Env column. First seen in Envelope 2 and Random
Euclid: Arp control that sets the length n of a Euclidean rhythm E(k,n), −16 to +16. Probability sets the hits k; the sign sets whether a gap holds the arp or skips a note. First seen in Arp rhythm and tempo
Factory project: The project INK opens on first launch. Bank A holds the factory patterns; it can be saved, but not renamed or deleted. First seen in Projects
Feedback: The level of the delay's output fed back into its input, 0.0 to 100.0. How fast the repeats fade depends on the type; on Ping-Pong it counts per round trip. First seen in Delay
Fill: The Chords button that plays single notes over the sounding chord in four-bar phrases, in a chosen style. First seen in Lean and Fill
Filter Spread: Detunes each voice's left and right filter cutoffs in opposite directions, by up to 15%, to widen the sound. First seen in Filter
Follow: The engine sheet's FOLLOW row: the engine moves its notes by the chords another engine plays on the Chords keyboard. First seen in Key lock and Follow
follower: An engine whose FOLLOW row names another engine: its notes move by that engine's chords. First seen in Key lock and Follow
frames: One single-cycle wave in an imported file. Each kept frame becomes one wave of the table. First seen in Wavetables
Freeze: A per-sound switch on LFO X and LFO Y. It holds the LFO's output at its value when a note starts, for every destination, until every voice of the engine is silent. First seen in LFOs and Freeze
From: The Library filter for where sounds came from: Factory, Mine, Deleted or one pack. First seen in Sound library
Gate: The share of each arp or sequencer step that a note sounds, 0.0 to 100.0. It belongs to the pattern and is one control on the Arp and Seq tabs. First seen in Arp rhythm and tempo
generator: The sound source of a sound: Supersaw, Pulse, Wavetable, Granular sampler or Phase. It is saved with the sound. First seen in The three engines
Glide: Portamento: how long a voice takes to reach a new pitch, 0.0 to 100.0. It acts on every pitch change of a voice. First seen in Oscillators
grain: A short window of the sample read by the Granular sampler. Grains overlap and crossfade; a new one starts every Grain size interval. First seen in Granular sampler
Grid: INK's default keyboard: 8 columns of 8 pads, with notes rising in scale steps up each column. First seen in First sound
High Pass: MIX's 12 dB/oct high-pass filter on the engine's signal, before CHORUS / PHASER and the sends. First seen in Reverb and mix
Hold: Latches notes so they keep sounding after the finger lifts. Each engine has its own; on the Grid, each column latches one note. First seen in First ten minutes
host: An app that loads AUv3 plug-ins, such as AUM or Drambo. First seen in INK in a host
Host session: The state INK saves inside a host's song and restores when the song opens: the project as it plays, and the instance's keyboards and MIDI settings. First seen in The three engines
Init: The Library's starting sound, a Supersaw sound pinned under START FROM SCRATCH and shown whatever the filters and search. First seen in First sound
INK MIDI: The AUv3 MIDI processor in INK Synth.app: three engines with keyboards, arp, Strum, sequencer and Matrix that send MIDI and make no sound. First seen in INK MIDI
Interval: Transposes one stereo channel of each voice by −12.0 to +12.0 st; the other channel keeps the note. First seen in Oscillators
key: Root plus Scale: the tonic and the set of notes an engine's keyboard, arp and patterns play in, held per engine in the project. First seen in Keyboard, key and scale
Key Lock: The closed padlock in an engine's KEY row: the engine keeps its key when another engine's key or a pattern's key changes. First seen in Key lock and Follow
keyboard: The engine's playing surface: Grid, Keys, Chords or Strings, chosen in the engine sheet's KEYBOARD row. First seen in Keyboard, key and scale
Keys: A continuous keyboard: one key per note of the engine's scale, laid out in rows; pitch follows the finger sideways and each note has its own pressure. First seen in Play Keys
Keys play: What a MIDI key plays on a Chords engine: the chord of its scale degree on every key, or chords below a split note and single notes above. First seen in MIDI in
Kit: Eight sample slots. A Granular sampler sound names its kit and plays from it. First seen in The three engines
kit view: The screen for a kit's eight slots: choose, fill and edit the samples the sound plays. First seen in Import and record
lanes: The 8 rows of the Seq tab, one per Grid column, column 8 on top. A lane holds one note at a time. First seen in Record patterns
leader: The engine on the Chords keyboard whose chords the followers move by. First seen in Key lock and Follow
