Setup, Program, and Perform

Pit is organized around three top-level modes plus one orthogonal toggle. The mode you’re in determines what’s on screen; the toggle determines whether the app accepts destructive operations.

Mode	When you use it
Setup	Rig configuration. Audio devices, MIDI controllers, bus routing, show-level settings. Changes things that survive between shows.
Program	Show authoring. Patches, songs, click tracks, libraries, layouts. The bulk of pre-production work happens here.
Perform	The show. Your live performance view, laid out as you configured it in Program. Strictly runtime — no authoring surfaces.
Performance Lock (toggle)	Active in any mode; prevents file ops, allocations, and accidental edits during a running show.

Why three modes, not two

The earlier model — “Edit Mode” and “Live Mode” — collapsed rig configuration into the same surface as patch authoring. In practice these are different jobs done at different times:

Setup is what you do once per rig (or once per venue). New MIDI controller? Setup. New audio interface? Setup. These are configuration changes that should survive a show file moving between machines.
Program is what you do per show. Songs, patches, click tracks, backing tracks, layout work. The pre-production heavy lifting.
Perform is what you do at the show. Read-only authoring, live-only operations, large-and-readable UI.

Three modes give each surface room to be the right shape for its job — and let the file menu, sidebar, and main canvas mean different things in each mode without overloading any single screen.

Setup mode

The “I’m getting ready” mode. Configure the rig and show metadata before authoring patches.

Setup → Rig (Screen)

Build the hardware rig.

Component library: keyboard, pads, footswitch, expression pedal, sustain pedal, button/switch
Compound component builder (drag primitives into a named compound — e.g., a compound:RD-2000 with keys + wheels + sustain + footswitch + expression all bound)
Save scope toggle: show-local / global
MIDI Learn on every learnable field
Per-component config inspector
Rig component widget editor (sub-screen) — grid editor for how the compound renders as a Perform widget

Setup → Show Settings (Screen)

Show-level configuration.

Production / Source / Distribution metadata (revival-aware)
Tempo defaults — master BPM removed; tempo lives on songs
Audio output buses (FOH, IEM-click, IEM-band, etc.)
Autosave settings
Master volume + global panic key binding
Plugin scan paths

Setup → Re-learn All (Screen — sub-screen)

The Learn Master tool. Walk through every learnable field in the show one by one. Use when:

Moved to a new machine
Got a new keyboard
Sent show to someone else with different hardware

Program mode

The “I’m authoring” mode. Build patches, manage library, balance.

Program → Patch Editor (Screen)

Edit the active patch. The bulk of programming work happens here.

Patch graph editor (currently shipping in v0.5.0)
source.compound node (drag rig component as single node) — v0.10.0
Live preview renders full configured controller widget (keys + wheels + sustain; excludes non-tone controllers) — v0.10.0
Per-patch tempo metadata (Advanced override) — v0.8.0
Per-patch trim/gain field — v0.10.0
Shared-patch banner “Instance of ‘X’” — v0.10.0
Missing-plugin warning icons + greyed nodes — v0.7.0
Plugin GUI dock (bottom panel) — tab strip for each loaded plugin’s CLAP GUI; user-resizable; per-plugin pop-out to floating window — v0.6.0

Program → Patch Library (Screen)

Manage show + global patch library.

All patches in show filtered by song
“Save to global” toggle per patch
Drag patch from library into song → creates reference (alias)
Reference inspector — Basic + Advanced overrides
“Find usages” — query references by library ID
Orphan handling banners

See Patch library for the full all-patches-as-references data model.

Program → Balance / EQ Tool (Screen)

Level-match patches via LUFS measurement.

Offline render — no speakers
Cross-patch level audit
Per-patch trim adjustment + tilt EQ
A/B compare

See Balance tool for the full audio engineering breakdown.

Program → Pit Mixer (Screen)

Multi-channel audio input for MD in silent-pit / IEM contexts.

See Pit Mixer.

Program → Click Track Editor (Song tab)

Author bar-by-bar tempo curves with vamps / repeats / cues.

See Click track editor.

Perform mode

The “I’m playing” mode. Configure live layout; go fullscreen for show.

Perform → Layout Editor (Screen)

Design the live screen.

Widget palette (full catalog in v0.11.0)
Grid canvas (snap-to-grid default on)
Per-widget config inspector
Drawing primitives (box, line, divider)
Image widget
Move / resize / rotate / z-order
Global default layout + per-song override layouts (cascading)
Layout templates picker (Blank, Minimal, Cabaret, MD Console)

Perform → Live (Screen — fullscreen)

What the player sees during the show.

Renders the active layout (global or per-song override)
All widgets reactive (keyboard widget shows pressed keys; pedals show position; meters show live RMS; transport shows playhead; engine monitor updates per-block)
Pre-show validation gate before entering (overrideable with confirm)
No hard-forced widgets — user-placed everything. Panic + outline are widgets, not chrome.
Exit Live returns to Perform editor

Floating windows (not modes)

Windows that float over any mode, can be dragged to second monitors:

Settings — app-wide preferences (Audio, MIDI, Plugins, Theme, Autosave, Telemetry, Shortcuts, About)
Plugin GUI (popped out) — secondary placement only; default is docked in the patch editor bottom panel (see Program mode → Patch Editor). User can pop any plugin out into a floating window per their preference.
Conductor cam pop-out — for second-monitor display
Parameter favorites pop-out — touch-target parameter widgets

Modals (transient)

New Show wizard — 6-step show creator
Close blocker — Save / Discard / Cancel on unsaved changes
Merge graph edits — per-instance update/keep/three-way-merge
Orphan reattach — re-link / save-new / keep-snapshot for missing library entries
Plugin requirements report — missing-plugin list with “find this plugin” links
Pre-show validation gate — blocks Live entry; overrideable
Crash reporter consent — first-launch opt-in
Telemetry consent — first-launch opt-in
Theme save / share — theme editor output
Extension install permission — capability consent UI

Performance Lock

Orthogonal toggle. Active in any mode.

When on:

File operations disabled (no save dialogs, no plugin scanning)
Patch editing disabled
Layout editing disabled
Allocation-heavy operations blocked
Anything that could cause an allocation spike, dropout, or accidental destructive edit is locked

When off: full app capability.

Single big toggle: “Go Live” / “End Show”.

Intent: enable Performance Lock once at the start of a show and don’t think about it again until the show ends. Switching between Setup / Program / Perform with the lock on is fine — it’s just visualization differences.

What lives where (cheat sheet)

You want to…	Mode
Add a MIDI controller	Setup
Re-route the click bus	Setup
Author a patch graph	Program
Build a click track	Program
Configure the Live layout	Program
Run the show	Perform
Read your show notes mid-show	Perform
Tweak a parameter favorite mid-show	Perform
Jump to the next patch	Perform

The native file menu (File / Edit / View / Window / Help) does not contain the mode switches. Modes are switched via a top-of-window ModeSwitcher, not via menu commands. The menu bar is for file/system operations; modes are about which screen you’re on.

What’s planned

The three-mode shell wires into the app in v0.9.0. Until then, the live app shows a Program-mode-shaped stand-in (a patch editor + show toolbar). v0.9.0 also adds the splash screen, the New Show wizard, the settings Window, and the native file menu.

Shows, Songs, and Patches
Cascading settings
Screen inventory — every surface with its target version
New Show wizard
Performance Lock details