Latest revision as of 08:05, 18 September 2026

Tonic Pad

Tonic Pad is a quick button that plays an ambient drone matched to the key of the song you're viewing. There's no separate pad library screen — everything, from turning the pad on to picking a sound and shaping it, happens directly on the quick button itself.

Off — tap to start the pad; it plays retuned to the current song's key.
On — the pad is currently playing; tap again to stop it.
Disabled — no pad sound is available for this song (this shouldn't normally happen, since a built-in pad is always available as the default).

While a setlist is running, the pad automatically crossfades to match each new song's key, and keeps playing uninterrupted across songs that share the same key.

Enabling the quick button

Open Settings and go to Quick Buttons.
Add Tonic Pad to your quick button bar.

Tonic Pad can also be triggered remotely, for example from a Bluetooth pedal or MIDI controller. It isn't available when running JustChords as an Audio Unit (AUv3) plug-in.

Picking a sound and shaping it

Tap and hold the Tonic Pad quick button. Instead of opening a separate screen, the button expands in place into a small panel:

Sound picker: At the top, a menu lists the available pad sounds — the built-in JC Warm Pad (the default) and JC Organ Pad, plus any sounds you've imported yourself. Picking one sets the pad sound for this song specifically, overriding the default. If a pad is already playing, it crossfades into the newly picked sound right away.

Live sound controls: Volume, Crossfade (fade length between songs/loops), Low Pass, High Pass and Pan. These apply instantly — even while the pad is playing — and are saved as your general Tonic Pad settings, used for every song rather than per song.

Tap anywhere outside the panel, or tap the button again, to collapse it back to the normal quick button.

Importing your own pad sounds

Built-in pads cover the basics, but you can bring your own recordings (for example a commercial pack like Churchfront Pads, or your own ambient drones):

Tap and hold the Tonic Pad quick button, then choose Manage from the sound picker menu.
Tap the + button.
Choose an audio file from Files (mp3 and most other common audio formats are supported).
JustChords tries to detect the name and key from the filename automatically.
Review and adjust the name or key if needed, then tap Save.

From the same Manage screen you can also rename or delete pads you've imported (swipe or use the context menu). Built-in pads can't be edited or deleted.

How pitch matching works

By default, Tonic Pad uses the built-in JC Warm Pad and retunes it in real time to match the song's key — including any transposition or capo you've applied — up to a tritone (6 semitones) in either direction.
If you'd rather use a specific pad for a song regardless of key, pick it from the sound picker as described above; JustChords will retune that pad the same way.
Because of this real-time retuning, a single pad recording can back a song in any key. Importing recordings closer to a song's actual key still gives the cleanest sound, since less pitch-shifting means less audible artifacting — but it's not required.