Lean: The Chords button that moves a chord change voice by voice through passing scale notes, a 16th apart, instead of all at once. First seen in Lean and Fill
level meter: The bar at the card's left edge: the shown engine's output level after its Level, Mute, Solo and OUTPUT. First seen in Find your way
LFOs: Low-frequency oscillator: a free-running modulation source. Each engine has four: LFO X, LFO Y and the LFOs of Mod A and Mod B. First seen in LFOs and Freeze
Library: INK's browser of factory and user sounds, opened from the sound name on the card. First seen in First sound
low-pass gate: A resonant low-pass filter in every voice whose cutoff follows the amp envelope, so one stage sets the voice's level and brightness. First seen in Oscillators
LPG Filter: The resonance of the voice's low-pass gate, 0.0 to 100.0. The Filter section has its own Resonance. First seen in Oscillators
macro: Macro A or Macro B: a bipolar control saved with each sound, used as a source in the Matrix (columns A and B). First seen in Macros and dice
Main Wet/Dry: MIX's balance of the dry signal against the delay and reverb returns: −100 dry only, 0 both at full level, +100 returns only. First seen in Reverb and mix
manager channel: The channel of an MPE zone that carries what applies to the whole zone: zone-wide bend, pressure and Slide, and the parameter CCs. Channel 1 for the lower zone, 16 for the upper. First seen in MIDI in
master clock: The clock every engine with Sync on follows: the host's, else a MIDI clock coming in, else Engine 1's Tempo. First seen in Clock and sync
Matrix: The modulation matrix on each engine's Matrix tab: sources as columns, destinations as rows, one amount per cell. First seen in Modulation matrix
member channels: The channels of an MPE zone that carry one finger each, with that finger's own bend, pressure and Slide. First seen in MIDI in
MIDI In: The channel, MPE zone or Off that an engine listens to for notes and controllers. Saved with the project; Off by default. First seen in MIDI in
MIDI route: One destination of an engine's MIDI out (a device, another app or a host output) with its Out and bend range out. Up to 4 per engine, all playing at once. First seen in MIDI out
Missing: A slot whose sample INK cannot find: it was deleted, or its files are damaged. The slot keeps the sample's name. First seen in Trim, slices and kits
mixer: The card at the top of the All page: per engine, its level, Mute, Solo and an XY pad for Macro A and B. First seen in Mixer and All page
Mode: The SEM-style Filter's sweep from low-pass through notch to high-pass: a crossfade of its low-pass and high-pass outputs. First seen in Filter
modulation: A Matrix source's contribution to a control: the source's value times the cell's amount. First seen in The three engines
MPE out: An engine's Out on MPE lower or MPE upper: each note on its own member channel with its own bend, pressure and Slide. At most 7 member channels per zone. First seen in MIDI out
MPE zone: A manager channel plus a block of member channels, one per finger. INK offers the lower zone (manager 1) and the upper zone (manager 16). First seen in MIDI in
Multiband: A three-band insert on each engine's output: a positive amount compresses its band and adds make-up gain, a negative amount cuts it, 0% leaves it untouched. First seen in Multiband
Multibus: The Audio out choice that sends an engine to its own stereo bus in a host: Engine 1, Engine 2 or Engine 3. First seen in INK in a host
Noise: White noise added to each voice after Distort and before the low-pass gate, 0.0 to 100.0. First seen in Oscillators
Normalised: Sets a user sample's peak to −6.4 dBFS, the level of the factory samples, by raising or lowering its gain. First seen in Trim, slices and kits
Out: An engine's MIDI output format on a destination: Off, a channel 1 to 16, MPE lower or MPE upper. Saved with the project; Off by default. First seen in MIDI out
pack: The sounds imported from one file or folder, listed under its name in From with its main author. First seen in Sound library
pad: One note position on the Grid. First seen in First sound
Paper: The app's colour theme: Paper, Dark or Blueprint, chosen in Settings. It changes nothing in the sound. First seen in Settings and background audio
PARAM knob: A knob on INK MIDI's Param tab that sends one MIDI controller or NRPN; its value is the knob plus its row in the Matrix. First seen in INK MIDI
Pattern: A sequence of up to 64 steps with its own Tempo, Sync, Division and loop, and its key when it has one. Saved in the project's banks. First seen in The three engines
pattern slot: One of the 96 places for a pattern in a project, named by bank and number, A1 to D24. First seen in Edit and save patterns
