Table of Contents

Everything you need to play chords with a joystick — from first note to deep modulation.

Quick Start

Installation

Your First Chord

Interface Overview

Panel Map

The interface is divided into functional zones. Understanding the layout makes navigation intuitive.

Full interface at default size — all panels visible

Window Modes

Arcade Chord Control has three window sizes, accessible from the header bar buttons or via gamepad.

In Mini or Maxi mode, a small ↩ return button appears in the top-right corner of the pad. Click it to return to Full view. Window mode is never saved between sessions — the plugin always opens in Full.

Joystick Pad

The joystick pad is the core performance surface. Mouse position maps directly to pitch — move it like a physical joystick to play chords in real time.

Axes & Voice Mapping

Each position on the pad simultaneously determines the pitch of all four voices. The two axes control independent voice pairs:

All four pitches are scale-quantised — they always land on a note in the active scale. The quantiser searches downward when a position falls between notes (ties go down).

Pitch Axis Crosshair

Two subtle lines extend from the cursor to the pad edges, showing the exact quantised pitch for each axis in real time:

• Horizontal line → Root and Third note names (Y-axis)
• Vertical line → Fifth and Tension note names (X-axis)

Right-click the joystick pad to toggle the crosshair on/off. The setting is saved in your DAW preset.

Pitch axis crosshair — horizontal and vertical lines show quantised note names in real time

Sample & Hold

Pitch is locked at the moment of trigger. Moving the joystick after triggering a note does not bend the pitch — the position is sampled once on note-on. This allows stable chords while you reposition for the next one.

Visual Environment

The pad background is a living space scene that responds to joystick movement:

• Starfield — three parallax depth layers drift in a unified heading driven by joystick input. Stars twinkle ±10% and fade in on spawn.
• Warp effect — when INV mode is active, stars streak toward the cursor as a warp tunnel.
• Nebula blobs — 2–3 soft glowing shapes that shift slowly over time.
• Background hue drift — the space photo behind the scene rotates ±8° in hue over 120 seconds.
• Shooting star — appears approximately every 20 seconds.
• Spring-damper cursor — the cyan dot follows the mouse with a spring feel, suppressed during looper playback to avoid oscillation.

Voices & MIDI Routing

The Four Voices

Arcade Chord Control outputs four independent MIDI voices. Each has a name, a role in the chord, and its own trigger source:

MIDI channels are configurable per voice via voiceCh0–voiceCh3 (1–16). Route each voice to a different instrument, or all four to the same channel for a traditional polyphonic setup.

TouchPlates & Trigger Sources

Each voice has its own TouchPlate button below the pad. You can trigger any combination of voices independently. The trigger source per voice is set via triggerSource0–triggerSource3:

Trigger Selection (left) sets the source per voice; Random Params (right) controls density, probability, and BPM

Random Trigger Engine

When a voice is set to Random mode, its trigger timing is determined by:

• randomDensity — hits per bar (1–8)
• randomSubdiv0–3 — smallest subdivision per voice (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32)
• randomSyncMode — FREE (Poisson distribution, independent tempo), INT (internal BPM grid), or DAW (locked to DAW transport)
• randomFreeTempo — 30–240 BPM, used in FREE and INT modes

Filter / CC Output

A dedicated filter CC channel sends continuous controller messages on a configurable MIDI channel (filterMidiCh, default 1). The left joystick axes (gamepad) or the X/Y attenuation knobs send to up to 18 named CC destinations or any custom CC (0–127). See Section 10 for the full CC list.

Modulation panel — CC destination dropdowns, attenuation knobs, MOD FIX, and SEMITONE range per axis

Scale & Key

The Scale system is the harmonic foundation. It determines which notes the joystick lands on and what chord names are displayed.

Global Transpose

The globalTranspose parameter (0–11) sets the key. It displays as a note name (C, C#, D … B). All voices and the scale quantiser shift together — you never have to retune individual voices to change key.

Scale Presets

Twenty built-in scale patterns cover most harmonic contexts:

Quantizer — active scale notes lit green on the keyboard, with Interval and Octave offset knobs per voice below

Custom Scale Builder

Enable useCustomScale to build your own scale from scratch. Twelve toggle buttons (scaleNote0–11) represent the twelve semitones of the octave. Enable any combination — Arcade Chord Control quantises all voices to only the active notes.

Interval Offsets

Beyond the scale, each voice has a semitone offset applied on top of the quantised pitch:

Use these to set the default voicing. For a standard major 7th, set: Third = 4, Fifth = 7, Tension = 11. For a dominant 7th, set Tension = 10.

Octave Offsets

Each voice also has an independent octave shift (rootOctave, thirdOctave, fifthOctave, tensionOctave, range 0–11 mapped to octave shifts). Use these to spread voices across registers — e.g. Root in octave 3, Tension in octave 5 — for open voicings that breathe.

Smart Chord Display

The chord name shown below the pad is computed in real time from the active pitches. The algorithm:

1. Identifies the root from the lowest active voice
2. Stacks intervals root-up to determine chord quality
3. Infers the third from the active scale when Voice 2 is not triggered
4. Recognises: major, minor, dominant 7th, major 7th, minor 7th, diminished, augmented, sus2, sus4, add9, 6, major 6, and common extensions

The display holds the last chord name during silence — so you always see the last chord you played, even when no notes are sounding.

