Controls & Moves

labeled photo of Picotracker keymapping

The keyboard layout resembles a typical console game controller (controller button names in brackets):

ARROW keys	NAV (RT)	ALT (LT)	ENTER (A)	EDIT (B)	PLAY (Start)

The NAV and ALT keys are modifier keys for the ENTER, EDIT and ARROW keys. They are designed to modify the opposite keys to their location, so ALT will modify the ARROW keys and NAV will modify ENTER and EDIT ( though there are exceptions).

On tracker screens where PLAY controls playback, holding PLAY for about one second triggers a panic stop. This immediately stops the sequencer and cuts any currently sounding audio, which is useful if a note, effect tail, or external MIDI sound gets stuck. A short press of PLAY still performs the normal start/stop or queue action when you release the key.

Screens become more granular as you move from left to right.

Navigating to the next right screen is only possible if the current cursor position is on a field with a filled value, eg. to move to the chain screen from the Song screen you need to have a chain number on the cursors current position and not an empty position which are denoted with 2 dashes (--).

Song View

No Modifier

Function	Key Combination	Image
Move cursor on screen	ARROW keys
Start/stop playback	PLAY
Panic stop sounding audio	hold PLAY
Enter last used value or start with 0	ENTER

NAV Modifier

Function	Key Combination	Image
Switch to Project view	NAV + UP
Switch to Mixer view	NAV + DOWN
Switch to Chain view (if current position has a chain)	NAV + RIGHT
Stop playback of selected chain, once it finished	NAV + PLAY
Solo selected track	NAV + ENTER
Mute selected track	NAV + EDIT
Reset all muted & solo-ed tracks	NAV + ALT

Solo & Mute

When NAV is released first, the (solo / mute) mode will be kept active (toggled). Pressing the same key combination but releasing NAV first will reset the (solo / mute) mode of the currently selected track.

To reset all muted and soloed tracks, press NAV + ALT.

ALT Modifier

Function	Key Combination	Image
Jump up/down to next populated row after a blank row	ALT + (UP / DOWN)
Nudge tempo down/up	ALT + (LEFT / RIGHT)
Start/stop song, or queue current row for playback in Live mode	ALT + PLAY
Reset all muted & soloed tracks	ALT + NAV
Cut the current cursor position if filled, paste otherwise	ALT + ENTER
Clone: Overwrite current highlighted Item with a copy of itself using the next unused Item available.	ALT + (EDIT, ENTER)
Start selection	ALT + EDIT
Selection with current row selected	ALT + EDIT + EDIT
Selection with current screen selected	ALT + EDIT + EDIT + EDIT

Use Selection

Once a selection is started you can do a few more things:

Description	Key Combination	Image
Change selection	ARROWS
Increase selection to full row / screen	ALT + EDIT
Copy selection to clipboard	EDIT
Cut selection to clipboard	ALT + ENTER
Resample selection	ENTER + PLAY

EDIT Modifier

Function	Key Combination	Image
Cuts the current Highlighted Item.	EDIT + ENTER
Start selection	EDIT + ALT
Page up/down in Song Screen.	EDIT + (UP / DOWN)
Switch between Song and Live Mode	EDIT + (LEFT / RIGHT)
Mute selected track	EDIT + NAV
Sample Recording, only accessible when sequencer is stopped	EDIT + PLAY

ENTER Key Combinations

Function	Key Combination	Image
Insert if cursor position is empty	ENTER
Insert next unused chain	ENTER, ENTER
Cut the current cursor position if filled, paste otherwise	ENTER + ALT
Change chain at cursor position by 0x10	ENTER + (UP / DOWN)
Change chain at cursor position by 0x01	ENTER + (RIGHT / LEFT)
Solo selected track	ENTER + NAV