Strum

In Strum mode the pads don't drop the chord as a block — they rake across it the way a hand crosses the strings, and they keep strumming a repeating pattern for as long as the chord is held. Touch and hold the Strum button to configure it.

Pattern

The pattern is one bar, read as sixteenths. A down stroke rakes from the low note upward, an up stroke rakes back down from the top, and empty cells are rests.

• Whole — a single down-stroke at the top of the bar. The one to use when the chord should simply arrive and ring.
• Half — downs on 1 and 3.
• Quarter — a down on every beat. Straight, driving, and never in the way.
• Eighths — down on the beats, up on the "and"s. The default, and the pattern most songs want.
• Sixteenths — full alternating down-up sixteenths, for busier, faster parts.
• Folk — a block chord on 1, then down-up through 2, 3 and 4. The standard acoustic accompaniment.
• Calypso — the latin push, ghosting beat 3 so the pattern leans forward.
• Pickup — plain quarters on 1, 2 and 3, then the last beat subdivided into a sixteenth run that pulls you into the next bar.

Patterns adapt to the song's meter. In 3/4 the run in Pickup slides onto beat 3 rather than being cut off — it always lands on the last beat of the bar.

Custom

Below the presets, Custom holds the patterns you've written yourself. Any saved pattern is selectable straight from the submenu, and Add / Remove… opens the Custom Strums Editor, where you manage the list.

Stagger

Stagger is how long the rake takes to cross the chord — the difference between a hard pick attack and a slow, deliberate sweep. It's the feel of the stroke, not its rhythm, so it applies to whatever pattern you've chosen.

• Tight — about 8 ms per note. Almost a block hit; you hear the direction but little else.
• Standard — about 18 ms per note. The default, and a classic acoustic feel.
• Loose — about 30 ms per note. A slower, more deliberate rake.
• Sloppy — about 50 ms per note. A broken strum where every note is clearly its own event.

Stagger is the setting that makes a strum sound played rather than programmed. If the chordboard sounds too mechanical, move to Loose before you touch anything else.