Constellation, a light instrument

Hold anywhere to sound the nearest column. Drag sideways to glide between notes, and up or down to brighten or darken the tone. Several fingers at once play a chord.

The home row plays the whole scale, left to right, low to high, in the same order as the columns you can see: ASDFGHJKL;. Every key is printed on the column it plays, and you can hold as many together as you like.

Low, Mid and High shift the whole scale. ↑ and ↓ do the same from the keyboard, and anything already sounding slides with it.

Pad, Bell, Pluck and Bowed change how a note behaves rather than only how it sounds: a bell rings and fades while you hold it, a bowed note swells in slowly. 1 to4 switch between them. Each loop layer keeps the voice you recorded it with, so you can build a bowed bed and put a bell line over the top.

Hold Shift and a single press sounds a triad built from the scale instead of one note. It works with the pointer and the keyboard, and the looper records it, so you can lay down a chord bed and play a melody over it.

Letting go of a note does not end it. It drops to a quiet ring and hangs on the sky for about seven seconds, and any two stars close enough together join with a faint line, so a phrase leaves a chord in the air and a shape behind it. On by default. Switch them off with the Stars button and notes stop the moment you let go.

Press Record and play a phrase, then press Close loop. It plays back underneath you and you can keep stacking parts on top with Overdub. Replayed notes are drawn dimmer than the ones you are playing, so the loop and your hands never look the same. Clear wipes it.

? opens and closes this panel. Esc closes it.