SpaceAge Feature Outline

Updated: 2026-07-30
Purpose: concise product review and marketing reference, organized from the bird's-eye view to the worm's-eye view.

This is an inventory of the current implementation. Features marked proof pending exist in the product but still require human, hardware, or release-candidate validation before they should become unconditional marketing claims.

1. SpaceAge At A Glance

SpaceAge by Sample Squad is a composition-centered microDAW for turning musical fragments into arranged songs without burying the musician in a conventional full-scale DAW.

It combines:

MPC-style drum and sample creation.
Piano Roll composition and MIDI recording.
A theory-aware Chord Engine and arpeggiator.
A multi-lane Arrangement Canvas.
Lane-owned internal instruments and Mixer routing.
Sound design, sampling, mixing, effects, automation, project storage, and rendering.

The guiding workflow is: create a sound, write a pattern, develop harmony and melody, arrange the song, mix it, save it, and render it.

2. Core Musical Model

Drum Pads provide the dedicated 64-pad, four-bank percussion workflow.
Instrument Lanes own independent melodic or harmonic instruments, presets, MIDI channels, and Mixer destinations.
Patterns and Clips hold reusable musical material.
Arrangement Lanes place that material across the song timeline.
Section Markers describe song form without destructively controlling the music beneath them.
Automation Lanes store time-varying MIDI and performance data.
Mixer Channels own fader, pan, EQ, shared-effect sends, and channel processing.
Instrument patches own sound-generation parameters, not Mixer state.

3. Main Workspaces

Pads

64 velocity-sensitive Pads in four banks.
Sample loading, bulk loading, preview, naming, clear, copy, paste, and per-Pad editing.
Layered sample and one-shot playback.
Drum-oriented internal synthesis and Pad-level performance controls.
Pad choke, retrigger, blend, tuning, envelope, filtering, and output behavior.

Sequencers

One-button access to Drum Composer and Piano Roll.
Pattern selection, playback, transport, loop, measure, and playhead feedback.
MIDI import/export tasks and recording tools.
Shared note-performance concepts presented through instrument-appropriate editors.

Arranger

Multi-lane song construction with independent Drum and Instrument lanes.
Lane selection, naming, instrument assignment, MIDI arming, mute, solo, and Mixer destination reporting.
Clip add, move, lift-drag, lasso, multi-select, copy/paste, clone, variant, split, resize, fuse, and delete workflows.
Playhead insertion, snapping, horizontal navigation, zoom, Fit, and whole-song Overview.
Collapsible lanes and compact whole-song viewing.
Loop, Playhead, Measure, Section, and Automation lanes.
Section-form presets, movable/resizable Section Markers, clip notes, and lane-aware visual clip contents.
Group movement of clips and Section Markers.

Mixer

Banked access to 64 Mixer channels plus a Master channel.
Channel gain, pan, mute, solo, output routing, metering, and persistent routing state.
Lane-to-Mixer assignments that remain independent from Instrument source identity.
Shared-effect sends and tempo-aware delay choices.
Channel-strip compression, saturation, EQ, filtering, and stereo controls.
Master volume, compression, linked-stereo brickwall limiting, Panic, and Reset Audio.

Effects

Shared send/return rack rather than duplicated effects inside every Instrument patch.
Halostar shimmer reverb.
Reverb stereo diffusion reverb.
EchoRay character delay with feedback, filtering, modulation, stereo, safety, and tempo synchronization.
Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, and Octave processing.
Per-channel send control from the Mixer path.

Library

Project and sound storage operations.
Instrument and Pad preset access.
Factory Starting Points and content access.
Animated starfield background for visual atmosphere during playback and project work.

Settings And Diagnostics

Audio, transport, loop, snapping, Drum Composer, tooltip, and host-sync preferences.
MIDI Hardware, MIDI Health, routing, recording, proof, and troubleshooting surfaces.
Hardware Passport and protected hardware-operation workflow.

4. Composition And Editing Tools

Drum Composer

Four Pad banks and paged step editing.
Pattern lengths through the classic drum-machine surface.
Left-click note creation/audition and right-click deletion conventions.
Step velocity, probability, ratchets, accent, pitch lock, and filter lock.
Step selection for detailed parameter editing.
Pattern clearing with designed confirmation and Undo support.
Copy-first-bank workflow for extending and varying rhythmic ideas.
Compact mode for wider pattern visibility.

