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Getting Started with Gravity Engine

Gravity Engine is a MIDI-only plugin. It does not make sound on its own. Place it before a virtual instrument in your DAW so Gravity Engine's MIDI output can play that instrument.

If you don't already have a virtual instrument, a good starter setup is Decent Sampler with this Steinway Grand from Pianobook .

If you're new to virtual instruments in a DAW, learn that signal flow first, then come back to Gravity Engine.

In a typical MIDI recording, harmony and performance are fused together. Gravity Engine separates the harmonic progression from the note stream (rhythm/pattern), so each can be played or edited independently and then recombined.

1. Basic Setup

  1. Install Gravity Engine.
  2. Insert Gravity Engine before a virtual instrument in your MIDI chain.

2. Using MIDI from the Gravity Engine Browser

  1. Select a stream. You should hear a repeating note pattern.
  2. Open Guide Map View (second icon from the top-right). Hover near the corner of a chord token. The stream will be transformed by the selected guide control chord.
  3. Return to Browser View, select a guide progression, and press play in your DAW. Gravity Engine now changes guide control chords automatically from that progression.
  4. Choose a different Guide Map in the browser to change the project's harmonic palette (key/scale options).

When a guide progression is assigned in the browser, Gravity Engine stops listening for incoming guide MIDI from the DAW on MIDI channel 1.

When a stream is assigned in the browser, Gravity Engine stops listening for incoming stream MIDI from the DAW on MIDI channels 5-16.

3. Using MIDI from Your DAW to Drive Gravity Engine

  1. Cmd + click assigned stream/progression items in the browser to unassign them.
  2. With no stream or guide progression assigned, Gravity Engine listens to incoming DAW MIDI.
  3. Create a new MIDI track in your DAW and route its MIDI output to channel 5 on the track that contains Gravity Engine + your instrument.
  4. Drag a stream from the Gravity Engine browser into your DAW stream track.
  5. Drag a guide progression into the same track where Gravity Engine + instrument are inserted.
  6. Confirm nothing is assigned in the Gravity Engine browser.
  7. Press play.

Now the stream notes on channel 5 are transformed by the guide progression on channel 1.

4. Important: Guide Progression Formats

Gravity Engine guide progressions come in two formats:

  • Field Select: single-note progression (e.g., play C, Gravity Engine generates the C control chord).
  • Field Reshape: 3- or 4-note control chords.

Match the format to the Gesture Mode setting:

  • If channel 1 contains single notes, choose Field Select mode.
  • If channel 1 contains block chords, choose Field Reshape mode.

5. StreamStacks and Stream Switching

Gravity Engine uses MIDI channels 5-16 as stream slots (S5 to S16).

When using MIDI from your DAW, you can send different stream variations by creating multiple tracks (or clips) routed to the Gravity Engine plugin on channels 5-16.

The active stream (the one you hear and the one being transformed by guide chords) is set by the Stream knob in Play View.

MIDI channel 2 is used for stream control.

  • Note selects stream: C4 selects S5, C#4 selects S6, D4 selects S7, and so on up to B4 = S16.
  • Velocity also controls stream density.

This lets you record a stream-control track and switch streams over time to arrange verse, chorus, and bridge sections, or perform creative back-and-forth switching live.

If you are using streams from the Gravity Engine browser, it works similarly: click a stream to assign it to the next slot. You will see an S5 badge, then S6, and so on. Assigned streams appear in Current Assignments. To unassign a stream, hold Cmd and click it.

If you are not using a MIDI keyboard/controller on channel 2, open Stream Map from Current Assignments (shown when at least two streams are assigned) and switch the active stream with your mouse or trackpad.

Back to Gravity Engine docs.