The Motif Creator
How to create and use motifs in MIDI Maker — building repeating patterns and assigning them to instruments.
What Is a Motif?
A motif is a short, repeating rhythmic or melodic idea. Almost every piece of music you've heard is built around one — a handful of notes with a recognisable shape that recurs throughout the piece. In MIDI Maker, a motif is a pattern of active steps across a fixed grid: which beats fire, and optionally what direction each fired note should move.
When a motif is assigned to a monosynth with a non-zero chance value, the generator uses it to influence which notes are played and when. The motif provides structure; the generator fills in the harmonic detail based on the current key and chord.
Creating a Motif
Open the Motif Creator panel at the bottom of the studio. Click the + button to add a new motif.
The editor shows a step grid — a row of cells representing subdivisions within a bar. Click a cell to toggle it on or off. Cells that are on tell the generator to play at that step; cells that are off leave that beat silent.
You can also set the pitch direction of each active step — whether the note should move up, down, or stay level relative to the previous note. This shapes the melodic contour without fixing specific pitches: the generator always respects the current key and chord when it chooses the actual note.
Assigning a Motif to an Instrument
Once a motif exists, open a monosynth module and find the Motifs section in its controls. Each motif appears with a chance slider. Increase the chance value to make the generator lean on that motif when choosing notes and rhythms.
Multiple motifs can be assigned to the same instrument. When more than one motif has a non-zero chance, the generator blends between them — each is used in proportion to its chance value, so a motif at 80 will appear more often than one at 20.
Chance Value
A motif at chance 0 has no effect — the instrument generates freely. A motif at the maximum chance dominates the part: every note choice follows the motif's rhythm and direction.
Values in between let the motif coexist with the generator's own tendencies. The pattern becomes recognisable over time without sounding mechanical — which is usually what you want. A chance of around 60–75 is a good starting point.
For a deeper look at how motifs interact with chord progressions and key changes, see the Motif Maker guide in the Learn section.
The same piano-roll grid also powers editing of committed clips in the timeline arranger — there it edits a clip's exact frozen notes rather than a reusable motif.