SENTIA InstrumentsQuick start guide
24 expressive pads, six buttons, one grid for playing, sequencing and launching clips. Here's everything you need to start, on a few pages.
Meet TILES
- Minus / PlusOctave down / up. In other modes: move frets, tracks, start/stop.
- Triangle: modesOpens the mode menu. With circle: the scale selector.
- Diamond: transportPlay / stop in Ableton. In the sequencer: the pattern bank.
- Square: sentiaPitch bend on / off. Hold for the expression menu.
- Circle: shift / powerHold with other buttons for extra functions. Long hold: sleep.
Plug in
TILES runs from USB alone. Add the 12 V supply for full brightness and the CV outputs.
Power and MIDI over one USB-C cable. Shows up as two MIDI ports: SENTIA TILES MIDI (play and record from this one) and SENTIA TILES DAW (for the Ableton script only).
Barrel jack, centre positive. Use a 12 V, 3 A supply. Brightest lights and the CV/gate outputs; USB MIDI keeps working when both are connected.
1/8" (3.5 mm) TRS for hardware synths and drum machines. Out sends what USB sends; in follows clock. Type A by default, Type B selectable in settings.
1/4" (6.35 mm) jack. Sustain by default, or an expression pedal. Works with normally-open and normally-closed pedals (settings).
1/8" (3.5 mm) jacks: pitch CV (1 V/octave), pressure CV (0–10 V) and gate. Only with 12 V power connected.
Choose a mode
- Opens the mode menu. Click again to close it.
- Press a pad
- Switches to that mode. The current mode pulses white.
Melodic magenta · Sequencer red · Bass guitar amber · Chord blue · Song yellow (coming soon) · Ableton teal.
A running sequence keeps playing when you switch modes.
Melodic mode
The default. Notes rise left to right, and each row continues from the one below. The lowest note is bottom-left.
- Octave down / up, ±3. The button's blink pattern shows how far.
- +
- Transpose. Press both together: the key letter shows on the pads. Minus / plus change the key; both again to exit.
- +
- Scale selector (next page).
- Pitch bend on / off. Tilt a pad to bend.
Pedal tricks
- Pedal
- Sustain, sent the standard way (works with MPE synths).
- Harmonics
- Hold the pedal and one note, then lightly touch other pads: each plucks an overtone of the held note.
Scales
Every playing mode follows the selected scale. The layout keeps its shape: in a scale, the pads only play notes of that scale.
- +
- Open the scale selector (hold circle, click triangle).
- Press a pad
- Selects that scale.
- Row 1
- Chromatic · Major · Minor · Dorian · Lydian · Mixolydian
- Row 2
- Blues major · Blues minor · Arabian · Diminished · Pentatonic major · Pentatonic minor
- Row 3
- Egyptian · Whole tone · Japanese (Miyako-bushi)
- 16–24
- Custom scale slots, coming with the companion app.
Chord mode
Chords on the left two columns, a melody grid on the right four.
- Columns 1–2
- 8 chords from the current scale, bottom-left up: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°, then I an octave higher.
- Strike
- A full seventh chord with a bass note. Strike speed sets the loudness.
- Columns 3–6
- Melody, 4 × 4, starting on the root at the bottom-left of the block.
- +
- Change the scale. Scales without 7 notes use major chords.
Chords are one octave below the melody and go out on MIDI channel 12, so they can play a different synth.
Bass guitar mode
A four-string bass neck: rows are strings, columns are frets.
- Rows
- Strings, standard bass tuning: G, D, A, E from top to bottom.
- Columns
- Frets. Column 1 starts as the open string.
- Slide along the neck one fret at a time.
- Markers
- Glowing pads show the fret dots, like inlays.
Sequencer
24 pads, 24 steps, read like a page: left to right, top to bottom. Four lanes play at once.
- Tap a step
- On / off.
- Hold a step
- Pick its note: tap any pad. Keep holding and press to set the step's probability.
- +step
- Ratchet: repeats inside the step.
- /
- Start / stop.
- +
- Pattern length, 1–24 steps.
- ×4
- Tap tempo when no DAW clock is coming in. Circle blinks on the beat.
