MIDI Clips
Tabbal sequences MIDI clips rather than individual notes. Each clip is a short MIDI file containing one or more notes — a rhythmic figure that plays as a unit when a cell triggers.
Factory Clips
17 factory clips are bundled with the plugin:
| Clip | Description |
|---|---|
| One through Five | N-stroke rolls (1 to 5 hits) |
| Short | A single short hit |
| Long Short | Long note followed by short |
| Short Long | Short note followed by long |
| Long Long Short Short | Two longs followed by two shorts |
| Long Short Short | Long followed by two shorts |
| Short Short Long | Two shorts followed by long |
| Short Short Long Long | Two shorts followed by two longs |
| Flam | Grace note followed by main hit |
| Triplet | Three evenly-spaced hits |
| Sextuplet | Six evenly-spaced hits |
| Orn 2LR | Two-note ornament, left-right hands |
| Orn 6LRLLRL | Six-note ornament with L/R hand pattern |
Factory clips cannot be deleted or modified. Left/right hand patterns are encoded as different MIDI notes with individual velocities.
Importing User Clips
You can import your own MIDI clips in two ways:
- Drag and drop — drag
.midor.midifiles from your file browser (Finder, Explorer) onto the row area below the grid. Each file creates a new row with the imported clip assigned - Imported clips appear in the User section of the clip dropdown on all rows
User clips are stored on disk and persist across sessions (see Data & Preferences).
Deleting User Clips
In the clip dropdown, user clips show a trash icon. Click it to delete the clip file. Any rows or steps referencing the deleted clip are reassigned to the default factory clip.
Clip Metadata
Each MIDI clip can have an optional .json sidecar file (same name as the .mid) that specifies:
- Grid subdivisions — how many grid steps the clip spans; inferred automatically from note grouping if not specified
- Swing subdivisions per beat — how the clip interacts with the swing control
Clip Scale & Nudge
Every row has a default clip scale (duration multiplier) and nudge (timing offset). Individual steps can override these values.
Clip Scale
Controls how long the clip takes to play, relative to the grid column duration:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| ÷4 | Clip plays at quarter speed (4× longer) |
| ÷2 | Clip plays at half speed (2× longer) |
| ×1 | Clip plays at normal speed (default) |
| ×2 | Clip plays at double speed (half duration) |
| ×4 | Clip plays at quadruple speed (quarter duration) |
Adjust with the left/right stepper buttons labeled “CLIP SCALE” (row level) or “STEP SCALE” (step level).
When a step uses a finer scale than the row (e.g. step at ÷2 on a ×1 row), the row’s grid widens so that the sub-divisions are visible and clickable.
Nudge
Shifts the trigger point forward or backward in time. The range is ±21 steps, where each step is a fraction of the bar. The display shows a signed percentage (e.g. “+0.3%”, “−5.7%”) indicating how far the trigger point is shifted from its grid position.
Nudge values cover both binary and triplet subdivisions, so you can achieve swing-like offsets, flam timing, and other micro-timing adjustments.
- Row Nudge — shifts all cells on the row. Visually, the entire row translates horizontally
- Step Nudge — shifts a single cell on top of the row nudge. Only the cell’s inner visual moves
Adjust with the left/right stepper buttons labeled “ROW NUDGE” or “STEP NUDGE”.