phase distortion: Casio CZ-style synthesis: a cosine is read through a bent phase, and the amount of bend sets the harmonic content. First seen in Phase
Phaser: The Phaser type of the CHORUS / PHASER insert: an eight-stage, four-notch stereo phaser with bipolar feedback. First seen in Chorus and phaser
Pitch: The sound's own tuning, −12.0 to +12.0 st, applied to every note. The key does not change. First seen in Oscillators
Pitched: Sample mode in which a note plays the slice whose root note is nearest, transposed to the note's pitch. First seen in Granular sampler
Plinky: The 8-voice polyphonic touch synthesizer INK grew out of. INK's Grid, low-pass gate, Matrix sources, arp, sequencer, Classic delay and reverb come from it. First seen in The three engines
Position: The Wavetable generator's tone control: the point in the table, from the first wave (1.0) to the last (8.0). Adjacent waves are crossfaded. First seen in Wavetables
pressure: A per-note value from the touch on the glass (the strike as the finger lands, then the fingertip's contact area), or from MIDI velocity, aftertouch or MPE Slide. Its Matrix source is Prs. First seen in First ten minutes
Probability: Arp control. With no Euclid length, the chance that each step plays; with a Euclid length, the share of hits in the Euclidean loop. First seen in Arp rhythm and tempo
Project: The three engines' sounds, keys, mixer settings, Audio out, MIDI In and Out and MIDI routes, with four banks of patterns. First seen in The three engines
Quantize: The Seq control that moves the notes of each live take toward the step grid, 0 to 100%. Turning it re-applies it to the last take until that take is edited. First seen in Record patterns
rails: One of the two bars under the Chords tiles, Voicing and Spread: eight boxes that fill continuously from 0 at the left to the maximum at the right. First seen in Chord colour
Range: The number of passes of Mode's run the arp plays, 1 to 4, each moved by Shift. First seen in Arp
Record: The Seq transport button (dot) that writes notes into the pattern: step recording while stopped, live recording while playing. First seen in Record patterns
reference value: The value a double-tap returns a knob to: the value saved in the current sound. First seen in Find your way
Resample: Recording INK's own output into a kit slot: source INK on the record screen. First seen in Import and record
Resolution: An INK MIDI output's controller format: Standard (7-bit CC), High · 14-bit CC or High · NRPN. First seen in INK MIDI
Resonance: Boost around the SEM-style Filter's cutoff frequency. It does not self-oscillate. First seen in Filter
Rnd: The Matrix's random source: a value drawn for each voice and each destination when a note starts, and held for the note. First seen in Envelope 2 and Random
Root: The key's tonic, C to B in semitones; the base of every scale step the keyboards, arp and patterns play. First seen in Keyboard, key and scale
Sample: One mono recording in the library, up to 67.1 s, that a kit slot plays. First seen in The three engines
sample slot: One of the eight places in a kit; each holds one sample. Sample chooses the slot a Granular sampler sound plays. First seen in Granular sampler
Scale: The set of notes in the key, chosen on the engine sheet. First seen in Keyboard, key and scale
Scrub: Offset of each new grain's start from the playhead, as a share of the whole sample's length, 0.0 to 100.0. First seen in Granular sampler
section list: The list of a page's sections that opens from a section title; a tap on a name scrolls there. First seen in Find your way
SEM-style Filter: INK's per-voice multimode filter, modelled on the Oberheim SEM: 2-pole, with a Mode sweep from low-pass through notch to high-pass and a band-pass switch. First seen in Filter
Send: The level of an engine's signal into the delay or the reverb. At 0.0 nothing new enters; what is already in the effect rings out. First seen in Delay
Settle: In tune's time from a finger's stop to the key's note: Quick (20 ms) to Slow (1000 ms), default 45 ms. First seen in Set up your playing
Shift: The interval between the arp's passes: ±Oct in 12 st, ±3rd, ±4th and ±5th in scale steps of the engine's key. First seen in Arp
Shimmer: REVERB's octave-up pitch shifter inside the reverb's feedback loop: each pass through the loop adds an octave above the last. First seen in Reverb and mix
slice: One of the eight regions of a sample, set by the slice lines in the kit view. Each slice has a root note. First seen in Granular sampler
Slide control: The app setting that decides how pitch follows a slide on Keys and where it lands: Piano, In tune or Free. First seen in Set up your playing