Piano Roll

Long-form melodic editing beyond the 64-step Drum Composer surface.
Note creation with immediate audition, move, left/right resize, lasso selection, group movement, cloning, and right-drag erase painting.
Velocity-bar drawing and selected-note velocity editing.
Accent, probability, ratchet, pitch-lock, and filter-lock note properties.
Ghost Notes from other lanes, including indicators showing which lanes contain relevant material.
Horizontal/vertical zoom, Fit, zoom-to-selection, hand scrolling, and long-clip navigation.
Scale-aware note highlighting and theory-correct note spelling.
MIDI recording and access to clip/lane automation.

Chord Engine

Chord Markers beneath the Piano Roll.
Broad chord-quality library with inversions and slash-bass support.
Key- and scale-aware diatonic chord choices.
Typed chord entry using common spellings such as Em9/G, sharps, flats, slash chords, and explicit note clusters.
Melody-Fit honeycomb suggestions grouped by harmonic role and fit.
Audition and commit paths for suggested or typed chords.
Chord selection, lasso, move, left/right resize, split, duplicate, and delete painting.
Block-chord, arpeggiator-only, and silent-reference playback modes.
Chord gain plus arpeggiator gain and saturation controls.
Rendered arpeggios become editable Piano Roll notes.

Arpeggiator

Direction, octave range, note division, gate, velocity, and performance options.
Remembered settings for repeated musical workflows.
Chord-level preview and render-to-notes behavior.
Arpeggiator state indicated directly on Chord Markers.

Theory Assistance

Project key and scale context.
Major, minor, modal, pentatonic, symmetric, altered, and culturally derived scale collections.
Enharmonic spelling appropriate to the chosen key, including sharps, flats, and double accidentals where required.
Incoming MIDI chord-name detection with key-aware spelling.
Single notes and dyads reported by note name when no complete chord is present.

5. Instruments And Sampling

Tonal And Experimental Instruments

Redshift: main subtractive/virtual-analog synthesizer.
Propulsion 1: three-oscillator subtractive synthesizer.
Liftoff: wavetable synthesizer with user-source import.
Glass Moon: FM/additive operator synthesizer.
Moonshadow: spectral/additive/resynthesis-inspired synthesizer.
Lunacy: granular synthesis instrument with user-sample loading.
Physical Model: modal, resonator, tuned-percussion, string, tube, bell, and bass-oriented synthesis.
TG-55: additional internal synthesis engine and preset bank.
Generic Synth: original built-in synthesis path retained for current compatibility and sound creation.

Drum And Percussion Instruments

Kick Lab, Snare Lab, and Hat Lab dedicated synthesis engines.
Classic Machines collection of space-themed synthesized drum-machine characters.
Flux Nodes for bounded per-note variation of selected synthesis parameters.
Render-to-sample paths for supported Drum/Classic generators.

Samplers

WAV, AIFF, and FLAC source loading.
Sample Layers with velocity zones, region start/end, fades, reverse, gain, pan, pitch, and round-robin/stack behavior.
One-Shot slots for additional immediate sample playback.
SoundFont playback for .sf2 libraries, bank/program selection, and large General MIDI collections.
Quasar proprietary multisample capture/package workflow with velocity layers, package reveal, and reload support.

Patch Workflow

Factory Starting Points and engine-specific presets.
Patch save, load, naming, dirty-state indication, and lane-label refresh paths.
Fine parameter adjustment and default reset behavior.
Lane Instrument replacement that preserves the lane's notes and Mixer destination.
Instrument copy/variant workflows that exclude Mixer fader, pan, routing, EQ, and sends.

6. MIDI And Hardware

Performance And Recording

Multiple simultaneous MIDI input devices with source-aware note ownership.
Lane arming, monitoring, channel routing, direct Arrangement recording, and Piano Roll recording.
Timestamped note start, duration, velocity, release velocity, and channel capture.
Count-in, metronome, first-measure protection, loop-edge recording, Overdub, and Step Input infrastructure.
Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, sustain, Channel Pressure, Polyphonic Pressure, Program Change, and Bank Select handling.

Control And Automation

MIDI CC automation lanes with live playback updates.
Pitch Bend, Channel Pressure, Poly Pressure, Program/Bank, RPN, NRPN, and custom-CC expression storage.
MIDI Learn with mapping, pickup/conflict policies, persistence, and health reporting.
Draw, edit, paste, transform, delete, and reset automation data.
Clip/lane-local automation ownership and project restore.