Looking ahead

Tonic Pad is intentionally kept simple today — one drone per song. It's built on top of a general-purpose pad architecture designed to grow beyond that, for example playing pads that follow a song's chord progression rather than just its tonic.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-= Pad Library =
+= Tonic Pad =
-The Pad Library is where you store the ambient audio pads used by JustChords. It's a general-purpose collection of looping audio tracks tagged by musical key — currently used to drive the Tonic Pad, but built to support other pad-based playback modes in the future.
+Tonic Pad is a quick button that plays an ambient drone matched to the key of the song you're viewing. There's no separate pad library screen — everything, from turning the pad on to picking a sound and shaping it, happens directly on the quick button itself.
-JustChords doesn't ship with any built-in pads. You bring your own recordings (for example a commercial pack like Churchfront Pads, or your own ambient drones) and import them into the library.
+* '''Off''' — tap to start the pad; it plays retuned to the current song's key.
+* '''On''' — the pad is currently playing; tap again to stop it.
+* '''Disabled''' — no pad sound is available for this song (this shouldn't normally happen, since a built-in pad is always available as the default).
-== Importing pad tracks ==
+While a setlist is running, the pad automatically crossfades to match each new song's key, and keeps playing uninterrupted across songs that share the same key.
-# Open '''Tools''' in the Library sidebar and select '''Pad Library'''.
+== Enabling the quick button ==
-# Tap the '''+''' button.
-# Choose one or more audio files (mp3) from Files.
-# JustChords tries to detect the '''name''' and '''key''' from each filename automatically.
-# Review and adjust the name or key if needed, then tap '''Done'''.
-== Managing your pads ==
+# Open '''Settings''' and go to '''Quick Buttons'''.
+# Add '''Tonic Pad''' to your quick button bar.
-* Search the library by name.
+Tonic Pad can also be triggered remotely, for example from a Bluetooth pedal or MIDI controller. It isn't available when running JustChords as an Audio Unit (AUv3) plug-in.
-* Tap a pad to edit its name or key.
-* Duplicate a pad to create a variation.
-* Delete a pad to remove it from the library and delete its audio file.
-= Tonic Pad =
+== Picking a sound and shaping it ==
-Tonic Pad is a quick button that plays an ambient drone matched to the key of the song you're viewing.
+'''Tap and hold''' the Tonic Pad quick button. Instead of opening a separate screen, the button expands in place into a small panel:
-* '''Ready''' — a pad matching the song's key exists in your library.
+; Sound picker
-* '''Active''' — the pad is currently playing.
+: At the top, a menu lists the available pad sounds — the built-in '''JC Warm Pad''' (the default) and '''JC Organ Pad''', plus any sounds you've imported yourself. Picking one sets the pad sound '''for this song specifically''', overriding the default. If a pad is already playing, it crossfades into the newly picked sound right away.
-* '''Inactive''' — no pad in your library matches the song's key.
-Tap the button to start or stop the pad. While a setlist is running, the pad automatically crossfades to match each new song's key, and keeps playing uninterrupted across songs that share the same key.
+; Live sound controls
+: '''Volume''', '''Crossfade''' (fade length between songs/loops), '''Low Pass''', '''High Pass''' and '''Pan'''. These apply instantly — even while the pad is playing — and are saved as your general Tonic Pad settings, used for every song rather than per song.
-== Enabling the quick button ==
+Tap anywhere outside the panel, or tap the button again, to collapse it back to the normal quick button.
-# Open '''Settings''' and go to '''Quick Buttons'''.
+== Importing your own pad sounds ==
-# Add '''Tonic Pad''' to your quick button bar.
-Tonic Pad can also be triggered remotely, for example from a Bluetooth pedal or MIDI controller.
+Built-in pads cover the basics, but you can bring your own recordings (for example a commercial pack like Churchfront Pads, or your own ambient drones):
-= Choosing a pad for a song =
+# Tap and hold the Tonic Pad quick button, then choose '''Manage''' from the sound picker menu.
+# Tap the '''+''' button.
-By default, JustChords picks the pad whose key matches the song — including any transposition or capo you've applied. If you'd rather use a specific pad regardless of key, you can set it per song.
+# Choose an audio file from Files (mp3 and most other common audio formats are supported).
+# JustChords tries to detect the '''name''' and '''key''' from the filename automatically.
+# Review and adjust the name or key if needed, then tap '''Save'''.
-# Open the song in the '''Song Editor'''.
+From the same '''Manage''' screen you can also rename or delete pads you've imported (swipe or use the context menu). Built-in pads can't be edited or deleted.
-# Go to '''Details'''.
-# Under '''Tonic Pad''', pick a pad from your library, or leave it on '''Default''' to auto-match by key.
-= How pad matching works =
+== How pitch matching works ==
-* Pads are matched to a song by '''key''', using the song's key after transposition.
+* By default, Tonic Pad uses the built-in '''JC Warm Pad''' and retunes it in real time to match the song's key — including any transposition or capo you've applied — up to a tritone (6 semitones) in either direction.
-* Matching is a straight lookup — JustChords does not pitch-shift audio, so getting key-matched pads across your whole setlist means importing one recording per key.
+* If you'd rather use a specific pad for a song regardless of key, pick it from the sound picker as described above; JustChords will retune that pad the same way.
-* If no pad matches a song's key and no pad is manually chosen, Tonic Pad shows as inactive.
+* Because of this real-time retuning, a single pad recording can back a song in any key. Importing recordings closer to a song's actual key still gives the cleanest sound, since less pitch-shifting means less audible artifacting — but it's not required.
-= Looking ahead =
+== Looking ahead ==
-The Pad Library is intentionally kept independent of the Tonic Pad button. It's designed to grow beyond a single static drone per song — for example, playing pads that follow a song's chord progression rather than just its tonic.
+Tonic Pad is intentionally kept simple today — one drone per song. It's built on top of a general-purpose pad architecture designed to grow beyond that, for example playing pads that follow a song's chord progression rather than just its tonic.