Solo: The S button of an engine: while any engine is soloed, only the soloed engines sound. First seen in Mixer and All page
sound: The complete setting of one engine: generator, envelopes, filter, modulation and effects, stored as one Library entry. First seen in First sound
source: A modulation signal in a Matrix column: Env, Prs, A, B, X, Y or Rnd. First seen in Modulation matrix
Spice: The button between the rails: it adds colour tones (9ths, 11ths, 13ths, altered tensions on V) to the next chord and keeps its root. First seen in Chord colour
Spread: The right rail under the Chords tiles: how wide the next chord is voiced and how many notes are doubled in other octaves. First seen in Chord colour
step: One position of a pattern's 64. Each step is cut into 8 slices, so a note can start and end on 1/8 step. First seen in Record patterns
Step offset: Moves the loop window along the pattern by a number of steps, −63 to +63. The loop keeps its length; the notes stay where they are, so different steps play. First seen in Pattern playback
step recording: Record on with the pattern stopped: each note goes in at the cursor at fixed pressure, and the cursor moves past it. First seen in Record patterns
Stereo Width: MIX's mid/side width of the dry signal: 0 mono, 100 the normal image, negative values swap the sides. First seen in Reverb and mix
Strings: The keyboard of eight strings that play the engine's chord, strummed like an Omnichord strumplate; strum speed sets each pluck's level, tone and ring. First seen in Play Strings
Strum: The third setting of the Free / Arp / Strum switch: notes started together play once each, one after another in Mode's order, one Division apart, then ring until released. First seen in Strum
Sub: The engine's sub oscillator: a sine-based oscillator one or two octaves under the lowest held note, or in its octave. It is the SUB section of the Sound tab. First seen in Sub oscillator
Sync: The pattern's clock switch on the Arp and Seq tabs. On, the engine follows the master clock: the host's tempo, else an incoming MIDI clock, else Engine 1's Tempo. Off, it runs at its own Tempo. First seen in Arp rhythm and tempo
Synth Lvl: MIX's gain of the engine's signal into its peak compressor, before the delay and reverb sends. First seen in Reverb and mix
Tape: Sample mode in which the Grid column chooses the slice and the row one of eight start points in it. Only Pitch tunes the grains. First seen in Granular sampler
tile: One chord on the Chords keyboard, named on its face; a touch plays it. First seen in Play Chords
Timestretch: The Granular sampler's playhead speed as a factor on Rate, −200.0 to +200.0; 0.0 stops the playhead. First seen in Granular sampler
trace: The strip on the Arp tab that draws the notes the arp plays, as they play, with a guess at the notes to come. First seen in Arp
Transpose: The order in which the arp plays Range's passes: Auto, Up, Down, Up/Down, Down/Up, Random or Unique Random. First seen in Arp
undo history: The last 20 steps of the whole instrument: every engine's sound, key, mixer settings and patterns. Kept in memory until the app closes. First seen in Undo and redo
unipolar: A source that runs from 0 upwards: Env and Prs. It moves its destination in one direction only. First seen in Modulation matrix
voices: One note's signal path in an engine: generator, Distort, low-pass gate and Filter. Each engine has 8, so INK has 24. First seen in The three engines
Voicing: The left rail under the Chords tiles: the inversion and spacing of the next chord. First seen in Chord colour
Warp: An LFO control that moves the turning point inside each cycle, so one half of the cycle is longer than the other. First seen in LFOs and Freeze
waveform display: The live picture in the card: the engine's output waveform, or the sample and its grains on the Granular sampler. First seen in Find your way
wavetable: A set of 2 to 128 single-cycle waves that the Wavetable generator plays. INK has 8 factory banks of 8 waves; imported tables keep up to 128. First seen in Wavetables
What's new: The sheet that lists what each version of INK added, newest first. It opens once by itself after an update and from Settings › ABOUT INK. First seen in Settings and background audio
Width: The Pulse generator's tone control: the pulse's duty cycle, 50.0% (square) to 3.0%. First seen in Oscillators
XY pad: A box on the All page mixer that sets an engine's Macro A (across) and Macro B (up). First seen in Mixer and All page
Yours: Every sample you imported or recorded, listed in the Sample list. A sample in Yours can be put into any kit. First seen in Import and record
zones: One of the five equal bands across the Strings keyboard; each plays the strings in its own octave: −1, 0, +1, 0, −1 from left to right. First seen in Play Strings