Triad is a chord keyboard, a multi-track sequencer, and a loop pedal, all built from oscillators — no samples. This page covers every control, the sequencer's typed shorthand, and how to export what you make.
Click any piano key with your mouse, or use your computer keyboard — the letters C D E F G A B each play a major triad rooted on that note, in whatever octave is currently selected.
| C D E F G A B | play a major triad |
| ⇧ + letter | play a minor triad instead |
| hold = + letter | sharp the root (♯) — on a physical keyboard |
| hold - + letter | flat the root (♭) — on a physical keyboard |
| Z / X | move the base octave down / up (range 2–6) |
| hold 2–6 + letter | play that chord in a specific octave, just this once, without changing your base octave |
| I / U | move the voicing (chord inversion) up / down |
| , | toggle the sustain pedal |
| space | tap the loop pedal |
The Octave and Voicing readouts in the header show your current settings. The chord you just played is echoed in the "now playing" readout above the pedals.
Below the piano is a row of C D E F G A B buttons plus a Major / Minor toggle — this is the on-screen equivalent of typing on a physical keyboard, so chords are fully playable on a phone or tablet. Tap a letter to play a chord in the current quality, octave, and voicing.
The ♯ and ♭ buttons in the header work as tap-to-toggle switches — tap once to arm sharp or flat (it stays on), tap again to turn it off. Tap a chord-pad letter or piano key while armed to hear the sharped/flatted chord. This replaces the "hold" gesture on touch devices, where holding one button while tapping another is awkward one-handed; on a physical keyboard, holding = or - still works exactly as before.
The Voice dropdown in the header picks the instrument timbre used whenever you play live — from the piano keys, your computer keyboard, or a connected MIDI controller. There are 8 to choose from:
Each sequencer track has its own independent Voice selector too — see the Sequencer Basics section below.
The Theme dropdown next to it swaps the whole color scheme — Wood & Brass (default), Midnight, Neon, Pastel, Sunset, Forest, Ocean, Monochrome, Sakura, or Terminal. Your choice is remembered on this device and applies here on the tutorial page too.
The loop pedal (or space) records whatever you play live and repeats it. It cycles through three states each time you tap it:
While a loop is playing, the Export Loop WAV button becomes active and downloads it as an audio file.
The sustain pedal (,) works independently and simply holds notes longer, whether or not you're recording a loop.
Below the keyboard is the chord sequencer — one or more independent tracks, each with its own tempo, playback style, voice, and typed progression. Click + Add Track for more, or the ✕ on a track to remove it.
Each track has:
| BPM | tempo for that track only |
| Style | how each chord is played — see Playback Styles below |
| Voice | the instrument timbre for that track, independent of every other track and the live keyboard |
| loop checkbox | repeats the track when you hit Play |
| ♩ Metronome | an independent click track at the track's BPM, for practicing along |
| ▶ Play / ■ Stop | plays just that track |
▶ Play All at the top of the tracks section starts (or stops) every track at once, each at its own tempo and style.
The Master BPM field next to Add Track sets every track's tempo at once, live, as you change it. Individual tracks keep their own BPM field too, so you can still give one track a different tempo afterward if you want.
Type a progression into a track's text box as space-separated tokens, read left to right.
C | major triad |
Cm | minor triad |
C7 | dominant 7th |
Cm7 | minor 7th |
Cmaj7 | major 7th |
C# / Db | sharp or flat root |
D/F# | slash chord — D major over an F# bass note |
5C | octave prefix — pins that chord to octave 5, no matter the track's default |
Mix and match freely — 3C#m7/G# is a valid token.
. or - | a rest (silence) for one beat |
_ or ~ | a tie — holds the previous chord one beat longer; stack several to hold longer still |
Wrap space-separated single notes in quotes to play them individually, like a fast arpeggio or melody fragment, instead of as a chord:
Each quoted note defaults to a quarter of a normal beat, so a whole quoted run takes the same total time as one ordinary chord. Octaves and sharps/flats work the same inside quotes, e.g. "5c e g#".
Every chord, rest, tie, and quoted note defaults to a quarter note (one beat). Override it with a colon and a standard note-length number, optionally followed by a dot to make it 1.5× longer (dotted):
:1 | whole note (4 beats) |
:2 | half note (2 beats) |
:4 | quarter note (1 beat) — the default |
:8 | eighth note (½ beat) |
:16 | sixteenth note (¼ beat) |
:32 | thirty-second note (⅛ beat) |
add . | dot it — 1.5× the length, e.g. :16. is a dotted sixteenth |
Length suffixes also work on rests and ties, e.g. .:8 for an eighth rest, or _:8 to extend the previous chord by just an eighth.
The Style dropdown changes how the notes inside each chord are played, without changing what you typed:
| Block | the whole chord hits together (default) |
| Strum | notes ripple in quickly, like a guitar strum |
| Arp Up | notes play one at a time, low to high |
| Arp Down | notes play one at a time, high to low |
| Arp Up-Down | up then back down |
| Broken | alternates the root note and the rest of the chord — a "boom-chick" pattern |
Type a name in the box below a track's text area and hit Save to store that progression (text, BPM, style, and voice included). Reload it later from the dropdown next to it, or Delete it when you're done.
| ⭳ Export WAV | on a single track — renders just that track's current progression to a downloadable WAV |
| ⭳ Export All WAV | at the top of the tracks section — mixes every track together into one WAV, each keeping its own tempo, style, and voice, all starting at the same moment |
| ⭳ Export Loop WAV | next to the loop pedal — downloads whatever's currently looping |
All exports render offline at full quality — they aren't just recordings of your speakers, so they come out clean even at fast tempos.
Plug in a MIDI keyboard or controller and Triad picks it up automatically — check the MIDI status in the legend on the main page to confirm it's connected. Played notes go through whichever Voice is currently selected, and MIDI input works alongside the QWERTY controls at the same time.