Audio and MIDI Settings

Orbiter's settings dialog lets you configure audio devices, MIDI routing, and tempo synchronization. Open it by tapping the settings icon (three-slider icon) in the top-left corner of the Orbit view or in the instrument toolbar.

Audio Tab

The Audio tab controls your audio device configuration.

• Output — select which audio output device to use (or leave as System Default)
• Input — select an audio input device for mic excitation features
• Latency — choose a buffer size (32–2048 samples). Lower values reduce latency but increase CPU load. Changing the buffer size fades audio out, reinitializes the audio engine, and fades back in to avoid clicks
• Visualization — choose High fidelity (default) for the full orbit view with audio-reactive flow lines, glow, and vibration overlays, or Low fidelity for a simpler render that drops those effects to reduce CPU and battery use. The orbit view, planets, and pad layouts remain visible in both modes — Low fidelity only removes the audio-reactive flow effects

Audio settings are persisted across app launches.

MIDI Tab

The MIDI tab controls MIDI input and output routing.

Output Port

Select which MIDI output port to send notes and clock to. On macOS and Linux, you can also enable a Virtual Port that other apps can connect to without needing a physical MIDI interface.

Input Ports

Toggle one or more MIDI input ports to receive notes from external controllers. Incoming MIDI notes are routed to instruments by channel:

MPE Expression

With an MPE-capable controller, each note responds independently to:

• Pitch bend — bends the individual note up or down rather than the whole keyboard.
• Channel pressure (aftertouch) — modulates the note's amplitude as you press harder.
• Timbre / slide (CC 74) — sweeps the per-note brightness filter, so leaning forward on a pad opens the tone up without affecting other notes.

MPE works on every instrument; on the handpan and the bowl the per-note filter and amplitude shaping are especially audible because each note is its own voice with its own ringing modes.

A real handpan obviously can't pitch-bend a note that's already ringing, and a real singing bowl doesn't have an aftertouch axis. Orbiter is a physical-model-inspired instrument rather than a strict recreation, so MPE expression is wired up everywhere the model has a sensible parameter to drive — even when the equivalent gesture wouldn't make sense on the original acoustic object.

The clips below are rendered offline by scripts/render-mpe-demos.sh, which drives orbiter-render --mpe-demo all and converts the output to MP3 for shipping. Each clip animates one MPE gesture on a single held note.

Per-Instrument Output

Each instrument can be independently enabled or disabled for MIDI output, and assigned to a specific MIDI channel (1–16):

• Handpan — melodic notes on configurable channel (default: ch 1)
• Gong — drum-kit style with configurable note numbers for small, mid, and large gong instances (default: ch 2)
• Bowl — melodic notes on configurable channel (default: ch 3)

Send Taps as MIDI

When enabled, tapping instrument pads in the UI sends MIDI Note On/Off messages to the selected output. This lets you use Orbiter as a MIDI controller. Sequencer-generated notes are always sent to MIDI output regardless of this setting.

Tempo Sync

Orbiter supports three tempo synchronization modes:

• Internal — free-running clock at the selected BPM. Optionally sends MIDI clock (24 ppqn) and transport messages to other devices
• MIDI Clock — follows incoming MIDI clock from an external source. BPM is derived from tick intervals
• Ableton Link — syncs tempo and phase with other Link-enabled apps on the local network

MIDI and sync settings are persisted across app launches.