- +
- Capture: play, and your notes are written into the steps on the beat. Same again to finish.
Pattern bank
- Open / close the bank.
- Press a slot
- That lane plays that pattern, and it's the one you edit.
- +tap
- Save the slot (green flash).
- +hold 3 s
- Clear the slot (red flash).
Lanes 1–4 play on MIDI channels 16, 15, 14, 13. Patterns are saved on the device and follow a DAW's clock when one is running.
Ableton mode
Launch clips and scenes in Ableton Live, with Live's own clip colours on the pads.
- Touch
- Feel it: a haptic click where there's a clip.
- Press
- Launch the clip. Press a playing clip to stop it.
- Press empty
- Arms the track and records a new clip. TILES switches to melodic mode so you can play it.
- +
- Stop all clips. While recording a new clip: finish it.
- +hold 3 s
- Delete that clip.
- Move the five-track window left / right.
Dim = has a clip · pulsing = playing · fast blink = queued.
Transport (every mode except sequencer)
- Click
- Play / stop Live.
- Hold 2 s
- Release to start recording.
TILES DISPLAY
A Max for Live device. Put it before a track's instrument and click VIEW: the notes that track plays light up on TILES in melodic mode. Two tracks can show at once (the second in soft red).
One-time setup in Live
- 1
- Copy the TILES script folder into Live's User Library → Remote Scripts, then restart Live.
- 2
- Settings → Link, Tempo & MIDI → Control Surface: TILES, input and output SENTIA TILES (DAW).
- 3
- Input SENTIA TILES (MIDI): Track and MPE on. Output: Sync on for tempo.
Song mode
Coming soon.
Expression & feel
The square "sentia" button tunes how TILES responds.
- Pitch bend on / off (square glows when on).
- Hold
- Expression menu. Each row is a slider: press a column, 1 = least, 6 = most, 4 = default. Haptics column 1 = off.
- Hold 2 s
- Keeps the menu open. Any button closes it.
- +
- Haptic strength, without opening anything else.
- + 2 s
- MPE on / off. Off = plain MIDI on channel 1 for any synth; the square breathes to remind you.
Games
Five mini games built in.
- Hold all four for about a second: game menu. Same again to leave.
- Touch a pad
- Start that game.
- Snake
- left · right · up · down
- Brick Breaker
- move the paddle
- Tetris
- move · rotate · drop
- Pong
- Two players. Left: up, down. Right: up, down
- Simon Says
- Press the pads (touching isn't enough).
Sleep & wake
- Idle 1 min
- Screensaver animations (20 min in the sequencer).
- Idle 20 min
- Deep sleep: everything dark, circle pulses slowly.
- Hold 4 s
- Screensaver now. browse animations.
- Hold 8 s
- Deep sleep now, and a MIDI panic: all notes off, sustain released.
- Wake
- Touch a pad or press any button.
Stuck note? Hold circle for 8 seconds. It silences every channel, then wake TILES and keep playing.
On USB power the lights run dimmer and CV/gate stay off. On 12 V you get full brightness and the CV outputs.
Shortcuts
Everything on one page.
Everywhere
- Mode menu
- +
- Scale selector
- Pitch bend on / off
- Hold
- Expression menu
- + 2 s
- MPE on / off
- Games
- Hold 8 s
- Deep sleep + panic
Melodic · chord · bass
- Octave (bass: frets)
- +
- Transpose
- Play / stop Live
- Hold 2 s
- Record in Live
- Pedal + light touch
- Harmonics
Sequencer
- /
- Start / stop
- +
- Length
- ×4
- Tap tempo
- Pattern bank
- +
- Capture
- Hold step
- Note, then probability
- +step
- Ratchet
Ableton
- Press
- Launch / stop clip
- Column 6
- Launch scene
- Move tracks
- +
- Stop all
- +hold 3 s
- Delete clip
| MIDI channel | What plays there |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pedals (and every note when MPE is off) |
| 2–9 | Your notes, one channel per note (MPE) |
| 10 | Never used (kept free for drum machines) |
| 11 | Games |
| 12 | Chord mode chords |
| 13–16 | Sequencer lanes 4, 3, 2, 1 |