Cagire/docs/welcome.md

Welcome to Cagire

Cagire is a terminal-based step sequencer for live music. Each step in a pattern contains a Forth script that controls sound synthesis and effects.

Pages

Navigate between pages with Ctrl+Left/Right:

• Sequencer: Edit patterns, write Forth scripts, manage playback slots
• Patterns: Browse and select across 16 banks x 16 patterns
• Engine: Audio device selection, sample loading, CPU and voice monitoring
• Options: Application settings
• Dict: Forth word reference, organized by category
• Help: Documentation (you are here)

Quick Start

1. Press Space to start the transport
2. Use arrow keys to navigate steps
3. Press Tab to focus the editor
4. Write a Forth script (e.g. /sound/sine)
5. Press Ctrl+E to compile
6. Press Tab to return to the sequencer
7. Press Enter to activate the step
8. Press g to queue the pattern to a slot

Example Script

A step that plays a filtered saw with reverb:

"saw" s c4 note 0.5 dur 0.3 decay
  0.6 gain 2000 lpf 0.4 lpq
  0.3 verb 2.0 verbdecay .

A rhythmic pattern using subdivisions and probability:

"kick" s 0.8 gain .
div
  "hat" s < 0.3 0.5 0.7 > gain . .
~
{ "snare" s 0.6 gain . } often

Concepts

Banks and Patterns: 16 banks of 16 patterns each. Each pattern has up to 32 steps with configurable length and speed.

Slots: 8 concurrent playback slots. Queue patterns into slots with g. Slot changes are quantized to bar boundaries.

Ableton Link: Cagire syncs tempo and phase with other Link-enabled applications on your network.

Forth: The scripting language used in each step. Open the Dict page to browse all available words.