Chord Looper

The built-in looper records your MIDI performance and plays it back in a seamless loop — locked to the DAW transport or free-running.

Recording & Playback

The Looper panel has four record lanes and transport controls:

Looper panel — PLAY, REC, RST, DEL transport buttons; REC GATES and REC JOY lane toggles; Time Sig and Bars sliders

Loop Length & Subdivisions

Loop length is defined by two parameters working together:

• looperLength — number of bars (1–16)
• looperSubdiv — time signature: 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8

A 4-bar loop in 4/4 is 16 beats. A 2-bar loop in 7/8 is 14 eighth-note beats. The looper quantises its length to the nearest bar boundary when DAW sync is active.

DAW Sync

When DAW sync is engaged (SYNC button in the Looper panel), the looper:

• Starts recording at the next bar 1
• Locks loop length to an integer number of bars
• Stops playback when the DAW transport stops
• Keeps a partial loop if the transport stops mid-record (does not discard)

LFO + Looper Interaction

The LFO REC function (see Section 08) can capture a joystick movement curve and hand it to the looper's JOY lane. The two systems share timing: an LFO captured at "one loop cycle" length will loop perfectly in sync with the GATES or note lane.

Arpeggiator

The arpeggiator steps through the four chord voices in sequence, turning the held chord into a melodic pattern. The 8-step grid gives you rhythmic control over every beat of the pattern.

Enable & Basic Controls

Press ARP ON to enable the arpeggiator. While ARP is active, holding a chord (by clicking the pad or holding a TouchPlate) causes the four voices to fire in sequence rather than simultaneously.

8-Step Pattern Grid

The grid shows 8 cells arranged in 2 rows × 4 columns. Each cell represents one step. Click a cell to cycle through its three states:

Steps beyond the active LEN value are shown at 40% alpha — they are skipped during playback but retain their state for when LEN is increased again.

Arpeggiator — 8-step grid (all ON here), with Rate, Order, and Length controls below

RND SYNC

Controls how the arpeggiator's timing clock source relates to the DAW:

• FREE — Poisson distribution randomisation, runs independently of DAW tempo
• INT — Internal BPM grid, uses randomFreeTempo as the clock source
• DAW — Locked to DAW transport BPM and bar grid

Gamepad Arpeggiator Control

With a gamepad connected and Option mode set to ARP (mode 1), the D-pad controls arpeggiator parameters:

• D-pad Up/Down — cycle through arp Order presets
• D-pad Left/Right — change arp Rate subdivision

LFO Engine

Two independent LFOs (X and Y) modulate any CC destination at audio-rate precision. Each LFO has its own shape, rate, phase, level, and distribution — plus cross-modulation between them via the Sister system.

LFO Controls

LFO X (left) with SYNC active, LFO Y (right) with ARM engaged — shape, CC dest, sister, rate, phase, level, dist sliders, and oscilloscope at bottom

CC Destinations

Both LFOs share the same destination list. The first 7 options are modulation targets within Arcade Chord Control itself. Options 8–25 are standard MIDI CCs sent directly to the filter MIDI channel.

Sister Cross-Modulation

Each LFO has a Sister target that routes its output to modulate a parameter of the other LFO:

• LFO-X Sister → LFO-Y Freq / Phase / Level
• LFO-Y Sister → LFO-X Freq / Phase / Level

An inline Sister attenuation slider (bipolar, −1 to +1) scales the cross-mod depth. Negative values invert the modulation direction. When Sister is set to "None", the slider is hidden and the combo expands to full width.

REC — Joystick Capture

The REC button captures live joystick movement into the LFO:

1. With the looper running and LFO armed, press REC
2. Arcade Chord Control records exactly one full loop cycle from the press point
3. The captured movement curve becomes the LFO waveform and loops in sync
4. If the DAW transport stops mid-capture, the partial capture is kept

Press CLR to delete the captured curve and revert to the oscillator waveform.

Gamepad Control

Arcade Chord Control has native support for PlayStation-style controllers via SDL2. Connect your controller before opening the plugin — it is detected automatically at 60 Hz.

Button Map

Option Mode Cycle

The OPTION button on the controller cycles through five modes. The current mode is shown in the plugin header bar:

Entering mode 3 shrinks the window to Mini (pad-only, current scale). Entering mode 4 expands to Maxi (pad fills display). Cycling back to mode 0 returns to Full view.

Left Stick Deadzone

The left stick has a configurable deadzone to prevent drift when the stick is at rest. The default deadzone is suitable for DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers. If your controller drifts at rest, this is a hardware issue — the deadzone absorbs small offsets up to ~8% of the axis range.

Reference

Key APVTS Parameters

All parameters below are saved with DAW presets and project files.

Filter CC Routing Index

When filterXMode or filterYMode is set to 7 or above, the value maps to these CC numbers:

Indices 0–6 are internal LFO targets (see Section 08). Custom CC mode allows any value 0–127 outside this table.

Troubleshooting

Support

For support, feature requests, or bug reports:

• Email: contact@dimea.io
• Website: dimeaarcade.com

Version History

Arcade Chord Control is developed by Dimea Arcade.
JUCE framework © Raw Material Software. SDL2 © Sam Lantinga. All rights reserved.
Manual v1.9 · 2026