Chapter 2
Find your way around
Every control on every screen, and the gestures that Koala doesn’t label.
Written in our own words from the Koala manual’s overview, sample and sequence chapters. The Koala manual
Explore every screen
This is our own schematic of Koala’s phone layout, not a screenshot. Choose a screen, then pick any control to see what it does, which gestures it responds to and where to read more. Koala’s layout adapts to the screen, so things may sit differently on a tablet or a computer.
Pick a control to see what it does.
All 78 controls across Koala’s screens, with the gestures that aren’t labelled in the app.
Our own schematic of the phone layout · not to scale · tablets and desktop arrange things differently
From the community
Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 03 - Navigating The User Interface
NervousCook$
A walk around the interface from a 2023 series. Newer controls such as global undo aren’t in it.
The gestures Koala doesn’t label
A lot of Koala’s power is in gestures, and most of them aren’t marked on screen. The same gesture can also mean different things on different controls. These are the eight to know. Each one links to the section that explains the details.
The eight gestures
| Gesture | What it’s for | Where you’ll use it |
|---|---|---|
| Tap | The everyday action: play a pad, press a button, pick something. | Play a pad, switch sequence, or place and remove notes in the grid. With Hold to record off, a tap also starts and stops a recording. |
| Hold | Start something for as long as your finger stays down, or open a menu a tap wouldn’t. | Hold an empty pad to record, hold an effect bar to apply it, or hold a slot to open its menu. On a tablet, hold an audio file for a second to pick it up and drag it. |
| Hold and slide | Change a value: keep your finger down and move it. | Hold VOL, PITCH or PAN and slide, whichever way you like, to change them. Slide on an effect bar to set how much you hear. With VEL or DICE on in the grid, slide up or down on a note to change its velocity or chance. |
| Double tap | Either reset something or open it. | Double-tap VOL, PITCH or PAN to reset it. Double-tap TEMPO for the tempo menu, or SLOT for the note grid. On an EQ pole, double tap and then swipe to set its width. |
| Drag | Move something to a new place, or move a marker. | Drag a pad onto a pad to copy, swap, merge or extend, or a slot onto a slot to copy, mix or swap. Drag a sound from the browser onto a pad, or drag a sample up to the trash to delete it. Drag the ends of the highlighted area to set where a sample plays, an effect to reorder the chain, or up and down on TOOLS to open it without tapping. |
| Swipe | Flick to change page or mode. | Swipe up or down from a recording pad to lock it or loop it. Swipe the slots sideways to change page, swipe in the chops bar to set the number of chops, or swipe a song to the left to share or delete it. |
| Pinch | Zoom in and out. | The waveform in the sample editor, the wave editor and the note grid. |
| Tap and hold, then tap | Turn a button into a modifier: hold it down and tap something else. | Hold EDIT and tap pads to select several. Hold DELETE and tap pads to delete them without being asked. Hold CLEAR and tap KEYBOARD to clear one pad’s notes. |
The basics
- Tap PAD
- Plays the pad.
- Tap SAMPLE
- Moves to the screen for getting sound onto pads and editing it.
- Tap SEQUENCE
- Moves to the screen for recording and playing sequences.
- Tap PERFORM
- Moves to the screen for live effects, mixing and recording your song.
- Tap MENU
- Opens the menu.
From the community
- Stuck at two fingers on a Poco or Xiaomi phone? The phone’s three-finger gesture is getting in the way. Search its settings for “3 fingers” and turn off
Slide 3 fingers down. This is a phone setting, not a Koala one. via elf audio Help, crediting a Discord user
Change several pads at once
Going through pads one at a time gets old quickly when you’re levelling a kit or shaping a set of chops. Select them together, and one change lands on every pad you picked. It’s easy to miss, because EDIT looks like it only opens the sample editor.
Select several pads
- On the SAMPLE screen, tap and hold EDIT.
- While you’re holding it, tap each PAD you want to include.
- Make your change using any of the controls below.
Key combinations
- Hold EDIT + PAD
- Selects several pads, so your changes apply to all of them.
What follows the selection
| Change this | And it applies to every selected pad | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| VOL, PITCH and PAN | Turn down a whole group, retune it or pan it. | Set a pad’s volume, pitch and pan |
| The sample editor’s controls | Set things such as ATTACK, RELEASE and TONE once for the lot. | Open the sample editor and choose what plays |
| The EQ | Your EQ settings go to them all. The EQ needs Samurai, with Show EQ switched on. | Give a pad its own EQ |
COLOR, in TOOLS | Give a whole group the same colour. | Colour your pads and sequences |
EXPORT, in TOOLS, or SELECTED SAMPLES, in the export menu | Save all of the pads as audio files in one go. | Get your work out of Koala |
From the community
Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 24 - Update 1.4072 - Select Multiple Pads, Sequence Snapping!
NervousCook$
Five minutes on selecting several pads and on sequence snapping, as added in update 1.4072.
5 quick tips for Koala Sampler! 🐨
SPVIDZ
Five practical tips with chapters: pad labels, bouncing patterns, custom backgrounds, exchanging samples and selecting a pad without playing it.
Undo and redo
Don’t be fooled by where these two buttons sit. UNDO and REDO are on the SEQUENCE screen, but their reach is the whole song, so you can also take back a sample edit, a mixer change or an effect tweak. If something you’ve tried doesn’t work out, step back and try something else.
Key combinations
- UNDO
- Steps back one change.
- REDO
- Steps forward again through what you’ve undone.
- CMD + Z
- Undoes the last change.On desktop
- CTRL + Z
- Undoes the last change.On desktop
- SHIFT + CMD + Z
- Redoes what you’ve undone.On desktop
- SHIFT + CTRL + Z
- Redoes what you’ve undone.On desktop
Other places you’ll meet them
- The note grid has UNDO and REDO buttons too, moving one step per tap. See Choose a tool in the grid.
- The wave editor has its own
UNDOandREDOfor stepping through your edits there. See Edit the audio in the wave editor. - On macOS, both are in the Edit menu. See Use the menu bar, shortcuts and mouse.
- You can map both to a MIDI controller. See Map controls with MIDI learn.