Synchronization And Transport

MIDI Clock, Start, Continue, Stop, and Song Position Pointer infrastructure.
MTC/MMC handling and host/internal synchronization paths.
TempoCalc utility for tempo- and duration-related calculations.

Hardware Safety And Management

Panic, All Notes Off, sustain cleanup, route-generation guards, and reconnect handling.
Hardware Passport records for device identity, routing, channel policy, pitch-bend range, and proof status.
SysEx capture, storage, guarded transmission, response matching, timeout, restore queues, and audit receipts.
MIDI Health diagnostics for latency, source ambiguity, routing, recording evidence, and public-claim readiness.
Proof pending: final public hardware claims still require saved tests with real USB, DIN, clock, SysEx, and reconnect fixtures.

MIDI File Interchange

MIDI file import with channel review and deterministic lane-Instrument destinations.
MIDI export paths for patterns, clips, and arranged musical material.
Drag-to-DAW MIDI workflow.
Proof pending: final cross-DAW roundtrip certification with named external hosts.

7. Audio, Routing, And Time

Lane-owned audio routing into explicit Mixer channels.
Shared auxiliary effects with per-channel send amounts.
Internal and host tempo modes.
Global transport with rewind, play, fast-forward, recording, Spacebar control, time display, bar/beat display, BPM, and master volume.
Arrangement and Piano Roll loop regions with snapping and draggable endpoints.
Visual metronome with beat and measure pulse.
Animated clip and Section Marker time feedback.
Offline full-song WAV rendering with end-of-song and effects-tail handling.
Stem/package export infrastructure.
Proof pending: human listening, progress feedback, and external inspection of final WAV/stem artifacts.

8. Project, Safety, And Workflow Services

Startup choices for last project, blank project, and explicit project-file loading.
Project Save, Save As, load, recent/last-project, and recovery infrastructure.
Portable project archive export/import with packaged samples, SoundFonts, Quasar instruments, source-path redaction, staged validation, background ZIP/extraction work, determinate progress, and missing-asset relinking.
Undo/Redo across musical, lane, Instrument, Mixer, and automation operations.
Missing-asset tracking and relink-oriented architecture for sample-based instruments.
Designed confirmations for destructive actions.
Progress feedback for long-running operations such as loading, rendering, and Quasar capture.
Tooltips, shortcut system, context-sensitive labels, Esc/click-away popup dismissal, and MIDI diagnostics.
Splash-screen rotation, startup feedback, lightweight retro-future motion, and starfield visual identity.

9. Fine-Grain Product Vocabulary

Pad: one of the 64 Drum/sample performance cells.
Instrument: a sound generator owned by a non-drum Arrangement Lane.
Instrument Bay: the chooser/library surface for assigning Instruments to lanes.
Pattern: reusable note, chord, and performance data.
Clip: a placed Pattern instance in the Arrangement Canvas.
Variant: an independent Pattern/Instrument branch rather than a linked clone.
Lane: one musical role across the Arrangement timeline.
Section Marker: a non-destructive description of song form.
Chord Marker: a harmonic event in the Chord Engine lane.
ARP Badge: the indicator that a Chord Marker has arpeggiator behavior.
Ghost Notes: read-only notes displayed from another lane.
Flux Nodes: controlled per-note variation inside Drum Lab synthesis.
Hardware Passport: a saved description and safety contract for an external MIDI device.
SpaceAge Scene: planned alternative orchestration choices for the same composition; not yet part of this implemented-feature inventory.

10. Current Certification Boundary

The current implementation is broad enough to describe SpaceAge as a functional composition, sequencing, sound-design, arrangement, MIDI, mixing, and rendering environment. It should not yet be marketed as fully release-certified in every area.

The remaining beta gates are:

Real USB and DIN MIDI latency/recording proof.
Instrument and sampler listening/CPU QA.
Final human confirmation of lane-owned Instrument workflows.
Project save/load/recovery and missing-asset proof.
Export/stem artifact inspection.
UI clipping/readability review across supported window sizes.
Installer, clean-machine, licensing, and release-package validation.

This boundary lets the feature inventory support marketing without turning unfinished validation into an unsupported promise.